Comments on: Autodidacticism, or Quacking like a Duck http://listics.com/200501102440 Frank Paynter's Voice and Vision... Thu, 11 Oct 2024 23:24:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3 By: bmo http://listics.com/200501102440#comment-47991 bmo Wed, 12 Jan 2024 13:09:52 +0000 http://listics.com/200501102440#comment-47991 All the reading you've forgotten - supposably (I love that word, I'm going to use it until it becomes proper) forgotten - has washed over you and shaped you. That you can't remember a line of poetry you read some thirty years ago is somewhat irrelevant. Somewhat: in the sad sense - a reflection of the value our educators put on memory. But that's their job. Teaching us to be stupid. Still, the truth, to be found in your reading has shaped you, and you are a rock on the beach. Which is supposed to be a compliment, though rereading it I see it's more like an insult. Free speech is one thing. But art is another. I've been really struggling lately. Struggling with that which I read on the blogs, which informs me, but doesn't sustain me. I'm beginning now to wonder if the Cluetrain notion that markets are getting smarter isn't flat out wrong. That markets are getting dumber. Information and conncectivity alone cannot sustain a human. He/she needs art. In fact, the more info I take in, the less human I feel. Number. That's what I pulled from deep within the Rose essay - one of the best things I've read in some time. Free speech and free information have nothing to do with art. Think of art as the workaround, and primary in a free speeking free thinking human being's development. Other than Tom Wolfe, I've not read any of the writers you've mentioned so I can't judge whether they're excercising their right to free speech or not. And Tom Wolfe I find to be a very good middle of the road commercial writer, but would in my books any way, fall short as an artist. (doesn't matter why, here) The point being - and I do have a point here Frank - is this: art makes us. The classics - Shakespeare, Homer, Plato, Blake, Spinoza - whomever, throw in Picasso and Mozart as well, and for my money, of the living Americans, Bellow and Roth - give us spine. That's what I took away from the essay more than anything. My education was appalling. The education my children are receiving is even worse. Art, literature, and music have been kidnapped, killed, stuffed, and mounted on the walls of as trophies in a stuffy room. I speek freely, am half-informed, and have no spine. I'm like everybody else round here. But still, every once in a while, when reading, or listening, or looking the spine tingles. I won't go on here, but my thought might best be summed up thusly: in the commercial culture of North American there is a strain of anti-intellectualism that is borne of the intellectual and academic and educative class itself. That art itself is proprietory. More later. I have to make lunches for the kids. They can't be late. It's career day at school today. How fitting. Grades six and eight and they want them thinking about a job. God, somedays just start out wrong. All the reading you’ve forgotten - supposably (I love that word, I’m going to use it until it becomes proper) forgotten - has washed over you and shaped you. That you can’t remember a line of poetry you read some thirty years ago is somewhat irrelevant. Somewhat: in the sad sense - a reflection of the value our educators put on memory. But that’s their job. Teaching us to be stupid. Still, the truth, to be found in your reading has shaped you, and you are a rock on the beach.

Which is supposed to be a compliment, though rereading it I see it’s more like an insult.

Free speech is one thing. But art is another. I’ve been really struggling lately. Struggling with that which I read on the blogs, which informs me, but doesn’t sustain me. I’m beginning now to wonder if the Cluetrain notion that markets are getting smarter isn’t flat out wrong. That markets are getting dumber. Information and conncectivity alone cannot sustain a human. He/she needs art. In fact, the more info I take in, the less human I feel. Number.

That’s what I pulled from deep within the Rose essay - one of the best things I’ve read in some time. Free speech and free information have nothing to do with art. Think of art as the workaround, and primary in a free speeking free thinking human being’s development.

Other than Tom Wolfe, I’ve not read any of the writers you’ve mentioned so I can’t judge whether they’re excercising their right to free speech or not. And Tom Wolfe I find to be a very good middle of the road commercial writer, but would in my books any way, fall short as an artist. (doesn’t matter why, here)

The point being - and I do have a point here Frank - is this: art makes us. The classics - Shakespeare, Homer, Plato, Blake, Spinoza - whomever, throw in Picasso and Mozart as well, and for my money, of the living Americans, Bellow and Roth - give us spine. That’s what I took away from the essay more than anything.

My education was appalling. The education my children are receiving is even worse. Art, literature, and music have been kidnapped, killed, stuffed, and mounted on the walls of as trophies in a stuffy room.

I speek freely, am half-informed, and have no spine. I’m like everybody else round here. But still, every once in a while, when reading, or listening, or looking the spine tingles. I won’t go on here, but my thought might best be summed up thusly: in the commercial culture of North American there is a strain of anti-intellectualism that is borne of the intellectual and academic and educative class itself. That art itself is proprietory.

More later.

I have to make lunches for the kids. They can’t be late. It’s career day at school today. How fitting. Grades six and eight and they want them thinking about a job. God, somedays just start out wrong.

]]> By: Norm Jenson http://listics.com/200501102440#comment-47990 Norm Jenson Tue, 11 Jan 2024 21:28:49 +0000 http://listics.com/200501102440#comment-47990 Betty is not enthused about my goat idea. She writes, Well, you know what they say about goats - if a fence will hold water, it will hold a goat. That seems like a plus to me in a game you need winners and losers a goat would assure a fair share of losers. Betty is not enthused about my goat idea. She writes, Well, you know what they say about goats - if a fence will hold water, it will hold a goat. That seems like a plus to me in a game you need winners and losers a goat would assure a fair share of losers.

]]> By: fp http://listics.com/200501102440#comment-47989 fp Tue, 11 Jan 2024 12:36:58 +0000 http://listics.com/200501102440#comment-47989 A pet goat could be the answer. They're easy to care for, delightful and smart. The goat would craft her own relationship with the cows. She'd surprise you in the morning from her perch atop the high point... think picnic table here. Yes. A pet goat. Thanks to Chris J. for the Rose essay! A pet goat could be the answer. They’re easy to care for, delightful and smart. The goat would craft her own relationship with the cows. She’d surprise you in the morning from her perch atop the high point… think picnic table here. Yes. A pet goat.

Thanks to Chris J. for the Rose essay!

]]> By: Norm Jenson http://listics.com/200501102440#comment-47988 Norm Jenson Tue, 11 Jan 2024 04:29:15 +0000 http://listics.com/200501102440#comment-47988 Can you believe that cousin of ours, designing games. Pretty damn cool, but as you know she has no takers yet. I think I've found the key to her success and have already emailed her with details. The missing piece is a Pet Goat What do you think? The most amount of happiness with the least amount of work I could live with that, now what was the part about not going broke. Oh yes, and just to set the record straight it was my son Chris that posted the Rose essay and what a dandy it is. Can you believe that cousin of ours, designing games. Pretty damn cool, but as you know she has no takers yet. I think I’ve found the key to her success and have already emailed her with details. The missing piece is a Pet Goat What do you think? The most amount of happiness with the least amount of work I could live with that, now what was the part about not going broke. Oh yes, and just to set the record straight it was my son Chris that posted the Rose essay and what a dandy it is.

]]>