tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830563225783203492.post1541346632784743919..comments2023-04-29T06:37:18.856-04:00Comments on Our God is Speed: The past isn't what it used to beGreyhooshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14161781141733273715noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830563225783203492.post-59664950702333812022013-02-14T10:40:26.925-05:002013-02-14T10:40:26.925-05:00I know what you mean. There's an equivalent in...<br />I know what you mean. There's an equivalent in the visual art realm, as well -- with that generation of "postmodern" artists (mostly American) who came along in the late 1970s through the '80s. A sense of intimidation by what all's been done before, a feeling that it's all been done. But also a sense of estrangement from the positivist/progressive aims of modernism; and thus an ironic distantiation from appropriated source material, any notion of "fixed meaning," and etcetera. Hence one reason (among others) for po-mo's obsession with and blithe recycling of art's own past. Or so one favored critical account has it (and I'm leaving out other aspects, admittedly).<br /><br />But that's just the aesthetic aspect of it. Whereas I think :P at ATTT was also suggesting a more sociological dimension to it, as well -- a "generational resentment" not uncommon among those born during or after that decade, and what's (apparently) becoming more common among so-called Millennials. It's that sense of, "You had it all, dad...and you're taking it all with you." The feeling that there's no "finding a footing on which to build the future," because the prior generation(s) pulled the ladder up after themselves. But I might be projecting on that count, but it's something I sense lurking beneath a lot of younger people's complaints about the decimating effects of so-called neoliberalism. <br />Greyhooshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14161781141733273715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830563225783203492.post-66540677371229845052013-02-14T08:01:36.967-05:002013-02-14T08:01:36.967-05:0060s youth had a 'clear sense of the world and ...60s youth had a 'clear sense of the world and their place in it' only because theirs was a generation filled with promise and fresh perspectives(early on). Much of what they painted, filmed and played was new. Today's youth are burdened by pop cultural history, twinned with a kind of cynicism which, unlike the 60s kids, cannot be expressed in terms of innovative passion and creative energy. To 'build the future' is a meaningless term. It is never shaped by one movement, consisting as it will of component parts made by many.Robin Tomenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18116331238512699017noreply@blogger.com