Cultural Amnesty Thread.

[Jairzinho]

Good shout on Banksy, actually, Sec. Was thinking he's possibly an exception. But if you're taking a shit on a piece of paper and saying it signifies the aristotelianism of intergalactic moon goats, then you can get to fuck.

 

Opera and poetry, agreed, do not want.

[Champ]

Opera is shit, art house films are pretentious shit, most art is shit - except for Banksy and Bob Ross. Classical music is mostly boring except for bits that have been in films. Shakespeare is impenitrable blather. Wine tastes like wine and is mostly the same, it doesn't taste like gooseberries and a Romanian Shepherd's underpants.

The problem with culture in this country is that it's long been the preserve of the elite, so being seen to like it is often viewed as improving your social status or making you look clever, meaning most people who pretend to love aspects of it not only don't like or understand it, but are overly vocal about it.

Culture should be personal and private, you shouldn't be subjected to some slipper wearing posh cunt's interpretation of it.

I agree with your last sentence but for the man who at times seems like the oldest person on the forum that sounds like the ranting of a stroppy teen.

 

You rail against popular culture and yet have no time for different cultural forms that may take a little time or education to appreciate. For the most part I am depressingly shallow but allow your brain to shut out the everyday clamour and there is a lot to get out of art forms that require a little more thought

[mattyq]

Opera is shit, art house films are pretentious shit, most art is shit - except for Banksy and Bob Ross. Classical music is mostly boring except for bits that have been in films. Shakespeare is impenitrable blather. Wine tastes like wine and is mostly the same, it doesn't taste like gooseberries and a Romanian Shepherd's underpants.

 

The problem with culture in this country is that it's long been the preserve of the elite, so being seen to like it is often viewed as improving your social status or making you look clever, meaning most people who pretend to love aspects of it not only don't like or understand it, but are overly vocal about it.

 

Culture should be personal and private, you shouldn't be subjected to some slipper wearing posh cunt's interpretation of it.

Fucking Hell, I'm surprised at you, mate

You've written many times about the dumbing down and atomization of society by badly regulated capitalism running amok...and also about the rise of the culturally impoverished but upwardly mobile or wannabe upwardly mobile

And now this

Hoisted by your own petard, I believe, is the expression.

The problem with high culture and I include Opera and Classical music and Shakespeare etc is that it's not easy. It's complicated and complex and difficult to understand even if you have the time and the will to give it a go. If you have problems with attention spans and/or a closed mind as to what is and isn't good then forget it

These things are the amongst the greatest achievements of our society and if you don't see that then the problem is entirely with you rather than with the Art

[AngryOfTuebrook]

This thread?  Bloody rubbish!

 

[Jairzinho]

Hang on a minute, there is plenty in between X Factor and fucking Opera.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Hang on a minute, there is plenty in between X Factor and fucking Opera.

And it's all bloody RUBBISH!

[stringvest]

I find opera, in the main, to be pretty low art. But then, it's only my opinion.  To dismiss the great classical composers is silly though.  As matty says, just because your brain cannot absorb and appreciate the input without effort or education doesn't invalidate it as art.  The prevailing culture today is to dumb down everything - banksy is a proponent of this - make stuff obvious, accessible to all.  Having a lowest common denominator approach to art is all well and good, as long as it's not to the detriment of stuff which may require more thought and effort to understand it, for the rewards are usually - though of course not always - higher.  

[Rotpeter]

Poetry is definitely a load of shit.

POETRY IN MOTION

 

[Section_31]

I must have missed the part where this is not an amnesty thread?

[Section_31]

What's culture anyway? Why is Shakespeare culture but the Sopranos isn't? Why is Mozart culture but Hendrix isn't?

 

People who decide what is and isn't culture, then deride you for not agreeing with them, are why so many people can't be arsed with it.

[Section_31]

Fucking Hell, I'm surprised at you, mate

You've written many times about the dumbing down and atomization of society by badly regulated capitalism running amok...and also about the rise of the culturally impoverished but upwardly mobile or wannabe upwardly mobile

And now this

Hoisted by your own petard, I believe, is the expression.

The problem with high culture and I include Opera and Classical music and Shakespeare etc is that it's not easy. It's complicated and complex and difficult to understand even if you have the time and the will to give it a go. If you have problems with attention spans and/or a closed mind as to what is and isn't good then forget it

These things are the amongst the greatest achievements of our society and if you don't see that then the problem is entirely with you rather than with the Art

The middle of your post and what Champ referenced speaks entirely to my point. The - imo - false notion that culture takes effort, patience and brains to understand, the insinuation being that if you don't then you're uncouth or stupid.

 

It's as though culture has been hijacked in a sense and used as some kind of intellectual right of passage, rather than for individuals to simply choose whether they like it or not.

 

A lot of people like to pretend they like something they don't, because they think it enhances their standing in some way, which in itself, ironically, is pretty intellectually small.

 

The reason Shakespeare is so hard to penetrate isn't because the themes are so complex, it's because they're written in centuries' old English, likewise Opera is usually in Italian.

 

If I rewrote breaking bad in welsh and someone said they couldn't be arsed watching it, how does that possibly reflect on their intelligence?

 

There's culture everywhere that is far more accessible, from Graphic novels to blues music, only snobery dictates which does and doesn't fit the bill.

[Rotpeter]

There's culture everywhere that is far more accessible, from Graphic novels to blues music, only snobery dictates which does and doesn't fit the bill.

 

Snobbery and reverse snobbery are symptoms of experience and education.  Neither is terminal.

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

Dogs. Shit, needy, yappy twats.

 

Game of Thrones. Watched about 10 minutes of one episode. It had dragons in it. Fucking dragons.

 

Meat and food challenges. Pulled pork this, pulled pork that. Can you eat this mega burger/breakfast/burrito challenge. Nobody gives a fuck. Just eat your tea and then shit it out later. Nobody cares.

[Stouffer]

The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films are nothing more than lengthy shite.

 

Brian Blessed is a shouty talentless cunt.

 

Ricky Gervais isn't funny.

 

Only Fools and Horses sucks camel balls and Alan Partridge isn't funny.

[cloggypop]

I've been on this forum for 7 and a half years and, in that time, I've only seen people get banned for 4 things:

 

1) They are very obviously WUM's, who don't support Liverpool.

2) They are Momo

3) They are Code

4) They say something racist.

5) They are an absolute cunt and also Head Of Strategy at The S*n.

[Tony Moanero]

I must have missed the part where this is not an amnesty thread?

Amnesty threads are shit.

 

My balls are full of neg and I'm going to spunk it everywhere.

[Tony Moanero]

What's culture anyway? Why is Shakespeare culture but the Sopranos isn't? Why is Mozart culture but Hendrix isn't?

 

People who decide what is and isn't culture, then deride you for not agreeing with them, are why so many people can't be arsed with it.

Spot on. I like what I like and to fuck with what anyone thinks.

[RedKnight]

I can't say I like all art but it's a poor man who can't appreciate the awesomeness of Jacques Louis David.

[RedKnight]

Also on Shakespeare, I think a lot of it is down to the performance of it. Ian McKellen did a version of Macbeth that was set in an empty, black room and it's the best version I've ever seen, it was absolutely mesmerising.

[Jairzinho]

Doesn't help that they often pick really fucking shit choices for 11-16 year olds at school. The Tempest? No, an 11 year old does not want to read/perform the fucking Tempest.  

 

Therefore by 16 most children fucking detest Shakespeare.

[RedKnight]

I got quite lucky that we did Romeo and Juliet (obviously), Macbeth and Hamlet.

[Jairzinho]

We did The Tempest, Merchant of Venice (which was quite decent, and we went to see a good performance of it), and Romeo and Juliet.

 

Actually they also did Macbeth at Primary School, very briefly mind. No-one had a fucking clue what was going on, and there were suspicions that the one performer was a bit noncey.

[RedKnight]

We did Merchant of Venice but not as a set text, that was also really good. As you say, you see a good performance and it really influences your view.

[Jairzinho]

They should have stuff like "As You Like It" and/or "The Taming of the Shrew" on the school syllabus.

 

Anyone cover any Dickens at school?

 

Nothing for me. Nor Hardy. Shakespeare, couple of fairly modern poets, and that was about it at GCSE. Fucking appalling really.

[RedKnight]

Did As You Like It as a non-set text too. Struggle to remember what my GCSE novels were, I think Jane Eyre was one.