I watched "Machines" while I was in Japan and had the usual response, a combination of revelation, total agreement and bewilderment. Generally I thought it was great, timely, urgent, engaged.
And I think it would be a bold man indeed who said he had never learned anything from Curtis' body of work. I've found it be highly informative, provocative, enlightening.
I mean, isn't it? Are the couple of smug, witless cunts who knocked this up, in which, by dismissing Curtis as style over content they handily absolve themselves from having to engage in any substantial critique of Curtis' ideas themselves, likely to offer me more in the way of information, provocation and enlightenment than the subject of their parody?
I think we know what the answer to that is, dont we?
That's two "cunts" in consecutive blogposts. England'll do that to you!
4 comments:
I'm having to accept that the 'c' word doesn't travel well. The blogosphere's not a Scottish pub (as much as we may wish otherwise).
There's criticisms of Curtis that few make, namely:
- He does have too much of a Reithian patrician vibe in his attitudes, a certain end-of-Empire chauvanism that taints his arguments.
- He takes as granted that the ideas that affect our lives come with the best intentions. A surprisingly naive point for someone so knowledgeable. Which may relate to the first point. Let's face it - the likes of Ayn Rand, Paul Wolfowitz, Milton Friedman or Tony Blair are just greedy, power-crazed CUNTS, not hubristic 'idealists' at all.
But saying that, he's still better than 99.9% of British TV. I wish they'd give him DVD clearance.
Try watching 'Deadwood', before you know it, you're cunting and cocksuckering like a cunt from the Klondike. And its American.
I take a kind of midpoint between Curtis and Kaspar, and think Friedman, Rand, Wolfowitz etc. are neither hubristic idealists nor cynical scumbags but simply idiots who genuinely believe their own idiocy. Every civilisation requires these kind of people in its last days in order to kill it off. Remember, Afghanistan costs the USA $2,000,000,000 every week.
As for the C-word, it's simply too atomic-bombic; not a complement to the f-word, but an exponential multiplier. It only sounds good when mildly softened to "cant" by the likes of Derek & Clive and the bald bloke in "Sexy Beast".
I liked Deadwood for a few episodes, until I realised it was actually awful gibberish made up as it went along - We've run out plot! Ahhh - just stab a few more women, throw in some Chinese stereotypes and say "cocksucker" 500 times. That should sort it! (leave to simmer for three years)
However, Ian McShane is always great. Even when he's rubbish.
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