May 25, 2012
A connoisseur [kon-uh-sur] (meaning ‘to be acquainted with’ or ‘to know somebody/something’) is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the arts and is an expert judge in matters of taste.
Internationally, the term is also used in gastronomy (in connection with fine food, beer, wine, tea, and many other products whose consumption can be pleasing to the senses). The ability to tell almost instinctively who painted a picture is defined as connoisseurship. Modern connoisseurship must be seen in context with museums, art galleries, and ‘the cult of originality.’
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May 23, 2012
A retronym [re-truh-nim] is a type of neologism that provides a new name for something to differentiate the original version from a more recent one. The original name is most often augmented with an adjective (rather than being completely displaced) to account for later developments of the object or concept itself. Much retronymy is driven by advances in technology.
Examples of retronyms are ‘acoustic guitar’ (coined when electric guitars appeared), and ‘analog watch’ to distinguish from a digital watch. In the entertainment industry, this can manifest itself as calling a movie ‘Part 1’ once sequels are released or by slightly altering the title (e.g. ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ or ‘Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark’) to emphasize its connection with the sequel(s), or by referring to a television series as ‘the original,’ as in ‘Star Trek: The Original Series.’
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May 22, 2012
Metamodernism is a term employed to situate and explain recent developments across current affairs, critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, cinema, music and literature which are emerging from and reacting to postmodernism.
The term metamodernism was introduced as an intervention in the post-postmodernism debate by the cultural theorists Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker in 2010. In their article ‘Notes on metamodernism’ they assert that the 2000s are characterized by the return of typically modern positions without altogether forfeiting the postmodern mindsets of the 1990s and 1980s.
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May 22, 2012
Post-Postmodernism is a general term used to describe new developments emerging from Postmodernism. It is a positive idea that faith, sincerity, and trust can be better for society than Postmodern irony.
The term ‘Post-Postmodernism’ was initially coined by seminal cultural theorist Alice Sanders in her magnum opus ‘The Shadow of the Rainbow.’
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May 22, 2012
Postmodernism is an era and a broad movement that developed in the mid to late 20th century that rejects the idea of objective truth and universal social progress. Starting with the 18th century Enlightenment, and for more than a century there was widespread belief that science and knowledge would improve the world; social progress would be inevitable. Modernism in particular held these beliefs. Postmodernism challenges that notion.
Although the term was first used around 1870, its modern appearance was to express criticism of modern architecture in 1949, leading to the postmodern architecture movement (a return to surface ornament, historical reference in decorative forms, and less boxy shapes). Postmodernism is not a method, but rather a way of approaching traditional ideas and practices in non-traditional ways that deviate from pre-established modes. Postmodernism gained significant popularity in the 1950s and dominated literature and art by the 1960s.
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May 21, 2012
Akrasia [uh-kray-juh] (ancient Greek: ‘lacking command [over oneself]’) is the state of acting against one’s better judgement. The adjective form is ‘akratic.’ The problem goes back at least as far as Plato. Socrates asks precisely how this is possible—if one judges action A to be the best course of action, why would one do anything other than A? In the dialogue ‘Protagoras,’ Socrates attests that akrasia is an illogical moral concept, claiming ‘No one goes willingly toward the bad.’
If a person examines a situation and decides to act in the way he determines to be best, he will actively pursue this action, as the best course is also the good course, i.e. man’s natural goal. An all-things-considered assessment of the situation will bring full knowledge of a decision’s outcome and worth linked to well-developed principles of the good. A person, according to Socrates, never chooses to act poorly or against his better judgment; actions that go against what is best are only a product of being ignorant of facts or knowledge of what is best or good.
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May 21, 2012
The drop is the point in a track where a switch of rhythm or bass line occurs and usually follows a recognizable build section and break. In Hip-Hop and electronic music, the reintroduction of the full bass line and drums is known as the drop. In Dubstep, the drop involves a full bass line and commonly a ‘wobble’ bass or ‘vowel’ bass accompanied by a strong shuffling beat.
In Metalcore sub-genres, bass drops are often utilized under the first chord of a breakdown, to emphasize the breakdown and give it a pronounced presence. In drum and bass, DJs sometimes perform what is called the ‘double drop’: beat matching two tracks in a way that the drop, and hence the respective climaxes, occur at the same time.
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May 21, 2012
Magic realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the ‘real’ and the ‘fantastic’ in the same stream of thought. One example, is when a character in the story continues to be alive beyond the normal length of life and this is subtly depicted by the character being present throughout many generations.
On the surface the story has no clear magical attributes and everything is conveyed in a real setting, but such a character breaks the rules of our real world. The author may give precise details of the real world such as the date of birth of a reference character and the army recruitment age, but such facts help to define an age for the fantastic character of the story that would turn out to be an abnormal occurrence like someone living for two hundred years.
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May 21, 2012
Jorge Luis Borges [bawr-hes] (1899 – 1986) was an Argentine writer whose work embraces the ‘character of unreality in all literature’; his most famous books, ‘Ficciones’ (1944) and ‘The Aleph’ (1949), are compilations of short stories interconnected by common themes such as dreams, labyrinths, libraries, mirrors, animals, fictional writers, religion, and God.
His works have contributed to the genre of science fiction and magic realism (a reaction against the realism/naturalism of the nineteenth century). In fact, critic Angel Flores, the first to use the term, set the beginning of this movement with Borges’s ‘Historia universal de la infamia’ (‘A Universal History of Infamy’) (1935). Scholars have also suggested that Borges’s progressive blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination. His late poems dialogue with such cultural figures as Spinoza, Camões, and Virgil.
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May 17, 2012
The silent majority is an unspecified large majority of people in a country or group who do not express their opinions publicly. The term was popularized (though not first used) by U.S. President Richard Nixon in a 1969, speech in which he said, ‘And so tonight—to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans—I ask for your support.’
In this usage it referred to those Americans who did not join in the large demonstrations against the Vietnam War at the time, who did not join in the counterculture, and who did not participate in public discourse. Nixon along with many others saw this group of Middle Americans as being overshadowed in the media by the more vocal minority. The phrase was used in the 19th century as a euphemism referring to all the people who have died, and others have used it before and after Nixon to refer to groups of voters in various nations of the world.
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May 17, 2012
L’enfant terrible [ahn-fahn te-ree-bluh] (‘terrible child’) is a French term for a child who is terrifyingly candid by saying embarrassing things to adults, especially parents.
The OED describes it as, ‘a child who embarrasses his elders by untimely remarks; transf. a person who compromises his associates or his party by unorthodox or ill-considered speech or behavior; loosely, one who acts unconventionally.’ Webster’s defines an enfant terrible as an unusual person who is strikingly unorthodox, innovative, and/or avant-garde.
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May 16, 2012
Martin Sharp (b. 1942) is an Australian artist, underground cartoonist, songwriter and film-maker. His famous psychedelic posters of Bob Dylan, Donovan, and others, rank as classics of the genre, alongside the work of Rick Griffin, Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, and Milton Glaser.
His covers, cartoons and illustrations were a central feature of ‘Oz’ magazine, both in Australia and in London. Martin co-wrote one of Cream’s most famous songs, ‘Tales of Brave Ulysses,’ created the cover art for Cream’s ‘Disraeli Gears’ and ‘Wheels of Fire’ albums, and in the 1970s, he became a champion of singer Tiny Tim, and of Sydney’s embattled Luna Park.
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