Losing Touch

[poliphilo]

The older you get the harder it is to keep abreast of contemporary culture and ideas. Scan a person's bookshelves and you can tell at a glance when exactly they stopped thinking (or so an archdeacon of my acquaintance once said). This article offers a diagnosis and an excuse. The guy who wrote it is only in his 40s but he's already reached the stage where he'd rather watch Peter Cushing for the "n"th time than Benedict Cumberbatch for the 1st.  

I lost interest in pop music in the 90s. I stopped keeping up with the movies about five years ago. I'm happier with Edwardian novelists than I am with contemporary ones.  I still sort of keep up with what's happening on TV- but that's because it takes so little effort. 

I tell myself I need to get a grip. 

Comments

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

I must admit most modern day pop leaves me cold , and apart from the occasional forays into artists such as Adele or the latest Elbow i seem to delve mostly in the past. I still find 70's soul and rock more riveting. I think my most recent music CD would be by Kate Bush, her 50 Words For Snow album.

I use to be an avid reader of Wire magazine and that kept me abreast of all the new stuff , and i think i should start reading it again.

I still read modern novels but also keep abreast with the latest ideas in science and philosophy (Zizek, Barrow, Cox,etc). But it is hard and gets more difficult when you aren't getting any younger.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm tempted by the new Kate Bush...

I'm reading Hilary Mantell because it struck me it was ages since I'd last picked up a modern literary novel.