Can any of us entirely banish from our hearts and minds grave misgivings about the condition of the culture we now inhabit? Expressions of those misgivings are mostly unheard in public forums, ignored in the dominant media, and, if noticed at all, dismissed by state-supported bureaucracies and commercial vested interests. To have any chance of gaining attention, they must resolve themselves into coherent forms. We need to clarify ourperceptionsof the things that trouble us, by articulating and developing our thoughts about them. That is, we are in need of seriouscriticism--seriouscriticism, aesthetic, social and political -- which is notably lacking in the contemporary world, especially in places readily available to the educated non-specialist, such as the 'quality' weekend newspapers, and especially, perhaps, in relation to the visual arts.

The pieces collected in this volume are not presented as amounting to an overall account or theory of our cultural condition. They are offered merely as examples of serious criticism, of what we need if we are to begin to think more profitably about our condition, daring, in defiance of contemporary dogmatism, to make the necessary judgements of value without which our culture will continue to disintegrate.

我们中的任何一个人都能从我们的心灵中完全摒弃对我们现在居住的文化状况的严重疑虑吗？这些疑虑的表达在公共论坛上大多没有被听到，被主流媒体忽视，如果被注意到，也会被国家支持的官僚机构和商业既得利益者所否定。为了有机会获得关注，他们必须把自己解决成一致的形式。我们需要澄清我们对那些困扰我们的事物的看法，阐明并发展我们对它们的想法。也就是说，我们需要严肃的批评--严肃的美学、社会和政治批评--这在当代世界是明显缺乏的，尤其是在受过教育的非专业人士容易获得的地方，比如 "高质量 "的周末报纸，也许尤其是与视觉艺术有关的地方。

本卷所收集的作品并不等同于对我们文化状况的总体描述或理论。它们只是作为严肃批评的例子提供，如果我们要开始对我们的状况进行更有益的思考，敢于无视当代的教条主义，做出必要的价值判断，否则我们的文化将继续瓦解。