I Think I Can Handle That Assignment, Rob.

[pantryslut]

My horoscope today:

"Stories interest me more than beliefs. I'd rather hear you regale me with tales of your travels than listen to you recite your dogmas. Filmmaker Ken Burns agrees with me. He's worried about the increasing number of people who love theories more than stories. "We are experiencing the death of narrative," he told the San Francisco Chronicle. "We are all so opinionated that we don't actually submit to narrative anymore. That's the essence of YouTube: Abbreviate everything into a digestible capsule that then becomes the conventional wisdom, which belies the experience of art." Your assignment, Leo, is to help reverse this soul-damaging trend. Spout fewer opinions and tell more stories. Encourage others to do the same."

Comments

[black-pearl-10.livejournal.com]

Damn, that's good advice.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

I'm all about telling more stories. At the same time, I don't want you to spout fewer opinions, nor do I expect that to happen.

g,d & r

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

mine says "what a good time to go to madison and go on blind dates with random okcupid people!"

er, well, that's what i'm interpreting it to say.

[animikwaan.livejournal.com]

amen.

(my moon is in leo, yay!)

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

I wonder if this is because everybody has a good story (although not everybody can tell a good story). But not everybody's dogmas are interesting.

Many opinions are just schema without enough "flesh" on them. Others just seem to be what everybody thinks without thinking, and not worth listening to.

Sometimes dumb opinions undergird stories and mess 'em up. I remember going to animation festivals where the cartoons were spoilt by the stupid politics behind them.

One idea I was considering is that most folks agree that Great Art can be immoral (and people often point to Leni Riefenstahl -- but I can't comment because I haven't seen her movies.) But can a work of art be Great Art and have stupid ideas behind it? I'm still mulling on that one. (Of course we could just junk the idea of Great Art and not worry about it.)

Anyway, keep the stories rolling!