In practically every area of mass culture (film, publishing, games, casinos, TV, radio, automobiles), the distribution systems are now controlled by a few companies. What has resulted is so top-heavy that literally no new forms can be developed. The story stops here, like a game of musical chairs frozen eternally at STOP. No laboratory format, no avant-garde strategies, no subversion from outside (there is an artificial “outside” within the stomach of the dragon). The entertainment economy is so muscle bound, it is unable to lift itself out of the chair.
The costs keep soaring for objects. The shrinking potential keeps growing. Next year, Publishers Weekly will cease reviewing poetry. Books in general have almost no innate system for reviews. New novels are increasingly inconceivable to publish, as the fiction market leans increasingly on genre and established names. The fine arts and independent cinema struggle to built alternatives, but the age of slick and polish remains overwhelmingly dominant.
article by Norman Klein
~Contrary-wise(?): The Pro-Am Revolution
"The 20th century witnessed the rise of professionals in medicine, science, education, and politics. In one field after another, amateurs and their ramshackle organisations were driven out by people who knew what they were doing and had certificates to prove it.
The Pro-Am Revolution argues this historic shift is reversing. We're witnessing the flowering of Pro-Am, bottom-up self-organisation and the crude, all or nothing, categories of professional or amateur will need to be rethought.
A Pro-Am pursues an activity as an amateur, mainly for the love of it, but sets a professional standard. Pro-Ams are unlikely to earn more than a small portion of their income from their pastime but they pursue it with the dedication and commitment associated with a professional.
links via overmorgen
~Is there a contradiction here? Or does stratified monster distribution systems force talented people to work (or play) 'off the reservation'? (I'm picturing the black markets of the old Soviet Union for some reason.)
Posted by Cieciel at January 29, 2005 05:46 AM