>Actually, I was thinking of the war prop dreck as a good example
>of my point. But why diss Memento? Cool stuff; maybe I'm easy,
>but I'd call it good art.
I agree with you about Memento, thought it was great.
This is why I kinda lost interest in
>the humanities as an undergraduate despite my "artsy" self-concept
>at the time: I say it's good, you say it's shite, we just have to
>shrug and go on, or engage in pointless quasi-theological debate.
>
I'd been meaning to say something about this, but this is the perfect occasion. I hope people have been noticing Carol's recent wonderful discussions of poetry, showing how good and insightful literary criticism can be when it's handled by someone who really knows what he's talking about. Carrol can really open up the black box and show you the gears and nuts and bolts of a poem. I bet he was a super teacher. What he did in those post is not pointless quasi-theological dispute, its professional craftsmanship of a very high order. Film criticism can be like that too, see the work of James Agee or the early Pauline Kael, for example, not just the Siskel/Ebert thumbs up or down.
jks
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