tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23042008.post3283524416785868906..comments2024-03-28T03:13:15.831-04:00Comments on Remarkable: Go Fug YourselfGeoff Klockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09080580776997273785noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23042008.post-29173263740996626122007-07-23T07:42:00.000-04:002007-07-23T07:42:00.000-04:00Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts. It ...Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts. It is always great pleasure to read your posts.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23042008.post-4157696418832290032007-07-21T12:04:00.000-04:002007-07-21T12:04:00.000-04:00I've been away -- so sorry I missed this earlier. ...I've been away -- so sorry I missed this earlier. But obviously I gotta comment on this! Still, this is all off the top of my head, I may change my mind later...<BR/><BR/><I>I see an interest in fashion as an important extension of my interest in aesthetics. If aesthetics matters -- if it matters in poetry and music and film and comics -- then it must matter in clothes as well. I do not think it is quite right for us to look at people who read novels and look down on comics as snobs, but then turn around and look at people who care about fashion as frivolous (frivolous in a pejorative sense). ... If aesthetics matter than fashion has to matter too. I could be crazy about this.</I><BR/><BR/>Actually I basically agree -- <I>certainly</I> about the not looking at people as frivolous part. I don't think I'd ever call anyone's area of interest frivolous. But that doesn't mean that they interest <I>me</I>. Since I was mentioned, let me clarify that, for myself, I would say no more than what Geoff ascribed to me: that <I>I</I> am not interested in clothes. Not that other people are frivolous if they are.<BR/><BR/>(So why do I care about fashion in poetry and music and film and comics and not clothes? Good question. I don't know, off-hand. Let me muse on it a while.)<BR/><BR/>But there is a sense in which I would say that <I>fashion</I> is frivolous. I am drawing a distinction here between the aesthetics of clothes (for which I have no handy word) and "fashion" in the sense of being up-to-date, fashionable, hip. In that sense I don't care about fashion in clothes -- nor do I care about fashion in comics or novels. I think that the drive to be hip and cutting edge arises out of chimpanzee-I'm-the-big-man-of-the-tribe breast thumping; and it is, if not frivolous, then certainly a negative thing. But this doesn't have to do with clothes as such.<BR/><BR/>...Also, I think it's quite coherent to say that bad clothes shouldn't spoil Morrison's run even if one does care about the aesthetics of clothes. An analogy here for me would be bad special effects in a film. <I>Good</I> special effects in a film are great fun, and even of aesthetic worth as a separate thing (arguably) and as part of the film itself (certainly). But special effects aren't <I>essential</I> to the film the way that, say, plot and character and dialogue are: they're more incidental. So you can have a great movie with bad special effects.<BR/><BR/>As I said, this is off the top of my head. But I certainly wanted to echo Geoff's anti-elitism, even if I don't happen to give to fugs about clothes myself....Stephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16524368948187746248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23042008.post-28991259271675694852007-07-16T08:52:00.000-04:002007-07-16T08:52:00.000-04:00After years of being a scrub I started wearing sui...After years of being a scrub I started wearing suits to work about 2 months ago, I'm shocked by how much it hits the spot.Ping33https://www.blogger.com/profile/09631445208675326795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23042008.post-19402584046550935492007-07-15T23:46:00.000-04:002007-07-15T23:46:00.000-04:00Not at all crazy! My friends and I often talk abou...Not at all crazy! My friends and I often talk about what attire should be appropriate to class, to teaching, to conferences. I'm especially finicky.<BR/><BR/>For example: I purposely go for entirely different looks when I teach - as an undergrad (hell, even now), dissecting a prof or TA's style offered some insight into who they are. I want to confuse that whole process for them. My look for a conference, on the other hand, is very consistent. One person dubbed it "the Strokes look" and that's probably apt: t-shirt with something pop-culturish on it, black italian suit jacket, tight-fit blue or gray jeans, and bowling-shoe-style runners. (if i'm feeling especially silly, i'll also put on some fake glasses)neilshyminskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14745442660488961314noreply@blogger.com