Thursday, July 20, 2006

Three quotations...

...that might have gone into that bit where the Spinal Tap one sits, or maybe the Green Wing one, or possibly even the Murakami. Such is the postmodern condition. (A line I tried to shoehorn into the 3,000 words I wrote about Radiohead's 'Fitter Happier' at the weekend, before deciding that references to Baudrillard, Eliot, Joyce, Lou Reed, Nirvana, The Stepford Wives and Leonard Nimoy made it quite pretentious enough, thanks for asking. And on the subject of Radiohead, has anybody listened to Thom Yorke's Eraser album yet? Doesn't it sound a bit like how you'd imagine TY's demos to sound before the other guys have had a chance to work on them? Strange, that.)

Anyway:

"Thus, although the culture industry undeniably speculates on the conscious and unconscious state of the millions towards which it is directed, the masses are not primary, but secondary, they are an object of calculation; an appendage of the machinery. The customer is not king, as the culture industry would have us believe, not its subject but its object."
(Theodor Adorno)

"...and there is a breed of Tuesday in January in which time creeps and no light comes and the air is full of water and nobody really loves anybody..."
(Zadie Smith, from On Beauty)

"Do I get bonus points if I act like I care?"
(Dr Gregory House)

5 comments:

Billy said...

I'm just watching the repeat of House. Who would have thought Hugh Laurie had it in him?

(and people thought Fry was the talented one)

patroclus said...

Blogworld synergy alert: I'm using that first quote today myself.

Tim F said...

Billy: Fry is talented, but Laurie is cuter. The Peter Cook and Dudley Moore trajectory is evident.

Patroclus: Glad I'm not the only ponce round here.

Spinsterella said...

3,000 words on Fitter, Happier??

Tim F said...

Current book project, Spin. Trying desperately to find new and exciting things to say about Radiohead. Provisional title: Gee, Look At That Grumpy Shortarse With The Freaky Eye!