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PADS_AND_GARRETS

                                                    December 2, 2012
                                             Rev:   January 17, 2013

                                                        DWIGHT_MAC
Dwight Macdonald comes up with
some nice jabs on occasion:               From p.54 of
                                          "Masscult and Midcult"
    "The beatnik's pad is the modern
    equivalent of the poet's garrett
    in every way except the creation      Speaking as a connoisseur
    of poetry."                           of cheap shots they don't
                                          get much better-- or
                                          cheaper-- than that...


        I wonder how you might
        measure the incidence of
        artistic phoniness and
        compare the 20s to the 50s.      Macdonald would probably sneer at this
                                         attitude as a worship of "the facts".

                                                      JUST_NOT_THE_FACTS


                  I fear the elder Macdonald had a bad
                  "get off of my lawn" problem: damn
                  kids, messing around with new
                  fangled ideas when the *real* avant-
                  garde had it all covered in the 30s.

                                                 Macdonald engages in further
   "Our well-oiled machinery of cultural         sneer-o-rama: Kerouac, Cage,
   exploitation provides those who are           Rauschenberg.
   Different with lecture dates, interviews,
   fellowships, write-ups, and fans of both        MIDDLES_AND_MIDDLES
   sexes (the word's derviation from
   'fanatics' is clearer in these circles than
   among the more restrained enthusiasts of
   baseball, possibly because the latter have
   a technical knowledge rarely found among       So there's *some* virtue in
   the former).  The machinery tempts them to     technical knowledge.  It's
   extremes since the more fantastic their        good to have that confirmed.
   efforts, the more delighted are their
   Midcult admirers."






          But what about critics?  Aren't
          they similarly driven to find      Of course, you can also get
          extreme opinions to indulge in?    pretty far dressing up
                                             conventional wisdom in new,
                                             but still reassuring, ways.


                   Judging ideas based on
                   inferences of impure motives
                   is a tricky business.





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