A War On the Imagination

"The exemplary person (junzi) seeks harmony (he) rather than agreement (tong); the small person does the opposite." Confucius "All the consumable time of modern society comes to be treated as a raw material for varied new products which impose themselves on the market as uses of socially organized time." Guy Debord Henry Giroux said there is a war on communal relations, on solidarity, and the imagination. I sense this every day when I read mainstream media. Not just the bought hacks who write the disinformation about world affairs, or whitewash U.S. foreign affairs, but even the cultural matters, the human interest (sic) stories and then to read comment threads is an experience akin … [Read more...]

Absence

"No one shows such a knowledge of God as he who says one can know nothing." Thomas Aquinas "I define “scientism” as the ideology of science, the way that science tells stories about itself, especially stories that are supportive of the social status quo." Curtis White I over heard a discussion not too long ago on the subject of aesthetics. It was of course related to film. And then I read another brief discussion the other day that took place on social media. What came out of both these discussions was what I think is a threshold phenomenon in how artworks, visual arts anyway, are percieved. It is almost as if certain images, certain tropes in narration, provide a sense of freshness, … [Read more...]

White Unreality

"The history of white people has led them to a fearful baffling place where they have begun to lose touch with reality – to lose touch, that is, with themselves… They do not know how this came about; they do not dare examine how this came about.” James Baldwin " A national culture under colonial domination is a contested culture whose destruction is sought in systematic fashion. It very quickly becomes a culture condemned to secrecy. This idea of clandestine culture is immediately seen in the reactions of the occupying power which interprets attachment to traditions as faithfulness to the spirit of the nation and as a refusal to submit. ... the oral tradition - stories, epics and songs … [Read more...]

A Fish Swims like a Fish

"The more laws that are written, the more criminals are produced." Tao Te Ching Lao Tzu "Doctors are no doubt correct in warning us not to touch wounds; and I am presumably taking chances in preaching as I do to a people which has long lost all sensitivity and, no longer conscious of its infirmity, is plainly suffering from mortal illness. Let us therefore understand by logic, if we can, how it happens that this obstinate willingness to submit has become so deeply rooted in a nation that the very love of liberty now seems no longer natural." Etienne de la Boetie The Politics of Obedience "Clear water all the way to the bottom; a fish swims like a fish." Master Dogen 13th century … [Read more...]

More Odds & Ends

"Mystery is the essential element in any work of art" Luis Bunuel "The question remains as to why the government had need of it {war}, as to why it was necessary to impose the improbable reality of this lie. The reason was apparently to create consent in order to wage war. But why start a war if the danger was known not to be real? Out of anticipation? Due to possibly exaggerated feelings of insecurity? If remains necessary to invert the terms of the problem. Imagined feelings of insecurity did not neccessiate the war; the war was necessary to impose feelings of insecurity." Jacques Ranciere "The petty bourgeoisie is undoubtedly the social class most sensitive to the fascination of … [Read more...]

Thoughts on Playwriting

Gloucester : When shall I come to the top of that same hill? Edgar: You do climb up it now: look, how we labour. Gloucster: Methinks the ground is even. Edgar: Horrible steep. Hark, do you hear the sea? Gloucster: No, truly. Shakespeare, King Lear A few thoughts on space, and on the idea of teaching playwriting. I don't think its possible for writing courses, in theatre at least, to get things more wrong. This is born out by the quality of the plays coming out of University programs, and/or those being developed in big institutional theatres every year. The first thing that seems to have been forgotten is that theatre occupies, and simultaneously, creates a space. A place. … [Read more...]

The Hidden Narrative

For whatever reason, I have been thinking a lot about the artists that developed in the first two decades of the 20th century, in the United States. The last strain of realism, but a realism that had already felt the rise of cubism and surrealism, and which held onto its sense of realism in a particular sort of way. One can also look at this regionally to a degree, and perhaps in two generational divisions. But this was the non-corporate realism of a vision influenced by Quakers, and Amish, and by manual labor and farming. And by factories. It was work done outside the "Art Market", largely, too. George Ault is perhaps the most siginificant, but Charles Sheeler certainly, and a generation … [Read more...]

Specific

"The breath of God had carried out a planned And sensible withdrawal from this land; The multitude, once unconcerned with doubt, Once neither callous, curious nor devout, Jumped at broad noon, as though some peddler groaned At it in its familiar twang: “My friend, Cut your own throat. Cut your own throat. Now! Now!” September twenty-second, Sir, the bough Cracks with the unpicked apples, and at dawn The small-mouth bass breaks water, gorged with spawn." Robert Lowell After The Surprising Conversions Eric Bennett has an interesting small essay on the origins of post graduate writing programs in the U.S. "The Farfield Foundation was not really a foundation; it was … [Read more...]