Arts II

"I sometimes wondered what the use of any of the arts was. The best thing I could come up with was what I call the canary in the coal mine theory of the arts. This theory says that artists are useful to society because they are so sensitive. They are super-sensitive. They keel over like canaries in poison coal mines long before more robust types realize that there is any danger whatsoever."
--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.,
"Physicist, Purge Thyself" in the Chicago Tribune Magazine (June 22, 1969)