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There are many ways to prop up a currency artificially. “We’re wrestling with the same stuff as Rilke,” Bono recently told The New York Times about Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the hapless Broadway wonder for which he collaborated on the music. More specifically, “Rilke, Blake, ‘Wings of Desire,’ Roy Lichtenstein, the Ramones.” I was not previously aware of the Rilkean elements in “Rockaway Beach.” Those elements Bono characterized as “the cost of feeling feelings,” which throws the Blakean dimension into question, but never mind. Precision is really not the point. That same month The New Yorker covered the appearance of Jay-Z—the good-guy memoirist who may now be seen in Kanye West’s video in praise of the murder of women—at the New York Public Library, and merrily reported that he was compared “to T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Shakespeare, and Dickens.” One of the authors of those comparisons was the clownish Cornel West, so they are perhaps less surprising. “West recalled a recent meeting between himself, Jay-Z, and Toni Morrison: ‘And you said, “I have been playing Plato to Biggie’s Socrates.’’ And that hit all of us so hard.’” And in that same mean month I read in The New York Times Book Review that Nora Ephron, who most resembles Erma Bombeck, is “like Benjamin Franklin or Shakespeare,” because “her words are now part of the fabric of the English language.” It was “white man’s overbite” that made her an immortelle.
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Lovely, just lovely, from first word to last. I agree with every point made in the first two paragraphs and think they are beautifully brought together in Wieseltier's appreciation of Judd's work in the last paragraph.
And so well written too: concrete, clear, compelling, accessible prose without dumbing anything down.
Wieseltier meditates on natural aristocracy, on a true elite that deserves to be so acknowledged, and rightly and sardonically dismisses those who won't make proper distinctions. As Jake Hersh said, at a time when those around him found it hard to believe in anything, he believes in "those who were truly great, those who were nearer the sun."
A real treat is this piece.
Lovely, just lovely, from first word to last. I agree with every point made in the first two paragraphs and think they are beautifully brought together in Wieseltier's appreciation of Judd's work in the last paragraph.
And so well written too: concrete, clear, compelling, accessible prose without dumbing anything down.
Wieseltier meditates on natural aristocracy, on a true elite that deserves to be so acknowledged, and rightly and sardonically dismisses those who won't make proper distinctions. As Jake Hersh said, at a time when those around him found it hard to believe in anything, he believes in "those who were truly great, those who were nearer the sun."
A real treat is this piece.
I second you, dear bas. Leon W. here writes of what might be called the epistemic closure of the culturati. He describes an odd looping of signs that have become detached from that which they represent and are tossed out cheaply and lightly at cocktail parties and wherever else. Excellent.
I second you, dear bas. Leon W. here writes of what might be called the epistemic closure of the culturati. He describes an odd looping of signs that have become detached from that which they represent and are tossed out cheaply and lightly at cocktail parties and wherever else. Excellent.
Like the women and coming and going talking of Michelangeloing.
Like the women and coming and going talking of Michelangeloing.
Who, were I to cry out, would hear me then among
The playground, the hot concrete? And suppose one took me
Suddenly by the heart: I would blast out the disco on the radio.
For beauty is but the beginning of terror, and we endure it barely
Because it's not hard, not far to reach
Rock rock Rockaway Beach.
Rock rock Rockaway Beach.
Each single angel is terrifying.
Who, were I to cry out, would hear me then among
The playground, the hot concrete? And suppose one took me
Suddenly by the heart: I would blast out the disco on the radio.
For beauty is but the beginning of terror, and we endure it barely
Because it's not hard, not far to reach
Rock rock Rockaway Beach.
Rock rock Rockaway Beach.
Each single angel is terrifying.
Hey rmutt, thanks, first time I ever paid any attention to lyrics via the Ramones. And I like them. But isn't this but a bit of precious: "For beauty is but the beginning of terror, and we endure it barely...?"
Hey rmutt, thanks, first time I ever paid any attention to lyrics via the Ramones. And I like them. But isn't this but a bit of precious: "For beauty is but the beginning of terror, and we endure it barely...?"
On p. 7 of the current issue, John McWhorter writes, "Even the speeches of Millard Fillmore read like Virgil", which is, I would say, just as preposterous a comparison as any that Wieseltier cites.
On p. 7 of the current issue, John McWhorter writes, "Even the speeches of Millard Fillmore read like Virgil", which is, I would say, just as preposterous a comparison as any that Wieseltier cites.
I've been wanting to get to Marfa for a long time. Don't know if I ever will. My architect friend who years ago turned me onto Dia in the West Village and then Beacon spent several days at Marfa years ago and was deeply moved. I've been wanting to make a whole Southwest minimalist art tour taking in Marfa, Roden Crater and Lightening Field.
I've been wanting to get to Marfa for a long time. Don't know if I ever will. My architect friend who years ago turned me onto Dia in the West Village and then Beacon spent several days at Marfa years ago and was deeply moved. I've been wanting to make a whole Southwest minimalist art tour taking in Marfa, Roden Crater and Lightening Field.
The line loses a little of its preciosity when Joey Ramone belts it out, basman.
The line loses a little of its preciosity when Joey Ramone belts it out, basman.
rmutt: The Ramones were always intelligent--certainly more so than Bono. After all did he, like Joey, ever belt out an ironic and mocking song about the Bay of Pigs? Or German triumphalism? Or turning tricks on Third Avenue? The older I get, the less of Bono I can take. I'd never seen those Rockaway Beach lyrics, and they're really something.
rmutt: The Ramones were always intelligent--certainly more so than Bono. After all did he, like Joey, ever belt out an ironic and mocking song about the Bay of Pigs? Or German triumphalism? Or turning tricks on Third Avenue? The older I get, the less of Bono I can take. I'd never seen those Rockaway Beach lyrics, and they're really something.
...The line loses a little of its preciosity when Joey Ramone belts it out, basman...
I'll check that out, for sure.
And "preciosity," very nice word.
Thanks again rmutt.
...The line loses a little of its preciosity when Joey Ramone belts it out, basman...
I'll check that out, for sure.
And "preciosity," very nice word.
Thanks again rmutt.
You're quite welcome - but I hope my little pleasantry doesn't set you up for disappointment; when you're checking out Rockaway Beach - a remarkable and enduring performance, seriously - don't forget to check out Rilke's overpowering First Duino Elegy, as well, though perhaps not at the same time. I suggest playing the one LOUD among boisterous friends; read the other in quiet privacy, somewhere that's also hosted your dreams. Speaking personally, it sometimes makes me giddy to realize how many guises real culture can assume!
None of those guises looks or sounds much like Bono, though. We're on the same page there, Molly. And more generally, I certainly agree that nothing is gained but dispir ... view full comment
You're quite welcome - but I hope my little pleasantry doesn't set you up for disappointment; when you're checking out Rockaway Beach - a remarkable and enduring performance, seriously - don't forget to check out Rilke's overpowering First Duino Elegy, as well, though perhaps not at the same time. I suggest playing the one LOUD among boisterous friends; read the other in quiet privacy, somewhere that's also hosted your dreams. Speaking personally, it sometimes makes me giddy to realize how many guises real culture can assume!
None of those guises looks or sounds much like Bono, though. We're on the same page there, Molly. And more generally, I certainly agree that nothing is gained but dispirited amusement when status-anxious middlebrows hurl all the variegated forms of human creativity into one irrelevant stew of ignorant name-checking, which is what I take Mr. Wieseltier to be objecting to above. That seems to me more wearying than dangerous, I suppose. The currency of culture is something quite different from its value, after all. Even after the curtain falls on Spiderman, Rockaway Beach will still be not far to reach, and a single angel will still be terrifying. That's how it strikes me, at least.
I've appreciated the thoughtful comments on this site for some time, silently. Thanks for that, too.
Uhh, yeah guys, mutt was doing what's called a mash-up, a fairly clever one it should be said. But did any of you honestly believe that the Ramones penned the line "Each single angel is terrifying"?
Uhh, yeah guys, mutt was doing what's called a mash-up, a fairly clever one it should be said. But did any of you honestly believe that the Ramones penned the line "Each single angel is terrifying"?
90th Street Rockaway Brooklyn is one of the few legitimate surf breaks within NYC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHFUCwjQTyo
90th Street Rockaway Brooklyn is one of the few legitimate surf breaks within NYC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHFUCwjQTyo
Mash up: missed it: how embarassing.
Mash up: missed it: how embarassing.
"Only a man who had traversed “excellent old art” could have distilled it into excellent new art. In Marfa I saw the now and the always, the concrete and the ideal, the overcoming of urbanity, the quiet clarity of aiming high."
Outstanding.
"Only a man who had traversed “excellent old art” could have distilled it into excellent new art. In Marfa I saw the now and the always, the concrete and the ideal, the overcoming of urbanity, the quiet clarity of aiming high."
Outstanding.