#Spectacle Culture

[biblioklept]

Gravity’s Rainbow — annotations and illustrations for pages 712-13 | The Man has a branch office in each of our brains

Illustration for Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Gustave Doré, 1876 Well1, if the Counterforce2 knew better what those categories3 concealed, they might be in a better position to disarm, de-penis and dismantle the Man4. But they don’t. Actually they do, but they don’t admit it. Sad but true. They are as schizoid, as double-minded in the massive presence of money, as any of the rest…

[keirahknightley]

Remembering the opening ceremony of athens 2004 💙🤍💙🤍

And because i know many of you were babies then (some even not born 😅) here is a link to watch the full ceremony. I promise it's worth it 💖💖

[irlbop]

Cinephile Terzo and Theater Kid Copia.

That’s it, that’s enough to fuel this post.

[blueiight]

Louis w the camera. claudia w the diary..

[embraceyouropacities]

“Subcultures represent ‘noise’ (as opposed to sound): interference in the orderly sequence which leads from real events and phenomena to their representation in the media. We should therefore not underestimate the signifying power of the spectacular subculture not only as a metaphor for potential anarchy ‘out there’ but as an actual mechanism of semantic disorder: a kind of temporary blockage in the system of representation.”

— Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style

[mayoiayasep]

i dont think the enstars fandom talks enough about what getto spectacle and moonlight disco did for society

[diredeliverance]

Big undirected Dark Urge thought ramble.

Dark Urge (non-Bhaalist, at least) is one of those things where I think my feelings about the parts (or part) I dislike are often overwhelmingly colored by a desire for it to be a story that I suspect thematically it was never meant to be... I think that's always a kind of good check when you're really into something, "did this disappoint you because of the version you made up in your brain or did it actually fail to achieve its goals." I really don't like the "Bhaalspawn no more" end even if I can appreciate the drama of the scene. It feels cheap and frustrating to actually be magically "cured" of this part of your character that has formed the central struggle of this storyline. But that is supposed to be built on the back of this Persona 3 "you went out and immersed yourself in the world" thing that I do think tracks with how I experienced Kas, and from that perspective there actually isn't anything wrong with this "you've become independent despite being seen as diminished for it, and now that you've been rejected, you are free" thing. It flows well enough with themes of identity formation and the DUrge backstory of having an identity founded on pleasing their father.

But despite that what I may have found most enthralling about DUrge was this possibly unintentional allegory of mental illness, where you're managing intrusive thoughts, voices in your head, terrible internal putdowns, blackouts, and this total lack of certainty that you will ever know yourself the way people around you can known themselves. And when you try to tell other people, they don't believe you. They don't believe you, or their non-dismissal is bundled up in the idea that surely a better doctor will just fix you forever. There must be a cleric who can magic it all away so you aren't Like This anymore. It feels like your companions really just don't want to talk about it when it becomes uncomfortable or actually real. Their reactions become about their own discomfort rather than your need for support, and that can make you see yourself as especially dangerous and the act of confiding as an act of harm. Other NPCs dismiss you as a liar or a joker, or attempt to take advantage of you. I remember Halsin responding to the earnest confession of amnesia by implying that Kasander was intentionally withholding information from him to spite him. Over the course of acts 1 and 2 I slowly went from trying to be honest with everyone to seek support to being more calculated with what I was showing because I knew I couldn't trust the party with my experiences, and that was one of the most viscerally real experiences I've ever had in a game. Like damn discussing symptoms that negatively impact other people can be Exactly like that lmao. Or ones that just sound weird to them. And having Jaheira be the first person to listen and actually believe without making the conversation about what a problem you had become to her was just as emotional as the real experience. And I really, truly have no idea how much of this was meant to track like that and how much was just a well crafted piece of speculative supernatural fantasy.

At any rate, it does make the "and I'll never have urges again" end of DUrge feel like a slap in the face when you're in this Sauce. It was so fulfilling to be able to acknowledge and understand the source of DUrge's symptoms and to have the seeds of a reliable support network with Jaheira and Minsc, and I loved that foundation for moving in a direction of "this is a part of you that can't be wished away and you have to live with without any assurance that it will end, but you'll still be okay and you can still decide what direction your life will take and have people in it who love you." Tragic that it is a fantasy game and the actual narrative resolution when you aren't lost in the sauce actually is "it can be wished away and now you and everyone around you is safe from it forever." I think it's a kind of underwhelming finale no matter what but so much of my personal disappointment did just come from being reminded what game I was actually playing.

[skiitter]

God I hate modern fandom sometimes.

[xythlia]

ugh the fucking token gay thing always pisses me off, I hate that it's been rebranded as progressive behavior largely by tiktok idiots 🙄 it's such an early 2000s behavior that a lot of people refuse to realize isn't them being allies like using a gay person as an accessory actually makes you look like an ass girl

fr they think going clubbing w one gay person means they've solved anti lgbt+ issues lmao like u sipping ur vodka cran with them isn't revolutionary same ppl who think taylor swift is a queer icon just bc she did rainbow capitalism the album that one time like it solved all our problems

[rapha-reads]

He then said a score of things to frighten me into complying, but he might as well have been talking to the walls. I watched him intently, but I didn't listen to him. He appeared frail and stupid to me, a man made of dried twigs with a thin, carping voice.

– Interview with the vampire

Is Louis an unreliable narrator? I'm guessing yes, obviously, but did he really dislike Lestat that much, did he grew to love him with time, is he lying to himself either in the past, or in the present...? I have so many questions. Guess I have to keep on reading.

[ladsofsorrow24]

the stupidest fucking thing that white people with severe white savior complex can do is force other people of color to "not forget their tradition"

like we ever forget it in the first place lmao

[logogreffe]

Si je ne t'avais pas, Excalibur l'épée magique

Excuse me monsieur le donneur de leçons mais nous ne pouvons ni voler ni cracher de feu !

Aaah seulement parce que TU m'en empêches ! Si ne t'avais pas je ferais des tas de trucs

Je rockerais avec les dinos F'rais swinger les rhinos Je redragonnerais cette grotte en deux secondes "Cornouailles" ils criraient Car le Roi Dragon je serais Si ta tête immonde n'était pas de ce monde Si je ne t'avais pas Si tu ne m'avais pas !? Si je ne t'avais pas Dis le moi, "si je ne t'avais pas..."Mmh...?

Moi je serais quoi s'il n'y avait que moi Moi je serais quoi si je ne t'avais pas ?

Arrêtez de vous chamailler, vous vous donnez en spectacle !

Spectacle, quelqu'un parle de spectacle? J'adôôre le spectacle ! Si j'n'avais pas ta tête de lard, Je ferais carrière dans l'art De ce royaume je s'rais la star Et toi, ringard, tu resterais dans le noir Si je ne t'avais pas Ouais, ça me ferait des vacances Si je ne t'avais pas ! Sans moi tu s'rais ...mort

Moi je serais quoi s'il n'y avait que moi Moi je f'rais quoi si je ne t'avais pas ? Moi je f'rais quoi, si je ne t'avais pas ?

Ah, au secours ! Dire que je t'ai sur le dos, depuis près de 500 ans ! Oh, le voila champion de calcul Avec un bon avocat, je m's'rais fait la malle y'a 400 ans Une minute vielle branche, je refuse de me faire incendier ! Hey, tu pètes pas le feu d'habitude !

Je s'rais un lézard cracheur de feu Moi un sorcier aux ailes bleues Tu ne s'rais rien sans moi crois moi, Tu s'rais éteint, tu ne s'rais pas J'en ai ras le bol de tes "gnagna" Et moi de tes fanfaronnades Haha, sans moi niguaud, t'as pas de cerveau Pas de duooo !

{ reprendre les deux couplets du début ensemble } Si ta tête immonde n'était pas de ce monde !

Si je ne t'avais pas Si je ne t'avais pas Si je ne t'avais pas Si je ne t'avais pas Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Par ici, c'est moi qui conduis Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Hey, dis donc, t'as pas un peu grossi, toi ?

Ce serait la joie d'avoir deux pieds à moi Moi je f'rais quoi si je ne t'avais pas I got you, babe Moi je f'rais quoi si je ne t'avais paaas Oooh, yeah Moi je serais quoi Moi je ferais quoi Sans toi-oi ? Merci, merci, merci beaucoup, merci encore Hey, dis donc, on t'as jamais dit que tu chantais comme un pied, toi ?

[shinobicyrus]

"It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism."

-Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism

‘how did disney let them make andor omg!’ ‘lol netflix let them make blockbuster that’s so funny’

[guillaumechocu]

Exposition "EXISTER" du 22 novembre 2024 au 17 janvier 2025 à la NEF de la Halle Roublot de Fontenay-sous-Bois. Je suis très heureux d'avoir rejoint le collectif d'artistes Ohého et d'exposer parmi eux pour la première fois ! Il y aura de très nombreuses animations (concerts, spectacles, contes et ateliers) pendant toute la durée de l'exposition. Tout le programme et les horaires sont à retrouver sur le site de la ville : EXISTER - Fontenay - site culturel

[stevensavage]

We’re Not Serious

Ted Giola wrote a fascinating article asking if the US is in a crisis of seriousness. I found this relevant as it codified my feelings about many things the last year or two, as well as the election. As I often warn, this column’s inspirations may not be who you think, but it’s easy to think it’s about THEM. So assume this post is about everyone including you and me.

The article is worth a read, so much so that I’ll just summarize it that ye, the US and to an extent the world is in a crisis of seriousness. We’re performative, we’re working on outrage, our culture is about special effects and marketing, but none of it is serious. Everything is a business, marketing, or frivolous - and oft mass-marketed (I’d argue the latter somewhat). Even when we attempt to be serious there’s nothing too serious about it as we churn out memes and pointless protest and anything but real stuff that feels real and is real.

If we can even recognize reality anymore.

This struck me as for the last year or two I’ve been feeling a decreased lack of interest in many things. It wasn’t depression as I had no sign of that. I was enthused about things, new things, in ways I hadn’t experienced before or in decades. But so much felt empty or pointless, disconnected.

New anime, so what. Some films that looked cool, but . . . eh. Same old same old. No there there. Unserious.

Now I look at this idea that so much of life is performative, unseriousness, spectacle (dare I say, a Society of the Spectacle) that I realize how much I don’t care. I’m bogged down in ads I didn’t want, on websites I don’t like anymore if I ever did, and while I can find great, truly real things on YouTube or Roku, a lot, and I mean a lot is performative shallowness.

And politics? Well I couldn’t tell eighty percent of that from my Youtube or Podcast surfing, or the memes that came across facebook, or anything else. So much is InstaXTubeBook posts (made worse with AI), so much is performing. It’s no wonder people embrace “authentic” even if most of the time they don’t know what authenticity is anymore.

But it wasn’t just this performative, unseriousness element. I realized what made this worse than annoying is that our Unseriousness in the US (and elsewhere) is paired with something worse. Something that together with this unseriousness puts us in pretty deep trouble.

I’ve written here - as many have written elsewhere - about how our economies and governments actually don’t do what we need. A lot of systems have gone stark raving mad, because people focus on things not related to the job they say they’re going to do. You can become rich laying off most of your company and juicing stocks even though your company doesn’t do the job it says it does. Politicians cut all sorts of insane ads to get into office to deliver nothing - its a joke how many get caught endorsing the results of a bill they performatively rejected.

We have economic and political systems where people benefit from not actually doing what they say they’re going to do. We’ve built A System that smart, or clever, or lucky people can manipulate for fame and power, but it has nothing to do with what we say it does. You can get rich by not doing anything useful - and are probably destructive - and be hailed a “leader” or a “genius.”

The Economy and Politics are complex systems, built over decades and centuries, and some people learned how to push the buttons over and over so money pops out.

Now combine the Unserious and Performative with Gaming The System and you get an extremely dangerous and toxic blend. How many so called “leaders” or “experts” are just people putting on an act and who found where the Money Button is? They don’t do anything productive or useful - in fact they’re destructive - but they learned to put on an oft-buffoonish act and how to get that bread.

It reminds me of a person grousing about politics saying, roughly, “at least sometimes kings had to lead a battle.” They weren’t royalist at all, but were making a similar point that useful should be important.

That’s where I find myself, looking at my disgust and dissatisfaction over the last few years, Giola helped me see it. It’s the lack of seriousness and the manipulation of the system, entirely disconnected from anything real. We’ve built a stupidly complex world we didn’t need, didn’t really want, and boy did some idiots get rich off of it.

I said at the start this should be taken as being about you and me first, before we talk The Others. I can honestly say the last year or so I’ve looked back at myself and seen how much I’ve done that was Unserious in the bad way. Yes it got me here, but I can also see how much time and resources and even relationships I wasted not being properly serious.

At least I have the self awareness, but as we’ve been careening around the last few decades, I don’t think a lot of people “in charge” do.

(By the way, don’t expect this to be the last column on the subject. Like “The Unaccountability Machine” this one hit HARD.)

Steven Savage

www.StevenSavage.com

www.InformoTron.com