Ah yes, the trouble with culture. It builds and builds upon a particular iconization of the world, until the world has changed beneath it. At which point, it sinks into quicksand, with the foundations sinking first and the elite last. The universities are usually the last hold-out.
The modern Western classical art music tradition is a good example, much as it pains me to say it.
Cat & Girl itself is (at times) comics about comics about comics. At least it’s honest about it, though; that is quite refreshing.
Shit, I remember being 18 and ranting at much smarter friends about all the worlds we build upon the Real World, and how we needed to strip all that back… somehow this comic is a great reminder of both why the hell I felt that way and also how silly that was.
But probably that’s just confirming those psyc experiments that find that Bible quotes confirm the viewpoint that Christians already believed, or, yeah, just that confirmation bias is a thing. Cool.
“Real life. Now there’s a fiction for you! What’s it made from? Memories? Impressions? A sequence of pictures, a scattering of half-recalled words… Disjointed hieroglyphic comic strips unwinding in our recollection… _language_.” —Hermes Trimegistus, in Promethea
Esn was right when he (she?) said this is the trouble with culture — it’s also, in many ways, the definition of culture: large gooey networks of answers to life’s questions that get mimicked because, really, most work best when everyone else is doing it, and really, reinventing the wheel all the time gets old quickly.
Remember learning how to fall in love the first few times? Odds are there were some fantastic blunders, even if you had decent role models. Now imagine it without a hint guide, or even a clear statement that this could, in fact, be done successfully…
Esn – Western classical music isn’t dead, it’s just being outsourced to China. Some estimates say they have as many as 100 million conservatory students.
They also have the world’s largest piano manufacturer. In 2007 they built 100,000 pianos. Eighty percent of them stayed in China rather than being exported to the west.
July 15th, 2010 at 4:10 am
Even if you are determine to “reenage with the world”, you will find that you still have a lot of time to read blogs and watch movies.
This is the sad paradox of the bourgeoise
July 15th, 2010 at 4:43 am
Ah yes, the trouble with culture. It builds and builds upon a particular iconization of the world, until the world has changed beneath it. At which point, it sinks into quicksand, with the foundations sinking first and the elite last. The universities are usually the last hold-out.
The modern Western classical art music tradition is a good example, much as it pains me to say it.
Cat & Girl itself is (at times) comics about comics about comics. At least it’s honest about it, though; that is quite refreshing.
July 15th, 2010 at 7:01 am
Shit, I remember being 18 and ranting at much smarter friends about all the worlds we build upon the Real World, and how we needed to strip all that back… somehow this comic is a great reminder of both why the hell I felt that way and also how silly that was.
But probably that’s just confirming those psyc experiments that find that Bible quotes confirm the viewpoint that Christians already believed, or, yeah, just that confirmation bias is a thing. Cool.
OK, night night.
July 15th, 2010 at 7:02 am
OK, subtract self conscious babble and leave “shit yes, Cat & Girl is awesome yet again!”. Because it’s “true”. lolz.
July 15th, 2010 at 8:48 am
Underneath the pavement, the pavement.
July 15th, 2010 at 9:21 am
“Real life. Now there’s a fiction for you! What’s it made from? Memories? Impressions? A sequence of pictures, a scattering of half-recalled words… Disjointed hieroglyphic comic strips unwinding in our recollection… _language_.” —Hermes Trimegistus, in Promethea
July 15th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Esn was right when he (she?) said this is the trouble with culture — it’s also, in many ways, the definition of culture: large gooey networks of answers to life’s questions that get mimicked because, really, most work best when everyone else is doing it, and really, reinventing the wheel all the time gets old quickly.
Remember learning how to fall in love the first few times? Odds are there were some fantastic blunders, even if you had decent role models. Now imagine it without a hint guide, or even a clear statement that this could, in fact, be done successfully…
July 15th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
“After all, what is reality anyway? Nothin’ but a collective hunch.” — Jane Wagner
July 15th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
“The world itself becomes a sort of museum of objects that have been encountered before in some other medium.” — Marshall McLuhan
July 16th, 2010 at 2:44 am
@Zebediah, “he”. ;)
July 16th, 2010 at 4:53 am
[...] http://catandgirl.com/?p=2524 [...]
July 16th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Esn – Western classical music isn’t dead, it’s just being outsourced to China. Some estimates say they have as many as 100 million conservatory students.
http://tinyurl.com/4rxmlo
They also have the world’s largest piano manufacturer. In 2007 they built 100,000 pianos. Eighty percent of them stayed in China rather than being exported to the west.
July 17th, 2010 at 6:23 am
What is Western classical music anyways?
Mozart or Falco?
Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies?
July 20th, 2010 at 9:23 am
China probably has the word’s largest everything manufacturer.