We Aren’t Just Watching the Decline of the Oscars. We’re Watching the End of the Movies.
by Ross Douthat – March 25th, 2022
Thanks to some tumblr posters, there were a few screenshotted pics of sections of this article availble to me, despite my ‘free article limit’ being reached, though… I don’t think I’ve read a single article from the NY Times, free or not, this month. So I’ll post those, and then, rebut.
And, my rebuttal:
A few things this – this articles talks a lot about the decline of the medium of film STRICTLY in terms of profit revenue.
It compares the decline of film to the rise of the internet as a medium.
The internet itself is designed in a way, thanks to money, that discourages cohesive community based around sharing artistic experience DUE to the influence of money on social media, nature of forums, what is seen.
The increase of diversity of options does not mean people are not connecting to art. In fact, it likely means the opposite, that people are connecting more deeply to art more connected with them.
Whether this means people are growing apart or coming together, over art, is a function of money’s role in social organization.
And finally, this kind of talk about ‘social cohesion’ around art dissipating, has been around since the days of radio becoming television, people no longer all sitting in front of the same three stations, out on the porch listening to the baseball game with the rest of community. It could be construed in a few ways, as a breakdown, in a misread narrative of ‘postmodernism’, which is often combated by those who speak in such terms in the very manner likely to make it more stark and increased.
I read somewhere a while back, I can’t remember the source, it was some zine, or a blog talking about movies, one of those that watches a lot of random shit likely. Maybe it was ‘Zombies Don’t Run’ or something random, fleeting, where the writer said the most profound shit about movies I’ve ever heard.
“It’s a movie, you watch it, mix it with your shitty life, and if anything there clicks…”
That’s what it is. It’s Cinema Paradiso. It’s The Dreamers. The New York Times really don’t have much room to talk about wanting to make our society some great artistic culture or whatthefuckever.
And the Oscars continual strive to become relevant to someone other than the CEO of some abandoned Blockbuster Video is the sign that the ripped out heart of the American wild spirit is still limping on its beat towards retribution for all the middle ground it’s covered while so many drowned in its wasting blood.
Don’t tell me art is dying. Start fires and see what catches.
The Haunted Typewriter 