R E C E N T L Y Ken Starr: The illicit child of Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill (09/15/98) Male troubles: Bill Clinton, Matt Drudge and Mark McGwire (09/01/98) I serviced the president and all I got was this lousy Martha's Vineyard souvenir (08/18/98) Swinging with the sodomites (08/04/98) Why American athletes don't kiss and hug like soccer stars (07/21/98) - - - - - - - - - - A L S O About Camille Paglia Ask Camille archives - - - - - - - - - - C O L U M N I S T S Sexpert Opinion By Susie Bright Hijacked (09/25/98) Bestseller Hell By Jon Carroll Hamburger Hades (06/16/98) Left Hook By Joe Conason What goes around, comes around (09/21/98) Right On! By David Horowitz Why Clinton should not be impeached -- yet (09/28/98) Lovers and Writers By Garrison Keillor How can I meet girls in odd clothing if I'm not a writer? (09/22/98) Under the Covers By James Poniewozik Monica 2: This time, it's for the money (08/18/98) Second Thoughts By Sallie Tisdale We're here, we're ... uh ... straight? (09/11/98) American Squirm By Sarah Vowell We have met the enemy, and she is us (09/19/98) Unzipped By Courtney Weaver 976-UGLY: A phone sex mistress reveals the dark side of her business (09/16/98) Salon Columnists - - - - - - - - - - S A L O N E M P O R I U M FREE! 12-ounce bag of Salon Blend with a purchase of $30 or more. While supplies last.

A S K_C A M I L L E +|+ C A M I L L E+P A G L I A --- Online advice for the culturally disgruntled --- The decline of pop culture Dear Camille: My wife (an artist) maintains that film is today's art, that the adulation that was once reserved for poets, musicians and artists is now transferred to movie stars and the respect accorded to literature, music and art is now transferred to movies. Any thoughts on the puerile sentimentality that Hollywood is modeling for the country and how it is affecting the national psyche? Michael Karounos Dear Mr. Karounos: Your wife and I are clearly on the same wavelength! The master premise of my work is that the glorious Western high art tradition has shifted tracks in the 20th century and that popular culture is its true heir. I call this century, in fact, not Sartre's Age of Anxiety but the Age of Hollywood. Your timely question was faxed by Salon, along with this week's other queries, to me in Athens, Ga., where I was about to speak at the very hospitable University of Georgia (my first appearance in the Deep South). Hence your wife's point was very much on my mind as I challenged the audience to name a single major, potentially enduring work in any of the high arts in the last 30 years since pop art, which closed the gap between high and popular culture and killed the Romantic avant-garde. Alas, the high-art well seems to have run dry. Because of my lifetime love of pop, I am indeed alarmed at what you so correctly call "the puerile sentimentality" of the entertainment industry. My generation was educated by a rich range of popular culture, from European art films to virtuoso cutting-edge rock albums. Something has gone very wrong: Pop's blinding success has bred several generations now of pop parasites, who know only what has come just before them. Artistic history is out, and smirky juvenility is in. As someone who has devoted her career (at great cost) to arts education, I am repelled by the increasing banality and superficiality of American popular culture, which is overrun by silly girls and vapid boys. There are tremendous opportunities for artistic achievement, but that requires strong, passionate personalities, not I'm-so-cool poseurs. American talent seems paralyzed by a crisis of will. My prescription: Go study Bernini, whose lavish imagination and power of execution are writ everywhere in Baroque Rome. Where is the American Bernini? Male or female, your time has come! Dear Camille: A very simple unadorned question. How do you respond to the following comparison: If Clinton were a CEO in the private sector, no one would be invoking the "sex between consenting adults" argument to mitigate his behavior and the huge power imbalance between the two individuals involved. Is that sophistry or what? John in Canada Dear John: I wholeheartedly agree with you that the defense of Clinton's clumsy sexplay with the narcissistic Monica Lewinsky on consensual grounds is the worst kind of partisan sophistry. The cliquish, urban feminists who so blithely indulged in it now stand exposed as the weak, frivolous social analysts that they are. The problem is that a president is not a CEO, who could be summarily dismissed without destabilizing the nation or world. Despite my disgust with Clinton's behavior and with his administration's shameless lies, I do not believe impeachment is yet justified, since the latter should require unambiguous evidence of serious abuse of official power. Commentary on Clinton's exploitative escapades ranges from the moralistic to the mawkish (I burst out laughing last week at Barbra Streisand's trilling paean to Great Presidents Who Have Strayed). What is usually missing is any reference to aggression, in the dark Freudian sense. Can't people see that Clinton's bumptious self-soilings are acts of petty aggression against his wife and his mother? Virile he's not. The only bright spot in this squalid saga of furtive corridor couplings is the mysterious, cometlike appearance in the Starr report of Eleanor Mondale, whom I've always thought of as one hot chick. Now there's a sexual persona that's worth an abdication or two! Hillary, watch your left flank. N E X T_P A G E | Salvador Dali's bizarre fantasies