The Sound Of Shoehorning
Granted, hanging up spoons in straight rows isn’t quite as impressive as the oeuvre of Rembrandt. But if we pretend hard enough, maybe it will seem as if it were?
Steve Sailer spies some farcically woke art-exhibition notes.
Photographs of which can be found here. This one in particular is quite a feat.
Update:
In the comments, Joan adds, “They want to spoil everything.” Indeed, the tone of the exhibition notes is reliably sour and anhedonic. Only the contrivance is amusing, albeit unwittingly. And it occurs to me that it would save a lot of time and rhetorical straining to simply stamp each artwork with the words “BAD WHITEY.” The effect would be much the same and with little loss of meaningful content. It’s also worth pondering the term “white degeneracy,” and whether any other racial demographic would be subject to similar usage in the official display notes of a mainstream art exhibition.
Update 2:
It seems to me that juxtaposing Rembrandt’s paintings with half-arsed tat by the ungifted-but-heroically-brown – an unremarkable frame, some spoons in rows – is not a great way to establish the implied artistic parity. But in order to be woke and right-thinking, we must somehow will the equivalence into being. Or at least pretend.
And this is why wokeness is corrupting. It eats away at realism, and at honesty.
Also, open thread.
I’m trying to decide if you’re trolling or legitimately can’t see the obvious allegory.
I’m serious. As I understand it:
– The Browncoats did not secede. Rather, they resisted “absorption” by an expanding imperial State.
– The Browncoats were not slaveholders.
If the above are true, then why compare them to the CSA?
A serious question, no sarcasm intended: have you ever watched any Western movies, or seen any Western TV shows?
A serious question, no sarcasm intended: have you ever watched any Western movies, or seen any Western TV shows?
Serious answer: Yes.
Incredulous answer: You are not being helpful. Do not beat around the bushy. Do not be snarky. Spell out exactly why the Browncoats *are* the CSA. And while you’re at it, link to statements by Joss Whedon that we should see such a parallel.
Open thread, you say? Hmm. How about some, erm, modern poetry?
https://twitter.com/jmasseypoet/status/1483923546837557249
Open thread, you say? Hmm. How about some, erm, modern poetry?
Yet another reminder that the Poetry Foundation has a vastly larger endowment that it deserves.
How about some, erm, modern poetry?
That’s almost as good as some of the performance art linked here over the years. There’s a kind of sameness to it all.
That’s almost as good as some of the performance art linked here over the years.
Oh please, no more naked humanoid land whale interpretive dance. I only just finished PTSD therapy for the last one.
There’s a kind of sameness to it all.
Yes, there does seem to be an overarching pre-occupation with unattractive nudity, unsavoury bodily functions, and some of the grosser kinks/fetishes. I gather it’s supposed to be outrageously and offensively transgressive. Personally, I just find it increasingly boring.
Hmm. How about some, erm, modern poetry?
Makes one yearn for the innocence of the prison poet Tyrone Green and his classic Images by Tyrone Green. C i l l…my landlord. What is satire?
modern poetry: OMG what lunacy. I need brain bleach.
A game: Your rap name is ‘lil’ + the last reason you were in the hospital.
Your rap name is ‘lil’ + the last reason you were in the hospital.
Lil Prostate. Well one can dream. Apparently mine is the size of ’67 Volkswagen.
I know, too much sharing. I give and I give…
Lil Colonoscopy
That gives you an idea of the age range of this group.
Lil Snapped Leg*
sounds more like my Injun name, to be honest. Which way to the Reparations Office, pale faces ?
*i’m about 1.5% titanium by volume ! .. somewhat less by weight.. ahem.
at least i have scrap value, as my idiot brother in law #5 has said.
Spell out exactly why the Browncoats *are* the CSA
Westerns are often set in the American southwest after the Civil War.
A war between the United States of America and the Confederate States of America.
A war the Confederate States conceived of as an imperial power oppressing their rights as independent states (“the central planets, they formed the Alliance and waged war to bring everyone under their rule”).
A war fought between the Union army and the Confederate Army (“The Union of Allied Planets or Universal Alliance or Anglo-Sino Alliance, is the central government and law-enforcement organization of the Verse”).
The Union army’s officers’ uniforms had double rows of buttons, wide shoulders, high collars and wide belts with ornate buckles, occasionally with a saber strap across the shoulder. And here’s Alliance Commander Harken. (Fun fact: I met Doug Savant once while he was filming an Outer Limits episode in Canada).
The Confederate States lost the war, ultimately in a battle over a river valley near Vicksburg where the CSA was besieged by the Union and was forced to surrender when reinforcements could not be mobilized to lift the siege (“ZOE (stunned): They’re not coming. (beat) Command says it’s too hot. They’re pulling out. We’re to lay down arms.”)
After the Civil War, many Confederate veterans returned to homelands ravaged by the war, reduced to crushing poverty and overrun by carpetbaggers. They were considered heroes by their local communities and villains by the new authorities. (“Seems odd you’d name your ship after a battle you were on the wrong side of.” “May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.”)
Look, if an obvious Western pastiche makes a huge part of its backstory a civil war between a “unification” army and an “independent” army that the independents lose, if you can’t connect those dots I can’t help you.
The Reavers are the Cherokee, by the way.
“The fundamental problem facing art museums in the Age of George Floyd is that history’s designated bad guys—white men—produced vastly more of history’s best art than did the official good guys, such as blacks and New World Indians.”
That.
That.
As noted in the latest update, above, juxtaposing Rembrandt’s paintings with half-arsed tat by the ungifted-but-heroically-brown – an unremarkable frame, some spoons in rows – is not a great way to establish the implied artistic parity. But in order to be woke and right-thinking, we must somehow will the equivalence into being. Or at least pretend.
And this is why wokeness is corrupting. It eats away at realism, and at honesty
“What might have been if chattel slavery had not taken place? How many “master” artists were lost during those centuries?”
How many “master” artists were lost in the World Wars? In the Spanish Flu epidemic? In the Civil War? In the Black Plague? In the Holocaust? The Holodomor?
We can play this game all day.
And sure, it’s a part of adolescent discovery, the whole “what if” game.
But not at this level. This “we would’ve been great if it wasn’t for you” stuff is really getting tiresome.
It’s never too early to think about helicopters.
And Chile, just a few decades later, well within a lifetime, is turning back to communism.
Never watched Firefly and thus no idea who is what team. Haven’t read these comments deeply enough to discern and kinda don’t care (though I am curious as to wtf this stuff is all about as it keeps popping up as cultural reference) but clicking on both those links to uniforms only brings up the same pic of Commander Harkin or whatever and my raw take, the first thought to pop into my head based solely on the look of that uniform is…Nazi. Did Hugo Boss have anything to do with the costuming? Not that it looks even that good. Also, he seems a bit overdressed for a guy in a (I presume) space wars environment.
“Never watched Firefly and thus no idea who is what team.”
I watch so little TV that I have to dust off the CRT* magnets before I switch it on. Firefly is worth hunting down a DVD to view.
*No, not *that* CRT.
Never watched Firefly
The series is, frankly, a self-indulgent wankfest. But the film, Serenity is actually rather good. It’s a coherent, well-structured narrative in a space-western format which gracefully handles wider sociological issues without taking itself too seriously and tones down some of the geekier tics and cringey patois of the original episodes.
The Union army’s officers’ uniforms* had double rows of buttons, wide shoulders, high collars and wide belts with ornate buckles, occasionally with a saber strap across the shoulder.
I’m with WTP on this curious point, but so did Confederate officer uniforms, British Napoleonic uniforms, Imperial Russian uniforms, Prussian uniforms, damn near every military in the world at one point, wouldn’t surprise me if to be the Space Force dress uniform, and half the sci-fi movies ever made.
*[Some of, there were more than one, and often a lack of uniformity of uniforms]
Ream: You’re reaching for it. For instance, many famous battles took place in valleys. (In fact, that’s where battles tend to take place.) And you are carefully avoiding the most notorious feature of the Confederacy, namely slavery.
If you had merely said “I see what seem like some interesting parallels between Firefly and post-Civil-War America” that would have been more defensible that saying “the Browncoats *are* the CSA”.
Never watched Firefly and thus no idea who is what team…
I’ll have to confess that I never really got into it, in spite of the fanatical enthusiasm of some of my friends. I saw the movie and a few of the TV episodes. It was okay, but it didn’t “change my life” as fanboys like to say.
Meanwhile, if you don’t see a woman, you are obviously a “transphobe”.
“What might have been if chattel slavery had not taken place? How many “master” artists were lost during those centuries?”
That is a question these people never ask in regard to slavery in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, East Asia, and so on. In fact, they get defensive and angry when one mentions just how universal slavery was until white people decided is was a morally indefensible institution.
“The fundamental problem facing art museums in the Age of George Floyd is that history’s designated bad guys—white men—produced vastly more of history’s best art than did the official good guys, such as blacks and New World Indians.”
Strongly agree. I’ve looked at a lot of art made by members of those designated victim groups, and very little of it appealed to me, much less impressed me as objectively fine art.
And that reminds me of something Arthur C. Clark said, with regard to Paul Gauguin, that the art of civilized Sri Lanka was far more sophisticated and aesthetically fine than the primitive art of Polynesia.
Western society was supposed to be perfect right out of the box but white people ruined it.
the Poetry Foundation has a vastly larger endowment that it deserves
As I recall, the excessive size of the Poetry Foundation’s endowment is due to a gift by one very wealthy man who loved poetry. The result is that the Poetry Foundation ended up building a very nice headquarters, which in itself suggests that they had more money than they needed to publish poetry and subsidize poets. (Who was it who said that a sign that a corporation has peaked and will soon decline is when it builds a big beautiful headquarters–because a growing company is too busy with real business and just keeps moving to larger and larger preexisting facilities?)
… This one in particular is quite a feat … half-arsed tat by the ungifted-but-heroically-brown …
There’s half-arsed tat and there’s half-arsed tat and then there’s this – the digital works of Sonia E.Barrett - she being the one responsible for the aforementioned “feat”.
The only mental challenge involved in any of those “works” is trying to work which of them is the most trite.
Fourteen year-old girls taking GCSE Art and Design could – and likely do – come up with more sophisticated ideas than are on display there.
Also, regarding heroism, it is seems worth noting that Barrett had a cosmopolitan transnational childhood, with one German parent, one Jamaican, and her formative years spent in Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, Cyprus and the UK before going on to complete a degree in English Literature at the University of St. Andrews, the same university where Prince William met Kate.
the art of civilized Sri Lanka was far more sophisticated and aesthetically fine than the primitive art of Polynesia.
Ah! But in which society do the ladies take their clothes off more readily for the artist?
Ah! But in which society do the ladies take their clothes off more readily for the artist?
Heh. Highly pertinent, I suspect:
As I recall, Gauguin wrote that one day as he was walking along the beach a woman offered her very young virgin (13?) daughter, an offer which he happily accepted.
But Clarke presumably favored Sri Lanka because of the boys who would readily take off their clothes.
In fact, they get defensive and angry when one mentions just how universal slavery was until white people decided is was a morally indefensible institution.
This.
Meanwhile, if you don’t see a woman, you are obviously a “transphobe”.
Again, wokeness corrupts. In order to participate in it, in order to compete on the hamster wheel of status points, you have to lie. You have to become absurd.
the hamster wheel of status points
Heh.
the digital works of Sonia E.Barrett
AKA, “How I learned to stop worrying and love MS Paint”.
Meanwhile, among her other works, I can’t believe I just took mine to the landfill.
Meanwhile, among her other works, I can’t believe I just took mine to the landfill.
Lord Vetinari on appreciating such “art”. 😀
‘Art’ has become game of seeing which ‘artist’ can elicit the most gushing reactions for the most footling nonsense.
And the most outrageous prices.
the digital works of Sonia E.Barrett
Does rather point to a motive, I think.
“modern” art is very appealing to those who want to be artists but are too lazy to actually become accomplished. It is also easy to comment on if you are too lazy to even become a modern artist.
What might have been if chattel slavery had not taken place? How many “master” artists were lost during those centuries?”
In this period how much art was created in sub-Saharan Africa with the wealth gained from selling slaves?
Had those sold to slavery remained, is it likely that the quality and amount of this art would have increased?
I suspect not.
Who was it who said that a sign that a corporation has peaked and will soon decline is when it builds a big beautiful headquarters
I first ran across it in Parkinson’s Laws. I believe the section was titled “The Edifice Complex.”
Parkinson finished it off by noting that, at the time of writing (just after WWII), the very successful US military was constructing the Pentagon, and he hoped that for the sake of the world this was not an instance of the complex in action. There may have been a little screaming noise in my head while I read that part.
On Firefly, I always thought it went without saying that the Browncoats were the CSA stand-in for the western formula the show was based on. Seemed that way from the first episode. That didn’t mean they were intended to be a direct analogue in every way to the CSA, just that they were cast in that “slot” and had some broad thematic similarities. Not knowing Whedon’s tendencies at the time, I thought it was a purposeful little tweaking of the noses of the sort of people who would be outraged at that.
I first ran across it in Parkinson’s Laws.
Thank you. It’s been a long time since I’ve read anything by Parkinson.
Parkinson finished it off by noting that, at the time of writing (just after WWII), the very successful US military was constructing the Pentagon
Nit pick: Construction began in September 1941, before the United States entered WWII.
I also got the time-frame of publication, wrong, it turns out. The book was published in 1957 (though perhaps there was an earlier, separate publication of the essay before that).
Ibram X. Kendi doesn’t understand why people don’t believe in “racial science”.
Ibram X. Kendi unironically refers to himself as a “race scientist” on the Daily Show podcast.
It is impossible to listen to these black racist “intellectuals” without immediately thinking of the people most notorious for believing in “racial science”.
I have said before, and will say again, there is a large amount of Nazi thinking in the BLM/CRT “movement”.
Does rather point to a motive, I think.
That.
Off topic…looking for a sanity check here. Went on a tour of Vizcaya in Miami yesterday. This was the audio tour which I gave up on because I found it annoying. Two questions…
1) Is it understandable why I found the audio specifically annoying?
2) If so, what might be annoying about it from a narration perspective? I’m thinking of two major things myself.
Hopefully that link is accessible over yonder (originally got to it via Square, couldn’t find it via web but I did access it from my iPad browser as opposed to me phone where I Squared it from) because I’d be curious David’s thoughts.
That should say “couldn’t find it via Google nor their home website” not web…Though I may not have tried hard enough.
And I see my shirt changed…but now it’s back. Or maybe not?