John Steppling

" If everything “looks” fake, then what is real? A fake film that makes no effort at naturalism disturbs the separation between spectator and screen. It is a total dreaming state in which the barriers between the dreamer and the dreamed, the projected and the real, are articulated in a jarring mash of lines and bichromate forms: everything is either shadow or light. The city provides the “stage” for this collapsing of the dreamer into the dream." Owen Vince On Cabinet of Dr. Caligari "Renoir has a lot of talent, but he’s not one of us." Daryl Zanuck "My films were not for mass consumption...I could imagine nothing worse than producing something for an alienated mass culture, which I … [Read more...]

"If time takes in, space moves out. Space qua place locates; it furnishes outward abode in the world. Space specifies; it gives local habitation." Edward S. Casey "Each time a painter realized that he was dissatisfied with the limited role of painting as a celebration of material property and of the status that accompanies it, he inevitably found himself struggling with the very language of his own art as understood by the tradition of his calling." John Berger "This darkness can be explained by the blind spot in our eye at the point where the optic nerve enters the retina and where we cannot see. Only when the point of the blind spot has been passed do we see the pencil point again … [Read more...]

"Ah, children, be afraid of going prayerless to bed, lest the Devil be your bedfellow.” Cotton Mather "McCarthyism is Americanism with its sleeves rolled." Joe McCarthy "Indeed, for Godard, the ethical is inherent within the aesthetic and will be revealed in the unique poetic processes of cinematic montage (“at the time of the resurrection”)." James Williams "The general influence of divine maintenance is not sufficient for the preservation of the moral good of creatures: the latter also needs that of grace." Matthew of Acquasparta In the current New York Review of Books, Geoffrey O'Brien reviews Patti Smith's new book (not to mention this piece in the Guardian : … [Read more...]

"The world of supermodernity does not exactly match the one in which we believe we live, for we live in a world that we have not yet learned to look at. We have to relearn to think about space." Marc Auge "I would propose instead the appropriation and redirection of the very technologies of distraction enforced by dominant culture... Hence, camouflage, mimicry, wit, guileful ruse, deception, and stealth -- forms of qualified surrender -- enter the lexicon of architectural means to reprogram the dominant logics of space in the city." Stan Allen "...the happiness of travel is and remains temporary escape from home without subsequent demand...the traveller of the capitalist age must … [Read more...]

"In 2010, a team at the University of Michigan led by the psychologist Sara Konrath put together the findings of 72 studies that were conducted over a 30-year period. They found a 40 percent decline in empathy among college students, with most of the decline taking place after 2000. Across generations, technology is implicated in this assault on empathy. We’ve gotten used to being connected all the time, but we have found ways around conversation — at least from conversation that is open-ended and spontaneous, in which we play with ideas and allow ourselves to be fully present and vulnerable." Sherry Turkle (New York Times, 2015) "My difficulty is only an — enormous — difficulty of … [Read more...]

"Our capacity for imagination defines us as precisely as our power of speech. In order to be able to cope with tomorrow I have to create, today, however briefly, an image of the world I am about to enter." Anthony Pagden "Without exile, without nostalgia for the lost country, I do not think I would be a writer.” Isabel Allende "And therein lies one of my fatal mistakes in life. Just a few days ago I wrote a note to myself; 'always, even in moments of fulfillment, your tendency to think: its not here yet! You always experience even the most perfect present moment as mere advent. You always expect something more afterward, something bigger, the ultimate." Peter Handke "My Year In No … [Read more...]

"Violence is a part of America’s culture. It is as American as cherry pie." H. Rap Brown "We see images on TV, and evaluate ourselves on the basis of what we see." Jena Gordon "The culture's habit of finding "seriousness" acceptable only if offered by people who are finally not serious is yet another way that our culture makes certain that nothing alarming will come of our newfound interest in heretical ideas." Curtis White There is a certain type of white liberal (overwhelmingly white, but not exclusively) in the U.S. today, and they and their sensibility and values define Hollywood products. Film of course, but far more, really, in television. And they are increasingly … [Read more...]

"The main thing about the stranger, after all, is that he is strange. He is not like us; he will never understand us. Our greatest fear, perhaps because the possibility is often so seductive, is that we will become like him and loose ourselves.” Robin Fox "The maker of kitsch does not create inferior art, he is not an incompetent or a bungler, he cannot be evaluated by aesthetic standards; rather he is ethically depraved, a criminal willing radical evil." Hermann Broch "One of the most American traits is our urge to define what is American." John Updike "The evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of ornament from utilitarian objects." Adolf Loos "Families, for … [Read more...]