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

[butterscotch711.livejournal.com]

But ... but ... you're the only reason I still come to LJ at all, and that's because your writing is so thoughtful and on the pulse of things!

I think you also have to take account of how things have fractured. I think you could find thoughtful intelligent teenagers who are absent-mindedly trawling their way through the history of film by buying cheap DVDs and downloading stuff but don't know much about current stars and to whom seeing a movie at the cinema is a strange experience. Or ... pop music fans who consider themselves very up to date but whose consumption of pop music mainly consists of Idol style TV shows.

I don't play video games, so I sometimes feel very culturally distant from friends who do. They tell me the best games are profound and thought-provoking. I'm sure they are but I doubt I will ever jump into that stream (although I could if I set my mind to it and so could anybody physically and mentally capable of controlling one of the consoles).

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

That's an interesting point you make about the fracturing of culture. When I was a kid culture was monolithic. The Stones and Demis Roussos performed side by side on the same shows- so you couldn't help but be aware of them both, whatever your tastes. These days it's much easier to ignore cultural artefacts you don't particularly fancy.