“The aim of jazz is the mechanical reproduction of a regressive moment, a castration symbolism. ‘Give up your masculinity, let yourself be castrated,’ the eunuchlike sound of the jazz band both mocks and proclaims, ‘and you will be rewarded, accepted into a fraternity which shares the mystery of impotence with you, a mystery revealed at the moment of the initiation rite.”
— Theodor Adorno,
“Perennial Fashion–Jazz”, Prisms, p.129.
Posts
This must be irony?
19. December 2007 @ 22:08 ( Permalink )
Nopes, that’s the Frankfurt School for you. A bunch of deranged German geriatrics, who were called neo marxists, moved to the US when they were old and the War started (a lot of them were Jewish, and all of them were “communists”, so they did in fact move quite some time before this). In the US they encountered popular culture, including jazz, and it scared them so much, they dedicated the rest of their lives to producing academic articles and books on how much pop culture (and especially American pop culture) sucked ass and would inevitably lead to the destruction of the Western world.
Gods, how I hate the sons of prejudiced bitches. (A bit of messed-up syntax, there; I hardly mean to insult their mothers, who I’m sure were quite the cosmopolitans. I’m simply so annoyed at the status these pompous dickwads have gained, I’m unable to think straight.)
19. December 2007 @ 22:41 ( Permalink )