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Culture: what about it? "The quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc." suggests Random House, Webster as a definition.
Feels like a stone strapped to your bits and pieces, does it not? The word sounds like "vulture", makes you glance worriedly over your shoulder, or check your watch, makes you wonder what complication you've forgotten, and now it's just too late.
A friend chucked a skinny book at me over the oozing brie maybe one week ago. Recently divorced, and with a slight young boy with unnerving, intelligent eyes sleeping above us in the loft, my friend busies himself these days scrounging for meaning.
"Steve Stern?" I said, inspecting a gruesome, excellently unfortunate photo of the author on the reverse. "Never heard of him."
"Neither has anyone else," he said. "Here's the problem with everything." Not the lack of sex in his life; rather, this poor, grotesque author. "Here's what's good and no-one knows or cares," he added.
I read the book. My friend was right.
Look: no-one has heard of Steve Stern. No one knows who Seth Shafer is, an old school friend of mine who writes brilliant fiction. Worse: no-one says a word! Your supermarket collects the worst sort of tripe and calls it "Bestsellers", and people buy it. The system instills people with the belief that these "Bestsellers" are easier to read than thoughtful, creative works. The system suggests that a genre of writing exists affectionately titled "literary fiction". You know: school fiction, or academic fiction, or fiction some pathetic teacher forces you to read until you're old enough to know better.
People who enjoy reading creative works know that picking up a random book these days rarely produces satisfying results.
Music, movies, painting, or any other arena once called art finds itself in a similar problem. The young, talented originals of the world (children) see nothing but discouragement, when the tripe tastes the same everywhere one looks...but pop, by definition, makes for an easier sell.
We need to begin again, find another way. Which avenue? From where will the next artist spring? Can we reclaim culture before the media sweeps our memories of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez passage away?
The following is free, now. There's no market; no one makes a profit (at least we do not). Still, we're building a site dedicated to producing creativity, producing honest criticism. Anyone can participate, great or small, so long as CREATIVITY remains the purpose, the goal, and the reward.
Please look around, and PLEASE CONTRIBUTE! Your submissions drive the mission forward; without them we're just carrion.
Energetic participation in our culture is the only way to produce a culture in which you will be proud to particpate. We need your help.
Copyright ©2004, ©2005, ©2006 Joshua Suchman. All rights reserved.
Taboo's Ezine Navigator: Article Index
Taboo Tenente: A Thinker's MFA Journey - Home
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Feels like a stone strapped to your bits and pieces, does it not? The word sounds like "vulture", makes you glance worriedly over your shoulder, or check your watch, makes you wonder what complication you've forgotten, and now it's just too late.
A friend chucked a skinny book at me over the oozing brie maybe one week ago. Recently divorced, and with a slight young boy with unnerving, intelligent eyes sleeping above us in the loft, my friend busies himself these days scrounging for meaning.
"Steve Stern?" I said, inspecting a gruesome, excellently unfortunate photo of the author on the reverse. "Never heard of him."
"Neither has anyone else," he said. "Here's the problem with everything." Not the lack of sex in his life; rather, this poor, grotesque author. "Here's what's good and no-one knows or cares," he added.
I read the book. My friend was right.
Look: no-one has heard of Steve Stern. No one knows who Seth Shafer is, an old school friend of mine who writes brilliant fiction. Worse: no-one says a word! Your supermarket collects the worst sort of tripe and calls it "Bestsellers", and people buy it. The system instills people with the belief that these "Bestsellers" are easier to read than thoughtful, creative works. The system suggests that a genre of writing exists affectionately titled "literary fiction". You know: school fiction, or academic fiction, or fiction some pathetic teacher forces you to read until you're old enough to know better.
People who enjoy reading creative works know that picking up a random book these days rarely produces satisfying results.
Music, movies, painting, or any other arena once called art finds itself in a similar problem. The young, talented originals of the world (children) see nothing but discouragement, when the tripe tastes the same everywhere one looks...but pop, by definition, makes for an easier sell.
We need to begin again, find another way. Which avenue? From where will the next artist spring? Can we reclaim culture before the media sweeps our memories of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez passage away?
The following is free, now. There's no market; no one makes a profit (at least we do not). Still, we're building a site dedicated to producing creativity, producing honest criticism. Anyone can participate, great or small, so long as CREATIVITY remains the purpose, the goal, and the reward.
Please look around, and PLEASE CONTRIBUTE! Your submissions drive the mission forward; without them we're just carrion.
Energetic participation in our culture is the only way to produce a culture in which you will be proud to particpate. We need your help.
Copyright ©2004, ©2005, ©2006 Joshua Suchman. All rights reserved.
Taboo's Ezine Navigator: Article Index
Taboo Tenente: A Thinker's MFA Journey - Home
The Phallic Suggestion
Stone Soup Blog Forum