my friends from facebook might recognize this as being familiar — i posted this on facebook once already. i put a lot into it tho & so i thought i’d make it public. this one’s about a new ethos in Art: Ecstatic Romanticism:
i trace a cool Romanticism (not romanticness ;)) (a lot like i traced (rightly!) Jazz to Kerouac’s writing (ok & Neal Cassady – lol) to Dylan’s lyrics, to a lot of the lyrics SINCE Dylan) — like i was saying (& i’m not sure anyone will care) but i think i trace a lineage of Romanticism from The Cure to maybe AFI & those (i bet *both*) to Bright Eyes — i wanted to say something on top of that: i am coming from a deep love of modern Romanticism (i feel a Counter-Enlightenment coming on!), but am/was still pulled apart from it by the Goth/depressing elements — poisoned Beauty, sort of —
i remembered the reason (*the last person listening gets up & leaves – talking to myself i’m sure*) i shunned Bright Eyes when they first hit was because he was noted for being genius, but DEPRESSIVE. i was already old enough to be bored with depression/darkness… anyway long story short (i don’t feel like doing this on a anonymous message board & be all, ‘well i have agnosia’ — anwyay) – long story short, the facebook version is *why not make an ECSTATIC Romanticism, rather than romanticize darkness — something i’ve always found wrong twice (or ‘doubly’). Kerouackian beatific visions to the height of Blake, or Roberto Benigni’s ecstasy with Life into the deepest poeticness. why not?* i believe if i were to seriously (not as i do) walk Art’s path… i would by & large make such Art – thru Positivity & what i called literary Impressionism… if you’ve ever read my writing that starts out “holidays! ons & offs (…)” Impressionism in literature (my invention?) was sort of a trans-semantic language that took meaning by virtue of dizzying depths of swirly ecstasy, more than syntatically perfect english. felt fragments, really .. something like the best Shoegazer albums. sort of taking — oh man i forget my impressionist painters — but say Debussy — who said to fade out like a gentle autumn leaf, for a musical direction on one of his piano scores . . . sort of taking his Impressionism & writomg of the Ecstasy you the writer feel from Love & Love of Things… double Romanticism – Romanticism from Love =) true Romanticism – Optimistic & In Love Ecstatic Romanticism/Art.
my fave modern Romantic is e.e. cummings, re since feeling is first (probably seems tired, but that is straight Ecstatic Romanticism / Counter-Enlightment / (again, Positive) Sturm Und Drang. his ‘grammar’ is not taking away anything from this sentiments – the founder of Sturm Und Drang WHICH BECAME Romanticism – ok – said “Poetry is the mother tongue of the human race.” (he also was a Christian. i.e. it wasn’t Nietzsche, who Philo/Art punks fall in Love with… too often — but –) the idea of that poem is fully Romantic….. everyway Romantic. i love The Cure but again, darkness… i truly love any great piece of art, Life Is Beautiful to the first person to etch or sing — i actually amn’t approaching this as a critic, or putting Art in a very sorted ‘structured’ thing, but just a person with a good idea burning a hole in their pocket — every time i’ve held onto my ideas they grow obsolete / i seem like a latecomer. i am just a guy who loves Romanticism & sees an opening for Ecstasy to fit in — by way of Love. Ecstatic Romanticism, like Debussy, Benigni, & in a way Kerouac; Ecstatic (Positive) Romanticism. =)
there is a lady, Pagila, who was doing the old Dinonysian/Apollonian distinction – & tho i agree with her on other things (porn, etc, surprisingly — basically — anyway), the Nietzsche world-view of Dinoysian vs. Apollonian breaks down here: Righteous Ecstatic Love. simply put, Ecstasy (no i didn’t get Ecstasy from the Barack Obama T.S. Eliot / girlfriend letter haha – altho that was great) – (Righteous) Ecstatic Love is the marriage of Goodness & Animalistic Passion – showing no need for bounding Goodness on one side & Passion on the other.
if anyone has any comments i’d like to hear anything at all, really. i will be selling popcorn in the back *points*. grab up some of these people’s works & bump around town with them. i can pretty much say Debussy (esp. Clair De Lune, & maybe Arabesque), some sweet spot Django Reinhardt, like September Song (a special acoustic version), Beyond The Sea (Le Mer, i think) (again a special/certain version), etc etc, Roberto Benigni — my big fave Life is Beautiful — & Kerouac — anything at all by him … & e.e. cummings — these people did me right everytime, basically.