Wagner quote from Alex Ross blog

I stumbled upon this great quote by Wagner posted on the Alex Ross blog on avant-garde classical music called The Rest Is Noise (the blog is related to his book with the same name). It echoes some of the things that have been discussed on this blog about the relationship between art and death. It also relates to the aesthetic sensibilites of the Necronauticals:

I have felt the pulse of modern art and know that it will die! This knowledge, however, fills me not with despondency but with joy, for I know at the same time that it is not art in general which will perish but only our own particular type of art—which stands remote from modern life—, whereas true—imperishable—constantly renewed art is still to be born. The monumental character of our art will disappear, we shall abandon our habit of clinging firmly to the past, our egotistical concern for permanence and immortality at any price: we shall let the past remain the past, the future—the future, and we shall live only in the present, in the here and now, and create works for the present age alone.