Much appreciated. I'm just back from a trip off the mountain: down to Reno, our closest city. They call it the "Biggest Little City" in the world. Reno has always been unspeakably degenerate and ugly. I go every now and then if I have to get to a real store (well, I mean, we do have supermarkets up here, but apart from food, that's about it unless you want to pay twice as much).
I hate going to Reno. If you'll pardon the expression, Henry, I've always said that "Reno is in China," meaning only that it's very far away psychologically.
It's as if I blinked and everything's changed. Reno is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. This, even though it's gambling dens are in a slump - and, what does that tell you about finance capital? The thing is: Reno's casinos can't compete - you can't imagine how pathetically dingy they are. Yet, in Reno there's been so much growth, it's almost unbelievable. By the way, Northern Nevada, including the physical setting of Reno, is one of the most beautiful places you could ever hope to see. Sadly, the Washoe and Carson Valleys are being paved.
But, Reno! Do you know what Cosco is? It's a vastly big warehouse, selling retail to the public at a discount. It's been very successful, so that it has spawned Office Depot, Home Depot, and a bunch of other behemoth distribution outlets that cut the frills - and the costs. Now, I suddenly realize that they've actually generated a whole new vision of urban architecture and landscape (hence, civilized life). Talk about subversive! So much of this Cosco-style city has been built in the last few years, the older city has been overtaken by it. Reno is a desolation of warehouses surrounding parking lots. Wherever the eye roams, it beholds nothing but grey cinder block. Was East Germany something like this? Occasionally, there is an architectural adornment on the minimalist scale. Absurd plaster pilasters, for example, three stories high, jut out from facades like folded cardboard. And, ain't it just great shopping in a warehouse? Remember how Americans used to shop, and how proud they were when they could show Kruschev their dazzling department stores. Forget it! Well, that was sick in another way. Can't we get it right ever? NOT. We're creating a civic environment that has all the charm of a concentration camp.
America is ART-DEAD. I feel such total despair when I think of what is happening to our culture and the inner lives of the people who live it. Even on this list, to which I originally came in search of some kind of revolutionary hope, I find the subject of art coming up frequently, but there's hardly any solace here. I introduced myself to the list in response to a poster's assertion that Wagner's music was fascist. I responded with my own assertion that rock music is fascist, and then I was told to "come down" from "High-Culture Land". I guess Punk Music is where it's at because Schoenberg supposedly requires a doctoral degree (hah!). People who could regale you up the yin and down the yang in indignation over what they call anti-intellectualism on the left see nothing odd about treating "High Culture" as if it's something to "come down" from. People have been telling me all my life to come down. Actually, I like being high. That's why it just right on this mountaintop. I can't bear to see what is happening to humanity.
Without solace, Quincy