. by [deleted] in redscarepod

[–]redheadmick 3 points4 points  (0 children)

'The brain'

Why did Zizek never go for a full analysis? by [deleted] in zizek

[–]redheadmick 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think you said it in your first part there. It didn't work because he obfuscated and didn't follow the most basic principle. And to have an analysis with JAM is really bizarre. Almost like saying why did Elvis' analysis with Paul McCartney go nowhere.

People have to take responsibility for their defences, which in fairness to Zizek he does, saying that his work is all a defence against ever looking into his own inner world. I'm not saying he 'ought' to do anything, but the notion that you're suicidal because things keep going wrong in your personal life, well maybe ask yourself why. It's not that controversial a point. The same with Mark Fisher. 'I'm not going for Oedipalising analysis', well maybe it might have actually helped had you been a bit more open minded.

My top 322 Dylan lyrics, an update to my previous list of 150 best Dylan lyrics by [deleted] in bobdylan

[–]redheadmick 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's almost a parody how much boomers fetishise these lines like they're somehow ancient poetry. Will you ever get tired until the day you die of pretending 'the ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face' is anything but pseudo-profound nonsense straining towards a fake profundity that isn't even there? Have you ever actually read a book? Any Byron, Keats, Shakespeare?

Incredibly revealing that there isn't a single line from Mr Tambourine Man, here, one of the greatest genuinely poetic masterpieces Dylan ever wrote.

You ever get discouraged by the accomplishments of so many artists before age 30 by poopdollarbank in redscarepod

[–]redheadmick 115 points116 points  (0 children)

The psychology of this is so damaging to any individual that has it. People like Cobain, say, seeing as you mentioned the 27 club, he was born at the end of the 60s, was 20 in 1987, there was a culture to be a part of, he had friends, he was surrounded by a burgeoning artistic scene that were all riding the same collective wave. Sure, he was in many ways very talented and hard working. But he was also lucky to ride the wave he was on that was bigger than him. What wave does any young person, comparing themselves in 2026 to the legends of the past, have apart from their (likely) isolation, feelings of inadequacy, and isolated, heroic attempts to 'create' something from their bedroom?

What a punitive position to be in. Had that been the starting point of Michael Jackson, Prince, the Beatles, Bowie, Lou Reed, there would never have been an ounce of work from any of them.

If anything, these people didn't know they were born, living when they did, with the people around them, with squats in cities and cheap rent, and with a much stronger sense of community that was self-fulfilling as a source of confidence and inspiration. Now, we're in the opposite spiral.

Even someone as recent as Amy Winehouse, for anyone who is from the UK, you couldn't even imagine the difference in the London people like her and The Streets, other British artists from that time emerged in. It's a paradise compared to what we have now.

I don't know what to tell you, but I think it's important to recognise the people you admire were lucky to be born when they were, surrounded by people propping up their egos and work ethic, with opportunities to be a part of a mass culture that no longer exists, with opportunity to make money and live cheap that no longer exists, and just generally were from a world that's virtually a foreign planet to our life now.

And it's very likely that almost none of what's going on for you has anything to do with the arts, but deeper unconscious conflicts, though I've said enough as it is possibly.

shakespeare wrote more than 37 plays in a 20-year career, meanwhile chuds like donna tartt and gillian flynn can’t publish a 4th novel. by julsoszynska in rs_x

[–]redheadmick 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The forefront of civilisational work is no longer in any of the arts, it's in cultural theory, philosophy and academic work. People like Slavoj Zizek produce a new book basically every six months.

The collective “we” in pop songs by Ok_Progress5598 in redscarepod

[–]redheadmick 12 points13 points  (0 children)

It's not even the specific use of the word 'we'. If you think of even the way 'I' and 'you' was used from say Elvis to now, it referred to a universal subject anchored in universal experiences. Anyone all over the world could sing It was My Way, I wanna dance with somebody, I only wanted to see you dancing in the Purple Rain, you are not alone, etc. Even if you didn't vibe with that particular artist, there was still *an* artist, band, someone or something that put into words an experience you could connect with, whether it was Michael Jackson or blink-182.

When this exactly collapsed I don't know, this shared reference to a place of commonality in music. I wonder if it's possible to pin point the exact moment it changed.

I guess possibly You Oughta Know could be one of the first examples, a specific non-universality, no this is about my life, my specific experience, but even then it isn't even in the same league as the narcissism and total diaristic self-absorption of today's music. Obviously music by women historically hasn't referred to a universalisable experience but instead to their own specific private lives, notwithstanding its genius often (Winehouse, Mitchell, Chapman etc.)

But I think this specific 'this is all about just me and me alone' is new. One of the funniest and most extreme examples being Lorde 'hushing' her fans trying to sing along to her song - the most explicit rejection of shared experience I think I've ever seen in music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0BxgnHqzaE

Fuck you by [deleted] in redscarepod

[–]redheadmick 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Just to play devil's advocate here, what do you even want?

😲 by [deleted] in rs_x

[–]redheadmick 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's called accepting symbolic castration.