I happen to think that the pixel-block orca sculpture pictured in this post is badass. It's the juxtaposition with the tiled deck and the natural beauty of the aquatic parkland scene in the background that gets it all working. The balance of all of those elements in the composition. Granted, it may be that it's the photo that I like the most, more than the sculpture itself. But that may be an element of its genius, as a commentary on the age of ubiquitous digital images, and digital imagery. The pixel orca wants to be immortalized, for its low-res performance of showing out. Showing out like Shamu in some 1980s video arcade game. Super Mario goes to Marineland. In Legoland.
I'm with you on this one (though the artist's statement is demented: the colours represent the diversity of workers at the harbour?! Which of the them are fucking GREY!).
In my case, it's closer to the mark to blame the pernicious influence of California Funk Art for my dubious & suspect taste in sculpture. Wayne Thiebaud.
Also, Jeff Koons. Bizarro World Jeff Koons. Instead of a 40 ft. tall version of "Puppy", a ridiculous building block sculpture of a killer whale. From Bizarro World, the land of blue kryptonite, where all curves and arcs are modified into angled corners. Like some world where slopes based off of the square root of minus one just can't quite manage to resolve into smoothed curves.
how many of us are anywhere close to the stark black or white of the orca color scheme, for that matter?
maybe the allusion to "workers" referred to cetacean species. Like, dolphins are gray, narwhals are white, some other kinda whales are black, orcas are both.
One of my favourite bits from weird twitter was when people would insist their favourite novel was Fight Club by Brett Easton Ellis and then refuse to be corrected
Hilarious, did not know that. I just read it and it's honestly more embarrassing than that infamous The Oatmeal post. He literally says it's okay for Elon Musk to mistreat his employees "because he's smart" [citation needed].
In that mid-80s flurry of Gen-X novels about Gen-Xers, I always thought “In Country,” written by Boomer Bobbie Ann Mason, was better and more lasting, for all of its focus on the Vietnam War’s 1980s echoes.
I have something planned on Wallace for next year to coincide with the anniversary of Infinite Jest, but I just wanted to take one out on Coupland for the time being. As for Wallace, a spoiler ahead of time: I think he's "fine." I think Infinite Jest is "alright," I think the fans have always been too overly-enthusiastic but I think the backlash I also don't entirely agree with. But certainly one of the worst things about IJ is its Gen X hysteria -- all that bombastic satire stuff in the book is so tiresome and juvenile, including the "subsidized time" gimmick. That and it's AA propaganda, an organization that probably deserved a more critical eye.
His fiction doesn't really do it for me but a number of his essays are I think quite good -- "E Unibus Pluram" was a big influence on me as a young person, I've cited it once before here and I have a draft deep in my dozens of drafts where I cite it a second time. I think he had a pretty good idea of where literature was and where it was going, even if I think his writing itself was sub-par. Of course it's worth mentioning that he was also a creep, something I'm surprised it took people so long to clue into -- that Lipsky book on Wallace all the fans like so much really makes Wallace look like such a pathetic and insecure person, and one of the very first things he does in the book is talk to Lipsky about his sexual proclivities.
I admittedly haven't read any McBride, but didn't think he was so pigeonholed as being such a Gen X writer especially. I have more to say on Wallace at a later time (I got into it in more detail in response to another comment on this article), but for now I thought just hitting hit with that line was amusing.
Generations of artists are more helpfully categorized by cultural generation, which is what I do here. For instance, Dave Eggers is technically a Gen X'er (and is ALSO washed up) but it would feel wrong to place him in that category because he was such a culturally millennial figure.
I happen to think that the pixel-block orca sculpture pictured in this post is badass. It's the juxtaposition with the tiled deck and the natural beauty of the aquatic parkland scene in the background that gets it all working. The balance of all of those elements in the composition. Granted, it may be that it's the photo that I like the most, more than the sculpture itself. But that may be an element of its genius, as a commentary on the age of ubiquitous digital images, and digital imagery. The pixel orca wants to be immortalized, for its low-res performance of showing out. Showing out like Shamu in some 1980s video arcade game. Super Mario goes to Marineland. In Legoland.
I'm with you on this one (though the artist's statement is demented: the colours represent the diversity of workers at the harbour?! Which of the them are fucking GREY!).
I am with neither of you but I'm glad you have your voxel Redditcore sculpture
<3
In my case, it's closer to the mark to blame the pernicious influence of California Funk Art for my dubious & suspect taste in sculpture. Wayne Thiebaud.
Also, Jeff Koons. Bizarro World Jeff Koons. Instead of a 40 ft. tall version of "Puppy", a ridiculous building block sculpture of a killer whale. From Bizarro World, the land of blue kryptonite, where all curves and arcs are modified into angled corners. Like some world where slopes based off of the square root of minus one just can't quite manage to resolve into smoothed curves.
how many of us are anywhere close to the stark black or white of the orca color scheme, for that matter?
maybe the allusion to "workers" referred to cetacean species. Like, dolphins are gray, narwhals are white, some other kinda whales are black, orcas are both.
One of my favourite bits from weird twitter was when people would insist their favourite novel was Fight Club by Brett Easton Ellis and then refuse to be corrected
surely you saw his article on how cool elon musk is (2021, way too late for even the dumbest libs to think elon musk is cool)
Hilarious, did not know that. I just read it and it's honestly more embarrassing than that infamous The Oatmeal post. He literally says it's okay for Elon Musk to mistreat his employees "because he's smart" [citation needed].
In that mid-80s flurry of Gen-X novels about Gen-Xers, I always thought “In Country,” written by Boomer Bobbie Ann Mason, was better and more lasting, for all of its focus on the Vietnam War’s 1980s echoes.
Will def check it out
harsh but fair.
Man.... all my favorite writers committed suicide...
You bring up and dismiss David Foster Wallace in your screed and then focus on Copeland- why don’t you try it with Wallace?
I have something planned on Wallace for next year to coincide with the anniversary of Infinite Jest, but I just wanted to take one out on Coupland for the time being. As for Wallace, a spoiler ahead of time: I think he's "fine." I think Infinite Jest is "alright," I think the fans have always been too overly-enthusiastic but I think the backlash I also don't entirely agree with. But certainly one of the worst things about IJ is its Gen X hysteria -- all that bombastic satire stuff in the book is so tiresome and juvenile, including the "subsidized time" gimmick. That and it's AA propaganda, an organization that probably deserved a more critical eye.
His fiction doesn't really do it for me but a number of his essays are I think quite good -- "E Unibus Pluram" was a big influence on me as a young person, I've cited it once before here and I have a draft deep in my dozens of drafts where I cite it a second time. I think he had a pretty good idea of where literature was and where it was going, even if I think his writing itself was sub-par. Of course it's worth mentioning that he was also a creep, something I'm surprised it took people so long to clue into -- that Lipsky book on Wallace all the fans like so much really makes Wallace look like such a pathetic and insecure person, and one of the very first things he does in the book is talk to Lipsky about his sexual proclivities.
Lethem wrote the best novel of the 21st century, people just haven't figured that out yet.
David Wallace is dead is the only critique you come up with?
James McBride is holding up pretty well.
I admittedly haven't read any McBride, but didn't think he was so pigeonholed as being such a Gen X writer especially. I have more to say on Wallace at a later time (I got into it in more detail in response to another comment on this article), but for now I thought just hitting hit with that line was amusing.
At least some of these authors are boomers though.
Generations of artists are more helpfully categorized by cultural generation, which is what I do here. For instance, Dave Eggers is technically a Gen X'er (and is ALSO washed up) but it would feel wrong to place him in that category because he was such a culturally millennial figure.