We watched the latest Wallace and Gromit short this evening. I thought it was pretty lame. And I'm even a fan of their uber-silly alien comic.
Maybe I get uncomfortable with stories where the chubby girl is the villain.
Mostly, though, it has caused me to think about artists, how some of them do their best work first, and some develop into their role as creators of classic works.
Which is better, I wonder?
A lot of people say Keats is only as famous as he is because his life was cut so tragically short and his work showed more the promise of genius than actual genius.
And then, there is James Joyce, whose Finnegan's Wake is an acknowledged work of genius that absolutely no-one understands.
Suffice it to say that my favorite claymation short remains A Close Shave.
"What's wrong with Wendsleydale?"
A Close Shave is by far the best one--so clever! My favorite is Shawn/Shorn. But I think that's the last one of the original 3, so they must've hit their stride at that point.
ReplyDeleteChaim Potok is another example. His first novel is one of my all-time favorites. Then he started experimenting with form, and in my opinion, his later books are less readable, while more adventurous.
There have been several articles popping up around the internet discussing whether an early death, especially a suicide, launches an artist's work rather than the merit of the art itself; it's called the Sylvia Plath syndrome.
ReplyDeleteIt's a reasonable question, since people do tend to romanticize such things.
I don't think the fact that we only have 6 hours of James Dean onscreen has contributed to how glued my eyes are to him.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's because more people identify with the kind of art resulting from the passionate frenzy of youth.