On the New

Thinkers, artists, and writers are supposed to produce novelty just as, earlier, they were supposed to respect tradition and conform to its standards

In art, every modern school, from abstract art to surrealism, regarded itself as the last possible artistic approach

In any event, most contemporary writers hold that the problematic of the new has been almost entirely overcome.1

The future no longer seems to promise anything fundamentally new; instead, we imagine endless variations on what already exists.

subordinates all value hierarchies to itself.