Projects

More than anything I want this blog to simply be a place where I can work through my thoughts about pop culture as they come up. I do have some longer term projects along those lines that I want to pursue. So, here are some of my projects:

Try to understand how creative works become art. What counts? It seems that film is recognized as an art form, but TV is not. Massive interactive installations but not video games. I know this is pretentious, but I want to understand what art and creative work does in our lives, what purpose it serves and what it does for us.

-- Is TV art?
-- Why I don't rewatch movies very often.
-- Similarly why music loses power over time.
-- What is in the canon of popular music.
-- How do the artifacts of popular culture function in society compared to the fine arts artifacts of previous generations?

I also intend to write about politics so far as it interests me. I am primarily interested in systems and big picture issues. It often seems that we try to solve specific issues in society without fully considering how those changes can impact other parts of society. Again, I'm trying to think systemically and, as with my travels in pop culture, to understand the world around me.

Reading List

I am currently not reading much as I am trying to study for the next month, but these books are on my reading list:

How to Read a Film by James Manaco
For Prophet and Tsar: Islam and Empire in Russia and Central Asia by Robert D. Crews
How I Found Livingstone by Henry Morton Stanley
Islam and Democracy by Esposito & Voll
The Secret History A Novel by Donna Tartt
No Country for Old Men A Novel by Cormac McCarthy
Electoral Systems and Democracy by Diamond and Plattner
The American State Constitutional Tradition by John J. Dinah
Mimesis by Erich Auerbach

And I have most recently finished The Freedom Manifesto by Tom Hodgkinson.

That book affected my thinking some. So, expect it to come up occasionally.

A few of my friends have repeatedly told me that I read too much. That's a strange thing, I think, since we often hear how people don't read enough. That criticism--that people don't read enough--usually comes up in some jeremiad, and of course has to be taken skeptically.

I read for a reason though. Despite having two novels on my current reading list, I generally don't read fiction. If I want a story or drama, I will watch a movie. I find movies and TV to be much better at conveying drama than literature. That is not to say, however, that I don't like literature. It's just that if I am going to spend some time reading, I want to learn something. Ultimately, reading is a way for me to learn about the world. And I think that is one of my primary duties as a human being.

Kurt Vonnegut died last year. One retrospective listed this quote from his book God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater:

"Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind."

Here Vonnegut revealed one of the plain truths of our existence. We don't have much time on this little speck of dirt as it circles the sun, so we've got to do the best that we can. For me that does not simply mean being kind but also trying to understand the world.

And that's why I read so much.