Downfall of culture

[i.n.s.a.n.e]

Hey guys,


Long text incoming, prepare..


I had this talk with my wife recently about how today's culture is on the edge of downfall.

I have a tendency to exaggerate "little bit" so I see all gloom and boom, but still..

I am sure everyone, especially the ones above 20 years or ones who think about it a bit and/or remember older times, notice where this age is going..


As an example, in Czech Republic it is being kinda ridiculous these days:

- Books are going to have 20% tax, instead of 5%, very soon and politician are just laughing at our petitions/marches..it is so fuc-ing bad idea that will kill almost ALL smaller or independent bookshops and will increase books' cost = even less people will buy them..

- Last few weeks there have been some new book editions introduced. These are made for modern audience to provide them with "old arts changed to be read easily". That means, the books are translated to language of modern age, e.g. Shakespeare's Richard the 3rd talking like a modern "gangsta", etc. They are also doing book extracts (dunno if that is the right word), reducing the size of books by taking out all the details the great artists put into them and leaving just the skeleton of the story for the modern people not to have to spend too much time reading them.. This is so fuc-ing stupid too, yes, it may increase the audience for some harder books that are not read easily, but it will not fulfil the their main function, and will make all the authors just the same for these people, as the details and the words they used in their works are unique.. =(

- Smaller theatres have no grants from state, therefore closing and all the great performances are disappearing.. =(

- Almost all new Czech movies/fairy-tales are completely pathetic, they are so bad I wanna puke whenever I see something at my mum's (we have no telly at home). We had one of the best fairy-tales, we had really great black and white movies and really great actors during ~1930-1990. Nowadays there is like 5 or 8 TV actors who can play..no kidding. =( There is also like 4x 15 minutes advertisements during movies..pathetic distracting brainwashing..

- Czech music was never that good in my opinion (at least in general, there are some great pieces of course!), but now...I wanna cry. Pop music is just terrible. With the introduction of Superstar (singing competition) to our country, almost everyone can become a star for public, even if they are kicked out in the first round, even if they have completely no talent and can't sing AT ALL..and they are loved, especially by teenage public.. Punk is silly, all just beer and pathetic opinions, Rock is kinda ok, Metal is funny, etc.


Is it just us or are you seeing something similar in your country? I am seeing lots of the downfalls in the entire world, sure, but every country has their own unique stuff. =)


Damn, I am giving myself headache.. =D


Cheers!

[Llama8]

Originally Posted by i.n.s.a.n.e

I had this talk with my wife recently about how today's culture is on the edge of downfall.

Don't worry about it too much, culture's been on the edge of downfall since we stopped the whole hunter gatherer thing...

But yes, it is depressing/disappointing.

[Void(null)]

Originally Posted by i.n.s.a.n.e

That means, the books are translated to language of modern age, e.g. Shakespeare's Richard the 3rd talking like a modern "gangsta", etc. They are also doing book extracts (dunno if that is the right word), reducing the size of books by taking out all the details the great artists put into them and leaving just the skeleton of the story for the modern people not to have to spend too much time reading them.. This is so fuc-ing stupid too, yes, it may increase the audience for some harder books that are not read easily, but it will not fulfil the their main function, and will make all the authors just the same for these people, as the details and the words they used in their works are unique.. =(

Small little piece of history for you. The Scottish Play is the shortest of Shakespeare's works but it was not always so. Back in the 1664 Sir William Davenant made a Musical out of it, with singing and dancing, flying witches and a great deal of spectacle. They cut out much of the dialogue to make room for all the songs and rewrote many of the characters including Lady Macbeth to be more fitting for this adaptation.

Well wouldn't you know the musical version was the only version to survive the passing of history? It wasn't until around 1750 that the Devenant adaptation fell out of favor but by that point the original version of had been lost to the passage of time...so they just cut the songs out of the Devenant version.

And this is how we have the Scotish play that we know and love today.

[LostSoul]

This isn't exactly a new thing in history. People in power have been "rewriting" history for countless centuries. Every signficant culture possessing the written word has suffered from it.

Indeed, even the Bible was largely rewritten by the Roman Empire. And that was merely the most well known of times for that particular book.

[Llama8]

Originally Posted by LostSoul

Indeed, even the Bible was largely rewritten by the Roman Empire. And that was merely the most well known of times for that particular book.

My understanding was that the Council of Nicaea took the various books of the Bible & decided which would & would not be "in" the Bible, the ones being "out" would therefore be heretical, so I'm not quite sure it would be fair to say (or imply, at least that's what I took your post as meaning & appologies if you didn't mean it like that) that the Romans rewrote the Bible. 'Course I wasn't there & I've not exactly made much of a study of that time period (or the Bible), so feel free to completely ignore my post...

[Malpheas]

You can see the remaining text largely (well not all, of course, because of it's passage in time) in a collection works called the Apocrypha. Now, I don't know the validity of it all, but that's what I recall.

I cannot claim to see a downfall with anything except the overexposed spectacle. Mind you, I like attending small production pieces and art exhibits. Quite a lot of talent there.

[Gumshoe]

I think we are seeing the downfall of our generation's culture, but not culture overall.

I.e. We see music turning to pop with talentless artists etc, but I'd bet money people said the same thing when rock music started, and even further back, if you look at the talent required to be a classically trained musician, they must have mocked quite severely the newer forms of contemporary music...

Or look at dress sense, it's gone from showing ankles being seen as risque, to our generation seeing the coming generation dressing 'innapropriately' much of the time.

It's all pretty relative I'd say, although I think with each generation it is slowly heading downhill overall.

[yerkyerk]

I don't see a downfall of culture, nor do I think budget cuts are a bad thing.

Musicians for example, make most money out of concerts now, records are only a small part of their income. Digital distribution makes it easy to sell albums and the social media allow for easy advertisements of songs, which in turn promote the bands. This removes the evil record companies from the scene and allows great, otherwise unknown bands, to bring their material to the public. And reap the benefits.
A downside of this modernization would be that without a catchy videoclip or a good appearance, a band will often still fail to break through, now matter how good they sound.

Budget cuts; well, I think that if the cultural institutions who rely on those can't make it without all the extra money pumped their way, they shouldn't exist. It's often like this with heavily subsidized companies; they all complain, but the lot of them will adapt and deliver. Now they just bring stupid stuff in and aren't running the place cost-efficiently. After the budget cuts, they will aim to bring in stuff that their audiences will appreciate and they'll be more careful and considering of their money. Some ancient things should be preserved with help, but most cultural institutions, especially those without any ancient cultural heritage, should learn to survive on their own.

[Scryer]

I’m of the opinion that culture cannot have a downfall. Culture is a concept developed by sociologists to describe a group of people’s beliefs, background, and mindset.

Maybe you see issues with were your country or people are headed, but all I can say is that you as an individual have a choice, you can stay and support your fellow countrymen in protest and other actions to help change the actions, or you can help them in some other way.

The other options are either to leave that country for another one that has laws more to your liking, or to simply except the new practices and not worry about the change.

In any case, I sympathize with you, I do not always enjoy how the US is run, but there are many things I agree with and many I do not agree with that our leaders have done, but in either case I’m happy at the moment, though for how long… that is hard to say.

[i.n.s.a.n.e]

Originally Posted by yerkyerk

Budget cuts; well, I think that if the cultural institutions who rely on those can't make it without all the extra money pumped their way, they shouldn't exist. It's often like this with heavily subsidized companies; they all complain, but the lot of them will adapt and deliver. Now they just bring stupid stuff in and aren't running the place cost-efficiently. After the budget cuts, they will aim to bring in stuff that their audiences will appreciate and they'll be more careful and considering of their money. Some ancient things should be preserved with help, but most cultural institutions, especially those without any ancient cultural heritage, should learn to survive on their own.

Are you referring to the "grants from state for theaters" I mentioned? I have no idea how it works in Holland, but in Czech Republic, all the theaters are subsidized by state from cultural resources. The biggest and the most costy/commercial theaters could live without the grants, but the small ones? They are just dead..And you will see no great stage plays, or the same actors in the biggest theaters, as it is not their style (meant for both sides)..It is not like they live on the grants, but it's a part of their essential budget. If they lose it, they will have to omit something (some plays, actors, sceneries, etc.) as they won't allow it, if they omit things even more they do compared to the greater theaters, less common people will come to see the stage plays there = the theaters will have less money, and will have to end up eventually.

May be a bit grim scenario, but one our favourite theaters has been closed up lately. =(

Originally Posted by Scryer

Maybe you see issues with were your country or people are headed, but all I can say is that you as an individual have a choice, you can stay and support your fellow countrymen in protest and other actions to help change the actions, or you can help them in some other way.

I still do. However, it seems like I am just one of the thousands and things just do not want to be changed.. =/

Originally Posted by Scryer

The other options are either to leave that country for another one that has laws more to your liking, or to simply except the new practices and not worry about the change.

Yeah..well, I am too lazy, and my wife would not like it that much..so I will just complain my whole life I guess..better to kill me soon guys, lol.

Originally Posted by Scryer

In any case, I sympathize with you, I do not always enjoy how the US is run, but there are many things I agree with and many I do not agree with that our leaders have done, but in either case I’m happy at the moment, though for how long… that is hard to say.

True.


I guess it may be just me then, from all the comments I've read, I just do not fit into this age it seems, heh..