[JohnFerrier]

(No one is like Slackjaw. It's a persona Knipfel creates.) How about writing for a local publication?

Good luck.

 

[blip]

Quote:

Originally Posted by granodemostasa I'm a black knight

Me too! Lets go slay some village people or something.

 

[max-9]

Be an organ donor...How much fer ya liver?

 

[catachresis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jahn Major in english, read like a monster in terms of critiques, themes, etc - pick up a New York Times Magazine or a New Yorker once in a while to get a feel for book reviews- Then become a Critic. You won't have to come up with your own ideas, yet you can have your own set of ideas to use as "tools" to critique the ideas of others. You can work for an Editor so the Obeying Orders thing is covered. And the best thing is, you can be reactionary for the rest of your career and be paid for it! Whoopee! Don't worry, if you like anime, you can critique anime. If you like TV shows, be a TV show critic for Entertainment Weekly. Basically, any interest you have, you can be a critic for. If you like headphones, then heck, start reviewing some stuff here or read reviews and get a feel for it. Hey, for some folks it's a living!

This might sound vaguely hypocritical coming from me -- I don't want to provoke the anger of the gods. But you probably don't really want to be a critic: much better to be a creator of something lame than a mere opiner and despiser. I think it's Addison who relates how the crap poet and the famous critic died and went to Apollo to ask for their eternal rewards. The crap poet got a handful of milled wheat. Grinning, the critic stepped forward for his reward and received cartloads of chaff.

 

[blip]

Ahh critics get a bum rap.

First of all to be a critic (in the modern sense of the word) does not mean that you have to hate everything but simply that you are willing to articulate your feelings about it.

Without people willing to critique the works of others art becomes a solitary enterprise with little external interaction. Artists evolve in relationship to their publics and to the critism or praise of their publics. A critic is simply someone who is willing to strengthen this relationship through public discourse. The line between observer and the observed thus becomes less clear, less deterministic.

The critic too generates the common language of art. They are the authors of the lexicon of artistic periodization and terminology. While they don't always do a good job, this function makes it far easier to talk about artists in a comparative sense.

Further, many artists are at their core critics themselves. How many artistic movements are essentially critiques of what existed before.

Thus the figure of the critic is a laudable one.

Of course this is not a defense of professional criticism just a defense of critics themselves... yet in a hyper-mediated, hyper-specialized culture it seems likely that professional criticism serves many of these same, rather crucial, functions.

So I'd say that becoming a critic is a pretty decent idea... We could probably use more GOOD critics out there. Hard job to get though.

 

[catachresis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blip Ahh critics get a bum rap. First of all to be a critic (in the modern sense of the word) does not mean that you have to hate everything but simply that you are willing to articulate your feelings about it. Without people willing to critique the works of others art becomes a solitary enterprise with little external interaction. Artists evolve in relationship to their publics and to the critism or praise of their publics. A critic is simply someone who is willing to strengthen this relationship through public discourse. The line between observer and the observed thus becomes less clear, less deterministic. The critic too generates the common language of art. They are the authors of the lexicon of artistic periodization and terminology. While they don't always do a good job, this function makes it far easier to talk about artists in a comparative sense. Further, many artists are at their core critics themselves. How many artistic movements are essentially critiques of what existed before. Thus the figure of the critic is a laudable one. Of course this is not a defense of professional criticism just a defense of critics themselves... yet in a hyper-mediated, hyper-specialized culture it seems likely that professional criticism serves many of these same, rather crucial, functions. So I'd say that becoming a critic is a pretty decent idea... We could probably use more GOOD critics out there. Hard job to get though.

Hey Blip! Good to see somebody out pinch-hitting for the pedants!

Don't get me wrong, I know a bit about hyper-mediation, and overdetermination, and irony and subtext and the ding aus sich and the jouissance of the autotelic signifier and epoches and eros and thanatos and pop and kitch and what the vanguard looks like when it becomes the rear-garde. I have stood in the aufklarung and tangoed with phallocentrism. As Donnie and Marie might have sung -- had they churned out commentary as well as proselytising the virtues of Utah and fraternal love --
"I'm a little bit modern,
- And I'm a little bit poste-moderne. . . "

The nicest dead white men of the old Deconstructionist school used to say [something like] The best writers are always already the best of readers too.

So I agree that the best artists and writers are usually very well informed of the discourses to which they contribute. And, indeed, that's what good artists do now: they respond in informed ways to a public discussion about what value means. The ravers p1ss on the old fogeys who are too square to dig their bags, and -- sometimes -- they get surprised when the fogeys take a leak right back at them, averring that they have already been to this bitchin rave of which they speak and have (always already) found that it was really squaresville.

[It's Friday night. I've had a few cans. Bear with me.]

I thought what I wanted to do when I grew up was to be a proper academic writer. I have a bit of a facility in that direction. However, I have found that there are two sorts of successful career critic. The first is the person who may or may not really be committed to truth or facts or praxis or whatever, but who is entertaining and diverting, so is easily commodifiable as an entertainer. These folks are great to read, but often wretched to live by. The other kind is those who are desperately, hopelessly devoted to learning and knowing and progessing the fields of knowledge to which they are devoted, and these peoples are not always pleasant or entertaining, but they are secretly beautiful and frequently useful and quite often true. I just had a realisation over the last coupla months that I'm not committed enough to the area of my studies to really engage with these serious scholars who live and die by dates and quotes. It's hard work.

So I'm off parole soon -- back on the streets and looking to score a new vocation. Heaven knows what I'll do.

Out of college, money spent
-- See no future, pay no rent
All the money's gone, nowhere to go.
Any jobber got the sack
-- Monday morning, turning back
-- Yellow lorry slow, nowhere to go.
But oh, that magic feeling: Nowhere to go.

 

[mbriant]

A lot of people will follow in their father's footsteps. In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't. My dad was a milkman.

 

[Little J040]

Ya know im in college and i could care less what kinda paying job or job or anything that happens to me later on in life. SURE MONEY does help and good jobs mean GOOD money, but I seriously wonder where the world is going sometimes. Money this money that, it all consumes us, (Well that and gasoline

). I'd be content just walking around like a little protoplasm eating a piece of lettuce now and then, and enjoying everyone around me like "we're supposed to." If im getting a little out there, bear with me. Ever think that maybe just maybe life isn't about what you do for a living, but the things you do with others and how you can be friendly with new people may be what your intended to do. Wow, this just turned into a religious lecture, sorry whew.

I think im just tired lol.

 

[Superpredator]

I had a dream last night that I was Gatsu.

 

[Quado]

Oh, but I only really need the money for audio equipment.... What did you think?! LOL

 

[granodemostasa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quado Oh, but I only really need the money for audio equipment.... What did you think?! LOL

okay, you then need a job that produces cash like fruit. how about a corporate lawyer? investment banker? CEO of a fortune 500 company.

 

[saint.panda]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quado Oh, but I only really need the money for audio equipment.... What did you think?! LOL

Study law and become a lawyer or study anything else and become a consultant.

 

[apnk]

Be a p o r n star.

 

[omedon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blip Diaper Cleaner. Turkey artificial insemination technician. (Damn you Man Show, you've corrupted me!)

I knew a guy who worked as an artificial insemination technician for pigs if I recall correctly.

It is a pretty big business in saskatchewan from what he was saying. He would go on about it, and everything else, endlessly. Once you got over the annoyance it was really quite funny.

 

[omedon]

Just got Dreamer-Minstrel as well.

were on quite a roll here.