an anti quotidian post
Was reading a random xanga and was inspired to make a top album list… (in no particular order):The Beatles White Album
Blink 182 Take Off Your Pants and Jacket
Fallout Boy Take This to Your Grave
The Shins Chutes Too Narrow
Gatsby’s American Dream and The Volcano
Coldplay X and Y
The Postal Service Give Up
Nirvana Nevermind
Anti-Flag The Terror State
These are definitely the albums that stand out above the rest. Some are recent favorites (such as The Shins, Coldplay, and Gatsby’s American Dream), some are High School additions (Fallout Boy, Anti-Flag, The Postal Service, and The Beatles) and others (Blink 182 and Nirvana) have survived at the top of my list since middle school. It is my opinion that this list represents albums that I will still be listening to in 20 years. They are truly amazing.
On that note, I put no compilations or soundtracks on here. If I were to include those, the list would also include:
The Pulp Fiction Soundtrack
The Phantom of the Opera Soundtrack
Rock Against Bush Vol. 1 and 2
Blink 182 The Mark Tom and Travis Show: The Enema Strikes Back
Garden State Soundtrack
I think I shall give Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand an honorable mention because I’ll probably be listening to them for awhile too. OK. That is my list. I was also inspired to make a list of my all time favorite books. There are at least 20 or so that are truly amazing books that I loved and will reread again at some point. However, there are only 5 that I really believe to be better than the others:
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Passionate Declarations by Howard Zinn
Grendel by John Gardner
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.
The others (including but not limited The Sound and The Fury, Heart of Darkness, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Brave New World) are good, but just not in the same way as these. Sound and the Fury is number 6. It was close. Hmmm…I must say, Langford and Salyer just have a knack for picking awesome, life changing books that you can’t live without. I don’t mean physically live (books obviously don’t provide food sleep or oxygen) but I mean psychologically live. Live in the moment and appreciate it, that type of thing. I honestly believe that these books are essential to living in an understanding and correct way.
I have recently developed a theory that art, not science will be the salvation of mankind. Paintings, movies, books, poems, music, etc. will in the long run be more beneficial to us than chemistry and physics and engineering. Science will benefit and save society while the arts will benefit and save mankind. I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone, but it makes sense to me. Hmmm…I feel an essay coming on...
posted by kellyisdelightful @ 1:37 PM
4 Comments:
mmmm...not exactly my list...but a very good one though. mad props to you.
i hate to say it, but i really didn't read those books in salyers class....well i did manage to get through the sun also rises, but i hated it. TKM is a great one...hooray for freshman year.
even though i'm totally going science...i do agree with you that music, movies, poems, and writing will save people. i'm not so sure on paitings cuz i hate art, but i do think the same on the other stuff. i do konw more than a time or twenty million that music or writing got me through a time of my life...happy or sad, and for that i am ever thankful.
Mal~
You artsy humanities person you! Seriously though, all's well and good with art, but where would we be without science? In a cave...
Somehow, I don't really appreciate those books on the same level as you, I don't know why. I mean, sure, they're interesting (most of them), but I don't draw inspiration, or life-changing philosophies from them. I'm just like..."meh". Oh well. Jake's a drunkard. Benjy got castrated. Meh. I dunno, I just don't feel any connection with it, but I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything either. I'm happy (or blissfully unaware). yeah, maybe I'll put this on my xanga. Ok.
I have developed a theory that art will eventually be the thing that saves mankind. It is the thing that helps us see beauty in the ugliest of things and realize our differences as well as our similarities. It causes happiness and depression at the same time and it keeps us thinking. Descartes said “Cogito ergo sum” (I think therefore I am); when humanity fails to think and ponder and wonder and strive then we will die. Art (music, prose, poetry, films, paintings, drama, etc.) is what keeps that intellectual part of our mind alive, keeps us thinking about the big questions regarding the meaning of life and the universe and all that jazz. Science is what keeps society functioning at a high level. It is necessary to a certain extent for man to survive; certain aspects of physics and calculus, for example, have an almost artistic quality to them when looked at and thought about correctly.
That being said, I still believe that it will be art that saves mankind. Some people will argue that mankind does not need to be saved. I say that it does; mankind is lost: there is war and anger and hatred and prejudice and poverty and starvation and pollution and as long as mankind knowingly and willingly causes all of these things to exist, then the human race is lost. There are too many good things in this world to enjoy to have life and humanity plagued by all these terrible and unnecessary things. Art is the thing that shows us the true beauty of life, the things worth paying attention to and obsessing about and also shows the truth of things. It reveals the true nature of war; while many people would like everyone to believe that fighting and dying is heroic and wonderful art reveals it for the grotesque and awful event that it really is. It is in no way the golden image painted by governments and military officials and art helps people to realize that. In this way, art is helping to save mankind from its own destruction by fighting (with words and notes) against things like war.
Science is an intellectual activity and I am not for one minute suggesting otherwise. But art is the thing that exercises the mind, forces it to think and act and consider other opinions. Art is to the mind what vitamins are to the body; it cleanses the mind and helps it become stronger and more active. Only by expanding our minds and our thoughts can we become better people. The physical aspect of our body is pointless in the long run; our physical being will degenerate and die at the end of our lives. Our mind however…well no one knows for sure, but it at least has a chance of living on. There is at least a distinct possibility that the mind continues on after the body dies. It is a mystery to mankind at the moment. And even if the mind does do the same thing as the body, thoughts and art never die. They continue beyond death because art never dies. It goes on influencing society and mankind and helping people for years on end. Science is semi-immortal because there are always new discoveries being made to disprove old theories and make them obsolete, essentially killing them. Aspects of science live on forever, but not in the same way art does. Science changes and grows and shrinks and causes different results, some positive and some very negative. Not to be accusing, but I know for a fact that art has never been responsible for the death of thousands at once or the destruction of entire cultures and civilizations. Science is not entirely to blame because mankind misuses science to create bombs and guns and poison etc. Greed and power cause science to have a negative impact on society and mankind in general. Art however, is nearly impossible to misuse; if something is real and honest and full of emotional truth than it will always be good. It might not always be pleasant or beautiful to all, but it will always be good. That is why art will always be better than science; it possesses only the power of good, the power to save, the power of truth and reality.
This is why I think art will eventually be the salvation of mankind.
Damn. Didn't even read that essay thing. Agreed on most of the books, but I add As I Lay Dying, Pride and Prejudice, and Harry Potter. *Grins*
You should die your hair pink again. That was a very Kelly look.
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