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All responses Most smiled responses
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Nothing I resonate much to personally, but very enjoyable and what a talent. Is he a special fave of yours? What's the nature of your interest in his work?
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Loved Conrad (though god knows he could often get turgid). Enjoyed a bunch of James' stories, but found the novels exhausting and tiresome -- he's one of those major writers who I get but I don't enjoy. Loved Genet, though I'd also love to revisit him -- he's such a special case. Haven't gotten around to Jane Bowles and suspect I never will. Are you a fan of hers?
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That's one of the biggest of the hard-to-answer questions, isn't it? Why did cultures in some parts of the world suddenly ascend to a higher level of complexity? I have zip to contribute to the conversation myself, aside from a sense of wonder and curiosity, but I was pleased not long ago when I heard a lecturer liken the move from tribal life to "civilized" life to a phase shift.
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I read (or scan) tons of blogs. There are so many smart, funny, observant people putting their thoughts out there right now ... What a golden time. It's a carnival, an explosion, a party -- love it. The blogosphere so outclasses the MSM in terms of freshness, directness, openness, knowledge and enthusiasm it isn't funny. I open the New Yorker or the NYTimes these days and, whatever their virtues, I feel like my mind has been sent back in time 10 years.
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They were happy there, I guess. They did well, they were rewarded. Why shouldn't the world behave similarly?
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Polly and I moved into our apartment in the late '80s, a little after we got married. We knew our budget, we knew we wanted to live downtown, so Polly (who wasn't tied to office hours, as I was) turned up four or five possibilities. I'd race downtown during lunch hour and check 'em out. We've been very happy here. It's an ugly building we're in -- but, y'know, if you live in it, then you don't have to look at it. And we love the neighborhood, even if the Village isn't what it once was.
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Yeah, totally, and I'm blushing to think that you've given it the thought you have. How about you? Do you see yourself in the polytheism-vs-nihilism debate?
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I know what you mean, I think. Still, don't they all share a thing or two? Namely a rejection of mainstream-liberal orthodoxy, and a desire to get back to basics? I don't know whether they're really on to anything -- who am I to judge? But I sure agree with you that their emergence thanks to the web is a fascinating phenom.
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Too much web-surfing, I guess. The web's like a combo of the biggest library and the biggest newsstand in the world -- plus it's got video and music too. There's little I like better than following my interests and curiosities, so thanks to broadband I'm in pig heaven. It's fun to pass a few of my discoveries along, and it's nice to hear you get a kick out of some of them, tks.
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I had some caring, exciting and encouraging teachers and profs along the way, but for all their virtues none of them really blew my mind. The big revelations I had usually came from friends, books, movies, love affairs, adventures ...
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Imagining my way back to my single days ...
Well, I probably wouldn't have done anything at all, unless they'd called me over. I was always the world's worst pickup artist -- no knack for cold approaches at all. But I did OK for myself -- had a decent number of adventures with cool, fun, sexy, fascinating women -- anyway.
Explanation: Since I wasn't comfortable doing cold approaches, I didn't even try to. I relied on other ways of getting to know women, ways I WAS comfortable with, instead: friends, parties, work, dinners, activities.
In your scenario, for instance: I might be in Central Park with a group of friends. We might be throwing a ball. The ball might wind up rolling into your hypothetical group of pretty girls, a few of whom might wind up joining the game. We might offer the pretty girls some ice water from our thermos. After all, we're now all sweaty. (Nice!) The pretty girls might wind up going with us to a bar nearby afterwards.
Connection made; no pickup lines needed.
Lesson: If you're uncomfortable with Game-style one-to-one pickup combat, skip it. Do activities instead: volleyball, cooking, hiking, dancing, whatever Then roil with whatever comes up. The activity itself will likely take care of the initial ice-breaking, and maybe even the initial physical contact. -
Do you mean old directors (aged 70 and older)? Filmmakers generally aren't active into their old age -- it's too physically demanding a pursuit, and they also (as we all do as we age) tend to lose their feel for the pulse of popular culture. So I assume what you're asking is what young filmmakers have to learn from the good/bad old days of 1970s filmmaking. Which is a great question. Since it was a pretty cool time for movies, I imagine there's a long list of things.
The one that occurs to me just now is the power and potential of real personality. Performers back then could be quirky, and could be enjoyed for having distinctive, even oddball, characteristics. Same with writers and directors: why not assert what you're really about and see how it goes over? There was a kind of balls-out, "This is who I am and what I am" daring and a willingness to get naked (emotionally if not physically) that seems almost totally missing to me from today's American movies, whether corporate or indie.
Incidentally, this emphasis on personality and soul resulted in a lot of really tedious, obnoxious movies. But it also delivered some glories too. -
Sadly, I don't seem to be able to get myself to do much drawing outside of art classes. Not sure why, since I love the way my mind feels when I'm in visual-arts mode. It's such a different experience than being in reading-and-writing mode that it's refreshing and relaxing, like being on vacation ...
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You overdignify me with your question! (Though many thanks for it, of course ...) I'm better at pursuing my wayward interests, and asking questions and musing out loud as I go along, than I am at coming up with anything like answers. I'm mighty glad there are serious and substantial people out there proposing theories and answers, and I'm definitely more of a fan of some of them than of others. But I'm not a thinker or an artist so much as I am a happy and curious tourist in those realms.
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Yeah. Or so it seems to me. But is that just me (and you too)? Hard, and maybe impossible, to know. But there was some kind of cultural oomph behind the "art" thing during that stretch, for better and worse ... Art was assumed to automatically have some kind of significance. Was this a good thing or a bad thing? In any case, it resulted in a lot of people hurling themselves heedlessly into the art quest. Some of the results seem pretty amazing to me still. But it also resulted in a lot of foolishness and wrecked lives? Worth the cost? I'm not sure.
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Never tried heroin; always had an excellent time on cocaine. What a fun party drug! Not that I did it *all* that often ...
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It certainly can be a cop out. But ...
1) Are cop-outs always bad? Sometimes what a conversation really needs is to be ended, or for the subject to be changed.
2) It can also reflect something profound, which is that the subjective component is always and everywhere (and inevitably) a big deal in the arts adventure. I'm all for comparing notes and learning from other people (and their reactions, thoughts, insights, and knowledge). There's little I enjoy more than having an arts adventure and then yakking it over with someone I find simpatico and stimulating. But many of the arguments people have about the arts strike me as pointless, and many of the "why?" questions people ask about the arts strike me as doubly pointless. Is such-and-such a brand-new book "great"? Is such and such a song "better" than another one? I don't know, you don't know ... No one knows. So why bother discussing such things? On the other hand, your reaction to the book and/or song, and your insights and thoughts about them, might well be funny, enlightening and helpful.
(I do understand, btw, that some people find these "greatness" and ranking arguments entertaining and fun in their own right, and I wouldn't want to take their fun away. But for me, whenever these discussions start up, I slip out of the room.) -
As Polly will confirm, I could go on and on about it! I'm as prone to see sports as a metaphor for life (and a platform for bullshit philosophizing) as any other guy is, even when my current sport happens to be something as silly as Wii Tennis.
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Secession is an interesting way to think about things, isn't it? Little acts of secession all over the places ... There's a prof named Donald Livingston who interprets all of history as a struggle between the centralizers and the decentralizers. I found it a really enlightening lens to view things through. Very interesting guy generally, IMHO (though, fair warning, the PC brigade hates him). You can find all kinds of pieces by him on the web. Here's a good one:
http://www.vtcommons.org/journal/2005/09/donald-livingston-diseconomies-scale-dismembering-leviathan -
Just curious: Why do you think there's something wrong (or inadequate, or something) about "this is my experience" or "that's the way of the world"-type responses? I tend to think that being able to acknowledge that 1) it all finally comes down to personal experience and 2) the world will go the way the world will go represents a really evolved and wise mindset.
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