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[personal profile] poliphilo
Isn't it odd that one can admire a work of art- even enjoy it- and yet at the same time dislike it.

For instance, I was watching Apocalypse Now yesterday- having fun watching it- and yet when it was over I just wanted to pick it to bits.

There's much that's wrong with Apocalypse now- failures of craft, of reach and imagination, faults of pacing, inconsistencies of tone- but if I liked it I'd be excusing these things as lovable quirks not using them to prove the whole thing worthless...

Which, of course, it's not.

On the contrary it's tremendous. I know it's tremendous. I just can't warm to it...

I made a list of artworks I admire but dislike to see if they had anything in common. At first I thought the thing might be a certain gigantism- but that didn't cover all of them- and failed to account for my love of some very big buildings and books and movies- and in the end I decided that the gigantism was just a symptom of something else- something it's hard to pin-down, something we might well disagree about with reference to individual works- something metaphysical, which I'm going to call cold-heartedness, or misanthropy.

Which goes hand in hand with self-hatred- and at the extreme topples over into nihilism.

Apocalypse Now isn't the worst offender- it has flashes of humour and humanity- but basically- like its anti-hero Kurtz- a hulking great Satan who sits brooding in darkness- it regards its people as ants...

I feel the sting of its contempt.

It dislikes me and I dislike it back.

Date: 2021-03-13 12:34 pm (UTC)
cmcmck: (Default)
From: [personal profile] cmcmck
I still find the original Conrad way more powerful.

Date: 2021-03-13 06:10 pm (UTC)
cmcmck: (Default)
From: [personal profile] cmcmck
You might like this biography of Conrad which I read just recently.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dawn-Watch-Maya-Jasanoff/dp/0007553730

I was lucky as an undergrad to hear Conrad's son, John, talk about his father. Fascinating!

Date: 2021-03-13 12:45 pm (UTC)
sovay: (Rotwang)
From: [personal profile] sovay
something metaphysical, which I'm going to call cold-heartedness, or misanthropy.

I am in fact curious about the rest of your list.
Edited Date: 2021-03-13 12:45 pm (UTC)

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