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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Rob wrote:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>> We're in
the age of spectacle's triumph over meaning, as Jameson sez, and<BR>> this is
the only way it can go. That relates the new Nascar tracks to
M&M<BR>> to PissChrist to Madonna to Benneton ads to XFL to Pulp Fiction
to the fact<BR>> people are actually seriously considering McVeigh's request
to whatever<BR>> 'reality' fabrication Fox will bring us next to the
implosion of society.<BR>> <BR>> A lion eating a Christian is a spectacle
for a week or two, but everybody<BR>> knows you're eventually gonna have to
have someone (preferably a relative)<BR>> publicly violating the Christian
first, after that mebbe someone doing the<BR>> lion first ... and then,
eventually, well, afterwards, I guess.<BR>> </FONT><BR></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>First, Rob, I would take the XFL out of
the equation. Its ratings are dropping every week, proving that even with an
injection of PG-13 sexual tease, bad football is bad football, and most football
fans know the difference. The XFL is gonzo, but not in the way that Vince
McMahon had hoped.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>I actually liked the Benneton ads. Cut
through the crap, as they say. And as for McVeigh, I'm all in favor of
televising his execution. Indeed, I think lethal injections should be televised
live, from various angles, including a close-up of the convict's face at the
moment of death. Americans should have their noses rubbed in the corpses; and
while for some this may serve to desensitize them to capital punishment, I trust
that most would be appalled and might have to rethink their beliefs. See Camus'
"Reflections of the Guillotine".</FONT></DIV>
<DIV></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2>Gordon
wrote:</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>> Anyway, I
wonder if anyone actually seeks out the consumers<BR>> of transgressive art,
low or high, to find out what it is<BR>> they like about it. Off the
top of my head, I'd say it's a<BR>> substitute for freedom in an increasingly
repressive<BR>> society, but then lots of increasingly repressive
societies<BR>> and increasingly repressed people don't seem to go for
it.<BR>></FONT></FONT></DIV>
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size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Most "transgressive" art is consumed by white, suburban teenaged boys, and
those in their early 20s. My nephew and his best friend, both 20, listen to all
manner of foul stuff, yet each is as straight and conformist as can be. My
nephew's friend regularly makes for me compilation tapes and CDs of the music he
likes, and thus I've been exposed numerous sounds I'd never get around to
hearing. I think there's an element of passive rebellion in listening to this
music, for it suggests a wilder world outside of cul-de-sac land. For me in the
late 70s it was punk. But then I moved to NY so I could be a bohemian too. These
kids have no such ambition. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>DP</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>