Vice Samzidat

The beloved news outlet, Vice, is renowned for being a source of journlism that isnt affraid to dicuss and cover taboo and/or troubuling subjects. For example, the Vice TV channed (VICELAND) resently coverd the charleston neo nazi riots; unlike other news sources, such as CNN and NBC, Vice covered the riots from the perspective of the neo nazis. I see Vice to be this modern day from of Samzidat, a news osurce that covers the other side of current events.Vice is a news outlet that doesnt sugarcoat their headlines and gets right to the nitty gritty of all of their stories. Simillar to samziat, Vice dosent strcily cover news, theyre also an outlet for the contempery arts. Vice features, on their website, images of modern art ranging from politcal statment pieces to just pure artisc brillance; simillar to what we know of the samzidat movement, politcal prisoners would compose poems that cover all subjects and that would circulate as underground literature. Vice brings underground literature to the surface.

"Us" – Regina Spektor

Soviet Kitsch (2004)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fczPlmz-Vug

"Us" lyrics

They made a statue of us

Then put in on a mountain top

Now tourists come and stare at us

Blow bubbles with their gum

Take photographs of fun, have fun

They'll name a city after us

And later say it's all our fault

Then they'll give us a talking to

Then they'll give us a talking to

Cause they've got years of experience

Living in a den of thieves

Rummaging for answers in the pages

Living in a den of thieves

And it's contagious

And it's contagious

And it's contagious

And it's contagious

We wear our scarves just like a noose

But not cause we want eternal sleep

And though our parts are slightly used

New ones are slave labor you can keep

They made a statue for us

They made a statue for us

The tourists come and stare at us

The sculptor's marble sends regards

They made a statue of us

They made a statue of us

Our noses have begun to rust

__________________________________

• "Us" refers to Soviet leaders, particularly Lenin and Stalin.
• There were cities that bore the name of these dictators: Stalingrad (1925-1961; now Volgograd) and Leningrad (1924-1991; now St. Petersburg).
• The statues "on a mountain top" are examples of Soviet kitsch.
• The line about fault relates to Tomas's Oedipus article (avoidance of responsibility)
• Tourists trivialize the history, struggles, and Soviet kitsch associated with the cities and take photos for fun.
• The Soviet Union is called "a den of thieves" because of its corruption and the usual capitalist argument that socialism is theft of private property.
• Although it can confusing and open to many interpretations, the song as a whole denounces kitsch and oppression of individuality, as the Soviets had done to artists.

Sabina's Art During "Normalization"

While researching for our Czech film project and listening to the class present on the period of normalization, I couldn’t help but draw a parallel between their approach to art and Sabina. Just as with many authors and filmmakers, Sabina was taught to paint in a certain way. Her style was limited by the popular opinions of art, and sat within the confines of a government with restrictive views on expression.

Sabina, however, like the great authors and filmmakers, is able to break through this mold. Just as with “vault films” and underground literature, Sabina, through her accidental red drip, is able to create her own window into the realities of Czech life.

Picasso Kitsch

As an art lover, I always feel paradoxical when I say that I am not a fan of Picasso’s work. It is not because I think he is a poor artist that his work doesn’t appeal to me, but it is because after viewing several of his paintings, especially from his more famous cubism pieces, they all begin to look alike.

Picasso was a light artist. He was as prolific with his paintings as Tomas is with his sexual affairs. And just as the majority of Tomas’s affairs go without consequence, for me, Picasso’s paintings go without impact. Looking at a Picasso painting, there is a moment of appreciation, and then it falters into the reality that much of Picasso’s work is the work of merely a few hours, or perhaps minutes.

It is estimated that Picasso created around 50,000 works of art, including 1,885 paintings. Ultimately, this averages down to Picasso creating about 2 pieces a day, for everyday of his life as an artist. He is thought to have created even more than 2 pieces each day when painting. He was an art factory, a fine art factory, granted, but still incredibly prolific nonetheless. 

Picasso is also perhaps the most well known artist today. This is no coincidence, as his prolificacy enables his work to be widely circulated and held by galleries and museums worldwide. So, that poses the question: is a prolific artist such as Picasso, whose works are known worldwide and widely known for their excellence, an artist of kitsch?

Transfer Deadline Day: Should I Stay (heavy) or Should I Go (light)

Today was transfer deadline day in most European football (soccer) leagues, and many clubs and players moved frantically to sign deals and submit documents to league headquarters. In soccer there are two transfer windows a year—one each in the summer and winter. The summer window generally lasts three months (6/1-8/31) and is crucial because league campaigns start in mid-August. Transfer windows are opportunities for clubs to either reinforce their squads or completely ruin their season (e.g., when a mass exodus of players happens without replacements coming in). They are also opportunities for players to take on a new challenge or get a pay bump. The transfer window is a gift that keeps on giving because of its drama. On clubs' official social media pages, fans anxiously comment "announce someone!" Players make shock moves (e.g., Brazilian footballer Neymar moved to Paris for $264 million), snakes (players who betray a club) are born, rumors are fabricated by the media, and there are so many other twists and turns. The emotions of deadline day have inspired me to connect the world of club sport with the theme of lightness vs. weight.

In every professional club sport, most players transfer to other teams. In this sense, many players are "light". That lightness is sometimes for the good or the bad. It is good when players move for development and trophies/championships. It is bad when they move for money or the way in which they exit is disrespectful. On the other hand, players who stay put in one or two clubs for many years can be considered "heavy." In these days, "heavy" athletes are an extreme rarity simply because there aren't many players who value loyalty over money. The question of staying or moving teams is one of the most difficult and entertaining topics in club sports, and I am still not sure if "lightness" or "weight" is better in this regard.

Weight vs. Lightness, Instagram vs. Snapchat

When thinking about the posts about social media, I thought of another, perhaps more trivial, example in our lives of the dichotomy between lightness and weight as conceived of in The Unbearable Lightness of Being: Instagram vs. Snapchat. The two social media apps are very popular services based around sharing pictures, but have very different approaches to posting that appeal to a sort of heaviness and lightness for Instagram and Snapchat respectively. Pictures people post on Instagram stay on their profile indefinitely and can be viewed at any time by any of your friends. ON Snapchat, pictures are either posted to be viewed for only 24 hours and then disappear or are sent individually so that they can only be viewed for a few seconds. While the feeling of permanence of Instagram posts, which can be deleted, and the ephemerality of Snapchat stories, which can be screenshotted, are somewhat illusory, the contrast of how these apps works reminded me of the split between Nietzsche's eternal recurrence and Kundera's conception of lightness. The apps can therefore provide a sort of comparison of how people act under these artificially imposed conditions of lightness and heaviness. How this bears out in reality is pretty similar to what we have discussed in class on a more metaphysical level: on Instagram, people generally give their posts much more weight and are more careful about what they do, while on Snapchat, people are more likely to be less serious and might care less about what they post, in a spirit of "Einmal ist keinmal". This is obviously not a super serious example, but I think it provides a sort of interesting experiment of how perceived heaviness or lightness to people's actions can affect their behavior.

Photography in Relation to Tereza's View of the Body

We have discussed how Tereza despises the human body, particularly her own, and prioritizes the soul. I would like to mention a meaningful scene that has not been brought up in our discussions.

On page 68, Tereza heads to Switzerland with some of her photos of the invasion. She offers them to a magazine, but the editor does not accept them. He reasons that they are outdated and that the Swiss care no longer. Then a woman comes into the office and presents a nudist beach article. The editor fears that Tereza would be shocked by the images and says, "Of course they're completely different from your pictures." Tereza replies, "Not at all. They're the same." Here Tereza equates her pictures of the Russian invasion with nudity. While the Soviet government lied that the occupation was "fraternal help" to a fellow socialist state in the grip of counter-revolutionaries, her photographs exposed the truth beneath the surface. Then the woman tries to comfort Tereza: "There's nothing wrong with the naked body. It's normal. And everything normal is beautiful!" However, it can be inferred that Tereza is disturbed by the woman's words because she has a flashback to "the image of her mother marching through the flat naked." The reason why Tereza hates the body is precisely because of its uniformity/normality and her oft-naked mother, and this woman is suggesting that being normal is beautiful. Tereza cannot stand the idea.

No school tomorrow 💪