Yes, it is much wiser to mourn than sneer at the death of film for the loss of good visual storytelling means a part of us fails to learn and grow. As a psychotherapist I'm using stories & metaphors constantly when I meet with clients. At times, I even read children's books to my adult clients since their ability to think outside the box, that is their mental health prison, seems so poorly developed.
Engaging with stories is necessary to develop and strengthen a moral imagination. And a moral imagination is required to learn & grow in the virtues. The toughest individuals with which I work are those utterly lacking in a moral imagination; people who have no connection with Theological and Cardinal virtues – Faith, Hope, Love, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. My thoughts are inspired by G.K. Chesterton who wrote, in Tremendous Triffles:
“Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.
"Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear.”
If you want good mental health engage with Stories. And mourn the loss of film as one of the ways we may learn to conquer our dragons.
Art and Beauty are a way for the divine and the mundane come together. As far as I know only God and humans can create beauty. I hope Hollywood can come together and make great art again. Until then, I guess I’m stuck with rewatching or reading.
Also, healthier spiritually to feed your mind the nutrition of past great writers and thinkers than feed it the junk food of present-day secular tripe. I’d rather read Dickens or Eliot or Tolstoy Dostoevsky and think about them than wait for contemporary American culture to get it right.
I love the classics and return to them all the time. But there is something special about contemporary art when it's good, even less than great. I hate modern music, rock, rap. I think it's garbage. But if I only listen to the 30's, 40's music I love, I begin to feel that I'm not listening to the voice of my world. That voice has been stifled by the same forces that gutted Hollywood, and it's sad. But it's a period that's coming to an end.
Well Said. I will say (thanks to that Little Silicon Chip) there are those out there still making Good Interesting Movies. Angel Studio's The Daily Wire, The Chosen, DUST (if you're into Sci-F), to name a couple.
How can events from 2000 years ago echo so loudly today? Testament, a present-day retelling of the book of Acts, is the ancient story of a small group of believers that turned the world upside down. Join us LIVE to learn more about Testament and their partnership with Angel Studios
I don't care about Hollywood in the same way I don't care about big record labels and rock stars. People are making music at a more local level for the pure enjoyment of it without having to sign a record deal and distributing their music via the internet. No one is become fabulously wealthy but so what? It is art for art's sake as they say.
With the advent of AI, people will be able to act out a scene in their bedroom and turn it into a Hollywood production in the next few years. California will fall into the sea and we can all laugh as someone makes the next Oscar winner with a fifty quid Pro account on ChatGPT. I'm all for it.
I think point isn't that we should care about Hollywood falling apart specifically, but rather that we should morn a vast repository of historically beautiful inspiration and art becoming something impotent and meaningless.
As far as high art being created in bedrooms through AI, I'm not convinced this is possible. I spent years reading and evaluating the papers of aspiring writers, even the best I read was far from the beginnings universally interesting, let alone beautiful. It's a rare and amazing thing to be able to produce true and relevant beauty.
I think people are more creative than you think. That’s definitely true with music. There is some amazing music on Spotify with very few listeners. AI is not creative but already the people who have embraced it are.
High art has always been created by vanishingly few individuals and always will be. Hollywood is merely a tool. AI is the new tool.
When I was a boy, after I realized that I wasn't going to be able to handle the math I needed to in order to fly airplanes, I became mesmerized with film. It had always been a part of who I was--growing up in the 70's and 80's, I remember when the Towering Inferno came out in late 1974. I was 9, and my family took me to see it. I was enchanted--and was for a very long time. I read books by Lenny Lipton, and thought Spielberg and Lucas were gods. What happened to film? Sigh....
Yes, it is much wiser to mourn than sneer at the death of film for the loss of good visual storytelling means a part of us fails to learn and grow. As a psychotherapist I'm using stories & metaphors constantly when I meet with clients. At times, I even read children's books to my adult clients since their ability to think outside the box, that is their mental health prison, seems so poorly developed.
Engaging with stories is necessary to develop and strengthen a moral imagination. And a moral imagination is required to learn & grow in the virtues. The toughest individuals with which I work are those utterly lacking in a moral imagination; people who have no connection with Theological and Cardinal virtues – Faith, Hope, Love, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. My thoughts are inspired by G.K. Chesterton who wrote, in Tremendous Triffles:
“Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.
"Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear.”
If you want good mental health engage with Stories. And mourn the loss of film as one of the ways we may learn to conquer our dragons.
Art and Beauty are a way for the divine and the mundane come together. As far as I know only God and humans can create beauty. I hope Hollywood can come together and make great art again. Until then, I guess I’m stuck with rewatching or reading.
Also, healthier spiritually to feed your mind the nutrition of past great writers and thinkers than feed it the junk food of present-day secular tripe. I’d rather read Dickens or Eliot or Tolstoy Dostoevsky and think about them than wait for contemporary American culture to get it right.
I love the classics and return to them all the time. But there is something special about contemporary art when it's good, even less than great. I hate modern music, rock, rap. I think it's garbage. But if I only listen to the 30's, 40's music I love, I begin to feel that I'm not listening to the voice of my world. That voice has been stifled by the same forces that gutted Hollywood, and it's sad. But it's a period that's coming to an end.
Hope you’re right, Klavan pere.
Well Said. I will say (thanks to that Little Silicon Chip) there are those out there still making Good Interesting Movies. Angel Studio's The Daily Wire, The Chosen, DUST (if you're into Sci-F), to name a couple.
The Shift - The Short Film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l4ag5I3hoM
What the heck……did I just get shifted into a parallel YouTube?
Yup!
The Shift. Think of it as The Book Of Job with The Odyssey. A guy loses everything and is just trying to get home.
Angel Studios is doing some fine work
TESTAMENT: The Journey Begins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLsurR_Dd7E
Jun 29, 2022
How can events from 2000 years ago echo so loudly today? Testament, a present-day retelling of the book of Acts, is the ancient story of a small group of believers that turned the world upside down. Join us LIVE to learn more about Testament and their partnership with Angel Studios
I don't care about Hollywood in the same way I don't care about big record labels and rock stars. People are making music at a more local level for the pure enjoyment of it without having to sign a record deal and distributing their music via the internet. No one is become fabulously wealthy but so what? It is art for art's sake as they say.
With the advent of AI, people will be able to act out a scene in their bedroom and turn it into a Hollywood production in the next few years. California will fall into the sea and we can all laugh as someone makes the next Oscar winner with a fifty quid Pro account on ChatGPT. I'm all for it.
I think point isn't that we should care about Hollywood falling apart specifically, but rather that we should morn a vast repository of historically beautiful inspiration and art becoming something impotent and meaningless.
As far as high art being created in bedrooms through AI, I'm not convinced this is possible. I spent years reading and evaluating the papers of aspiring writers, even the best I read was far from the beginnings universally interesting, let alone beautiful. It's a rare and amazing thing to be able to produce true and relevant beauty.
I think people are more creative than you think. That’s definitely true with music. There is some amazing music on Spotify with very few listeners. AI is not creative but already the people who have embraced it are.
High art has always been created by vanishingly few individuals and always will be. Hollywood is merely a tool. AI is the new tool.
I agree on a couple points, but I'm not convinced AI does not naturally eclipse its user. I'm far from an expert, so that is just a feeling.
I'm also fairly sure that Hollywood is more than a tool. It seems to me a universe in which the act of admirable sub-creation can take place.
We’ll just have to wait and see. I’m rooting for the little guy.
When I was a boy, after I realized that I wasn't going to be able to handle the math I needed to in order to fly airplanes, I became mesmerized with film. It had always been a part of who I was--growing up in the 70's and 80's, I remember when the Towering Inferno came out in late 1974. I was 9, and my family took me to see it. I was enchanted--and was for a very long time. I read books by Lenny Lipton, and thought Spielberg and Lucas were gods. What happened to film? Sigh....