Pass the Python and Quit Your Yappin'
"I don't believe reaching people is the purpose of art.In fact, I don't know what 'reaching people' means.I know what Hazlitt said:It's easy to get the mob to agree with you; all you do is agree with the mob."
David Mamet wrote this in his book Three Uses of the Knife: On the Nature and Purpose of Drama, and I gotta tell ya' the rest of it is just like this. It made me think: okay, I know David Mamet is a great play write, general smart guy, but I'll be damned if this doesn't sound like something one's theater-major friend might say while stoned.
It must be a function of my getting older (let's hope so, it might qualify as wisdom then) that I have less and less patience for intellectuals. I used to think they were God. Now I realize they think they're God, and I used to fall for it.
But when will I learn this for real? For instance, why would I read something called, The Theory and Practice of Postmodernism:A Manifesto? No one should read it, but I need some company with this, so I'll share.
In this essay, David Antin declares:
"i believe in taking descartes advice"
(By the way, I'm not pulling your leg with the lack of punctuation and capitals. He ain't Cummings and he ain't kidding.)
"if youre lost in a forest and you have no idea which way to go
go for it straight ahead because its not likely to be any worse than anything else"
To illustrate my point about tolerance for intellectuals in my old age, I found the only reaction I could muster to this revelation was to sing:
"Ole Descarte was a drunken fart
I drink therefore I am."
posted by Mutha @ 12:15 PM
4 Comments:
...which was the only reasonable response to that bit of sophistry.
i'm feelin ya.
i tend to read things like 'civilizations and disease' with bated breath, though.
Okay, I feel better now FN. Company is important when are trying to shake old ways of thinking -- right? The "bated breath" is hard to kick.
my favorite innalectashul is harvey pekar. American Splendor 1, 2, and 3 are works of genius. i wanted to stop people on the street and make them read it.
Aaah, now see? You've gone and got me interested in this Harvey character, FN, and now I'm gonna have to go and check him out.*sigh* will I ever stop being attracted to the possibility of a juicy deep thought? Crap.
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