Bide
I bide. Unwilling to waste breath on those who think
the movie 300 was wonderful. Who gather at parties to
stamp cards or scrapbook. Who think Target is a dream
come true. Or who love Disney and all it's evil
works. Or treasure James Taylor and Billy Joel on their
iPods, that they share with the whole room for the
whole day. I want to scream, how about challenging your
small, smug, pale opinions? How about understanding that popular doesn't
mean tasteful? That variety and change and originality are positive,
that complacency is rot? Allow for broader ideas?
I bide.
the movie 300 was wonderful. Who gather at parties to
stamp cards or scrapbook. Who think Target is a dream
come true. Or who love Disney and all it's evil
works. Or treasure James Taylor and Billy Joel on their
iPods, that they share with the whole room for the
whole day. I want to scream, how about challenging your
small, smug, pale opinions? How about understanding that popular doesn't
mean tasteful? That variety and change and originality are positive,
that complacency is rot? Allow for broader ideas?
I bide.
Posted by Zhoen on Tuesday, October 09, 2007
12 comments:
I say, intellectual snobbery. I like a lot of crap things that you would sniff at I expect. Taste is utterly subjective. Do you really not suffer the 'tasteless fool'? Tell me it is not so.
If the only things you like are mainstream, and call everything else weird - in a bad way. Assuming that what everyone else likes is not only the best, but the only good stuff, and anyone who likes variety is a freak, being unwilling to even taste anything new or different, yeah, I condemn that. I am silenced by wonderbread conformity. I am stuffed with overplayed, constant mediocrity.
Bad history in movies is harmful. It's lies, convincing lies.
Disney is a corporation that sucks money from children, dictates culture,and gives them corrupt stories, so that's about social conscience more than taste.
Target kills local businesses, again, social consciousness, not taste.
Forcing one's taste on everyone around, never considering that other's taste may vary, is smug.
Read again. I stand by my words. It's not the hobbies, it is those things as an entirety, an assumption, as a way to silence variety.
(o) (o) (o)
"it is those things as an entirety, an assumption, as a way to silence variety"
I heartily agree.
You've made me happier knowing there are others who think so...:)
A friend on mine: 300 in 300 (characters) Seemed like a strange coincidence of purpose (separated by several months).
It is odd how people who take things on their merits rather than their popularity are the ones who get called snobs.
I suppose I find myself on the defensive, oh dear, are there any of those things I like, dare I admit it or had I best slink away...
Happy to say nothing there I need own up to though perhaps more by luck than judgement though I think I quite liked one James Taylor album for a year or two when I was about 15; in fact several of them I'd not even heard of, so my mediocrity is at least not up to date - I don't even own an iPod. Slightly surprised anyone even admits to liking Billy joel any more let alone imposes him on anyone else... we all have our bete noirs and our weaknesses I guess, even those things we know we shouldn't really enjoy but still sometimes do.
But rant on dear Zhoen!
Nothing wrong with low taste, as long as it is acknowledged as low taste. I do, after all, admit I love watching COPS! I once went to a Culture Club concert (it sucked, but I went voluntarily.) Likewise Manheim Steamroller (boring beyond belief.) I used to like John Denver, Supertramp, I still like Fleetwood Mac. I so detest Billy Joel because when I was in my early 20s I knew all those songs on the radio by heart. Now I know them for dysfunctional crap, but then, they seemed so romantic, and impossible to escape or ignore.
I've been thinking this one over, as you do.
I'm with you on Disney,though I've enjoyed some of them, the real oldies, Fantasia etc and even those when I was a kid, The Jungle Book for example, but I do see how they corrupt original art and literature; whether it's better that kids have a Disney introduction then might move on to the originals, like you did with Pooh, I don't know.
But year after year I sent what I thought were interesting, tasteful, original Christmas presents to my step-grandchildren:real Barbar the Elephant toys, boxes of delicious tubes of gouache paint with the colours in French, hand-decorated washmitts,etc etc, mostly received with little appreciation or even acknowledgement. I stopped finally when it became evidient all they wanted was the latest Disney merchandising, which they can and do go down to the Disney store and buy for themselves. From now on we just send money, I said. So I raise you rant! I like comments threads, you can say things you might not on the blog...
Someone once described Billy Joel tunes as irritating things that creep up your arse when you're not aware and come dribbling uncontrollably out of your mouth, which I always found the worst thing, I'd find myself singing them when I really didn't want to. I suppose one might at this point be able to listen to him in a kind of ironic post-modern way, rather as one might Abba or the BeeGees; can't say I feel the urge though.
Quite right. 'nuff said.
Hear, hear and hear.
I did read again. As instructed.
"Small, smug, pale opinions" sounds very like condecension to me whatever the argument. I may agree with you about the historical accuracy of 300 - but I don't count it a major harm, we are surrounded by varieties of spurious interpretations in all the arts. I know, for example, that all Scotland has had the biggest laugh out of 'Braveheart'./ Taylor and Joel are quite legitimate preferences, as are the mentioned hobbies./ Millions derive quite innocent pleasure from Disneyland whatever the 'evil' ethic may be - we sent a party of disabled kids to Paris and they came back enchanted and feeling special. They absorbed no sinister subtexts & we got our money's worth./ Isn't online shopping part of the future? Doesn't it make sense as an option in a country with huge rural populations?
Of course variety, change and originality are to be treasured and encouraged, but those who do not aspire to, or cannot achieve more than the mainstream culture should not be shunned.
Please don't take offence, you don't want yes-commenters I know. This one got to me.
Why on earth would you read me, then?
"I don't count it a major harm" is not exactly a defense. No, a minor, eroding harm. A small insidious harm. A mediocrity. When so much that is real and healthy and wonderful is available.
Gentle preferences are fine, IF that is not the totality, and defended as the only viable choices. Disney is marketed, with huge amounts of research, directly at children, molding their tastes, setting their values, it's not innocent at all. Junk food for children's souls.
When I said smug, I was talking specifically of people who are smug. And if you have never looked outside your small tastes, then yes, I challenge you to look further, to look beyond the easy, the facile, the fun, and look to the bones beneath. And not call me a snob because I want to shout at you that genuine quality can be had just outside, just to wake you up.
"but those who do not aspire to, or cannot achieve more than the mainstream culture should not be shunned"
I was ranting because I was being shunned for trying more. I tried to reach out, not shun, and you have nipped at me, defending your mainstream. You are the majority, and you wish to silence me. Why?
And, why, and who aspires to mainstream? And why are you grating at me for asking you to aspire? I was objecting to being force fed overplayed, oversold, pablum.
If that still offends you, then maybe you have come to the wrong blog. You cannot silence me here. I will not tolerate being insulted here. I spend most of my life around people who disagree with me. I do want yes commenters here, actually. Civil folks who are not going to come into my little corner and tell me I'm pushing my opinions on others. Rebut on your own blog to your hearts content. Call me whatever you like there.
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