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From: blp
Category: Art
Date: 27 March 2005
Dave Eggars, McSweeney's, the Believer, Wes Anderson with specific reference to The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Quentin Tarrantino with specific ref to Kill Bill Volumes 1&2, David Foster Wallace - 1. Cleverness is not simply a matter of tone of voice. 2. Pointless formal trickery is cheap novelty and is not clever. 3. Cleverness as an artistic goal is vain, meaning both self-regarding and futile. 4. Writing with the assumption that you're clever is stupid. 5. Writing with the assumpton that you're never going to say anything true is dogmatic, not free. 6. Assuming total artistic freedom is also not free. 7. Relentless invention of novelties is easy, not clever. 8. The vulnerability of pathos and the hardness of irony are mutually exclusive. You can't use the former to leaven the latter. Anyway, you're only doing it to try to prove you're own versatility/omnipotence/cleverness. 9. Lack of emotion is not the same as sagacity. 10. Comedians are sad. Unfunny comedians are the saddest.
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