The young woman who drilled out

A Miss Catriona Kelly, presumably a young woman herself, has written in to draw our attention to the behaviour of another young woman. She tells us that a "Moscow writer" who was part of a delegation to the Committee of Culture of the Russian parliament, reported that during a meeting "a young woman with steely eyes" had suddenly "drilled out": "You must understand: art should be the expression of party values!" Since the Committee, like the parliament itself, is essentially an instrument of the policies of United Russia, Russia's ruling party, this pronouncement caused understandable alarm among those who do not support the party's views. The parroting of jargon from a former era by a person who was probably an infant when the old government collapsed served more to threaten than to amuse.

Thus Miss Kelly, who is quite worried after hearing this story! Is it not amazing how ignorant and inartistic persons the world over both confuse, and seek to confuse, Art and politics? To discover the correct attitude, all one has to do is cast one's mind back to Alexander Scryabine. There is not a hint of anything political in his supremely artistic œuvre. How could there be? It is upon this point that I have always parted company with people such as [those English communistic composers - forgot their names for the moment]. When will they ever learn that Art has nothing to do with politics or social studies, and politics and social studies have nothing to do with Art.

By the way I have never seen that expression "drilled out" before; it may be that "rapped out" was intended.