To all prospective readers,
You probably can't tell by reading the title alone, but this is going to be a "culture blog." That is, all the entries will be reviews of cultural products--books, albums, movies, etc. But before I flood cyberspace with my own unsolicited thoughts on and feelings about all those things, I thought I should take some time to explain exactly what I'm trying to accomplish here.
This blog is first and foremost a record of my experiment with "cultural cannibalism," a concept first articulated by the Brazilian poet Oswald de Andrade in 1928. At a time when many Brazilian intellectuals were calling for the rejection of anything not considered "authentically Brazilian," Andrade argued that musicians, writers, painters, and the like could generate original and meaningful art only by "cannibalizing" the cultural products of other nations. As an aspiring artist, I find this somewhat paradoxical mix of absolute receptivity and fierce individuality inspiring, and I want to experience the fruits of this approach myself.
I'm not the most politically aware person, but it seems to me that we are in a unique position to forge a post-national culture. That is, instead of making "American music," "American film," "American literature," etc., it seems appropriate to me that artists start producing "people music," "people film," and "people literature." The only way to do this is to thoughtfully devour as many works as possible, being conscious of, but not constrained by, their individual temporal social contexts.
My goal is to review every cultural product I have, and every cultural product that I will acquire in the future. I won't allow myself to pick and choose, or distinguish between highbrow and lowbrow, art and trash. From hip-hop to honky tonk, from Peanuts to Jackson Pollack, everything has a place in my life. Everything is worth considering. Everything matters. It's time to begin the Great Adventure. I look forward to sharing it with you.
Sincerely,
The Balch
