[Frameworks] Santa's Complaint

[Fred Camper]

Quoting Chuck Kleinhans <chuckkle at northwestern.edu>:


> Oh those self-appointed authorities again!
>
> It's good to see Assistant Professor of Media in the School of Art  
> and Art History at the University of Oklahoma, Bernard Roddy, taking  
> on those folks...with considerable authority, too!

I like to hear arguments of the form, "This film is being disregarded  
by the 'authorities' because it has a style that's currently out of  
favor, but it's actually worthy of attention, in my view, and here's  
why."

Such aesthetic arguments about actual films or videos seem to be out  
of fashion today. Instead we get "institutional critiques," including,  
now, Roddy's critique of this list. Such critiques are usually couched  
as the powerless taking on the powerful. Would that I actually had any  
"power"! I'm not sure any of us on this list really do. I would just  
like the list to function usefully, in a way that's easily usable for  
as many people as possible.

Fred Camper
Chicago