Quote:
Originally Posted by SATCHMO
(Post 622429)
loved The Unbearable Lightness of Being! Will have to check out The Farewell Party
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I've been looking for someone to talk to me about this book.
One of my favorite concepts from the book:
" ... the aesthetic ideal of the categorical agreement with being is a world in which **** is denied and everyone acts as though it did not exist. This aesthetic ideal is called kitsch.
"Kitsch" is a German word born in the middle of the sentimental 19th century, and from German it entered all Western languages. Repeated use, however, has obliterated its original metaphysical meaning. Kitsch is the absolute denial of ****, in both the literal and the figurative senses of the word; kitsch excludes everything from its purview which is essentially unacceptable in human existence...
Those of us who live in a society where various political tendencies exist side by side and competing influences cancel or limit one another can manage more or less to escape the kitsch inquisition: the individual can preserve his individuality; the artist can create unusual works. But whenever a single political movement corners power, we find ourselves in the realm of totalitarian kitsch.
[In this realm], all answers are given in advance and prelude any questions. It follows, then, that the true opponent of totalitarian kitsch is the person who asks questions." |
