ATTENTION SPAN

We, the walking dead of this Twenty-first century

Bedlam we've either created (I'm a boomer)or 

inherited, everyone else, have lost our souls. 

We no longer demand beauty like our ancestors 

did, we don't have a version of Art Deco, or 

Art Nouveau; we have stainless steel and glass. We 

don't have music, we have "rap." We do not have 

Georgia O'Keefe, or Norman Rockwell, we have 

Jackson Pollock, and garish graffiti to decorate 

our knife edged, modern buildings. No D.H. 

Lawrence, or William Carlos Williams, we have 

"spoken word" angry sermon misogynies. We don't 

even walk outside, anymore. We live in our screens

and VR, because we are terrified of rain, afraid of

light, faint at the touch of warm skin because we 

have seen ourselves, pants around our ankles, limp 

in the blood-stained mud. Our water comes in plastic, 

our food and medicine from Frankenstein's lab. 

Our politics is corrupt at every level. We laugh at 

murder. We have traded our souls for a pocketful 

of stones and money we don't even have the will 

or wisdom to keep. We have always known we 

are the worst thing ever to happen to our thatched 

cottage, Earth, out here on the trailing arm of God's 

hobby Milky Way galaxy made just for us, and oh, 

what a mess we've made of things! When I was 

young, I thought I could do my part help us get 

back to where we belong. I couldn't, so I thought 

I could at least save my city, maybe a few friends? 

I could not, family, maybe a little; I hope there 

was more good than bad. Myself? Trying, working 

on it, two steps forward, somewhere between one 

and ten steps back... It is why I am a believer,

because since I can't forgive myself, 

I have the perfect God who can, 

and I keep Him busy. 

Reviews

[Lorry]

Your title turned out to be very prophetic Vol, seeing as it thought you were warning the Mediterranean by misreading it as attention Spain!
You are of course correct in that we no longer have periods of time named for its art or whatever Jackson Pollok vomited up after a seriously bad session.
I cant really see early 21st century art by renowned snowflakes catching on and world literature being rewritten in a series of frowny faces im not even aiming to save my local village community but will instead save the time it would take to do so and stay in bed instead.
Never fear though, I'll have my screen of reality denial close by just in case I have to hear the weatherologistscomplete stab in the dark at what type of weather will be occurring, or what fake news to deny or just watch videos of penguins falling over on youtube.
I just tried ordering a frappelattecino online but Katie just replied the kitchen is closed so I have to make it myself. I left her a one star review saying "appalling service. Won't be back! 😀

[Vol]

Lorry,
I had just read an article about attention spans in America... We're doomed. 8.25 seconds. Goldfish? 9 seconds. Our most recent named period is the post modern, which died a very slow death beginning in the early Seventies, and thanks mostly to Charles Bukowski. They believed nothing had meaning, Charlie said EVERYTHING has meaning. It looks like all the best in every genre, stays home, maybe makes a local splash with friends and family, but the world no longer cares. You want an evening too end, just as who's everybody's favorite... painter, poet, architect, sculptor... Western Civilization has been dead for at least 50 years; we've got fly-bred maggots feeding off our carcass as we speak.Allah Akbar...

[Thomas W Case]

This reads like a long, exhausted confession more than a rant, and that’s where its power is. The cultural critique is sharp, but what stays with me is the turn inward at the end—the admission of failure, self-interrogation, and the need for grace.

[Ken Simm.]

I agree with your basic premise about not having specific beauty and schools of art to satisfy us but as you would probably guess my disagreements are rather different than your. Whilst I do not necessarily like Jackson Pollock there are other abstract expressionists that I enjoy. But what you have mentioned mostly here by saying what we have now is in fact old history. It is my contention that we have even less in the 21st century. What we have now are not artists they are showmen famous for the whims of agents. Carl Andre is a case in point. In short Art of any kind no longer speaks to the soul. But then again Art is not faith. Which is how you ends. A good write nontheless. picking up on a number of pertinent points about the attention span of modern humans. But then what were we taking about?

[Vol]

Ken,
It is SO good to hear from you!
Thanks for the thoughtful commentary. Especially from an artist who knows stuff! I want to ask about one thing you said. I'm not sure what you mean by the statement, "But what you have mentioned mostly here by saying what we have now is in fact old history."? What I was saying is today's intellectual world is either a vacuum with no one of any genre who stands out, or it is so overcrowded with local talent spread all over the web and concentrated nowhere, so it is undefinable.
I think we are on the same page... My concentration was the Moderns, probably one of the most explosive periods of artistic creation since the Renaissance. And it was across the board, literature, art, architecture, philosophy all in a stew thrown together by a series of cultural and social events that were so enormous, the result seems like a form of PTSD. By the beginning of WWI, every cultural foundation the West held dear was gone, and the terrified thinkers of the day had to do something to save us, to give us meaning. It didn't work. The post-moderns who followed said, well, it must be that there IS no meaning... Thus Pollock, Ferlingetti, Yoko Ono, and the sound of one hand clapping." It wasn't until the late sixties that folks like Bukowski came along to say meaning is everywhere, especially in the small things. And that seems to be where we’ve landed, in a world where everyone has a voice so no one stands out. No school of thought, no identity, just what is left of us scattered around with no direction and no shared vision. Of course, art is not faith, but both are a source and expression of meaning.
Vol

[Ken Simm.]

Ars Longa Vita Brevis Vol.

[Vol]

Ken,
So it is!
(Before I forget) Igor Babaliov I an amazing artist I met at Stogies in Franklin, Cool Springs area. He's painted three popes, presidents and all kinds of influential people around the world... Look him up, he's on Facebook...)
I know it's true, and maybe the safest way to make a mark and create a legacy. So something with our name on it, might carry on...
Vol

[Ken Simm.]

Vol, I think of the above artist, having researched him, in the same way you probably think of Robert Rauschenberg or Larry Rivers or Arshile Gorky. I thin of Babaliov as the ultimate conservative. Although I do tend to agree with some of his quotes I do not like others. If you want referential work (not realistic, there is not such thing, a painting is a painting is a painting, it is not the subject matter. A painting of a flower does not become a flower, with real petals and scents, it does not grow in that sense. Although it does in others.) Art is not talent, art is skill and drawing is the important skill to learn. Only when you learn that language can you say what you wish to say with confidence. Looking is how you learn to draw by using your eyes to put over the information you want. And no one can do referential, not realistic art better than the great masters of the Renaissance. It has all been done before. That is what I meant above. Espeically like artis such as the one you mention.

[Ken Simm.]

Someone once asked Picasso "Are you painting a bowl of fruit maestro?" To which he replied " No I'm painting a painting."

[Vol]

Ha, I love that... I find the best part of the liberal arts is the wonderful diversity... Some folks like Neitze, some Kierkegard, some Camus. Some love Picasso, some Dali, some like Rothko, some Pollock... Some like Eliot, some like Lawrence.... the thing is that no matter your preference, finding any one of those jewels in all the gravel is always enriching. I used to tell my students that the more you know, the bigger you are on the inside...
Vol