Alan-- I did say some reasons I find these (Holzer works) oppressing: they are telling me what and how I should think to think critically about the system they are produced from. Also I find oppressing the "goodness." quotient. That this is good & good for you. I am supposed to be morally edified in some way by thinking along the lines these pieces are telling me to. See! I am GOOD because I am showing you how BAD billboards advertising dominant ideological phrases etc are. Isn't that GOOD? It just reinforces what people already think in many ways. It is reaffirming of an ideology about the ideology from whence it came. In a certain way, I find this very patronising, and I refuse to be patronized.
Being patronised is another form of oppression--
The self righteousness is oppressive. That's part of the "goodness" factor. The "dry ethos" you note that they are "selling".
I just find all of this very oppressive and confining. As Joel noted, the works have tons of big books about them and were "our" representatives at Venice. It's part of the American mission--to educate and edify--along the right lines--lines of righteousness included--
As I said, this is my personal response, I'm not tryng to convince anybody of anything, or educate and edify any one. God forbid! One more fool to suffer! Just registering a vote of protest.
>It's odd you find them oppressing; I'm not sure why myself. There's
>of
>course a whole tradition of aphoristic writing from Marcus Aurelius
>and
>earlier through the Schlegels, Karl Kraus, etc. It's not meant to be
>taken
>literally. With Holzer it talks about the language that produces
>them;
>they're self-contained, edgy, verging on truth. But they're also
>playful
>in many cases such as the 42nd Street installation. They're words
>become
>architecture among other things, and that's fascinating. And on
>occasion
>they borrow from advertising, selling nothing but dry ethos. -
>
>Alan -
>
>( URLs/DVDs/CDroms/books/etc. see
>http://www.asondheim.org/advert.txt -
>revised 7/05 )
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