all true, elegant in a way and yet somehow not all that helpful :) m. --- On Wed, 10/28/09, james morris <[email protected]> wrote:
> From: james morris <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] DIWO at The Dark Mountain only human > To: [email protected] > Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 2:41 PM > > On 28/10/2009, "Michael Szpakowski" <[email protected]> > wrote: > > ><"Our civilisation is fucked! What are we gonna > > do?" > > >Well if it is reducible to that, why didn't they just > say that? > > They're only human. > > >And if that is all they meant, why are we worrying > about *art* and not *doing* something? > > We're only human. > > >I live for art but if I *am* in a boat going over a > cataract I don't paint a picture of it. > > You're only human. > > >The prolix style & ridiculously self-regarding and > overheated tone came from the manifesto, not Edward's > clinical dissection of it. > > He's only human. > > > I say clinical dissection, because although it's > undoubtedly true that Edward can *write* whereas these folk > can't, I agree what matters is the ideas and, far from a > Canute moment, Edward assists us greatly here too although > he admittedly draws back from the obvious conclusion, which > is that there is no separation to be made between the tone > of the manifesto & its content.. > > He's only human. > > >The truth is the bombast is not accidental, but > integral. It arises out of a fundamental poverty of thought. > The rotten style is a function of the intellectual void at > the heart of the whole enterprise. > > It's only human. > > >Civilisation bad? OK. Let's see them give up the > internet, polio, smallpox and TB vaccines, printing, film, > anaesthetics, amplification, antibiotics, map making, > mathematics, musical instruments, a world governed by some > attempt at rationality and not ghosts, devils and malign > Gods. > > They're only human. > > >Fuck it -let's give up the written word, which after > all is an attribute of civilisation. Let's return to a > lifespan of 25-35 for most people, carried for the most part > in a desperate attempt at subsistence... > > They're only human. > > >Why not go even go further back in the search for a > chimerical purity, the one that relieves us of the > responsibility of actually *doing* anything that might > change anything, and give up cooking food. > > It would be only human. > > >Artistically the, quite random, privileging of > "stories" could come straight out of one of those expensive > screenwriting courses which both contribute to and in turn > chart the market led corruption of the art of film... > > It's only human. > > >Just to be slightly more polemical, too, on the > question of localism. > > You're only human. > > >To spell it out - who are the current most high profile > proponents of the idea of artistic localism in this country? > - the bloody BNP, with their, in fairiness unrequited, love > affair with English folk music. Of course I'm not accusing > the manifesto authors of being soft on Nazism, just of a > failure to read history, to be even a tiny bit politically > literate, to look and to think. > > They're only human. > > >I think you're right on your central point though, Bob > -the manifesto does essentially boil down to those two > phrases, which is why it's a recipe for utter political > passivity with a couple of quite randomly subjective and > unthought out artistic afterthoughts bolted on. > > That would be only human. > > Regards, > The One True Human. > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
