Comments on: How not to walk out of your Oscar party in disgust http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/8895 The daily organ of the Northeast Corridor Social Club Sat, 11 Feb 2012 04:32:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Dave http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/8895#comment-63364 Dave Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:09:13 +0000 http://www.greatwhatsit.com/?p=8895#comment-63364 Post-Singularity and post-capitalism, I will not be fretting about the Oscars one bit. Post-Singularity and post-capitalism, I will not be fretting about the Oscars one bit.

]]> By: Marleyfan http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/8895#comment-63361 Marleyfan Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:00:46 +0000 http://www.greatwhatsit.com/?p=8895#comment-63361 Maury D, You don't have the ONP yet (Optical Nerve Projection)? Got it last year- highly recommended. Maury D,
You don’t have the ONP yet (Optical Nerve Projection)?
Got it last year- highly recommended.

]]> By: Maury D http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/8895#comment-63360 Maury D Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:38:56 +0000 http://www.greatwhatsit.com/?p=8895#comment-63360 (um except not DVD because by then presumably you will think of a film and it will be projected directly through your optical nerves.) (um except not DVD because by then presumably you will think of a film and it will be projected directly through your optical nerves.)

]]> By: Maury D http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/8895#comment-63359 Maury D Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:37:47 +0000 http://www.greatwhatsit.com/?p=8895#comment-63359 Take some consolation imagining the satisfaction some kid will get, fifty years hence, discovering oh let's say (500) Days of Summer* on DVD and saying to his friends in the dorm "Avatar was the commercial success, and it got the Oscar, but they were actually making good movies back then, even if practically nobody saw them so it wasn't profitable to give them awards." And then they'll pass the joint and laugh about the idea of "commercial success" because capitalism will be dead. Hey, this is <i>my</i> little story. I can do what I want in it. Anyway my point, such as it is, is that I think we worry about these awards not because they mean anything now, but because they may shape the canon and deprive future geeks and aesthetes of what's good. But it won't. They'll dig. *Not the very best example, troubled if nothing else by the awful trope of the sassy younger sibling who knows the score, but it's the only new movie I saw this year so I'm helpless to come up with better. Anyway it had its charms. Take some consolation imagining the satisfaction some kid will get, fifty years hence, discovering oh let’s say (500) Days of Summer* on DVD and saying to his friends in the dorm “Avatar was the commercial success, and it got the Oscar, but they were actually making good movies back then, even if practically nobody saw them so it wasn’t profitable to give them awards.” And then they’ll pass the joint and laugh about the idea of “commercial success” because capitalism will be dead. Hey, this is my little story. I can do what I want in it. Anyway my point, such as it is, is that I think we worry about these awards not because they mean anything now, but because they may shape the canon and deprive future geeks and aesthetes of what’s good. But it won’t. They’ll dig.

*Not the very best example, troubled if nothing else by the awful trope of the sassy younger sibling who knows the score, but it’s the only new movie I saw this year so I’m helpless to come up with better. Anyway it had its charms.

]]> By: jeremy http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/8895#comment-63358 jeremy Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:24:46 +0000 http://www.greatwhatsit.com/?p=8895#comment-63358 The thing that surprises me about this post, Dave, is that your "new policy" is to keep things in perspective. Since you're so rationally cynical about so many different things, I'm kind of shocked that you hadn't dismissed the Oscars a long, long time ago... I like the Oscars, but I can't remember ever thinking that the best films, or the best performances, were consistently rewarded. Even the supposedly "Independent" movies that the Academy is so worried about dominating the Oscars (hence the need to expand the field to 10) usually seem pretty mainstream to me. And, ftr, I agree about most of the films you mentioned (though I liked American Beauty quite a lot), especially Crash, which was a complete cartoon. But isn't it kind of fun to be incredulous every now and then, especially about something that doesn't really matter so much? The thing that surprises me about this post, Dave, is that your “new policy” is to keep things in perspective. Since you’re so rationally cynical about so many different things, I’m kind of shocked that you hadn’t dismissed the Oscars a long, long time ago… I like the Oscars, but I can’t remember ever thinking that the best films, or the best performances, were consistently rewarded. Even the supposedly “Independent” movies that the Academy is so worried about dominating the Oscars (hence the need to expand the field to 10) usually seem pretty mainstream to me.

And, ftr, I agree about most of the films you mentioned (though I liked American Beauty quite a lot), especially Crash, which was a complete cartoon. But isn’t it kind of fun to be incredulous every now and then, especially about something that doesn’t really matter so much?

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