‘GLITTERING IMAGES’ AUTHOR AND CULTURAL CRITIC CAMILLE PAGLIA SPEAKS TO STUDIO Q ON THE DECLINE OF FINE ART AND THE CURRENT VISUAL ASSAULT (AKA THE SCREENS ARE EVERYWHERE)

When Camille Paglia sits down to talk to Studio Q’s Jian about the lack of current, viable intellectuals, the decline of fine art relevance, and the influence of popular culture in our society, it’s hard not to listen intently.

We don’t get enough of this. The art of thought has nearly dried up. Solemn contemplation? Forget about it. The screens do the talking, thinking, and connecting for us. And they’re everywhere—all the time.

Too many of our ‘connections’ and conversations aren’t actually taking place. We perceive them to be, but then, at the end of the day—we feel hollow. Time for a Klonopin!

Watch the above clip and listen to Camille touch on issues like the rise of industrial design, the incompetence of the Obama administration, and the Revenge of the Sith.

Want more Camille? Jump in for her take on her now classic piece for the New York Times, ‘Madonna—Finally, A Real Feminist’.

From Camille Paglia’s original NY Times piece on Madonna:

“Madonna is the true feminist. She exposes the puritanism and suffocating ideology of American feminism, which is stuck in an adolescent whining mode. Madonna has taught young women to be fully female and sexual while still exercising total control over their lives. She shows girls how to be attractive, sensual, energetic, ambitious, aggressive and funny — all at the same time.

American feminism has a man problem. The beaming Betty Crockers, hangdog dowdies and parochial prudes who call themselves feminists want men to be like women. They fear and despise the masculine. The academic feminists think their nerdy bookworm husbands are the ideal model of human manhood.”

She continues, “Madonna has a far profounder vision of sex than do the feminists. She sees both the animality and the artifice. Changing her costume style and hair color virtually every month, Madonna embodies the eternal values of beauty and pleasure. Feminism says, “No more masks.” Madonna says we are nothing but masks.”

It’s interesting to look back at this piece and hear her talk about ‘an adolescent whining mode’. This is something that I think is the main flaw of Lady Gaga—she plays the victim, while Madonna refuses that role.