May The Fourth Be With You ~ Happy Star Wars Day 2014!!!

[lisa needs braces]

The issue isn't that this particular movie is going to be bad. The issue is that everything is bad and nobody seems to either notice or care. Is there anyone with a functioning brain left in this God forsaken culture anymore? I don't get it.

I liked "Mad Max: Fury Road." Did you see that movie?

[Jaakko Keskinen]

No villain named "dooku" can be taken seriously 

It's twice the funnier for Finns, because of the name's resemblance to a certain finnish slang word describing drinking. Oh well, anything is better than "General Grievous". To quote Redlettermedia, there's also "Commander Nefarious, Captain I'm-a-bad-guy and Admiral Bone To Pick. But they don't mention them."

[Jaakko Keskinen]

James, are you Purusha in disguise? Don't worry, I won't tell anyone.

That cannot be. James likes Star Wars. Even the prequels.

[North Star]

It means plenty since i'm clearly in the right and anyone who isn't an idiot probably agrees as well but is too afraid to speak out because he doesn't want to appear to be "rude", or has been brainwashed to believe in this relativistic nonsense about everything being nothing but a "subjective" opinion and there being no such thing as truth beyond that which can be directly quantified, meaning, everything that doesn't actually require the aid of the intelligence to be understood. Because to be intelligent means to know that Beethoven is a greater artist than Britney Spears and the "subjective" opinion of millions of idiotic teenage girls is completely and utterly irrelevant, because it is the opinion of the uninformed and the unintelligent.

Right; and Beethoven is a representative example of the average cultural product consumed by people 200 years ago, and Britney Spears is a representative example of what the cultural elite of the past twenty years caters to. I applaud you for having the courage to say that this kind of comparison 'means plenty since you are clearly in the right and anyone who isn't an idiot probably agrees... or has been brainwashed'. 

[Karl Henning]

Why get angry about how bad the new movie will be if the old ones are already bad enough to count as harbingers of the End of Modern/Western civilization?

He's angry because he was hoping the latest movie would be (wait . for . it . ) A New Hope . . . .

[Jo498]

I still don't get it. I ignore lots of popular culture myself and think it is crap. But exactly for this reason I don't give a damn about any new Starwars movie. As I said, I have not seen any of the 3 more recent ones, maybe I never will. Neither am I forced by peer pressure (too old and cranky for that already in my early 40s...) to watch it.

So why get worked up? Cuddle up with your copy of Spengler (or St Thomas, St Augustine or Ortega or Cioran or whatever) and put Beethoven or Palestrina on the stereo. Or Bach cantatas: Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht!

[North Star]

I still don't get it. I ignore lots of popular culture myself and think it is crap. But exactly for this reason I don't give a damn about any new Starwars movie. As I said, I have not seen any of the 3 more recent ones, maybe I never will. Neither am I forced by peer pressure (too old and cranky for that already in my early 40s...) to watch it.

So why get worked up? Cuddle up with your copy of Spengler (or St Thomas, St Augustine or Ortega or Cioran or whatever) and put Beethoven or Palestrina on the stereo. Or Bach cantatas: Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht!

[TheGSMoeller]

He's angry because he was hoping the latest movie would be (wait . for . it . ) A New Hope . . . .

[Purusha]

I liked "Mad Max: Fury Road." Did you see that movie?

Not yet. I live in Italy, and i refuse to see a movie unless it is in the original language, which means i'll have to wait until it is out on disc. I'll reserve judgment until then, and if i remember i'll check back here to rant about how terrible the movie is, and why you must hate it too.   

[Purusha]

Right; and Beethoven is a representative example of the average cultural product consumed by people 200 years ago, and Britney Spears is a representative example of what the cultural elite of the past twenty years caters to. I applaud you for having the courage to say that this kind of comparison 'means plenty since you are clearly in the right and anyone who isn't an idiot probably agrees... or has been brainwashed'. 

That wasn't the argument. Too much sophistry going on with those responses.

[Todd]

It means plenty since i'm clearly in the right

I see. 

In your estimation, about what year did the world start going down the toilet?

[Purusha]

I see. 

In your estimation, about what year did the world start going down the toilet?

From day one. Indeed, decline is inherent in material reality itself. But if you are talking about the west specifically, i'd say things started to go awry starting with the Renaissance. Not to say that medieval civilization was perfect, but at least it sought to adhere to the right principles. 

[North Star]

From day one. Indeed, decline is inherent in material reality itself. But if you are talking about the west specifically, i'd say things started to go awry starting with the Renaissance.

One of the important developments of Renaissance art was of course perspective. You clearly have something against it.

Not to say that medieval civilization was perfect, but at least it sought to adhere to the right principles.

What exactly were those right principles?

[Todd]

But if you are talking about the west specifically, i'd say things started to go awry starting with the Renaissance. Not to say that medieval civilization was perfect, but at least it sought to adhere to the right principles.

There's your problem.

[Purusha]

One of the important developments of Renaissance art was of course perspective.

Important only if you don't understand what the purpose of art is. Modern art is a reaction to the limitations inherent in naturalistic art in the first place, except this reaction pushed things downwards rather than upwards, towards the formless rather than the supra-formal.

What exactly were those right principles?

Transcendence and truth.

[Purusha]

There's your problem.

Is it? Look are you man, how long is the charade going to last? Modern civilization is rotten to the core, and the emperor has no clothes anymore. The whole apparatus is falling apart as we speak but it seems some people just don't want to accept the basic reality of things.

[Todd]

Is it? Look are you man, how long is the charade going to last? Modern civilization is rotten to the core, and the emperor has no clothes anymore. The whole apparatus is falling apart as we speak but it seems some people just don't want to accept the basic reality of things.

I see.

[mc ukrneal]

Is it? Look are you man, how long is the charade going to last? Modern civilization is rotten to the core, and the emperor has no clothes anymore. The whole apparatus is falling apart as we speak but it seems some people just don't want to accept the basic reality of things.

I'm guessing you're a glass half empty sort of person....

[North Star]

Important only if you don't understand what the purpose of art is. Modern art is a reaction to the limitations inherent in naturalistic art in the first place, except this reaction pushed things downwards rather than upwards, towards the formless rather than the supra-formal.

Do tell us what the purpose of art is. I do not seem yet to understand what it is.

Modern art a reaction to naturalistic depiction? E.g. Seurat, Monet, Degas, or Cezanne certainly were not against naturalism. All of them made their art a study of human perception of visual information or life in different ways. Formless is also a label that is hard to put on much of modern art, e.g. Picasso of any period, Kandinsky, Mondrian, or Rothko.

And Pollock is the most naturalistic depiction of an ionization chamber I have seen in art.

[Purusha]

I said it is a reaction against the limitation of naturalistic art, not naturalistic art as such. The two are not the same thing.