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Artificial articulation with anthropomorphic dexterity
Thursday, February 24, 2005
I went out for drinks with my friend Mike last night. Mike and I were news editors of our university paper, Varsity. Alas, the venerable archives do not extend to those faded shores of yesteryear (2000), so that you may not bask in Mike's writing. Allow me a moment to sing the man's praises: He's a quiet sort, but in a mysterious way favoured by people who go wild for Johnny Depp; he's handsome, dresses well, and exhibits the aforementioned wizardry with the written word. Yes, ladies love cool Mike. Unfortunately for the ladies, there's only one who has Mike's heart, and she lives in Korea.
Anyway, Mike is always saying brilliant quoteable things. Last night he said, "When you feel lonely out in the wilderness, that's a sentimental loneliness, but when you feel lonely in a city it's romantic loneliness." Of course, he phrased it better because Mike is a genius and I am a humble scribe. Anyway, Mike told me two things I need to look into:
But my point is this: Mike lives in Joburg, and he has a completely different perspective of Joburg to me. I'm still right, but in the interests of fair reporting, I feel I must tell the other side. Mike says he's never lived in another city where he has such a real feeling that the city is alive, growing and changing as we eat, sleep, read. He says the energy is palpable, and almost every person he meets is optimistic, ambitious and excited because any minute could be your transition into a cool new job or space. And the money keeps rolling in. Mike says Joburg is like LA, and Cape Town is like San Francisco. He says that Joburg is a city of many cities, and a journey of a few minutes can mean a spiritual reawakening. Mike loves Joburg as much as he loves Cape Town. It's his home, and his inspiration.
Anyway, Mike is always saying brilliant quoteable things. Last night he said, "When you feel lonely out in the wilderness, that's a sentimental loneliness, but when you feel lonely in a city it's romantic loneliness." Of course, he phrased it better because Mike is a genius and I am a humble scribe. Anyway, Mike told me two things I need to look into:
- To eat a Korean dish which sounds like "Bibip Bap".
- To find a copy of The Koln Concert by Keith Jarrett.
But my point is this: Mike lives in Joburg, and he has a completely different perspective of Joburg to me. I'm still right, but in the interests of fair reporting, I feel I must tell the other side. Mike says he's never lived in another city where he has such a real feeling that the city is alive, growing and changing as we eat, sleep, read. He says the energy is palpable, and almost every person he meets is optimistic, ambitious and excited because any minute could be your transition into a cool new job or space. And the money keeps rolling in. Mike says Joburg is like LA, and Cape Town is like San Francisco. He says that Joburg is a city of many cities, and a journey of a few minutes can mean a spiritual reawakening. Mike loves Joburg as much as he loves Cape Town. It's his home, and his inspiration.
Comments:
Sorry I keep harassing you, but I just read this entry (after I read the Philippines one), and I know what Korean dish you're talking about. I don't know how it's actually spelled, but phonetically it sounds like "Bibimba" and the expats I roll with are obsessed with eating it over here.
Maybe you swapped Mike's use of the terms "romantic" and "sentimental". To Romantics, it is only too appropriate to be an accursed loner -- but not in the city! At the heart of Romanticism lies a deep distrust for the urban environment. In fact, its origins lie in a repudiation of the Industrial Revolution, mass urbanisation and the resulting efforts at social control.
The wilderness is considered the only pure state "because in that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature" (Wordsworth). Humanity's natural goodness is corrupted in the city. New moral and spiritual forms can only be contemplated in tranquil communion with the self and with its reflection in the natural world. While Romantics are committed to social change, most believe it is incompatible with mechanical progress (see Frankenstein).
Romanticism's emphasis on feeling (or sensibility) congealed in the late 19th century into Victorian sentimentality. Suspicious of the Romantics' preoccupation with social progress, the Victorians sought to contain or domesticate the subversive aspects of the Romantic imagination. They did this by depriving them of their association with a dissatisfaction with the status quo and by replacing true emotional poignancy with sentiment (in our century, the devolution into irony and cynicism of mass political engagement echoes this process). In this way, for example, the Romantics' nostalgia for simpler social orders less fettered by institutional control and in closer communion with the morally stabilising state of nature developed into a fabrication of a lost English Golden Age of chivalry and conquest. This kitsch fantasy served to bolster nationalism and imperial expansion while giving mythic weight to contemporary social heirarchies.
Sentimentality, at its heart, is deeply reactionary, reinforcing received morality and established power structures. Affected, excessive displays of emotion offer catharsis but are unchallenging spiritually, artistically or socially. Sentimentality offers consensus for Romaticism's individuality, mechanical emotional response for spontaneous feeling, stasis for flux. In this way, sentimentalism's origins in an urban environment characterised by conformity and control are made very apparent.
The wilderness is considered the only pure state "because in that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature" (Wordsworth). Humanity's natural goodness is corrupted in the city. New moral and spiritual forms can only be contemplated in tranquil communion with the self and with its reflection in the natural world. While Romantics are committed to social change, most believe it is incompatible with mechanical progress (see Frankenstein).
Romanticism's emphasis on feeling (or sensibility) congealed in the late 19th century into Victorian sentimentality. Suspicious of the Romantics' preoccupation with social progress, the Victorians sought to contain or domesticate the subversive aspects of the Romantic imagination. They did this by depriving them of their association with a dissatisfaction with the status quo and by replacing true emotional poignancy with sentiment (in our century, the devolution into irony and cynicism of mass political engagement echoes this process). In this way, for example, the Romantics' nostalgia for simpler social orders less fettered by institutional control and in closer communion with the morally stabilising state of nature developed into a fabrication of a lost English Golden Age of chivalry and conquest. This kitsch fantasy served to bolster nationalism and imperial expansion while giving mythic weight to contemporary social heirarchies.
Sentimentality, at its heart, is deeply reactionary, reinforcing received morality and established power structures. Affected, excessive displays of emotion offer catharsis but are unchallenging spiritually, artistically or socially. Sentimentality offers consensus for Romaticism's individuality, mechanical emotional response for spontaneous feeling, stasis for flux. In this way, sentimentalism's origins in an urban environment characterised by conformity and control are made very apparent.
# posted by 
: 4:30 am
: 4:30 am
Yeah, yeah, you Wordsworth-quoting blabbermouth, move over! I gotta talk to Geoff! Hey, Geoff, you still awake?
[Zzzzzzzzzzzz.]
Geoff, I own the Koln Concert! But you can't copy it.
Because that would be wrong.
[Zzzzzzzzzzzz.]
Geoff, I own the Koln Concert! But you can't copy it.
Because that would be wrong.
# posted by : 4:50 am
: 4:50 am
M.: I'd like to listen to it some time though? Maybe tomorrow?
Rupert: Jesus you are smart. I am super impressed by your long essay, flawless grammar, and logical thought process. However, Mike said "romantic", not "Romantic". We don't care about the all-but-over movement. We care about the emotional appeal of what is heroic or adventurous. The daunting cityscape whose "concrete jungles" offer far more dramatic challenges to our physical and emotional survival in modern times than the sanitised and beleaguered bastions of the great outdoors.
Rupert: Jesus you are smart. I am super impressed by your long essay, flawless grammar, and logical thought process. However, Mike said "romantic", not "Romantic". We don't care about the all-but-over movement. We care about the emotional appeal of what is heroic or adventurous. The daunting cityscape whose "concrete jungles" offer far more dramatic challenges to our physical and emotional survival in modern times than the sanitised and beleaguered bastions of the great outdoors.
Geoff, the movement is long gone but its essence is still that which is designated "romantic". Wilderness, loneliness, these are the things of romanticism. I guess it depends on how broadly you want to stretch the term. The 20th century may have seen an expansion of the idea to include the urban "wilderness" (while Jack Kerouac left the city in On the Road, Allen Ginsberg stayed) but looking at things in terms of alienation and survival is like romanticism in negative...
# posted by : 5:41 am
: 5:41 am
I would like to stretch the term as far as, say Merriam-Webster would. I refer you to the definition marked 4a. Is it your contention that it is impossible to be heroic, adventurous or mysterious in a city, or to find those epithets applicable to the spirit of the city itself? You rightly state that what is romantic lies at the heart of romanticism, but this logical forward implication is not obviously reversable. In my eyes, alienation and survival only serve to feed mystery and heroism.
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