Laurie: In a democracy, public art should bring people together either by expressing a consensus on a subject or by ...

Annie on February 18, 2020

Hi @Sprozes,

This question asks you to identify what the two speakers disagree about. Laurie tells us that contemporary public art has failed because it does (1) express consensus or (2) help people reconcile. Elsa tells us that Laurie is asking for the impossible and that public art can just emphasize that people hold radically different positions.

Answer (C) is correct because it hits at what their disagreement is over. Laurie tells us that public art fails unless it does the two things she says. But, Elsa tells us that Laurie is wrong, and that public art can succeed if it does a third thing too. So, they are disagreeing over what it takes for public art to be successful.

Answer (D) is incorrect because it misstates Elsa's point. Laurie has told us clearly that contemporary public art creates acrimony. Elsa isn't saying that it does not create acrimony, but rather is telling us that this public disagreement is okay.

shunhe on February 18, 2020

Hi @sprozes,

Thanks for the question! Let's take a walk through the argument real quick to understand this one. Laurie is saying that public art should be bringing people together in one way or another, and that modern public art has failed at doing this. Elsa is saying that public art should be emphasizing people's different opinions and that art forms shouldn't be held to the impossible. There's a clear disagreement here about what it means for public art to succeed, and this is what (C) tells us. Laurie thinks that the criterion of success for public art in a democracy should be how well it brings people together. Elsa disagrees with this, and at least think that one criterion for success is how well public art emphasizes radically different opinions.

(D), on the other hand, is incorrect because although Laurie says that contemporary public art creates only acrimony, Elsa doesn't necessarily disagree with that. Elsa doesn't talk about the acrimonious nature of contemporary public art at all, and both the truth and falsehood of Laurie's claim are consistent with Elsa's argument.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.