Writes Ross Douthat, in "Can We Make Pop Culture Great Again?" (NYT).
I got totally sidetracked by "dispensation." Here's my interaction with Grok that convinced me that Douthat didn't make a weird word choice. It's an excellent word choice, and I enjoyed reading about the religious meanings of "dispensation," including dividing history up into "dispensations" based on God's different approaches to dealing with us human beings. Grok lists 7 "dispensations," beginning with "innocence" in the Garden of Eden.
But back to movies. I wondered if there are any movies about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. There are lots of paintings on this subject. What about movies? Grok pointed me to "The Private Lives of Adam and Eve" a 1960 movie in which a modern couple dreams they Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Who should play Adam and Eve in 1960? Yes! You are right: Martin Milner and Mamie Van Doren (with Mickey Rooney as The Devil):
What if we could make pop culture great again and we made it great again like that?
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We've got rap music, which is about as low-brow negative-vibe culture possible.
Poor Mickey Rooney. He wasn't tall enough to land the romantic lead roles. Stuck playing the Devil!
I was just reading an article about how "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was made, despite the studios concerns. Basically, Coca-Cola wanted to sponsor a cartoon, and the studio had spent the money before they saw Linus' Bible scene. They had no choice but to broadcast. The motto of the story is: hire innovative artists and then misdirect the corporate heads until it's too late for them to pull the project.
Chunky David Brooks leading the cultural revolution. No one who sees the pasty drones guiding "elite" opinion can be completely surprised at the rise of President Donald Trump.
"American politics seem to have moved into a new dispensation — more unsettled and extreme..." Interesting, isn't it, that even the "conservative" NYT columnist labels the correction to lefty policy, Dem lawfare, Biden corruption, and and cultural wokeness "extreme." The secret to Trump's success is to make the GOP move to the middle--no pro-life grandstanding (sorry, social cons), no foreign wars (sorry, neocons), no free trade ueber alles (sorry, libertarians), no illegal alien lawbreaking (sorry, business & ag profiteers). DJT is a Dick Gephart Republican, though DG was a bit more socially conservative.
I too, precisely the same as Mr. Douthat, am worried, deeply worried that the relationship between art and commerce isn’t working as it should.
Today's Adam and Eve should be Austin Butler and Margaret Qualley directed by Taika Waititi, who would also play the Devil.
The next time Douthat writes something worth paying attention to, will be the first? Why this guy rates a column in any newspaper at all, much less something with residual fame like the Times...
You have heard the adage that politics is downstream from culture, well did you know that Donald Trump's name appeared in rap music, Home Along II style, something like 200 times before he even got into politics? Mostly as a man to be emulated?
I don't know how Republicans ever catch lightening in a bottle like this again, but if you want to be bigoted, the Democrats are looking for supporters.
Amen.
The NYT has installed feminine hygiene products in the men’s restrooms. FACT.
I observe that country music is really in ascendance and crossing over in all other genres.
Douthat-- a leading member of the chattering classes. And hence mostly irrelevant. But our host graciously assumes the task of reading the NYT. To paraphrase Joe Willie Namath--"Better her than me".
Kate: "Poor Mickey Rooney. He wasn't tall enough to land the romantic lead roles. Stuck playing the Devil!" Well, it was better for his image than when he played Japanese in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
That movie had a strange "Wizard of Oz" motif to it (storm, switch between black and white, real-life characters taking on other personae in a dream).
Also, maybe that movie is the reason why Jack Webb called the series Adam-12? Instead of Kent McCord, however, they should have had a scantily clad MVD.
I got totally sidetracked by "adumbrated."
Or stuck playing Puck.
He has a point. The 60s were much more politically turbulent and 60s pop culture was fantastic. The music from the 60s, especially that driven by the war protest movement was phenomenal compared to the bland shit that is put out today. The best of modern music in my opinion is indie rock with performers like Phoebe Bridgers, Boy Genius, Lord Huron, Iron and Wine, etc. But those groups aren’t mainstream pop. Mainstream modern pop is bland shit like Taylor Swift and Beyonce.
He has a point. The 60s were much more politically turbulent and 60s pop culture was fantastic. The music from the 60s, especially that driven by the war protest movement was phenomenal compared to the bland shit that is put out today. The best of modern music in my opinion is indie rock with performers like Phoebe Bridgers, Boy Genius, Lord Huron, Iron and Wine, etc. But those groups aren’t mainstream pop. Mainstream modern pop is bland shit like Taylor Swift and Beyonce.
The left are always in a holy snit when they lose. Layering over-wrought hysterics on top of their nonsensical prognostications.
I know loyal democrats who think Trump is Hitler and we are now Nazi Germany again.
These are *unserious MSNBC-watchers -- who know nothing about WWII.
Were there any worthwhile insights in that column by Ross Douthat?
America went nuts for a couple of decades, and finally elected a center-right candidate. Confidence in the government and corporate media have dropped into the basement, but Douthat is worried about the movie industry?
The decline in the movie industry is the easiest to explain. Technology like video games, streaming and cheap electronics all work against going to the movies.
A creative class with a mono-culture isn't going to create great art.
"But I’m worried about pop culture"..
oh! Don't Be. pop culture is COMPLETELY HEALTHY.
https://www.eonline.com/news/1411037/onlyfans-model-lily-phillips-has-sex-with-100-men-in-one-day
and Guess who filmed this for her? That's RIGHT! her MOTHER.
Her mother didn't JUST allow her to f*ck 100 men in a day..
Her mother didn't JUST WATCH her f*ck 100 men in a day..
Her mother VIDEOED her f*ck 100 men in a day..
but wait! there's MORE HOPE for our culture!!
Lily Phillips NOW wants to have sex with 1,000 men in 24 hours
The prudish sex repressed Romans have NOTHING on OUR WONDERFUL Culture!!
in case anyone missed it.. On-line porn *IS* our pop culture
Good grief, I just read the column. Man, is Ross Doughnut vapid. Basically his whole complaint is : "Why cant we have more movies like Barbie and oppenheimer?" Good movies that have CULTURAL IMPACT. Judas Priest, what a low bar. When your Gold standard is a silly movie about a doll, and a Boring long-winded movie that celebrates a man who invented the most evil weapon ever devised, I dunno what to say. I mean, I'm still not clear why all that crap about Admiral Strauss was in the movie.
Does Ross Doughnut have something on the Sulzberger family? He makes Rod Dreher seem hip and intelligent.
Ross Doughnut makes one obvious point. Our "Culture" such as it is, is "Fragmented". And that's somehow a bad thing to Ross. I think its a good thing. For the first time since WW II, we no longer have a top down, one size fits all pop culture. You don't have to see the latest Hollywood movie or turn on ABC/NBC/CBS to get some entertainment. You have choices. And people can now view and listen to what they want.
He has a side comment about how good Novels are still being written but they don't seem important. Well, that's because the big publishers are in control. Novels are still "Top down". And the publishing industry has decided only certain kinds of novels and certain authors will be published.
The Adam and Eve story has so many inconsistencies and plot holes that I wonder at its persistence as the foundational account of human and divine nature in Judeo-Christian culture.
No. And the cuckoo clock is German. (Get off my lawn, Ross)
Culture may thrive in times of upheaval as societies pass from one stage or form to another. It also has a tendency to burn itself out. Societies settle back down again, and the cultural renaissance exploited and consumed so much that what comes afterwards is repetitive and derivative. Now we have a lot of noise of conflict, but mainstream society doesn't seem to be going anywhere or changing into anything interesting or remarkable. Both in art and in life becoming mainstream means great difficulty in saying anything original. The media turn to the fringes of society looking for originality -- LGBTQ, BIPOC, immigrants, and of course feminists and women in general -- but how long is that going to last?
Boomers and pre-Boomers made a big splash in popular culture in the 60s and 70s. Their experience growing up had been very different from that of earlier generations. That gave them a lot to say. Xers and late Boomers made a name for themselves in the 90s expressing the disappointments of those who felt their lives were more malaise than boom. Millennials and Gen Z have the same complaints, but they've already been expressed. The quirky little independent films that expressed their state of mind have already been made, so the culture falls back on comic book movies.
"The Private Life of Adam and Eve" was also a work by Mark Twain. It doesn't sound like it had much to do with the movie.
"A new dispensation" works better if you get Michael Hutchence to sing it.
Oof. Fair. Rooney was marvelous as a former jockey. I prefer to forget he spoofed a horrible Japanese stereotype.
What I don’t think that they are taking into account is that MAGA won, and DEI lost, the election. By Election Day, it seemed like everyone who was anyone was doing his Trump dance moves. On the football field, instead of High Fiving, the players were Trumping. In colleges across the country, the hot guys went MAGA in the summer, followed by the hot chicks, in the fall. My partner asked why I joined a fraternity when I was in college. And one good reason was that that’s where the hot girls hung out. Well, that seems to be coming back. The cool kids on campus went proudly MAGA. The overweight pink haired DEI worshipping harridans are starting to be seen as the losers they are. One consequence of this is that Woke movies and the like are going to crash worse and worse. No more race or gender bending.
No wonder the liberal Hollywood elite is melting down - they are becoming irrelevant. We know an early thirty something writer/director/producer who lives part time with us at Trump International in Las Vegas. He hangs out there to get work done, when Hollywood gets too overwhelming. By fall, employment opportunities were exploding for him. He’s Jewish, pro-Israel, tall, well groomed, and conservative. Last time I saw him, he was telling me all the places he had worn his personally signed (cost $300 to a Trump charity) White, with gold lettering, MAGA hat there. Very out and proud. Similarly, best friend’s daughter is mostly based in NYC, doing high tech startup financing. She goes on Zoom calls wearing a red MAGA hat (one of several I gave her father). The same look all those MAGA co-eds made famous right before the election in their videos. First time, she was a bit hesitant. Now it’s part of her trademark. She’s hot, blond, smart, and able to easily out ski, hunt, and probably sail, any of the guys there. And just got a big raise and bigger year end bonus. A year ago, wearing MAGA hats would have likely killed either one of these young adult’s careers.
Hey, &: I would suggest you explore Jordan Peterson's take on the Adam and Eve story. At least be open-minded enough to listen to or read it. I'd be interested in your feedback. TIA
The song "And God Created Woman". Is Prince's take on the Adam and Eve story. It's a great song!
Ross Douthat does, in fact, have a point. But if he wore a little hat, no one would notice.
William Blake and his wife liked to hang out naked in their garden. When caught by a visitor, Blake just said “why it’s only Adam and Eve!”
I think about Blake at least once a day.
JSM
Hindsight imposes order and meaning that wasn’t there during the present.
"New dispensation" is undoubtedly reference to Eliot's "Journey of the Magi"
"We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods."
The sense being that things have changed - the magi having encountered the Christ child - which means that everything has changed. But externally, to the superficial eye, they haven't. How do we live in this situation?
I liked seeing dispensation used in a non-religious context and can understand going down a rabbit hole on that word. He used it nicely, and it made me smile to immediately understand his point. From a Christian perspective, dispensationalism is one approach toward biblical interpretation. There are others. Including those that do not include the concept of a “rapture” (which is a fairly recent concept.)
We are living in an era in which popular culture is completely democratized and atomized. It seems like most baby boomers of influence are still partying like it's 1999. Pop culture is such a 20th century concept
"Ex Machina" was an Adam and Eve movie that doesn't end well for God, or Adam.
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