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IS THIS AN UNTAMPERED FILE?
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This ASCII-file version of Imprimis, On Line was
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packaged by Applied Foresight, Inc. (AFI hereafter).
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Imprimis, On Line -- January, 1993
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Imprimis, meaning "in the first place," is a free
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monthly publication of Hillsdale College (circulation
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428,000 worldwide). Hillsdale College is a liberal arts
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institution known for its defense of free market
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principles and Western culture and its nearly 150-year
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refusal to accept federal funds. Imprimis publishes
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lectures by such well-known figures as Ronald Reagan,
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Jeane Kirkpatrick, Tom Wolfe, Charlton Heston, and many
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more. Permission to reprint is hereby granted, provided
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credit is given to Hillsdale College. Copyright 1992.
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For more information on free print subscriptions or
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back issues, call 1-800-437-2268, or 1-517-439-1524,
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ext. 2319.
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------------------------------
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"But Is It Art?"
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by Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington
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Author, Picasso: Creator and Destroyer
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------------------------------
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Volume 22, Number 1
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Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan 49242
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January 1993
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------------------------------
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Preview: It's an old adage that if you want to gauge
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the health of a nation like America, you must look
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beyond its political power and its economic resources
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to its culture.
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Art is one of the most powerful and moving forms
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of culture we know. But in looking at the art world
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today, what we see all too often is merely cynicism,
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nihilism and exploitation.
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"Is this really art? Is there no connection
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between art and morality?"--these are the kind of
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questions we are asking with increasing frequency. This
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Imprimis issue addresses them in no uncertain terms.
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Mrs. Huffington's remarks were delivered during
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Hillsdale's Center for Constructive Alternatives
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seminar, "Culture Wars" in March 1992.
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------------------------------
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In the fall of 1989, 14 photographs by Robert
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Mapplethorpe were sold at auction at Christie's for
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$129,690. In the same week, 23 Mapplethorpe photographs
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were sold at auction at Sotheby's for $396,275. Art
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dealers were furiously bidding against each other for
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photographs of leather-clad men and cropped close-ups
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of an "obscene" nature. Once more, hype is confused
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with art in the "bazaar of the bizarre" that our
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culture has become.
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At the height of the controversy surrounding
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Mapplethorpe's photographs, the Whitney museum took a
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full-page ad in the New York Times to protest the
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cancellation of a Mapplethorpe show by the Corcoran
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Gallery in Washington. "Are you going to let politics
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kill art?" the ad asked in block letters. A
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Mapplethorpe photograph of a tulip was used for
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illustration.
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Of course the trustees of the Whitney knew as well
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as the rest of us that Mapplethorpe's fame and his one-
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man shows at the Whitney and other venerable
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institutions around the country were not based on his
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photographs of flowers. But the trustees also knew that
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the ad would have been self-defeating in terms of
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garnering public support if it were illustrated by one
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of Mapplethorpe's photographs celebrating
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sadomasochism, which Mapplethorpe, in a farewell
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interview before he died of AIDS, described as sex and
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magic.
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Yet it was precisely these photographs of torture
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and degradation that put Robert Mapplethorpe on the
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map, otherwise known as "the cutting edge" of art--what
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our culture decides is worth exhibiting, reviewing and
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talking about. If art is in danger of being killed, as
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the Whitney ad implies, it is our culture, not
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politics, that is the culprit. In fact, Congress is not
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the right forum for this particular debate. The larger
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issue is not what art is supported by public funds, but
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what art is encouraged and rewarded by our culture.
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At the moment, art that deals with rage, violence,
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disgust and brutality rises to the top. The message
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from the art world is clear: life is rotten, human
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beings are rotten, love is rotten, society is rotten.
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Art that may show the darkness but also gives us a
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glimpse of the light beyond is seen as too "soft," too
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unrealistic.
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What Tom Wolfe said in The Painted Word is even
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more valid today: "If a work or a new style disturbed
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you, it was probably good work. If you hated it, it was
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probably great....To be against what is new is not to
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be modern. Not to be modern is to write yourself out of
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the scene. Not to be in the scene is to be nowhere." As
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a result, the art world has for years now been stuck in
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the very modern and very adolescent stage of rebellion.
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There is another world--of light, spirit, harmony
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and truth that seems foreign to our contemporary
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culture. Schumann said in the 19th century, "To send
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light into the darkness of men's hearts--such is the
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duty of the artist." He would be hard put to find many
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such artists thriving today.
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In all the huffing and puffing and booming of art
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that celebrates darkness and inhumanity the same note
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is struck: how powerful the work, how exquisite the
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technique! The fact that adding elegance to brutality
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only helps to desensitize us to its reality is glossed
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over. And our response has nothing to do with defending
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our civil rights and a lot to do with losing our
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capacity to be shocked.
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There have been great photographers who have
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captured strong images of violence and cruelty
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intending to shock us, often to shock us into action--
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such as Jacob Riis with his pictures of New York slums,
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or Lewis Hines with his pictures of children working in
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coal mines.
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But when we detach ourselves from the brutality
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and admire the technique, we are conceding that human
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beings are inert things to whom you can do anything--
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sometimes in the name of art, sometimes in the name of
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sexual kicks, sometimes in the name of the state. It is
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a concession we cannot afford to make--the first step
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on the road to Auschwitz and the Gulag Archipelago.
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Discussing the arts controversy on "Phil Donahue"
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two years ago, I told Tim Rollins, a young artist on
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the panel who works in the South Bronx helping children
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transmute violence into art, that Robert Mapplethorpe
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might have benefited greatly from working with him. He
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replied that Mapplethorpe's violence was between
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consenting adults. I asked him if he also thought that
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the consent of his followers in Jonestown exonerated
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the Rev. Jim Jones.
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"Jim Jones," he answered, "was not an artist."
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This is a succinct expression of the feeling prevalent
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in our culture that there is one moral standard for
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ordinary mortals and another for artists.
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"Just pronounce the magic word, 'art,' and
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everything is OK," wrote George Orwell 45 years ago in
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an essay on Salvador Dali. "So long as you can paint
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well enough to pass the test, all shall be forgiven
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you." And then he made the ultimate pronouncement not
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only on Dali but on the whole debate on art and
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morality:
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"One ought to be able to hold in one's head
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simultaneously the two facts that Dali is a good
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draftsman and a disgusting human being. The one does
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not invalidate, or, in a sense, affect the other. The
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first thing that we demand of a wall is that it shall
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stand up. If it stands up it is a good wall, and the
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question of what purpose it serves is inseparable from
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that. And yet even the best wall in the world deserves
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to be pulled down if it surrounds a concentration camp.
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In the same way it should be possible to say, 'This is
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a good book or a good picture, and it ought to be
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burned by the public hangman.' Unless one can say that,
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at least in imagination, one is shirking the
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implications of the fact that an artist is also a
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citizen and a human being."
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Our culture would do well to take Orwell's words
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to heart. The rest of us have a duty to distinguish
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constantly between the true and the false. And perhaps
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to follow the example of the small boy in the fairy
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tale who had the courage to cry out that the emperor
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wore no clothes.
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Our secular culture is finding it increasingly
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hard to satisfy on a purely aesthetic diet the
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spiritual instinct in us that longs for a larger
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meaning. With an almost pathetic desperation, we
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overestimate the significance of everything "artistic,"
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including Andy Warhol's cookie jars, with ever-
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diminishing emotional returns. But aestheticism--the
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notion that all of existence can be sanctified as an
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aesthetic phenomenon-- is exhausted. Its champions,
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still dominating the art world while fighting off a
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nasty case of existential dread, have failed to
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recognize that it is the connection between the
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aesthetic and the ethical that gives art its dignity,
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its meaning, and its power. It is not an explicit
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socio-realistic connection made by the artist, but a
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connection made within ourselves when art pierces
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through all the crusts of our narrow interests and
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preoccupations and liberates the truth and the vision
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of wholeness we carry within us.
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------------------------------
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Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington is a writer, lecturer
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and broadcaster. Born in Greece, she was educated at
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Cambridge and there became president of the famed
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debating society, the Cambridge Union. She has appeared
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on numerous television programs in the U.S. and Great
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Britain, including a series she recently hosted, "From
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the Heart." Her many books include The Female Woman
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(translated into 11 languages, 1974), After Reason
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(1978), Maria: Beyond the Callas Legend (1981), The
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Gods of Greece (1984), and one of the most talked-about
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biographies of recent years, Picasso: Creator and
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Destroyer (1988). Her next book, The Fourth Instinct,
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will be published shortly by Simon and Schuster.
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###
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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End of this issue of Imprimis, On Line; Information
|
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about the electronic publisher, Applied Foresight,
|
|
Inc., is in the file, IMPR_BY.TXT
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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