Amateurish writing - updated


Book recommendation goes sour
A friend suggested I read Andrew Keen's The Cult of the Amateur. Normally I would finish reading the whole book before even attempting anything like a review, but this book is wrong on so many levels.

One of the things that Keen talks about is the demise of the "cultural gatekeepers." He seems to forget that the same television network that brought Roots was responsible for The Love Boat. There aren't any cultural gatekeepers, there are people with products to sell. Some are good, some are bad, some will last, some will fade away. They don't do it out of the goodness of their heart or dedication to a higher purpose, they do it for the cashflow.

Elvis Presley is classic rock and roll today, but in the 1950s he was a scandal.

Leonardo da Vinci was quite possibly one of the greatest minds of all time, yet he spent most of his time trying to find and keep a patron.

The "experts" have been wrong far more than they have been right, especially with culture. The real innovations have always come from the edge, not from some mythical central authority.

Andrew Keen's other great mistake is to invoke the infamous double standard again. He's all too willing to blame "rabid conservatives" (his phrase), but he overlooks the questionable actions of liberals if they make the right noises.

Given his mistakes so far and his attitude towards the lowly "amateur," I am not sure I am going to be able to finish the book.

UPDATE - I want to add here.

Long before the internet was a gleam in anyone's eye, long before CNN smashed network news, local papers and television news took cues from one source, the New York Times. Stories and editorials from one week of the NYT spawned similar stories and editorials all over the country the following week.

Now, was the New York Times accurate? Was it really all the news that was fit to print.

Sometimes.

Occasionally the editorial board had a hand in news coverage and it was, shall we say, slanted towards the RIght Direction (which just happened to be the left side of politics). That doesn't mean they are right or wrong, it just means that the Times is not unbiased.

Even as the staffers say otherwise.

There is an old saying, "if it bleeds it leads." It was true in the news business long before there was a Michael Jackson or Paris Hilton.

When TV news goofed, it goofed big. I was peripherally involved in two news stores that 60 Minutes ran. In one, they just manufactured the story and later denied it. The other was just biased.

So do we really need a "cultural gatekeeper" sift through and decide what is good and what isn't? Well, that depends. Most people aren't interested in opera, even if you tell them it's important. And just because one critic likes something doesn't mean you will.

For example, I could tell you about a science fiction classic, the original Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov. If you have never read it before though, you could be very disappointed. All the "action" bits happen off stage. The novels make you think. At the same time, I would tell you to avoid the later additions to the series, especially the last book which I think weakens Asimov's premise.

Let's take music. The Oak Ridge Boys may not be Beethoven, but there are times when classical is inappropriate. Mozart was brilliant, but Queen's "We will rock you" fires up the stadium fans. Litz set the standard for classical piano, but Aretha Franklin joined passion with a demand in her version of "Respect."

Let's take film. You know who Mark Hamill is , and you know he played Luke Skywalker. But I could tell you about a little film he did called Corvette Summer. It wasn't a classic by any means, but it was an enjoyable little film that is worth seeing. If you are a classic comedy fan, you know Cleavon Little from Blazing Saddles and numerous guest shots on television. But I could tell you about the amazing over the top performance he did in a film with Jim Carey called Once Bitten. A film with an amazing dance sequence that convinced me that Jim Carey may have been the most gifted physical comic since Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. Not a great film, but it had some brilliant moments.

Looking back on it, this stuff is obvious. But the "cultural gatekeepers" of the time would have nothing to do with these works.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Mon - June 11, 2007 at 05:07 AM  Tag


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