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roachboy · 08-09-2007, 06:46 PM

first off, with respect to the ussr--anton ciliga was right--he was among the first to write about the gulag and did so from a left opposition viewpoint--his claim was that the actual revolution was in the gulag--and this by 1928.
but as for innovative stuff--i assume since we are playing a dilletante game here that you refer to official culture and not oppositional culture--if you look at all at oppositional culture--not the yay capitalist reactionary stuff, but the left oppositional culture(s)--there was a TON of radical innovative work produced in almost every aspect of cultural production under the soviet union and in eastern europe--all this DESPITE the foul, stupid official culture--for example--a relatively prominent one in some circles, but you'd still have to look for it generally--czech new wave films are as fine a cinematic tradition as you find anywhere on earth and the work of people like chytilova had NOTHING to do with any rah rah capitalism nonsense--aesthetically, her work is still not easily assimilated--but it is fabulous and you should not believe me you should track down some of her films and see for yourself.

and as for official cultures not producing much that is of any interest, you could say the same of the united states--nothing terribly interesting is happening in mainstream culture, but there is a TON of interesting work happening at its margins, and DESPITE the reactionary official world that is amurica and its nimrod politics. to stick with film for a minute (because it is easy, because films are expensive to make, because folk know about film) what of any actual interest has come out of hollywood in the past few years? there are a lot of independent films that are good--excellent to fabulous no less--innovative in every way--so this is not to say (again) that nothing interesting is happening in the states--but almost all of it is outside the mainstream systems of cultural reproduction. seems to me that the americans have capitalist barbarism and as shitty a mainstream culture as anywhere has managed--yet lots of folk seem to nonetheless find something to congratulate themselves about, presumably on the basis of that shitty mainstream culture.

go figure.

08-09-2007, 06:46 PM	#42 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	first off, with respect to the ussr--anton ciliga was right--he was among the first to write about the gulag and did so from a left opposition viewpoint--his claim was that the actual revolution was in the gulag--and this by 1928. but as for innovative stuff--i assume since we are playing a dilletante game here that you refer to official culture and not oppositional culture--if you look at all at oppositional culture--not the yay capitalist reactionary stuff, but the left oppositional culture(s)--there was a TON of radical innovative work produced in almost every aspect of cultural production under the soviet union and in eastern europe--all this DESPITE the foul, stupid official culture--for example--a relatively prominent one in some circles, but you'd still have to look for it generally--czech new wave films are as fine a cinematic tradition as you find anywhere on earth and the work of people like chytilova had NOTHING to do with any rah rah capitalism nonsense--aesthetically, her work is still not easily assimilated--but it is fabulous and you should not believe me you should track down some of her films and see for yourself. and as for official cultures not producing much that is of any interest, you could say the same of the united states--nothing terribly interesting is happening in mainstream culture, but there is a TON of interesting work happening at its margins, and DESPITE the reactionary official world that is amurica and its nimrod politics. to stick with film for a minute (because it is easy, because films are expensive to make, because folk know about film) what of any actual interest has come out of hollywood in the past few years? there are a lot of independent films that are good--excellent to fabulous no less--innovative in every way--so this is not to say (again) that nothing interesting is happening in the states--but almost all of it is outside the mainstream systems of cultural reproduction. seems to me that the americans have capitalist barbarism and as shitty a mainstream culture as anywhere has managed--yet lots of folk seem to nonetheless find something to congratulate themselves about, presumably on the basis of that shitty mainstream culture. go figure. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 08-09-2007 at 06:52 PM..