(Art as) Communication vs. Expression

sus

Well-known member
I need help. They need to assimilate to the native culture, learn to speak the language, otherwise we will be swamped and lose our traditional way of life.

I'm gonna invite some friends, beiser too, he was DMing me this morning like, "We need more Americans on Dissensus" and I totally agreed. He said he has loads of IRL mates who would like it here.
 

Leo

Well-known member
that would be terrible, and hilarious. and probably also be short-lived, since we don't have the attention span for things that don't confirm our belief system.
 

nilprenia

Well-known member
(earnest response) Some of the currents of posting in here (the forum in general) has lead to me to be more sympathetic to the idea of art as impersonal
 
  • Like
Reactions: sus

vimothy

yurp
theres no way I'm gonna read this thread so this might be totally irrelevant but I always liked the eno quote, "I prefer to shoot the arrow then paint the target around it".
 

linebaugh

Well-known member
The gravitys rainbow pod we listened to awhile ago called the specifically American form, as you put it, 'by someone for someone'. The sermonic style seen with Melville and Pynchon- the narrator riffs on a singular subject to an acknowledged audience grand truths about something larger it would be in their best interest to understand. You could extend that same description to American ur-writers like Whitman and the transcendentalists. This was contrasted with Joyce, who was called an archeologist- generative writing, 'by no one for no one.' The description offered was that joyce seems like the kinda guy who would anonymously plant his work in the middle of town and when discovered by the townspeople go 'wow whoever wrote that must be some kind of genius'
 

catalog

Well-known member
joyce is epic and encyclopedic together, like the mahabharata or gilgamesh. multiplicity of voices, wide and deep. the idea is that if the world ended tomorrow, you could use joyce to remake it. B.I.B.L.E - basic instructions for leaving earth. Said this in lots of places on here already. it's what leary says in a wilson book.
 

sus

Well-known member
The gravitys rainbow pod we listened to awhile ago called the specifically American form, as you put it, 'by someone for someone'. The sermonic style seen with Melville and Pynchon- the narrator riffs on a singular subject to an acknowledged audience grand truths about something larger it would be in their best interest to understand. You could extend that same description to American ur-writers like Whitman and the transcendentalists. This was contrasted with Joyce, who was called an archeologist- generative writing, 'by no one for no one.' The description offered was that joyce seems like the kinda guy who would anonymously plant his work in the middle of town and when discovered by the townspeople go 'wow whoever wrote that must be some kind of genius'

This is great. Do you remember the name of the pod?
 

version

Well-known member
I blame version. He lives in the American time zones and he brought them here to keep him company in the small hours, talking about baseball and Don De Lillo.
I was actually thinking about this whilst reading the thread. I've probably spent more time over the last few years or so speaking to Americans online than I have British people irl. It's partly the sleep pattern and partly the monopoly they have on the English-speaking internet. Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, Facebook, Discord, Tumblr, Instagram. These are all American companies. Dissensus is probably the only English social media I use. The same likely goes for everyone else on here in that regard. The more time you spend online, the more American you become.
 

luka

Well-known member
I find it impossible to talk to them. There's no common ground. Totally alien and opaque.
 

beiser

Well-known member
you ask the brits online, "what do you think of the americans," they always have something to say, usually rude, occasionally vile, rarely complimentary but only in the most backhanded ways

the americans, you ask them about the brits online? "oh, I don't think of them"
 
Top