For the record, I don't hate all contemporary art. For example, Brian Dettmer is 15 kinds of cool with a side of awesome-sauce. I didn't think I'd ever admire book desecration this much, but it's absolutely fascinating.
---
I alternate between being amused and appalled at this NYT story on the Native Society, "a new club that is limited to native New Yorkers, many of them city dwellers who might reside in 10021 — the ZIP code of upper Park and Fifth Avenues — or be graduates of certain prep schools."
It's a wonderful example of a reporter very gently snarking on the subject of his article. The undeserved arrogance is a schadenfreude-tastic joy to behold. Take, for example, this quotation:
“It’s not about who you were born, or what you were given, but what you’ve made of yourself,” explained one member, Alexa Winner, a 22-year-old stylist and fashion designer. “Anyone can come from a wealthy family, but it takes actual brains and ambition to do something with that.”
SweetieHoney, if you’re 22 and you’d actually accomplished something Earth-shattering, then the New York Times would be writing about You the Wunderkind and Your Fabulous Accomplishments, not the Sooper-Seekrit Ultra-Cool Members’-Only clubhouse that you and your little friends came up with.
Seriously, kids, if someone is comparing you to an Edith Wharton novel in this context, it's not a compliment. :)
On the plus side, I now totally get that "Sex and the City" episode, "Twenty-Something Girls vs. Thirty-Something Women."
----
I'm reading the comment threads on the Austen threads at Ta-Nehisi Coates' blog (Disqus is blocked at work) and I have to say that I've never quite gotten the mindset that hates to see a favorite book turned into a movie. I'm not saying that good books don't get totally screwed over into bad movies, because that happens more often than not, but that the book and the movie are two different media, with two different requirements. What makes a good book does not necessarily make a good movie, and vice versa. There is room in this world for two different interpretations of the same story. Embrace the "And." Maybe the movie will suck, maybe it won't, but it doesn't (or at least, shouldn't) change your relationship with the story itself.
Incidentally, this will be my 21st year on the Internet, and I will tell you that every group of fans has the Flamewar Topic: the question that, if introduced, will cause the group to instantly balkanize and lob insults at each other. On the Star Trek groups, it's Kirk vs. Picard; on the MST3k, it was Mike v. Joel. Rec.arts.polymer.clay could not be relied upon to discuss the relative merits of Fimo and Sculpey in a rational manner, and for the love of God, avoid the Rabid Ianto Fangirls at all costs.
You'd expect better of the Jane Austen fans, but, seriously, don't bring up the subject of Fanny Price without donning asbestos undies first.
No comments:
Post a Comment