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SEEDS_OF_KAEL

                                                           January 21, 2013

A thought I've dodged around
many, many, times, but let's
try again:
                                                       CRITICS_OF_THE_MIND

     So, given a Pauline Kael,
     spraying clever remarks in
     all directions on two or three
     contradictory themes--

     Maybe the right thing to do is
     to identify the themes, label
     them, try to follow where they
     go, even if Kael never went there.



                                 <A HREF="DOWN_WITH_KAEL.html">DOWN_WITH_KAEL</A>
Pick one item Kael has said,
or has started to say, (and
pretend she doesn't go on to
contradict it elsewhere)
where would you end up?

   There are multiple contexts,
   and for each context, the art
   work is experienced                 You might try an extreme
   differently, and all such           populist line: anything
   experiences are valid.              that people really like
                                       must have some sort of
   Art must produce an                 point to it.  Can you
   immediate, visceral                 identify the point,
   response, without                   reveal the hidden wisdom?
   conscious reflection.
                                           A true (honest?) champion popular
                                           art, one would not stop with
                                           movies and balk at television--
                                           anything annoited by the masses
                                           would be deemed worthy: game
                                           shows and soap operas, comic
                                           books and sex magazines, rock n'
                                           roll and wrestling...





              One attempt at making sense of her
              contradictions made me wonder if she
              might be some sort of McCluhanesque
              media-determinist: the quality of
              the medium determines whats done
              with it, which makes worrying about
              clever technique irrelevant.

              You might try that notion: technology
              trumps techniqe, everything you see done
              with an art form is determined by the       technological
              characteristics of the media.               fatalism

                   So then, true creativity would
                   require inventing a new media?

                   Or finding ways to tweak the
                   characteristics of existing media?


        
     Another thought: the young and the old         
     have different perspectives, and deserve         
     different kinds of art.  Kael often spoke         We already have
     up for the teenager she remember herself          "juvenile" and
     being, but the elder-Kael had to conceed          "young adult"
     she herself needed something more                 categories.
     substantial (e.g. documentaries).        
                                                       Could it be we're
                                                       missing some slots?

                                                          And might there be
                                                          other angles you
                                                          can use to sub-divide
                                                          people into potential
                                                          audiences?

                                                              (I will be a
                                                              fissure of men.)


     Another possible Kaelite premise:

     The (other) critics are always wrong.
     Don't trust them.

        The critical perspective itself is
        corrupting, and art is best enjoyed
        (and created?) spontaneously, without
        over-thinking.

        The critic always imposes an insanely
        high standard, e.g. insisting that every
        work live up to the eternal quality of
        Great Classics-- though this is a
        standard that few great classics could
        have met in their own time.



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