I am well primed for the return of hip house.
Can't help but think that all the overt historicism from the past decade or more is a kind of re-evaluation of the myth of progress or the recognition of the perpetual flux/stasis of culture. Looking through some fashion mags the other day and Dolce & Gabbana in particular have these beautiful ads with colliding/vintage time periods. I know thats all pomo and not new, but here we are in 2006 and its still happening.
Celebrity culture *is* fascinating. Tabloids work on a number of levels, but in essence celebs are mythical figures. The sheer focus of the attention of millions elevates them to mythical status, but people aren't interested in the archetypal characters they portray in the movies (we're too moderne to believe in fairy tales); its their actual lives which become cautionary tales. You can have it all and be on top of the world, but the strings get pulled from Hollywood/Mt Olympus and you lose it or you get ditched by your lover; the divine comedy etc. Celebs lives are fables that prove the lie that money/fame buys happiness. People don't recognise them as archetypes because we live in such an inverted culture and the story occurs in the present, theres no distance of time by which one can gain perspective. Though thats the nature of instant interconnectedness or media in general... trapped in the continual mind-flow of symbolic stimuli.
Brad and Ang are interesting because they are the inverse of the dominant gender/relationship model of Western society - I think thats why people are captivated by them in way that Jen and Vince could never do. A figure like Michael Jackson is even more compelling... hes so sensitive that he became everything thats sick in society. So alienated he became an alien. No wonder we can't help but look - society simply cannot get enough of this stuff because there is so little recognition of the role of the unconscious/myth. She Blinded Me With Science.
On another note, do you people watch Lost? Its like Shakespeare meets The Bible on Fantasy Island. Possibly the best show since Twin Peaks.
Can't help but think that all the overt historicism from the past decade or more is a kind of re-evaluation of the myth of progress or the recognition of the perpetual flux/stasis of culture. Looking through some fashion mags the other day and Dolce & Gabbana in particular have these beautiful ads with colliding/vintage time periods. I know thats all pomo and not new, but here we are in 2006 and its still happening.
Celebrity culture *is* fascinating. Tabloids work on a number of levels, but in essence celebs are mythical figures. The sheer focus of the attention of millions elevates them to mythical status, but people aren't interested in the archetypal characters they portray in the movies (we're too moderne to believe in fairy tales); its their actual lives which become cautionary tales. You can have it all and be on top of the world, but the strings get pulled from Hollywood/Mt Olympus and you lose it or you get ditched by your lover; the divine comedy etc. Celebs lives are fables that prove the lie that money/fame buys happiness. People don't recognise them as archetypes because we live in such an inverted culture and the story occurs in the present, theres no distance of time by which one can gain perspective. Though thats the nature of instant interconnectedness or media in general... trapped in the continual mind-flow of symbolic stimuli.
Brad and Ang are interesting because they are the inverse of the dominant gender/relationship model of Western society - I think thats why people are captivated by them in way that Jen and Vince could never do. A figure like Michael Jackson is even more compelling... hes so sensitive that he became everything thats sick in society. So alienated he became an alien. No wonder we can't help but look - society simply cannot get enough of this stuff because there is so little recognition of the role of the unconscious/myth. She Blinded Me With Science.
On another note, do you people watch Lost? Its like Shakespeare meets The Bible on Fantasy Island. Possibly the best show since Twin Peaks.
