tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post4195619398504845956..comments2024-03-28T21:32:26.550+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: "An inflexion-point in the collapse of The West" - My review of Amazon's "Rings of Power"Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-32597530462010582452022-09-15T03:07:17.337+01:002022-09-15T03:07:17.337+01:00"... a product of committees throughout...&qu..."... a product of committees throughout..."<br /><br />Many hands make trite work.a_probsthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16197411067925016452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-57695621454823698992022-09-14T15:31:05.186+01:002022-09-14T15:31:05.186+01:00@Michael B: It is indeed amazing - which is why I ...@Michael B: It is indeed amazing - which is why I regard RoP as a culturally significant inflexion point. <br /><br />This could not have happened a few years ago, yet it has happened: therefore, it seems we have crossed a line. We can therefore expect to see more of the same kind of thing. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-76168807830006721692022-09-14T15:27:51.977+01:002022-09-14T15:27:51.977+01:00I find it truly amazing they would spend this much...I find it truly amazing they would spend <i>this much</i> money on something while doing practically nothing to oversee it. From what I understand, the two showrunners had never been in charge of <i>any</i> such project before, yet they were handed the keys and allowed to crash a billion-dollar supercar into a cherished historical building. Their unworthiness achieved supernatural proportions, but even that is outdone by their superiors' misworth in allowing it.Michael Baronnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-49742279682816760042022-09-13T05:00:41.399+01:002022-09-13T05:00:41.399+01:00Your closing paean had me laughing. Perhaps, it is...Your closing paean had me laughing. Perhaps, it is incompetence, but I hope that Jake is right -- maybe some decent folks sabotaged the production in a way that they knew would clear the internal (and thoroughly corrupted) censors. If so, kudos to them!Joseph A.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-64072411078065441072022-09-12T18:47:31.801+01:002022-09-12T18:47:31.801+01:00A disturbing post that underscores the comprehensi...A disturbing post that underscores the comprehensive nature of the West's decline/collapse.<br /><br />It might be worth mentioning that I recently watched the highest grossing film of the year - and it was outstanding. Pure entertainment and spectacle, delivered with unbelievable technical skill, solid acting and a very good, satisfying screenplay. Notably, the film was entirely free of "woke," which I think was a deliberate choice by the filmmakers.<br /><br />So this example suggests that great productions are still possible - at least on the big screen - if the goal is to entertain rather than indoctrinate. On the other hand, the film was many years in the making, with principal photography wrapping up in 2019(!), and standards are dropping rapidly, so I wonder if there will ever be any big-budget films of similar quality in the future.Hari Seldonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10208029436316655499noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-690518636364148692022-09-12T17:52:55.227+01:002022-09-12T17:52:55.227+01:00Pitch Meeting is hilarious!Pitch Meeting is hilarious!AnteBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00249366173494889527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-74226954473399832922022-09-12T16:49:46.448+01:002022-09-12T16:49:46.448+01:00@Jake - Interesting idea. But I think it is genuin...@Jake - Interesting idea. But I think it is genuinely incompetent - in a new kind of way. Probably because it was a product of committees throughout (and committees of people who don't understand how to make a TV drama and regard that as a priority), and because its political correctness was built-in from the ground-up and as the primary objective. <br /><br />I think it is actually very difficult to create a decent quality TV drama - and it requires, above all, that the people involved are (at least unconsciously) trying to create something of decent quality. Even when work is done with an over-arching goal to make money (eg with Shakespeare's plays - where he was a theatre shareholder) there must be a desire to make money by doing good work. <br /><br />What we have with RoP is what happens when the quality goal is taken for granted by people who have either lost or never had the motivation to do good work. <br /><br />This criticism does not include the 'setting' of RoP - the landscape visuals - which are very good indeed - and show obvious evidence of both talent and the motivation to create beauty. Those in charge have obviously chosen with good motivations for that aspect of the program - and equally obviously chosen Not to do so for almost everybody else involved.<br /><br />In other words, I regard this as a case of Not Even Trying to be good, rather than setting out to create something actively bad. The people involved are so advanced in their evil that they have lost the basic understanding that effective leftist propaganda still requires good quality of work. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-29598928302182324272022-09-12T16:32:19.735+01:002022-09-12T16:32:19.735+01:00I believe that it's bad on purpose. It almost ...I believe that it's bad on purpose. It almost has to be. The question is, why?Jake Gnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-71943197436489502002022-09-12T11:47:56.788+01:002022-09-12T11:47:56.788+01:00Seems a plausible review, though I will never know...Seems a plausible review, though I will never know. <br />My exposure to modern Hollywood is entirely through the Pitch Meeting channel, from which I’ve learnt that all these things like narrative coherence and character building are considered by Hollywood to be, not merely hard and inconvenient, but ludicrous wastes of time. Their stuff sells anyway. Why would they care? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-21172725348240455092022-09-11T21:15:51.709+01:002022-09-11T21:15:51.709+01:00"What were you expecting?"
Well, as I e..."What were you expecting?"<br /><br />Well, as I explained in the first part of the essay: I was expecting something slick and subversive. What I got was neither. <br /><br />Bruce <br /><br />(Blogger is not letting me comment from my account; for some obscure reason). Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-54510469717903183992022-09-11T17:55:05.877+01:002022-09-11T17:55:05.877+01:00I’m surprised you watched it at all. What were you...I’m surprised you watched it at all. What were you expecting?WJThttp://narrowdesert.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-80865216218092306572022-09-11T13:08:53.113+01:002022-09-11T13:08:53.113+01:00Perfectly put and I simply could not agree more. R...Perfectly put and I simply could not agree more. RoP transcends mere awfulness and becomes a literal canary in our cultural mine. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com