If You Think It So Easy To

In San Francisco, Vulgarity, "bad Taste," Ostentation Are Regarded As A Kind Of Alien Blight, An Invasion Or Encroachment From Outside. In Los Angeles, There Is So Much Money And Power Connected With Ostentation That Is No Longer Ludicrous: It Commands A Kind Of Respect. For If The Mighty Behave Like This, Then Quiet Good Taste Means That You Can't Afford The Conspicuous Expenditures, And You Become A Little Ashamed Of Your Modesty And Propriety.

In The Sixties, The Recycling Of Pop Culture Turning It Into Pop Art And Camp Had Its Own Satirical Zest. Now We're Into A Different Kind Of Recycling. Moviemakers Give Movies Of The Past An Authority That Those Movies Didn't Have; They Inflate Images That May Never Have Compelled Belief, Images That Were No More Than Shorthand Gestures And They Use Them Not As Larger-than-life Jokes But As Altars.

What Is Getting Older If It Isn't Learning More Ways That You're Vulnerable?

Allowing For Exceptions, There Is Still One Basic Difference Between The Traditional Arts And The Mass-media Arts: In The Traditional Arts, The Artist Grows; In A Mass Medium, The Artist Decays Profitably.

The Words "kiss Kiss Bang Bang" Which I Saw On An Italian Movie Poster, Are Perhaps The Briefest Statement Imaginable Of The Basic Appeal Of Movies