29 February 2024

What is it That Must Be Said?

 I've just finished an obscure essay of Walter Benjamin's about art history, and approaches to the study of art (but also the study of literature and also history and even, somehow, botany) that may turn out to be among the most profound, and, at our current moment in history, among the most important of all of his writings.

At first glance, he seems just to be in the weeds of an argument about whether a new 'modern' interpretation of how to do art history has replaced the 'classical approach' of antiquity in the early 20th Century, but I think he is more gesturing toward his eventual theories of conceptualizing history and the great potential of the fragment, which are already in his mind, but he hasn't clearly articulated in 1932 when he's writing this essay.

"So began a train of thought that I am no longer able to pursue.  But its last link was certainly much less banal than its first..."

"..., and led on perhaps to images of animals." (is perhaps less than the conclusion for the pull quote that I was hoping for, but there it is).  This quote is actually not from the essay I was talking about, rather from the subsequent one in the collection I'm reading, "Hashish in Marseilles", but it hits on (or is at least adjacent to) what I am finding here (here in this post, and all around the whole blog generally).  That is, that when I start to write a post that is trying to get across an idea (rather than one that's just a response to something or a compilation), I begin a train of thought that turns in to a (compelling) black hole of ideas that starts to connect to and pull in whole bunches of texts and ideas that I'm reading now or have done in the distant or recent past, and the connections and rhymes and implications become bigger (and yes, less banal), and better, but begin bouncing beyond my basis from back at the beginning of the post.  And so I pull up short in all of these begun, and possibly one day done posts, which I occasionally open up, and ask myself, "what was this one going to be about again, really?"

But maybe not this time - if I just decided to say what I meant to say, instead of going back and being sure I was saying the best way I could or should - 

And so, Walter Benjamin was writing in the early days of an era of crisis, 1932 in Germany, and he was of a generation of artists (and of Artists, if you subscribe to the Strauss-Howe generational theory, which I do for the moment, having recently finished The Fourth Turning is Here, by Neil Howe) who had thought to shake up and change the world with their avant-garde art and politics and thoughts only to watch it all seem to begin to unravel as they were entering middle age and the crisis era was ramping up and threatening to destroy the whole world. 

That generation of, not just artists, but all walks of life, came of age just in time to witness (and largely participate in) the horrors of World War I, and then bask in the wonders of the Roaring Twenties, and seemed to be living through a time that would see things on the upswing and a world forever changed (in this case, cured of war) while at the same time harboring deep divisions and animosities that were being largely glossed over (rural poverty versus Flapper culture; Teetotalers getting Prohibition passed in America... versus Flapper culture {and mobster culture!}; race stuff...).

That era of the 1930s is having a moment, not just because it's the Nazis and World War II, and it's always what our stories turn to.  Rather, Neil Howe would suggest that we are in a parallel historical moment of crisis now, starting with the 2008 Great Recession (he marks that previous crisis era starting with the 1929 Wall Street Crash, and through to the Great Depression, and through the conclusion of WWII).  As Benjamin, a Jew writing in 1932 Germany, he's in the midst of the crisis, but seemingly doesn't know it yet.  So too we, here in 2024, can't tell what the nature of the real disaster we are about to experience will be.

We feel like we know who some of the main characters of the coming disaster might be: Vlad Putin seems a good candidate for a villain on that side of the pond, and we have our own possible seat filler over here, oranger and dumber to be sure, but not that much less menacing.  But we don't have any idea, yet, how this one turns out over the next decade or so... whether it's another world war, like (and very much unlike) the last one that ended the last crisis cycle (for the record, Star Trek future history records World War III {or 3, as we may have progressed beyond a time when we can rely on most people to be able to read Roman Numerals...} as starting in 2026, and 2024 is among the most tumultuous years in all of Star Trek history), or perhaps this cycle will end in another American Civil War of some kind, like the one that ended the cycle prior.  Or perhaps it's something wholly new, that we haven't even considered before that results from improved AI or Quantum Computing or ____________.

But we're here for it, and if history rhyming (or repeating itself) is indeed a thing, better days are ahead (but after a big terrible thing first... sorry.) 

24 February 2024

You have no idea the torment and torture...

 So, I saw Madame Web yesterday with my bro, against my better judgement (but well within my completionist tendencies...), and while it was mostly very much no good as expected, I had the chance to couple it with a new (to me) kaiju film on Max: Invasion of Astro-Monster.

While I'm not a massive connoisseur of kaiju films, I understand the formula (albeit almost as much from Mystery Science Theater 3000 as from seeing them on the their own).  I get that you're not meant, necessarily, to question the structural logic or motivations of characters in kaiju, but when that kaiju half of your Double Feature Challenge is the movie that rings truer, has characters with more realistic emotional lives and motivations, and more intellectually satisfying plotting, then if you are ready to embrace the camp and absurdity of your day of movie-watching, you could, potentially, be in for something of a treat... probably not, but I'll see if I can unpack it here a little bit.

 The post title here is a line from one of the more obscenely, absurdly dumb sequences in all of Madame Web, where our villain, Ceiling Guy is lying in bed (just like Brian Wilson did) with a woman who he just met, and we are meant to believe seduced a scene earlier at the opera by picking up a piece of garbage from the floor and handing it to her, then watching some of the opera.  This woman who is seduced by Ceiling Guy('s I wanna say evident sensitivity or intelligence {or possibly wealth?} because he's at an opera), turns out to be a spy who no one will miss or notice that her password is being used 24/7 by Ceiling Guy's ??Executive Assistant?? to access every camera in the city (in the world?, it's never quite clear), and our Spy Woman's susceptibility to sleeping with 'super' villains moments after meeting them is only the second dumbest thing about this whole sequence.  The worst by far is Ceiling Guy's continued use of the phrase "you have no idea..." or "if you only knew..." or such similar to imply that he has good reason for doing all the dastardly things he's doing, but really only serves to have the viewer say, "right, I don't know... are you ever going to show my or hint at some further reason?..., but no, they aren't going to.

The aliens from Planet X (Xiliens) by comparison have pretty clear (if insanely overcomplicated) motivations...  Upon revealing themselves to the human astronauts, they befriend them by sharing their deepest fear of King Ghidorah (a giant, flying, laser / lightning spitting monster), and then ask for Earth's help by loaning them Godzilla and Rodan (I'm not sure why, exactly, they wouldn't then just be harried by G & R if they succeed in chasing KG off)...

With kaiju, the camp is baked in - to be expected - and even if Madame Web wasn't made meaning to lean in to the camp, I think if you watch it the same way you might watch a kaiju film, there's something here to enjoy.  It's dumb (like, for some reason no one ever goes looking for a stolen taxi and first aid solely consists of chest compressions... just do that forever, and you can save anyone, no matter what has happened to them), but if you just go with it, and assume that they're doing all of this intentionally for comedic affect, I think it might actually be enjoyable.

My advice, if you're taking on this challenge is 1) drinks, lots of drinks; and 2) start with Invasion of Astro-Monster, and then move on to Madame Web, to sorta get you in the mood...

22 December 2023

Top Five (or so) Christmas Movies


 In the grand tradition of holiday list making, I offer my list of absolutely go to every year holiday movies to watch, and when.  Brooke and I have differing tastes for these, so I (and she) end up watching a lot more that maybe wouldn't make our own lists, but here we go with: 

Top Five Christmas Movies!: 

  1. Elf (this one lands near the top of both our lists)
  2. Love Actually (after some post Me-Too hemming and hawwing over this one, I've brought it back into my fold - of course not every character is fully virtuous nor all their actions blameless, but name me an interesting movie where that is the case! It's such an overall emotional build-up, absurd and completely unrealistic and I love it!)

    Both of these first two movies are ones that we often first watch early on in the season, and then again closer to Christmas Day (although Brooke's love of #2 has not recovered much after taking a hit around 2017...

  3. Die Hard (Sorry, Obama, but this is definitely a Christmas movie, and it's a banger!)
  4. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
  5. The Holiday

I'll finish this post later, but wanted to get it up and running to start the conversation!... 

04 September 2023

It’s really a Medieval Fair…

 We’re now Ren Faire adjacent people - 2 years running, that counts, right?  I am pretty sure that I have the capability to be an all out-in on Cosplayer be it LARP-ing or theater or more RenFaire situations, but I married in to a life where it was quite clear early on that I wouldn’t be allowed  (it was a different time …), and over the years I’ve gotten her to a place where she’s the one who gets us to the Renaissance Faire, not me…

Forget about trying to parse this but it’s a bridge (classical construction), over an ancient (or perhaps Anthropocene-constructed, hard to tell) body of water. It certainly feels like it all might collapse whilst we traversed (so again hard to say if that’s a product of it being so old or too modern and flawed because of the curse of capitalism…)

There was a man, a man named Crack, Adam Crack (it might’ve been Ethan), and woh, could he whip. Whipped it good, he did. This sounds underwhelming (or at least whelming, in Europe, if Clueless is to be believed ), but it was not only a whip show, but a fire whip show, and like time, you add fire in front of anything and it improves, measurably.

And yes, it mostly was, but we were at the Ren Faire (Fire Ren Faire?) and so looking forward to good stuff that we were part of a pretty amazing demographic. 

The highestLight was by far was the Dungeons & Shakespeare show, which brought four willing and thespic Fairegoers up on stage to randomly choose Shakespeare characters from across the Ouvre or monsters from throughout the Manuals (or the Folio, presumably), and act out the Host’s (Public DM?s) narration as Regan from King Lear teamed up with
The Nurse from Romeo & Juliet to defeat a bugbear en route to find The Necronomicon locked away high in an Elven tower guarded by Yeti who killed them. 

And then over by the jousting fields, we find The Insult Artist who spends all day hurling insults at the humans who step up to thrown tomatoes at him. 

It’s definitely my people. 

25 July 2023

Row, Row, Row your Desk!


 I have the privilege today to be taking part in what I expect will soon become the hottest new trend in remote work and a bold new path in the search for true work life balance, the Canoebicle.

As work itself has become more and more absurd, with the very latest trends of the corporate landscape^ on the one hand beginning to mimic the trappings of the educational system that many of the trendier employees have so recently left behind, while at the same time seeking to fulfil a kind of performative community of woke third space, the need arises to find creative and restorative outlets for working in your own context.

I have been a long time advocate for the Work-From-Canoe lifestyle as an option, to allow people a better work / canoe balance.  I am glad that, at last, Leinenkugel's has decided to recognize this important demographic.

Having been a pioneer in Work-From-Beach, Work-From-Motor-Boat-With-Questionable-Fuel-Line, Work-From-In-Laws'-Driveway, and Work-From-Bar lifestyles long before it was made all the rage by the COVID-19 Pandemic, I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of this bold new experiment. 


^ I know I know what you're all thinking is that, "Joel, you don't really have a real job anymore do you?  And haven't had for a few years now?  Who are you to critique working conditions in America?"  And while this may be technically true, in the overeducated white middle class sense that I have not been invited back into the corporate life after my untimely demise, I am still an observer of the lifestyle (that is, having jobs), and I feel connected to the current moment of work

04 July 2023

Characterization of the New Generation^

^Ordinarily, I would hide this footnote away at the bottom of the post in tiny print, but in this case, I think we need a bit of opening throat clearing for this post... I came across this brief fragment by Walter Benjamin as I continue my way through volume 2 of his collected writings, and thought, here is a bite-sized (aka RNJ-sized post) work of his that was unpublished during his life that probably hasn't received too much attention over the years, so maybe I'll re-create it, postulate for postulate and sentence for sentence for a modern audience.  He was on the verge of 40 looking at the new generation of writers coming up, and I am starting out on the back 40 seeing what's next for us, but instead of rephrasing his comments, I found as I started to re-read them that they were in fact quite on point, albeit a little out of context, so instead of rephrasing, just a little reframing was what was called for (my comments).

  1.  These people (that's seriously how his starts!) make not the slightest attempt to base their activities on any theoretical foundations whatsoever. (OK, yes, I would say this remains true today, although I'm not sure our contemporary sensibilities know quite what this means.  But I will say it seems a common thread that youth tend to assert, and perhaps, act, without taking much time to consider the underlying basis for all activity that came before).  They are not only deaf to the so-called great questions (YES, this feels even more apt than that last), those of politics or world views (young people - and this is probably Millennials or maybe even starting with my generation, which is the youngest of the Gen Xers, LOVE to say how not in to politics they are, although this is probably a result of our recent conflation of the political with practical politics); they are equally innocent of any fundamental reflection on questions of art (yes, again, although what we mean by this today probably resembles something more like, "they don't even like to watch whole movies anymore, just YouTube clips!").
  2. They are uneducated. (Well, no, or yes, depending on what we think education is.  They certainly have a whole hell of a lot more degrees than any previous generations have had, but they are for the most part in specific applied fields - I know a guy, for example, who is a professor in Healthcare Communications, which it seems there is a whole degree in.  Anyway, they are certainly uneducated in the sense of having an accurate understanding of the larger world around them.)  Not just in the sense that their (general) knowledge is very limited, but above all because they are incapable of extending their diminishing knowledge in a systematic manner (again, I think this is exactly right, but is a little hard to parse in a modern context.  I would say this is something like being outraged by all the over-woke causes like personal pronouns and land acknowledgements {which are overall good and decent things}, but failing to bank any outrage whatever at current exploitation of the developing world or the underclass by capitalism).  Never has a generation of writers been so oblivious to the need to understand the techniques of scholarly work as this one (I guess so..?).
  3. Although these writers stride blithely on from one work to the next (Tik-Tok), it is impossible to discern any sort of development--and above all any consistency--in their work (also Tik-Tok), except at the level of technique (still Tik-Tok).  Their efforts and their ambition seem to exhaust themselves in the acquisition of a new subject or a grateful theme, and this is enough for them (I think Benjamin wrote #3 all about Tik-Tok somehow).
  4. Popular literature has always existed--that is to say, a literature that acknowledges no obligations to the age and the ideas that move it, except perhaps the desirability of presenting such ideas in an agreeable, fashionably packaged form for immediate consumption (is all of the rest of this thing about Tik-Tok?).  Such consumer literature of course has the right to exist; in bourgeois society at least, it has its place and its justification.  But never before, in bourgeois or any other society, has this literature of pure consumption and enjoyment ever been identical with the avant-garde at its technically and artistically most advanced.  This is precisely the pass to which the latest school (i.e. Influencer Culture) has now brought us.
  5. Give respect to economic necessity where it is due: it may well force the writer to produce much inferior work (click bait is oh so much more profitable than those good, nuanced Tik-Toks).  The nuances of his writing will then show what stuff he is made of.  However dubious much literary journalism may be, there is hardly anything so bad that it cannot be salvaged from the worst excesses by certain aspects of its content and especially its style.  Where a writer succeeds, he owes it to his grasp of technique; where he fails, it is the moral or substantive foundation that is lacking (yeah, this all may seem a bit out of date and out to lunch...).  What is astonishing is how completely alien to members of the new school the salutary, protecting reservations are--not just the moral ones, but even the linguistic ones too (but THIS is definitely a reference to safe spaces, right?).  And how these new writers absolutely take for granted their right to display an infinitely pampered, narcissistic, unscrupulous--in short, journalistic--ego (this feels definitely on point, the world has gotten these last few years to feel a lot more personal).  And how their writing is imbued to the very last detail with the arriviste (arriviste: a pushy upstart - and isn't that what is good about youth culture in the end, is that no matter how exasperating it may be, it does push us forward, we take the good, and eventually {hopefully} cast off the silly fads, and are better--improved--for it) spirit!

01 June 2023

the Radical Grace of Dolly Parton

 As you may have noticed, I've been on a bit of a Dolly kick lately.  We re-orchestrated a road trip to Georgia to include an evening and a night in Pigeon Forge, TN in order to experience the Dinner Theater Insanity that is Dolly Parton's Stampede!  

En route to Pigeon Forge, we listened to Dolly Parton's America, a WNYC podcast that asks the question "Just what is the deal with Dolly Parton?" (or, "why is it that everyone {and by everyone we mean every constituency of the American populace} is pro-Dolly?")

At one point in the podcast ("Dollitics") they are talking about Dolly's refusal to talk about politics, but digs in to the political bent of her music, and they come to a moment during an awards show (CMAs, I think) in recent years when there was the first reunion of the 9 to 5 trio of stars, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly.  The host talks about a moment when first Fonda and then Tomlin lay in to a newly elected Donald Trump, and when Dolly's moment to speak comes she makes what could be read as a painfully banal statement about "why don't we just pray for President Trump [and all of our political leaders] rather than defaming them?"

It makes me think a little about those yard signs you see around that espouse a hate-free space (a space with grace, in other words).  I like those signs (we've talked about getting one, but haven't as of yet), but they make me think about the real level of commitment to such an ideology.  Not hating is easy when it's object is something you're aligned with (refusing to hate based on race or religion or because of who someone loves, etc.), but I would be curious to have genuine conversations with the raisers of those signs about being anti-hate when it comes to Donald Trump or white nationalists or other people who are committing acts of hate in our world.  That is where Dolly's brand of radical grace comes in: it's meeting and accepting people where they are.  It doesn't mean accepting the bigotry and violence perpetrated in its name, because grace isn't about thoughts and feelings (or even actions), grace is about the humans that do all of those things (and also do all the good bits, too).

Radical Grace, in the form that Dolly seems to embody it, is about being willing to meet people where they are, and engaging with them, and understanding with them that just being in the world is a fairly hard damn thing to do.  Hate isn't created in a vacuum - it is fed by flames of inequality and resentment, but also by avarice and isolation and spite.

I think that the reason that we feel so on the brink (of a hate-pocalypse, of a neo-fascist era, of a cold civil war) is largely due to the fact that we have forgotten how to talk about politics (or economics or history or anything really).  Saying Dolly Parton is a-political is a complete misunderstanding of politics.  We have come to think of the word "political" as meaning only 'practical politics' (or electoral politics, featuring party politics), when in fact the political is just about anything that has to do with people.  Dolly Parton is one of the greatest political songwriters of all time (having inspired not just humans, but oppressed, down-trodden civilizations across the galaxy!) In the same way that politics is not just the biennial tradition of casting a ballot for (and usually against) someone or another - in fact that's the worst part of it, so too we have come to think of the economy in an equally toxic way - as if it is only the financial sector that is "the economy" and not all of the activities of our daily lives. 

It hurts us to think only in terms of practical politics or practical economics, because then, when our efforts don't show up on the scoreboards (our bank accounts or the outcomes of specific elections rather than the outcomes enacted for us in the world by our elected leaders) we are each of us diminished.  I found it interesting, when I was looking for links for some of my various Dolly Parton, and first exploring the term 'radical grace' I found a lot more out there about radical self acceptance than I did about radical acceptance of others, and I think that's also telling given the era of mental health crisis that we also find ourselves in.

So let's all be hyper-political like Dolly in our daily work and lives.  Like Dolly would have said, "Be Excellent to Each Other..."