Wednesday 5 November 2008

Late Tuesday / Very early Wednesday


Just back from London where the Palladio exhibition, featuring, among others, work by C, is opening. A dash down from class for me, writing reports all the way down. Place was packed. C had gone down earlier and was talking daughter H and R when I spotted them in the throng. Son T arrived about 8pm. Two ex-MA students from the art college were there. I hadn't expected to see them, so we talked about what they were doing now. One is writer in residence at the Hackney Empire, writing plays. The other is about to set off on a long walk abroad.

Expensive works, up to £40K, some sold. C's two drawings are in the window, facing the street so you have to be outside to see them, on the other hand you can't help but see them as you are passing and as you enter. Her painting is rich and painterly, whereas most employ minimal paintwork, very little contrast in light, more form than drama.

By the time I rise there will be a new American president. Some of my university students are planning to stay up all night. The car radio was full of it on the way home, nothing actually happening, just mile after mile of expectation. I expect little will change either way except the mood, and that will change enormously if Obama wins, which I expect he will.



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I expect little will change either way except the mood"

That will do for now. And mood changing isn't to be sniffed at.

And stop with the cynicism already.

Mark Granier said...

Ah now George, that's a wee bit naughty. Little change? Try saying that to a young black voter. And just consider the alternative: that book-banning, vindictive little bully Palin as second in command to a guy who isn't in the best of health (and who was cynical enough to choose her in the first place)? That WOULD be a change, a bloody nightmare. I invite you to count your blessings.

Best,

Mark

Coirí Filíochta said...

Perhaps we have been so used to the last eight yrs of untruths seeding fear and confusion around the world, that we have got cynical about the power of hope and potential for renewal and reinvention the human race is capable of when unfettered by rich clever men trying to argue that their concern of consolidating their financial positions, is also the concern of the 95% common herd.

The primary instrument of change is the internet, which Charles Bernstein seems to be the most on the ball and accurate with the prophecy, when in 1994 he laid out his vision of how it would pan out and was spot on, during the time the Poetics list in Buffalo was the private chat gaffe of many American intellectual titans such as Robert Creely, Susan Howe, Pierre Joris, Alice Notley, Marjorie Perloff, Silliman and Keith Tuma. Bernie said:

"The most radical characteristic of the internet as a medium is its interconnectivity. At every point receivers are also transmitters. It is a medium defined by exchange rather than delivery; the medium is interactive and dialogic rather than unidirectional or monologic.....The potential for discussion and collaboration is appealing–the format mixes some of the features of correspondence with a discussion group, conference call, and a panel symposium such as this one (with the crucial difference that the distinction between audience and panel is eroded)."

Exactly what has happened.

Their is an article in todays NY Times by Adam Nagourney: The '08 Race: A Sea Change for Politics as We Know It - who speaks how this election has fundamentally upended the way presidential campaigns are fought and how the paradigm got turned upside down and truly became bottom up instead of top down - citing the internet as the instrument making a brand new relationship between our leaders and ourselves.

And the change seems swift and fast, structures and beleifs of centuries dissolving beofre our eyes as people start communicating and no longer have to take the word of the one way monologic address from on high, and though the community spirit of the UK may be a bit under the weather, a man whose grandfather was a domestic servant to the happy valley mob, being the most powerful in the world, (should he win) may hopefully show the world that the old days of priviliged people from an elite class being born with an inaliable right to rule the rest of us just because of who their parents are, a la Bush et al, is hopefuly now well and truly over.

Gwil W said...

"little will change"...?

No, George. I predict there will be great changes. This young dark genius is a great POET! Just think George, the world's most powerful man is at root a poet. At long last a man with brains is to sit in the Oval Office.

George S said...

That will do for now. And mood changing isn't to be sniffed at.

So have I sniffed? I said it will change enormously. But I'll write more today.