whiskey drinks and chocolate box
Why we should value sincerity, particularly in art, is not always clear. In its absence, where is the insult? Call a piece “sincere” and the artist may rightfully pause since it is not a predicate with an unambiguous emotional train. So minimal an expectation is bound to seem almost off-color, if not irrelevant. Except at times in the history of art and literature when a cult of sincerity has raged–and even then what the artist sees in the concept is not what the moralist sees–the comment has usually smacked of understated compliment or overstated slight. Yet sincerity is often the star claim made on behalf of private writing, its moral raison d'