Class Recap 9/9

We began Tuesday’s class by bringing up my blog post discussing Wilson’s change of style in chapter nine of “Let’s Talk About Love”. As a class we came to acknowledge that Wilson had a more open approach towards Dion in that chapter. This led to our topic of discussion: “Does Wilson give the reader a chance to decide if they like Dion?” Each student had to decide whether or not Wilson actually gives the reader a fair chance to form his or her own opinion about Celine Dion.

The majority of the class agreed that with this change in style Wilson actually does give the readers a chance to choose for themselves. As a class we observed that the different views allows the argument to go two ways, Wilson’s taste isn’t necessarily right, and the biographical background of each Dion fan proved that Wilson had an open mind on the matter. However some objections were made about the various interviews and how it was more a defensive stance taken by the fans. The elaborate information provided for each fan looked like they were defending their fandom, instead of Wilson praising them for it. All in all the class decided that it was a definite shift made by Wilson in the book.

We also discussed Susan Sontag’s “Notes on Camp” which covered the aesthetic, flamboyant genre of camp.  As a class we chose a couple exerts from the reading that brought to light the meaning of camp. Here are just a few from the class:

• 24.) When something is just bad (rather than Camp), it’s often because it is too mediocre in its ambition. The artist hasn’t attempted to do anything really outlandish. (“It’s too much,” “It’s too fantastic,” “It’s not to be believed,” are standard phrases of Camp enthusiasm.)
• 5.) Camp taste has an affinity for certain arts rather than others. Clothes, furniture, all the elements of visual décor, for instance, make up a large part of Camp. For Camp art is often decorative art, emphasizing texture, sensuous surface, and style at the expense of content.
• 36.) But there are other creative sensibilities besides the seriousness (both tragic and comic) of high culture and of the high style of evaluating people. And one cheats oneself, as a human being, if one has respect only for the style of high culture, whatever else one may do or feel on the sly.

With a better understanding of the camp genre the class then watched and analyzed clips from “The Great Lebowski” and “500 Days of Summer”. Were the clips serious? Did they have that camp like feel? We concluded that “The Great Lebowski”  had more of an outlandish feel, not relating to the plot and capturing the camp genre while “500 Days of Summer” seemed to be more planned out and serious but still had that flamboyant, camp-like feel. We then transitioned into a discussion about Rupaul’s Drag Race and how it proved to be a perfect example of camp because of its weird nature. Participants on the show were not trying to pass as women but rather entertain audiences through hilarious impressions, something that is very out of the box in today’s society.

Finally, to end class, we had to fill in the blanks to this following sentence: Criticism should aim to _____, not  ______. The general consensus was that criticism should aim to be constructive, not present a one sided opinion.