Kolya on 5/1/2012 at 23:06
I have no idea what you're talking about. But I'm sure it's awfully clever.
Kolya on 5/1/2012 at 23:32
Not funny.
You see when I wanna hear fucked up shit I read the news...
Oh here's a good one: 60.000 Americans were forcibly sterilized between 1907 and 1981. Mostly black American women. And usually because they were officially deemed retarded and promiscuous. Like (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Riddick_Jessie) Elaine Riddick, sterilized by state at age 14, after she'd been raped.
In short: Real life is fucked up enough. I don't need some pubertal comic to show me the mind of a psychotic murderer. I can see that any time I turn my head. And that's not to say I want to see no disturbing stuff in art. Quite to the contrary. It can be a great way to deface atrocities done in the name of whatever prejudice or ideology. But I don't need a comic that wallows in psychotic murderous fantasies. If that's humour to you, I think you're sick. Or very young.
demagogue on 6/1/2012 at 00:41
The point of surrealism from the start was to rip the cover off the idea that life has to be rational and isn't actually some absurd fantasy most of the time. You might not like the idea, but when you start pigeonholing art, like it doesn't have meaning unless it "very practically" helps mankind and "the oppressed" or give some insight into the good & decent life or whatever, there's a chance you may be shutting your eyes and shouting "lalalala, that's puerile, sick & juvenile", to how most of life actually works.
Good surrealism & anti-art is designed to keep us from falling into this trap by obliterating the walls people use to keep life rational, tidy, & contained. And it's not just that real life is fucked up; it's that fuckedupedness is also inside of you, and it's important that you get acquainted with it since it's part of you too; it's even worse if you ignore that part of you -- and "surrealism", "surreal fantasy", and "imagination" can tap into that inner part of you better than the 24 hour news cycle (which, needless to say, is an awful vehicle to any real insight).
That isn't to say Firth is a grandmaster at this... He's still leagues behind people like Breton, Buñuel, Dali, Lynch, etc... But he's on the right track IMO.
Edit: This is an old (& very interesting IMO) debate actually. For background reading cf.: the break of Aragon from surrealism because it didn't "help the people" (he criticized Dali's milk-suit since it was such a waste of good milk, which turned everybody against him), and the big debate between the relationship of surrealism & politics, Breton's expulsion from the Ass'n of Rev Writers for not being "disciplined" enough, but also the great "trial of Dali" & his expulsion for supporting Franco & going commercial but he still kept to the letter of the surrealist manifesto & its revolutionary potential better than anyone.
The core of surrealism has always been "imagination is liberation", and you have to let the free imagination out, *especially* the irreverent subversive and discomforting kind, not cover it up; but people have different ideas about what's being "liberated". I've always understood it in a more spiritual sense... It's tapping into the irrational core of ourselves that defines us, and not covering it up with tidy comforting illusions. Politics & "situations" come and go, but that spiritual core is always with us.
Azaran on 6/1/2012 at 01:12
Quote Posted by demagogue
Good surrealism & anti-art is designed to keep us from falling into this trap by obliterating the walls people use to keep life rational, tidy, & contained. And it's not just that real life is fucked up; it's that fuckedupedness is also inside of you, and it's important that you get acquainted with it since it's part of you too, and "surrealism" and "surreal fantasy" can tap into that inner part of you better than the 24 hour news cycle (which, needless to say, is an awful vehicle to any real insight).
That isn't to say Firth is a grandmaster at this... He's still leagues behind people like Breton, Buñuel, Dali, Lynch, etc... But he's on the right track IMO.
Exactly. There's something profoundly fascinating about surrealism, it's hard to explain, but David Firth goes to the core of it (especially Salad Fingers).
As for Dali, I've loved his art since as far back as I can remember, and it has the same effect on me.
For something more lighthearted, (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgZZ82tp5es) George Carlin's 7 Words
SubJeff on 6/1/2012 at 02:23
Quote Posted by Kolya
Not funny.
You see when I wanna hear fucked up shit I read the news...
In short: Real life is fucked up enough. I don't need some pubertal comic to show me the mind of a psychotic murderer.
THIS JUST IN: SURREALISM OFFICIALLY SHIT
GET OUT
june gloom on 6/1/2012 at 04:40
Kolya, you have less of a sense of humour than Batman, only you're not awesome either. How can you even be alive? Fuck you, fuck your delicate East German sensibilities, and while we're at it fuck you again. Seriously, get out. You remind me of people who claim that everything is exploitative and that wanting to be entertained is an exercise in self-nullification.
You're an awful person and you need to rethink your life.
Muzman on 6/1/2012 at 04:43
Here's some reality for folks
(
http://youtu.be/QQSjyYRTDVM) The Vice Guide to Liberia (it's actually worth going to the site to watch the rest, despite the shit you're going to hear)
Can we go back to zany pretend murder and mayhem now thanks?
PigLick on 6/1/2012 at 05:24
Why is it that Kolyas nationality always gets referred to in these powows?
muz been on a Vice guide binge? That video is horrific, in the sense that I cant even fathom how those people live.
