Walt Whitman Award winner Eric Pankey came to Elon on Oct. 9 to read some of his renowned poetry.

Pankey had a better turn out than expected because the majority of students in attendance were there to fulfill a class requirement, with the remainder of students being English majors or poetry buffs.

This event forced students to contemplate several questions regarding the future of art and, how it’s created and received.

Television has become a monolith in the arena of art mediums, and not even television of substance at that. Blockbuster movies of mind-numbing objectification, dull humor and unoriginal “action” are carrying ticket sales.

Popular music is surprisingly progressive and exciting these days. And that is where the line is drawn.

People of our generation cannot think back to the days when reading books or going to the theater dominated entertainment by way of art. Are movies the new literature? And, are song lyrics the new poetry?

Music with vocals combines a plethora of pleasurable senses and forms of human cognition. You are able to hear the sound and understand the words; provided they both strike your fancy, you have a basic two-for-one deal.

The young, linguistically ambitious American no longer aspires to write poetry. He or she no longer yearns to write books. We have lyrics and screenplays. Even more avant-garde, literally and certainly not pertaining to genre, music videos have graduated the way we view, hear and interpret art one more level.

We only find devoted literature aficionados in high society and academic circles. And modern poetry is even more scarce. Pankey should be celebrated and applauded for his courage to continue to forge a path many consider leading nowhere.

Pioneer is possibly the correct adjective, but revivalist strikes better. Quite frankly, the state of the nation and what we consider entertainment needs resuscitation, because it is dead. There is no pulse in popular art today.

Rather than mourn the death of an art form, we need to celebrate and take pride in the fact that our generation’s artistic outlets are different from past generations and yet are no less serious and still worthy sincere admiration.

Every generation defines itself by the art forms with which it identifies. Our art captures the essence of our era and puts its stamp on our generation.

Columnist: Sam Gendell - 10/24/07