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Notes -
Is no one going to mention the elephant in the room? He takes it seriously enough to write 72 chapters of compare and contrast with an Old Testament cosmology.
Colors of Her Coat was beautiful. In better times, it would stand with some of Scott’s most recommendable work.
I’ve been trying for some time to put into words my model of postmodernism, and Colors hits one of the key points. The very process of refining an art form pushes it into familiarity. Familiarity breeds contempt. Contempt insists that there’s no difference between good things and bad things, you fool, you absolute moron. That’s how we get solid-blue paintings and noise music and nihilistic, deconstructive fiction.
Maybe the public hates modern architecture. To a critic, though? The kind of person who is paid to think about buildings day in and day out? Novelty is essential. It’s new training data. His job is not to tell us about good buildings, but to participate in a conversation, no matter how Advanced it gets. Who cares if it alienates the proles? They’ll catch up eventually, right?
This is what’s missing when reactionaries criticize progressive media. Most of the time, they aren’t actually trying to erase your aesthetics. It’s more that your preferences are old news.
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