I have bookmarked that site and have returned to it some night when I'm in the mood to read. Thank you. The period between the two world wars has always been a time of great attraction to me. I find the bland irony of the Lost Generation more soothing than the raucous panderings of the Boomers to which I, apologetically, belong. When you compare any of the Beatles lyrics to Lady Brett Ashley in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises saying "Be nice, it's what we have instead of God"...well, there really isn't a comparison, is there?
I live on the cheap...part of a conscious choice back when I was a Marxist that has only been reinforced as I made my way through the Born Again/Charismatic/Messianic Judaism of the Seventies and has, recently become a cornerstone of my way of life now that I have parted with Christianity and determined to be a follower of Jesus instead...the real one, at least, as far as I can piece together from a broad and deep study of theology and history...
But I digress...
The point is, I used to be a movie buff. That is, until I read Simulacra and Simulation (The Body, In Theory: Histories of Cultural Materialism) by Jean Baudrillard and Sheila Faria Glaser...that's the book Neo hides his illegal jack discs in at the beginning of the Matrix and whose ideas supposed inspired the film...of course, like most complex ideas in the hands of morons, they got it completely backasswards. When you finally realize it's movies and TV and the Net and all the fucking video games and...god forbid I should speak such blasphemy...all of literature and art and music...is the Matrix and the real world is one of...well, not filth and drudgery totally...but one in which a good glass of sipping whisky or a bowl out of Nat King Cole....or Sherlock's five-percent solution...is muchly to be preferred over clarity of vision and sanity.
So since I still like an occasional movie, I subscribe to Netflix where, for less than 10 bucks a month, you can get one new movie a week and access to a library of over 12,000 older and cheesier movements to watch on your computer.
The Architecture of Doom, a lovely documentary on Hitler's use of art and spectacle and architecture in the creating, formulation, and his proposed plans for the Third Reich? Made me realize Albert Speer should have been hung along with the rest of the bastards.
Of course, the Nazi Bogeymen are a horse beaten to death a long time ago. I agree with the President of Iran on that one. Even if you don't deny the Holocaust, what possible difference does it make on the activities of the State of Israel today? Without putting too fine an edge on it, I think a good historical psychologists could make a case that Israel is showing the same pattern exhibited by many childhood victims of physical and sexual abuse: they have, in their horror of being victimized again, become abusers themselves.
Is truly impressive...thank you..
ReplyDeleteI have bookmarked that site and have returned to it some night when I'm in the mood to read. Thank you. The period between the two world wars has always been a time of great attraction to me. I find the bland irony of the Lost Generation more soothing than the raucous panderings of the Boomers to which I, apologetically, belong. When you compare any of the Beatles lyrics to Lady Brett Ashley in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises saying "Be nice, it's what we have instead of God"...well, there really isn't a comparison, is there?
ReplyDeleteI live on the cheap...part of a conscious choice back when I was a Marxist that has only been reinforced as I made my way through the Born Again/Charismatic/Messianic Judaism of the Seventies and has, recently become a cornerstone of my way of life now that I have parted with Christianity and determined to be a follower of Jesus instead...the real one, at least, as far as I can piece together from a broad and deep study of theology and history...
But I digress...
The point is, I used to be a movie buff. That is, until I read Simulacra and Simulation (The Body, In Theory: Histories of Cultural Materialism) by Jean Baudrillard and Sheila Faria Glaser...that's the book Neo hides his illegal jack discs in at the beginning of the Matrix and whose ideas supposed inspired the film...of course, like most complex ideas in the hands of morons, they got it completely backasswards. When you finally realize it's movies and TV and the Net and all the fucking video games and...god forbid I should speak such blasphemy...all of literature and art and music...is the Matrix and the real world is one of...well, not filth and drudgery totally...but one in which a good glass of sipping whisky or a bowl out of Nat King Cole....or Sherlock's five-percent solution...is muchly to be preferred over clarity of vision and sanity.
So since I still like an occasional movie, I subscribe to Netflix where, for less than 10 bucks a month, you can get one new movie a week and access to a library of over 12,000 older and cheesier movements to watch on your computer.
I said all of that to ask if you've seen http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The_Architecture_of_Doom/60000313?trkid=438403
The Architecture of Doom, a lovely documentary on Hitler's use of art and spectacle and architecture in the creating, formulation, and his proposed plans for the Third Reich? Made me realize Albert Speer should have been hung along with the rest of the bastards.
Of course, the Nazi Bogeymen are a horse beaten to death a long time ago. I agree with the President of Iran on that one. Even if you don't deny the Holocaust, what possible difference does it make on the activities of the State of Israel today? Without putting too fine an edge on it, I think a good historical psychologists could make a case that Israel is showing the same pattern exhibited by many childhood victims of physical and sexual abuse: they have, in their horror of being victimized again, become abusers themselves.