01-03-2012, 03:36 PM
From my experience, all families pass on some erroneous tidbits that are considered fact (even when we are not talking about outright prejudice), when they are not, and as a recipient of the sixties from my friends older siblings, I can attest how the storm of Zeitgeist can sweep through.
One thing I think you are overlooking is the effect that nostaligia has on art. There is a painting hanging in my house for no other reason than it once hung in my grandmothers house and has fond association attached to it for me. It is not even good art, let alone great art, but I enjoy it just the same. However, at an earlier point in my life, had I considered it, I might have thought it was a great piece of art.
"Your folks are in the opposite situation (much as I may sympathise) because they know Johnny Foreigner when they see him, and his name is Zeitgeist. Old hat though he now be, That Picso still lingers in the minds of true believers in Zeitgeistism."
What confuses me Ed, besides the way you spell Picasso, is you act as if Zeitgeist is a singular event. Mark's parents are a part of a separate Zeitgeist, one not called Modernism. There is no such thing as reverse elitism, you are either an elitist or not. All of it is just a form a cultural prejudice, quite common often expressed (loudly), and when two different ideologies clash, there will generally be some sparks. The thing is, is there are as many ideologies as there are families. Sounds to me as though you got a good dose of cubism, socialism, and imagism, which were all planks of the Modernist movement. The somewhat ironic thing is you use the term "Zeitgeist" which came from German Romanticism to describe it. For Mark's grandparents, if they were like mine, it would not have been Johnny Foreigner, it would have been Johnny Yankee, as New York city was very much a part of the (depraved) Modernist movement. Regardless, you are not alone Ed. There are many people I have known that grew up with the same thing, and it all reeks of the same indoctrination that all such forced ideologies do, whether religious, political, cultural, or nationalistic. We all have prejudice to overcome.
Dale
One thing I think you are overlooking is the effect that nostaligia has on art. There is a painting hanging in my house for no other reason than it once hung in my grandmothers house and has fond association attached to it for me. It is not even good art, let alone great art, but I enjoy it just the same. However, at an earlier point in my life, had I considered it, I might have thought it was a great piece of art.
"Your folks are in the opposite situation (much as I may sympathise) because they know Johnny Foreigner when they see him, and his name is Zeitgeist. Old hat though he now be, That Picso still lingers in the minds of true believers in Zeitgeistism."
What confuses me Ed, besides the way you spell Picasso, is you act as if Zeitgeist is a singular event. Mark's parents are a part of a separate Zeitgeist, one not called Modernism. There is no such thing as reverse elitism, you are either an elitist or not. All of it is just a form a cultural prejudice, quite common often expressed (loudly), and when two different ideologies clash, there will generally be some sparks. The thing is, is there are as many ideologies as there are families. Sounds to me as though you got a good dose of cubism, socialism, and imagism, which were all planks of the Modernist movement. The somewhat ironic thing is you use the term "Zeitgeist" which came from German Romanticism to describe it. For Mark's grandparents, if they were like mine, it would not have been Johnny Foreigner, it would have been Johnny Yankee, as New York city was very much a part of the (depraved) Modernist movement. Regardless, you are not alone Ed. There are many people I have known that grew up with the same thing, and it all reeks of the same indoctrination that all such forced ideologies do, whether religious, political, cultural, or nationalistic. We all have prejudice to overcome.
Dale
How long after picking up the brush, the first masterpiece?
The goal is not to obfuscate that which is clear, but make clear that which isn't.
The goal is not to obfuscate that which is clear, but make clear that which isn't.