No more painters, no more writers, no more musicians, no more sculptors, no more religions, no more republicans, no more royalists, no more imperialists, no more anarchists, no more socialists, no more Bolsheviks, no more aristocrats, no more armaments, no more police, no more countries, enough of these imbecilities, no more, no more, no more, no more, no more
Ruth the News Anchor:
Good afternoon I'm Ruth Kimbell with your hometown news. For 36 hours Ryan Harrison, Murderer, all around big dink has been a fugitive. Lt. Fergus Falls is heading a worldwide manhunt. Police helicopters, dogs, psychics, and thousands of police are involved. Plus millions of average citizens who would give their left nut to collect the 50 thousand dollar reward, and who couldn't use a bit of extra money? A couple on a fixed income, a teacher, especially a struggling artist who had to return a large fee because someone hated her portrait. I personally wouldn't trust somebody like that for a million, billion, trillion dollars. Columbia heights jamboree is shaping- [Ryan mutes the TV. The newscaster begins freaking out because she cannot hear herself]
Hooper:
For years in this industry, whenever an African American character, hero or villain, was introduced - usually by *white* artists and writers - they got slapped with racist names that singled them out as Negroes. Now, my book, "White-Hatin' Coon," don't have none of that bullshit. The hero's name is Maleekwa, and he's a descendant from the black tribe that established the first society on the planet, while all you European motherfuckers were still hiding in caves and shit, all terrified of the sun. He's a strong role model that a young black reader can look up to. 'Cause I'm here to tell you, the chickens is coming home to roost, y'all. The black man's no longer gonna play the minstrel in the medium of comics and sci-fi fantasy. We keepin' it real, and we gonna get respect by any means necessary.
Holden:
Ah, come on, that's a bunch of horse shit! Lando Calrissian was a black guy. You know. He got to fly the Millennium Falcon, what's the matter with you?
Hooper:
Who said that?
Holden:
I did! Lando Calrissian is a positive role-model in the realm of science-fiction/fantasy.
Hooper:
Fuck Lando Calrissian! Uncle Tom nigger!
It seems obvious, looking back, that the artists of Weimar Germany and Leninist Russia lived in a much more attenuated landscape of media than ours, and their reward was that they could still believe, in good faith and without bombast, that art could morally influence the world. Today, the idea has largely been dismissed, as it must in a mass media society where art's principal social role is to be investment capital, or, in the simplest way, bullion. We still have political art, but we have no effective political art. An artist must be famous to be heard, but as he acquires fame, so his work accumulates 'value' and becomes, ipso-facto, harmless. As far as today's politics is concerned, most art aspires to the condition of Muzak. It provides the background hum for power.
Older Lily:
Do you know how a photograph is made? The camera takes in the light through the lens, the aperture opens, and the focused light slices into the camera, embedding the image forever onto the film. The film is developed, and the images are resurrected with chemicals. [pause]
Older Lily:
Do you know how a photograph is really made?
Assistant:
You just said, the aperture opens and…
Older Lily:
A photograph is made in the mind of the photographer. He points his paintbrush and captures a moment, a temporal thief, he stops the clock for that one instant, and stores it in his camera. He captures an emotion, an event, or most poignantly, some indescribable nuance, that every person who sees the picture identifies, but can't put into words.
Assistant:
You really love it, don't you?
Older Lily:
He once told me, "The job of an artist is to make order out of chaos". Do you think that's true?
Assistant:
Sure. In a film negative everything is the opposite of what it looks like. Black is white, White is black. All the things you expect are switched around.
