Your post made me think of the often used phrase, "the test of time."
I certainly think it applies to all forms of art. We still read Shakespeare and Homer because their art has passed that test. Vermeer has passed that test. The Pantheon has passed that test.
A canny real estate friend of mine once told me he liked buying apartments in Manhattan buildings that were 100 years old, because they too had passed the test of time.
"it seems never to occur to people of this cast of thought that there might be domains that simply aren’t quantitative, that don’t represent some pool of data." This is very true. Perhaps it's best I not share what I really think, and not only for their pitiful view of literature that I won't even honor with the admittedly mildly edgy label of "reductionist." It is possible to believe in a religion of progress and if people can become animalkin they can become machines or algorithms in human bodies. I don't see that as progress, but regression because it is a denial of reality. Too much of anything can be an extreme: why should rationality be any different? Especially if they literally follow the Orwellian slogan "whoever controls the past controls the future." (In this case, the legacy of "subjective human stuff" like Shakespeare: funnily enough, both Huxley and Orwell referenced Shakespeare in their dystopias) If historical revisionism is rationality, then I guess I'm irrational.
I also think we will be inundated by these arguments. Largely because of AI and how that algorithmic golden calf will replace God in peoples lives - which will naturally make them preachy - but also because an increasing number of people are questioning the progress religion.
I had been reading Hanania’s posts for a while before that; i’d been suspicious that his malevolence had been exaggerated, by various people, and i wanted to see for myself. But when he published the Shakespeare essay, it just seemed so stupid and anti-intellectual that i stopped reading him.
Shakespeare's contribution to the world is still happening, it's in process. You can walk into most major museums and see a Rembrandt on the wall, and see why he's one of the best painters who ever lived.
The past does exist and they've been showing it on television in Spain. The Ministry of Time first aired in 2015 and the series was just getting up a head of steam when Covid hit. There are forty-eight episodes. Episode Two features the playwright Lope de Vega heading into battle with the Spanish Armada on a ship that won't survive the battle or the storm. Agents from the Ministry of Time have the task of transferring him to a ship that does survive. People tend to overestimate Shakespeare's influence in his own lifetime. Lope de Vega's literary output dwarfs Shakespeare's by a factor of twelve just in extant works. By his own count he penned more than two thousand plays, roughly thirty a year including before and after he could walk or talk. A play a week for seventy three years. Typically he could knock one out in about two days. Some of Shakespeare's work may have been a little more derivative than has generally been credited to Lope de Vega and the massive entertainment industry in Madrid at the time of the Armada. I understand Netflix has U.S. distribution rights. What we know about Francis Drake we owe to Lope de Vega.
"The past isn't dead. It isn't even past."- William Faulkner.
Your post made me think of the often used phrase, "the test of time."
I certainly think it applies to all forms of art. We still read Shakespeare and Homer because their art has passed that test. Vermeer has passed that test. The Pantheon has passed that test.
A canny real estate friend of mine once told me he liked buying apartments in Manhattan buildings that were 100 years old, because they too had passed the test of time.
Yes it exists @Sam Kahn. In our memories and thoughts, in our perception of reality and in our projection of the future.
It does exists, in photographs,objects, smells, or books. The pasts exists. It's everyday and everywhere with us.
"it seems never to occur to people of this cast of thought that there might be domains that simply aren’t quantitative, that don’t represent some pool of data." This is very true. Perhaps it's best I not share what I really think, and not only for their pitiful view of literature that I won't even honor with the admittedly mildly edgy label of "reductionist." It is possible to believe in a religion of progress and if people can become animalkin they can become machines or algorithms in human bodies. I don't see that as progress, but regression because it is a denial of reality. Too much of anything can be an extreme: why should rationality be any different? Especially if they literally follow the Orwellian slogan "whoever controls the past controls the future." (In this case, the legacy of "subjective human stuff" like Shakespeare: funnily enough, both Huxley and Orwell referenced Shakespeare in their dystopias) If historical revisionism is rationality, then I guess I'm irrational.
I also think we will be inundated by these arguments. Largely because of AI and how that algorithmic golden calf will replace God in peoples lives - which will naturally make them preachy - but also because an increasing number of people are questioning the progress religion.
I had been reading Hanania’s posts for a while before that; i’d been suspicious that his malevolence had been exaggerated, by various people, and i wanted to see for myself. But when he published the Shakespeare essay, it just seemed so stupid and anti-intellectual that i stopped reading him.
Shakespeare's contribution to the world is still happening, it's in process. You can walk into most major museums and see a Rembrandt on the wall, and see why he's one of the best painters who ever lived.
OMG! Bankman-Fried and Hanania are already nearly soooo last year!!!!!
The past does exist and they've been showing it on television in Spain. The Ministry of Time first aired in 2015 and the series was just getting up a head of steam when Covid hit. There are forty-eight episodes. Episode Two features the playwright Lope de Vega heading into battle with the Spanish Armada on a ship that won't survive the battle or the storm. Agents from the Ministry of Time have the task of transferring him to a ship that does survive. People tend to overestimate Shakespeare's influence in his own lifetime. Lope de Vega's literary output dwarfs Shakespeare's by a factor of twelve just in extant works. By his own count he penned more than two thousand plays, roughly thirty a year including before and after he could walk or talk. A play a week for seventy three years. Typically he could knock one out in about two days. Some of Shakespeare's work may have been a little more derivative than has generally been credited to Lope de Vega and the massive entertainment industry in Madrid at the time of the Armada. I understand Netflix has U.S. distribution rights. What we know about Francis Drake we owe to Lope de Vega.