Why Not More Social Commentators That Look Like Charlie Manson?
But seriously, look at that beard, what a great guy. This being my second reading of The Watchmen, I shall probably have a lot to say, as I have already worked through it in a class and found a lot of the little hidden surprises that it contains. I think that Moore is a genius, and that is not because I love comic books, but rather because he is smart and he bashes the human race, something I think we all deserve. For instance I was watching the TV for a moment at a friends and caught a bit of pre-Grammy sludge, are these people serious? What ever happened to playing an instrument, I thought that is what made a musician and music. But anyway I won’t go into some sort of rant here for any longer, I just think that that big old clock we shall find out about has been put in spin.
I’ve been contemplating a good deal of what we have been reading in class thus far in the semester and I have been attempting to put them together and see how they work in some sort of critical theory stew. I have had a bad taste in my mouth since. I think that the ingredients had spoiled, or as Deluze might suggest, perhaps I should have not used a pot or stove. Okay enough with the stupid metaphors. Really though, has any one else noticed that almost every single essay we have read in one way or the other conflicts with every other one on many levels, and then for the mos part, they even seem to overlap in the strangest of places. You can not have structure; structure is the key to language; there is no more originality; a author has to have something new in order to be fitted into the spectrum; there is a sign, signifier, signified; there is no center that language can come back to; hotels; rhizomes; Marxists; semiotics. I don’t know. Why is all this relevant is what I ask the most? I have yet decided whether I hate it or accept it, but I feel that a lot of this is pointless. In other words what good does it do? How is it advancing art? How is it helping us understand art, not as a theory or mathematical process but as a way of expression? So far it has not done much of that and I am increasingly frustrated at the fact that this is such a firework in the academic pocketbook, or rather, something that has suddenly become essential to collegiate thinking. Just some musings and ramblings and what not at the whole thing, all the balderdash combined. I have yet read an essay that has in any way enhanced my life or my understanding of it. That is the reason for art and language and writing and thinking. I think. I feel that I will read one at some point, but is it worth it to have so many that have not for the one that will? I will let you know when I read that one. Anyway, The Watchmen, finally some written word. A book as it might be called. With sentences that come together and serve a purpose. Hurray! Forgive me if you love criticism and theory, as Bob Dylan says “I am right for my side and you are right for yours.”
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Hey, Nick,
I see you pondering a whole hell of a lot here.
“Why is all this relevant is what I ask the most? I have yet decided whether I hate it or accept it, but I feel that a lot of this is pointless. In other words what good does it do? How is it advancing art? How is it helping us understand art, not as a theory or mathematical process but as a way of expression? ”
I don’t know that this is so pointless. I think, for me (and you can toss what I say like an old comic book if you like), it is all in the spirit of the Modernist movement, regardless of whether or not we’re still in it. At the time the Modernists were gaining strength, it was because they were well versed in what “was.” They knew all the rules of the game for their time, and then promptly broke every single one. This is what made them completely new.
I’m not saying we should buy all these theories and apply them to our time. Many don’t carry through once somebody comes along and disproves them, but together they form a history of conceptual progress. We must know what the working rules were at the time particular art was created to appreciate the brilliance behind breaking with the old and creating new. Sure, we can like art because it looks pretty, or the language captures something we’ve felt or want to feel, but we can’t appreciate the grand scope when we don’t know how it broke from tradition and changed the world of art forever. What we “feel” when we see it and touch it is only half the story. These theories can only advance the way we admire artists and authors. I know I’ve looked at and read some things I hated, but once I learned what the art was DOING, then I could appreciate it for the break from tradition if not content. Suddenly, it has new value for me.
I know you are so down on Jameson. To you, he’s saying that there is no way to make anything new. We’ve named all the working parts of art and now we’re just left to splice them together in different ways… It’s one giant recycling machine. Well, personally, I find this to be the challenge. Rather than switching off the light and going home with my tail between my legs, I want to hang in the workshop and analyze the rules he’s laying out for his time. What are they and how do I break THESE?
At every hopeless dead end, there is always that movement that kicks it’s ass, breaks it down, and busts out. Set up a barrier and it’s nothing more than an invitation to brawl with the limitations. We’ve already discussed the ways in which this is happening with the internet and graphic novels. Entire websites are devoted to predicting what path literature will take to break out and we still don’t have the answer. THAT’S possibility, right there. That’s proof that NEW is still out there.
When you get down on these cynical theorist freaks, just remember, they are dead and gone, many of their theories are broken - but art lives forever, and in some way, the theorists brought deeper meaning to that art with their analysis by examining it’s parts. Their love of art is what grounded them in it’s study - not to dismantle the magic, but to immerse themselves in it. Sometimes they just got frustrated along the way.
The end is just the beginning to something new.
Have hope my friend.
-K
atticfox - February 12, 2007 at 8:09 am