On another note, being ill has not only enabled copious amounts of custard consumption (I'm sorry I can't help but think of Tubby custard here...) but also has allowed me the time to ponder some deep issues, time that is only the luxury of the unemployed, student like or sickly variety (of which I happily fulfill all three categories). In a tutorial on Monday (pre-death bed state, clearly) the question of who decides what's good was brought up after a classmate was unable to post her poetry analysis (like my Wendt one) to Wikipedia after the administrators determined her poet (Samuel Cruickshank) was not worthy of Wikipedia web space. Obviously there has always been a hierarchy in a variety of spheres that determines that which is 'good' and that which is not. However, despite a lot of academic discourse related to this idea which we could colloquially consider simply as 'taste', no answers as to why we allow those who decide what is good to do so, and more than this, it seems as though at some point we neglect to challenge such determinations of what is good and valued and that which is not.
From an academic perspective (English at least), the 'great' works have changed little in the sense that they are still largely written from a white, middle aged, male point of view (Dickens, Shakespeare, Thackeray, Wilde, Dostoevsky, Nabokov etc). OK, so while we've got the token post modern female writer chucked in there, or your classic female Novelists like Austen and Bronte these stories still tell the tales of a Europe to which most of the world is not privy and reflect little on peoples actual experiences today- how many 4 hour tea parties where you "take a turn about the lawn" discussing your marriage prospects with the local Earl have you attended recently? What or who is it that decides that Dickens must be read over Dr Seuss? or in a New Zealand context, why is it that we spend a large part of our education reading books written by bored English gentlewomen of the 18th Century rather than reading the fiction of Patricia Grace or Alan Duff or even knowing figures in New Zealand Literature aside from Katherine Mansfield? (answer? Canonical literature continues to exists as one of the last great champions and undoubtedly the most pervasive form of Colonialism in the modern world)
Of course the issue of who decides what is good is not strictly academic, there are my constant concerns about who decides what is good in many of the chain-stores as I stroll the streets of Auckland. In fact I am often left pondering just how many people it takes to create the fashion disasters that exist in the world, even before the criminal consumer in question buys it. Take Jeggings for example: Someone has to think that idea up, then someone approves the aforementioned idea, next thing you know they're picking some fabric to make jeggings from (that has probably already been through a myriad of decision making culprits already), some factory in any chosen developing country starts making them, companies sell and market them and before you know it Mums of New Zealand are enabling the purchase of these atrocities.
You want a jean and a legging in one? Jeggings are your answer! Without the bulkiness of denim to suck those thighs in, the stretch jersey really allows for ease of movement- to put it bluntly "lets it all hang out". With classy and flattering designs such as stone-washed purple you're a real trendsetter about town; VPL on display and muffin top enhancing waistband's YAY... buy now!!!!
Moving to the musical arena, I question who let Justin Beiber on the loose? (he's been #1 in the Billboard charts for 3 weeks now, surely the 12-18 year old's cannot have that much sway in the charts). I'm no muso and it is so "in" at the moment to not even listen to music unless it's written/sung by some pseudo-intellectual teenagers who are inspired by Norwegian folk music based in some basement in New York, BUT surely even the most indie among us are concerned about this rise to fame?
I like how he's looking both innocent (because he's about 13, white with blonde bangs) yet simultaneously is also pretty gangster with his backwards cap and un-identifiable hand gestures- peace or scissors? you tell me...
All I know is that Usher and Ludacris have a LOT to answer for!
The irony is I'm trying to tell people what is good and what isn't, the question of what is good and bad taste is ultimately a personal preference and shouldn't necessarily be determined by the whim of the powers that be. These things, whether bad or good based on my opinions or yours, are at least in some way part of the zeitgeist of today and stand as representations of it. Scary, i know (do I really want the memory of leggings as pants a significant component of my recollections of my 20's?). I do take solace in the fact that because the 70's and 80's are in the past, most of the offensiveness of these decades is weeded out, even as they return in their modern day re-incarnations of their original selves. Clearly though, the world is still rich and full of that which does offend and will continue to offend these baby blues. It will simply be my ability to tolerate (or rant about it) that will determine my survival into that scary horizon that is the future.... that, or I will enact my plan to take over the world, becoming the powers that be (I'll decide what's good, my taste is so fantastic, bad taste will simply cease to exist people)
x
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