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It's not what the world needs right now

thebaffler.com

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Re: It's not what the world needs right now

#81

Post by noobermin »

This man has lived a life many fantasise about, although perhaps not a very comfortable one. I think sometimes I lived a colourful, varied life but what a story for this piece.

I can't believe I have to do the reddit edit postscriptum but really, does everyone dislike the author? I certainly could never be this sort of person, but what a story, living life on the edge and making it up as they go along. Do commenters never daydream, like just imagine how life would be if things had turned out differently?

Re: It's not what the world needs right now

#82

Post by underlipton »

subjectsigma wrote: post #17

> A gallerist who wants to work with me says she can’t add a white man to her roster. Pretty fucking disgusting that someone would openly say that to him.

As a black man, I'd appreciate the lawsuit-opener over my reality, which is just people seeing my alma mater and name and pretending I don't exist.

Re: It's not what the world needs right now

#83

Post by roughly »

jyunwai wrote: post #31

Most other comments so far have viewed this artist's lifestyle negatively, as he wrote that he got by via abusing various policies and tax fraud (via "[hallucinating] a DJ software skin" to claim as a business expense). But he's an interesting person for sticking to his craft for close to a decade now: he has persisted in working hard to produce artwork and submit it for exhibition. However, to what extent is this li…

> For this artist in particular, I wonder if a steady job would have been a positive or negative to his art.

There’s a lot to read between the lines here, but if I were a betting man, I wouldn’t put a lot on the author being the sort to maintain a steady job for the long run.

I don’t mean that as a critique - the world needs all sorts, but capitalism’s got more strict opinions.

Re: It's not what the world needs right now

#84

Post by roughly »

codingdave wrote: post #14

The question I have not yet seen in the comments here is whether or not this post is real or fiction. Is it the journal of a questionable character, or a deliberate attempt to push people's buttons? And honestly, that is why I like it. I really hope it cannot be taken at face value - that would be disappointment.

> whether or not this post is real or fiction

I suspect both, and I’d suspect the author’s the sort who wouldn’t stay in one category no matter the circumstances.

Re: It's not what the world needs right now

#85

Post by reactus »

platz wrote: post #64
reactus wrote: post #60

Several commenters here hate the writer, calling him "completely insufferable", "a character that the reader hates", or "a selfish, narcissistic jerk". But I didn't find him that bad? His worst crime was stealing a $4000 suit from Barneys New York.

so stealing is ok if it's from the wealthy and corporations..

I didn't say that. Stealing $4k is bad, but I can't say I hate the guy for it. It's not like he ran into the store with a machine gun and murdered the clerk to get the cash in the register. Also the suit anecdote could have been made up anyways.

Re: It's not what the world needs right now

#86

Post by noobermin »

aberzun wrote: post #78

Aside from the essay, can somebody please explain to me the appeal of "art works" like the ones that Andrew produces? It's gotta be some kind of joke that I missed the memo on, right!?

They're pretty and or provacative. What else are you looking for?

Beauty is subjective and all that. I liked some of them and disliked others.

Re: It's not what the world needs right now

#87

Post by selimthegrim »

NoboruWataya wrote: post #52
mycologos wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deliberately making art that people think sucks seems like kind of a low bar?

It don't think the aim was to write a piece that people think sucks, it was to write about a person who people think sucks. There is a difference, or at least there used to be: I feel like increasingly people are unable to separate the literary value of a piece from the moral value of its protagonist. This piece reminds me of Charles Bukowski's books about the "lowlife" Hank Chinaski. Another more extreme example of…

Disgrace got published and it wasn’t much better from that standpoint

Re: It's not what the world needs right now

#89

Post by selimthegrim »

underlipton wrote: post #82
subjectsigma wrote: post #17

> A gallerist who wants to work with me says she can’t add a white man to her roster. Pretty fucking disgusting that someone would openly say that to him.

As a black man, I'd appreciate the lawsuit-opener over my reality, which is just people seeing my alma mater and name and pretending I don't exist.

Is it that they don’t think you’re qualified to have gotten in there or it’s an HBCU so they denigrate it?

Re: It's not what the world needs right now

#90

Post by platz »

reactus wrote: post #85
platz wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so stealing is ok if it's from the wealthy and corporations..

I didn't say that. Stealing $4k is bad, but I can't say I hate the guy for it. It's not like he ran into the store with a machine gun and murdered the clerk to get the cash in the register. Also the suit anecdote could have been made up anyways.

is murder the only bad thing in your mind?

can things be bad without being the worst possible thing?

what i'm hearing: its bad but it's not bad because there are worse things that are bad and also I'm "looking the other way"

whether or not it was made up was irrelevant to your initial claim. the proposition is identical in either case.

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