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Locked on 01/11/2005 8:07:18 PM PST by Admin Moderator, reason:
Troll bait. |
Posted on 01/10/2005 10:33:48 AM PST by bushfamfan
Does anyone have the quotes that Mel Gibson apparently made after receiving his People's Choice Award in saying he felt a "kinship" with Michael Moore and attacking the war in Iraq?
Jeeze, this thread is lousy with trolls..
Did you see that South Park episode about him last year? ;D
Whatever the case, they've certainly been crawling all over this thread tonight!
I didn't know they did that over at DU. They do it on LP...but that's the VILLAGE OF THE BANNED and some,over there,have had multiple nics here for years and years,so that when one nic gets banned,they still have others to use. These are FR's "sleeper cells".
Great response! While I don't agree that my original post was a rant, I find your response, taken as a whole, to be both fascinating and invigorating.
I think we might be splitting semantical hairs, and while I do not consider myself to be intrinsically anti-semantic, I think we actually are not, by any means, at polar opposites in our views regarding art. I would agree that human nature is pretty much a constant, and I would go further to say that, insofar as nature informs our circumstances then the human condition is likewise a continuum. If this were not so, then the works of Euripides, Shakespeare, Lorca, Coboabe, Mark Twaine, Balzac and countless others would fall on deaf ears. I'm not sure what you mean when you say that art is reactionary. Certainly the ancient Greeks wrote dramas that may be considered such (Trojan Women, The Frogs, and The Birds come readily to mind), but I am among those who consider art to be largely (though not exclusively) aesthetic rather than didactic in purpose.
Brecht was a true didacticist, no doubt. So was Lorca in his own way. Having said this, I believe, nontheless, that most art takes a more open ended approach to the eternal human struggle. It may sound corny but art seeks to ask questions, rather than answer them. This is why art has such explosive potential.
Whoever you are, you're obviously both very smart and wickedly funny.
Would you mind explaining what you mean when you say that art is reactionary? Oh, and by the way, my comment about you being nuts wasn't an attack. It was a stab at humor. I'll concede that you're funnier than I am. In any case, I'm not likely to be hanging around here much longer.
Centuries ago the Catholic Church considered to be heretical any assertion that Jesus, during his brief time on earth, was not equally corporeal and spiritual. Why else would Jesus bother to live as a man if not to understand through experience what humanity endures on a daily basis? That much of modern theology seeks to discount the physical aspect of Jesus' existence is troubling to many classical theologians. The presence of the human urge as an intrinsic part of transcendant spirituality provides the paradox which is dramatized in THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST. Harvey Keitel's Brooklyn accent notwithstanding, I found the film compelling and thought provoking. I believe that the director was exploring his own faith in creating such a film.
The Passion of Christ was a snuff movie
Either that, or some creep over in DUmmyland has posted a link directly to this thread.
And here it is.
BTW, that's supposed to be "corporal"; not "corporeal". I haven't quite figured out this board.
Happy to oblige. Let us consider, for a moment, one of the oldest of oldest stories still current: two heartsick teenagers who both believe all the problems of life can be distilled to the essence of their passion for each other; crappy parents with serious future in-law implications; an unexpected series of almost comic (and I stress ALMOST) SNAFU's; and all the while a miniature war, of sorts, rages, froths, bubbles, and seethes in the background...
And yet...we're understanding of the situation; stirred by the circumstance; and moved by the denouement. EVERY bit of it, logically examined in the light of rationality right up to the end, seems to make no sense--until it does. And when they both die, something in the mundane about it moves us: a spark of understanding flickers through the centuries, and grounds itself in the realization that, yes, those kind of intrinsically human feelings--of feverish adolescent longings; of seemingly senseless conflict swirling hither & yon about oneself like a vortex; of sad ends to badly cut cards in this-or-that particular round of life--have always existed--and will always exist.
Shakespeare was a genius not because he plowed any new ground and sprouted something new in the process; he was a genius because he told us tales about things we already instinctively understood in a way that resonates hundreds of years hence--and will for thousands of years to come. That is true "Art," in every sense of the word: a reminder, not a prognosis.
Such Art, in it's most beautiful, enduring forms, is always thus: a verdict-delivered in the affirmative on the ancient truth that there isn't much new cooking under the Sun; and that even the most precious things we hold in it are common experiences, shared across the ages.
Their smarmy obsessions with their intellectual betters never seems to cease.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x272702
They are so much fun. Guess which poster I am on this thread?
Wow, and I always thought that Romeo and Juliet was a play about the transitory nature of love, hate and ultimately, life. Perhaps I'm being silly, but when you call art "intrinsically reactionary", I am led to believe that you feel that all art is political. As a matter of personal choice, I try not to view the aesthetic through political prisms. I'll be pondering your post for some time. At the present moment, I feel you speak quite eloquently but not necessarily to the point. It's been a fun diversion. Thanks to all.
The keywords on this post are like a fire to a moth. Trolls are drawn to Mel Gibson Threads and Michael Moore threads. Combine them and all heck breaks loose.
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