tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7229875339727095184.post3798666889965430905..comments2024-03-18T15:17:26.003-05:00Comments on l'astronave: "we seem to require of our art an ironic distance"Frescahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15323129046492056942noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7229875339727095184.post-86106048081222395432010-05-21T09:29:43.922-05:002010-05-21T09:29:43.922-05:00I don't know that DFW's lament is cultural...I don't know that DFW's lament is cultural (the privileged white male) so much as personal (the demons of biology).<br /><br />That's just the sense I get, having read a bunch of his stuff now, because he's not like, say, John Updike (in fact he writes about what assholes JU's men are).<br /><br />DFW said something very telling in an interview:<br /> "There's a lot of narcissism in self-loathing" <br />and while I'm not sure, he seemed to be referring-- ruefully--to personal experience.Frescahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15323129046492056942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7229875339727095184.post-75745904371513613572010-05-20T17:27:26.625-05:002010-05-20T17:27:26.625-05:00I don't know enough about DWF to say if this i...I don't know enough about DWF to say if this is true of him or not, but in my humble experience, when some guys complain about how "nobody" or "everybody" does something, especially when they are talking about writers or intellectuals, they mean "nobody like me" because they just don't SEE people who are not like them. This became clear in a discussion with a very smart person who was complaining about how there were no more intellectuals anymore, when he really meant "there are no more intllectuals like the kind I aspired to be when I was growing up: white men who live in New York and work in the publishing business." So DWF's lament may pick up on a tendency among a certain group of US writers, but maybe the categorical declaration rests on a similar assumption.momohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12149328149132703479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7229875339727095184.post-17158876910928206212010-05-20T10:36:10.122-05:002010-05-20T10:36:10.122-05:00FEM: I like the new format OK, but it's a litt...FEM: I like the new format OK, but it's a little cool (in color and feel) for me--very un-Star Trek. <br />Still, better than black for now.<br /><br />MEG: I've not read "Notes..." or really much of anything Russian. <br />I'd need to know much more about Russian history and culture than I do know (which is almost nothing), and it's just never called to me.<br /><br />Unlike Japanese literature, for instance.<br />When I first read Kawabata's "Snow Country" on my own in college, I was so intrigued I signed up for a History of Japan course.<br /><br />Harry Potter isn't American, of course, but I wonder if the books are so popular here because they do talk about deep concerns (good and evil) but in a shallow, fairy-tale way.<br />(E.g., the characters never really change, unlike the way real people who live through horror do).<br /><br />I think the books are much better as movies. Of course, that's all Alan Rickman's doing, IMO.<br /><br />ARTS: Thank god (not everyone is Dost.)!<br />"Wings of Desire" is the opposite of American, don't you think?<br />Though there was a U.S. remake, which I never saw.Frescahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15323129046492056942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7229875339727095184.post-19892554980110035262010-05-20T10:02:15.924-05:002010-05-20T10:02:15.924-05:00I was getting to your final point before you raise...I was getting to your final point before you raised it- not everyone is Dostoyevsky. I'm just watching "Wings of Desire" which is all over internal dialogue.ArtSparkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04875996639432864367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7229875339727095184.post-26842786546276514282010-05-20T10:00:56.078-05:002010-05-20T10:00:56.078-05:00Have you read Dosto's "Notes from Undergr...Have you read Dosto's "Notes from Underground"? <br />I only made it a third of the way through before the thoughts presented therein had so effectively paralyzed me, I didn't want to do anything for a while - including read. <br />There's no distance there, but there is a lot of irony: he asks the big questions and talks about things that matter, then with self-searing reflection mocks himself for thinking about such things. The reader even starts to feel a little mocked for bothering to read it.<br /><br />I don't know why we tend to do this. It just feels safer.<br />During discussions in my Religions class, I sense that we are continually on the verge of parody, or like prof is going to end a lecture with "....but really, we don't know shit!" *and laughter*<br />Maybe it has something to do with "if I didn't laugh, I'd cry." <br /><br />It's kind of like in Harry Potter, (it's always like in Harry Potter) - <br />the bogart, who takes on the shape of whatever they fear most, is defeated when you make it silly. <br />A giant spider!. . . .on roller skates.<br />Snape! . . . .wearing your grandmother's hat.Marzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05258262409718943594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7229875339727095184.post-34148695750086567242010-05-20T09:27:13.751-05:002010-05-20T09:27:13.751-05:00You raise great questions here. So much to think a...You raise great questions here. So much to think about. I will be doing that today. Got to rush off to work very, very soon. I really shouldn't have typed that second "very" because it's cost me valuable seconds. Happy to see the new format. Hope you like it as well.femminismohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05259380168965137800noreply@blogger.com