Shadows on the wall

摘要

In order to thrive,' writes Boston College Director of American Studies Carlo Rotella in a splendid essay on Magic Slim and Buddy Guy, the last of the great 1950s Chicago blues musicians, in The Boston Globe (13 September 2010), 'every genre or style needs both visionary innovators and orthodox practitioners. Without the former, it becomes hidebound. Without the latter, it drifts and loses its center.' But what happens when orthodoxy becomes dogma? What is the fate of innovators when they pose a threat, not to the accepted view, but to the accepted truth?