Even the much-praised notion of competition seems fake and cynically manipulated by the “corporate” mentality that now pervades the world of culture – by the financial pre-selection that determines what publishers, producers, and other impresarios will support. Just imagine what might have happened with the works of, say, Proust, Kafka, Musil, Faulkner, or Borges had they been subjected to mass-market competition like shoes or cosmetics.
说到这一趋势的害处，没有比艺术的商业化更大的了。当前的文化世界弥漫着“公司”思维——从财务角度出发预先选定发行商、制作商及其他艺术经理的支持对象——这使得即便是广受赞誉的“竞争”概念看起来也是假的，被可悲地操纵着。想象一下，将普鲁斯特、卡夫卡、穆西尔、福克纳和博尔赫斯像鞋子和化妆品那样置于畅销市场的竞争中去会是怎样一幅情景。