Crosspoints: A Novel of Choice

As Alexandra York so ably points out in her new novel, "Crosspoints", the Post-Modernists have been working long and diligently to flout convention, and, in the process, have become so prominent in the art world that the flouters themselves have become the convention. In essence, there is nothing further that can be done in the realm of art to shock anyone. It seems a perfect condition for a return to classical notions of art which had reigned in Western Civilization up until the beginning of the last century.

"Crosspoints" is a novel about art. As such it delves deeply into aesthetic philosophy. Yet it does not read like a work with a political or philosophic axe to grind. The characterizations are full, the story deep and engaging. It is about a young woman, an undersea archeologist. She is steeped in ideas about classical art. She meets a young post-modern sculptor, the sparks fly as we find how deeply ideas of art shape the lives and behavior of these two in particular and humanity in general.

A true novel creates conflict between characters. The conflict in "Crosspoints" is intense without being violent, sexual without being crude, and intellectual without being pompous. Alexandra York in writing about art has also created art. In her way she is flouting the convention of the post-modern era by championing classical notions. Her work makes plain that art for the sake of pure aesthetic - without content or meaning - is rather like publishing a novel with a jumble of words (in calligraphy for example) merely because the letters look pretty. Without meaning, the book is pretty much worthless. One could argue that such a work might have a point, but to do it more than once - the way the post-modernists beat their dead horses - would be redundant. It also is reflective of a moral decay in society. The drop in standards and rules in art is indicative of the lack of restraint in society that ultimately denigrates and desecrates the individual.

Alexandra York is a well-known figure in art circles. Her published articles are to be found in venues from "Readers Digest" to "USA Today". She is also the founder of American Renaissance for the Twenty-first Century (ART). Her novel, "Crosspoints: A Novel of Choice" is highly recommended as an entertaining way to get a comprehensive overview of art theory and also to get a glimpse of what art could be if it were unleashed from the pseudo-self-denigrating dogma it is attached to today.

This book may be purchased at Amazon.com.