A Philistine Confessional

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
This coming from a Harry Potter fanboy. Presumably you'd rather wear a child's fake Rolex to the real thing too.

Creation of a world and actual, genuine storytelling are two different things. And Tolkein could only do one well (though he did do that really, really well) .

[onodera]

I don't get modern art, the installations and -isms one. For me, the more a picture looks like a retouched photo, the better it is.
I don't really understand why Tolkien made so many people lose their heads. LotR is long and not very entertaining.
I do not think that The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov is a great book. It's not bad, but not great either.

[Wezil]

Originally posted by Elok
Please stop talking about $%#@! Fight Club. This is a Philistine Confessional thread, not a Defend Popular Cinematic Abortions thread. You want to do that, start your own.

I'm sorry but as you know opinions are like ***holes (everyone's got one) but I am compelled to speak out when a particularly smelly one presents itself.

[Nostromo]

Great thread idea.

There are certainly a lot of philistines here, but only a few people have actually confessed that maybe, just maybe they could be philistines, that they know jack ****.

I read the The Idiot by Dostoevsky and I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't say its one of the best books I ever read. And I couldn't even begin to explain why so many people think its one of the best books ever written. I probably didn't get it.

The same is true of Mozart. I enjoy listening to him (although I find him a bit boring at times), but I couldn't even begin to explain why he's considered one of the greatest composers of all time.

[Q Classic]

Ah, another one. The Bible is pure ****. It reads like a book written by a committee, with one of them being that boring family geneologist that nobody wants to talk to, another being a very unhappy individual who has it in for anything pleasurable, a bunch of people with no concept of plot or dialogue... I guess it's like the LotR, in a way. It's a piece of fiction that some people go ass over ankles for in their adulation.

[Q Classic]

Oh! That game all of you seem obsessed about, Civilization. What utter crock. All it is is a prettied up database.

[Q Classic]

Oh, and whoever it was that carved Venus de Milo, he sucks too. The whole point of carving a perfectly beautiful goddess is not to crudely lop off her arms, serial-killer style.

[BeBMan]

Don't forget that Da Vinci guy. Universal genius my ass. Sure, some things sounded impressive, like those tank and airplane thingies. But it was the same as with Hitler and his Wunderwaffen -- high-flying projects but nothing realized. But yeah, he painted some pics too.

[lord of the mark]

whats wrong with me - I like abstract expressionism, AND tolkien, AND the hebrew bible, AND Harry Potter, and Alan Ginsburg (well the opening lines of Howl, anyway) and, as far as I can remember them, Hawthorne and Doestevsky and at least some Dickens. And Mozart.


So I dunno. I guess I didnt care for Proust. I like Glass's music, but i think his ecological phil is over rated. I was never a big fan of Mahler. Or Nietsche.

Theres a helluva lot of recent pop culture I dont much like but that goes with the grey hairs, I guess.

[Vesayen]

Abstract paintings.

It's crap. Sorry.

Geometric shapes and such? Those can be good, providing they are sufficiently complex.

Landscapes? Shiver me timbers.

People, places and things? Sounds great.

Some jackasses nose slapped onto the back of his left elbow? No thanks.

Some no talent hack painting a canvas with paint pressed out of their colon? I'll pass.

Likewise interpretive dance is one fool convincing other fools something is special when it is not.

Covering a certain famous German center of government in a petroleum product is likewise asinine.

Basically? If your average educated western European man from the 18th century would not recognize it as “art”, then it is not art to me, at least as far as paintings go.



Also, despite being a voracious reader, I also hated the lord of the rings.

[Nostromo]

I repeat:

There are certainly a lot of philistines here, but only a few people have actually confessed that maybe, just maybe they could be philistines, that they know jack ****.

In other words, this isn't a X or Y is overrated thread, but phillistine confessional.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Landscapes? Shiver me timbers.

People, places and things? Sounds great.

People, places, and things & landscapes are horribly dull in painting. If you want that sort of stuff, do photography.

[Verto]

Originally posted by Jaguar
Lord of the Rings. Yes, you have a vivid, crazy, gigantic world with a rich cultural history. Too bad you ****ing suck at storytelling.

Shut this thread down

[Seeker]

Tolstoy: Anna Karenin, Brothers Karamazov, War & Peace....why did I waste so much time reading them? They're intelligent, well-crafted utterly boring pieces of ****e.

New Stephen King:
As soon as Stephen King wrote a book called 'On Writing' and deluded himself into thinking he should produce something called 'literature' he became unbearable. I just can't read new stephen king.

Hermann Hesse: All his books are the same, and basically about how much of a godlike genius the author is, when you get down to it.

'the Movement' school of poetry, as exemplified by Philip Larkin: It's like a long, drawn out suicide note written by some chubby dilettante while standing in a window whilst all below are chanting 'jump! jump! jump!'.

For a laugh, write your friends Christmas cards in the Philip Larkin style.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Nostromo
I repeat:





In other words, this isn't a X or Y is overrated thread, but phillistine confessional.

I dont think its working