The democratization of society (not to be confused with the democratization of politics or governance) brings about the democratization of culture; the democratization of culture, in stigmatizing the distinction between high and low art, destroys high art. It destroys the very idea of high culture. We don’t merely disdain it; we are no longer capableContinue reading “Fragmentary Grenade”
Tag Archives: culture
Art is Propaganda is Art
Correction: Confronted by an alert Disney defender, I have corrections aplenty: Disney did not make Shrek; the musical Wall-E watches in the film is Hello Dolly (not by Disney); I further must concede that there is in fact no evidence of a flatulence mandate–I was rather carelessly extrapolating from one running gag in The LionContinue reading “Art is Propaganda is Art”
Summer Re-runs, Again
Fourth of July, Summertime 08 Acid Flashback RemixHistory may be written with blood and iron, but it is printed with ink, and it is made real and dangerous when it is put on film, the alternate literature of our times…History is not over yet, and history collects its debts. —Gustav Hasford, Vietnam Means Never HavingContinue reading “Summer Re-runs, Again”
We’re Number One!
When the raised middle finger became a salute may have been the moment the momentum of aggregated self-indulgence crested, and we began our final decline. When rappers and others started flipping off the camera, making “screw you” the desultory greeting of a generation, the Apocalypse had to be near. It had better be, preferable asContinue reading “We’re Number One!”
Brush with Grayness
Passing into a government building resembles passing out of one mode of existence into another. The very act of gaining entrance into one of these citadels of authority is fraught with dread, anxiety and alienation. This is a normal response to the lifting of the veil from one’s irrelevance and powerlessness before the State. ItContinue reading “Brush with Grayness”
Sexual Perversity
Youth, beauty, strength: the criteria for physical love are exactly the same as those of Nazism. In short, I was in the shit.—Michel Houellebecq, The Possibility of an Island Sexual innocence has gone to market.In our liberated era, sexuality is increasingly valued, and modesty increasingly devalued (once was a person was a deviant if overlyContinue reading “Sexual Perversity”
Pilgrimage
It’s funny how the colours of the like real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen.–Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange You are a little soul carrying about a corpse.—Epictetus There are no bystanders in life.Dignity is an aloofness from passion. It is the essence of the civilized individual. Yet civilizationContinue reading “Pilgrimage”
untethered 