{"id":12762,"date":"2012-10-01T06:05:52","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T10:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geneveith.com\/?p=12762"},"modified":"2012-10-01T06:05:52","modified_gmt":"2012-10-01T10:05:52","slug":"nothing-left-but-sex-and-ennui","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/10\/nothing-left-but-sex-and-ennui\/","title":{"rendered":"Nothing left but sex and ennui"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Great quotation and embedded quotations from novelist Andrew Klavan, as part of his review of the founder-of-Scientology movie The Master<\/em>:<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a reason modernism collapsed into the ruinous and stupid-making morass of post-modernism. Ultimately, modernist reality was smaller and seedier than human life as it is lived. As the novelist and critic Gabriel Josipovici points out in critiquing one modernist novel, \u201cdescribing the smell of sweat and semen during the act of sex no more anchors the novel to \u2018reality\u2019 than writing about stars in the eyes of the beloved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Myself, I attribute the unrealistic smallness of modernism to its secular nature. Without God, as Tolstoy explained, there\u2019s nothing left to write about but sex and ennui.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

via PJ Lifestyle \u00bb Why The Master Is No Master-Piece<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\nWhat a stunning insight from Tolstoy!\u00a0\u00a0 That was back in the 19th century, but he predicted the major subject matter of 20th and 21st century literary art.\u00a0 I would just add that one can also write about\u2013or make movies about or make music about\u2013attempts to mask the ennui, the boredom, with sensationalistic distractions.\u00a0 Thus, the explosions, car chases, murders, gore, escapism, and psychological fantasies that make up much of our pop culture.\u00a0 (Not that there isn\u2019t much of value and even greatness in 20th and 21st century literature\u2013I am by no means dismissing or even criticizing it\u2013but there sure is a lot of sex and ennui.)<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Great quotation and embedded quotations from novelist Andrew Klavan, as part of his review of the founder-of-Scientology movie The Master: There\u2019s a reason modernism collapsed into the ruinous and stupid-making morass of post-modernism. Ultimately, modernist reality was smaller and seedier than human life as it is lived. As the novelist and critic Gabriel Josipovici points […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,31,35],"tags":[1281,1476,1769],"class_list":["post-12762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature","category-movies","category-philosophy-2","tag-leo-tolstoy","tag-modernism","tag-postmodernism"],"yoast_head":"\nNothing left but sex and ennui<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Great quotation and embedded quotations from novelist Andrew Klavan, as part of his review of the founder-of-Scientology movie The Master: There\u2019s a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/10\/nothing-left-but-sex-and-ennui\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nothing left but sex and ennui\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Great quotation and embedded quotations from novelist Andrew Klavan, as part of his review of the founder-of-Scientology movie The Master: There\u2019s a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/10\/nothing-left-but-sex-and-ennui\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-01T10:05:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/10\/nothing-left-but-sex-and-ennui\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/10\/nothing-left-but-sex-and-ennui\/\",\"name\":\"Nothing left but sex and ennui\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-01T10:05:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-10-01T10:05:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"Great quotation and embedded quotations from novelist Andrew Klavan, as part of his review of the founder-of-Scientology movie The Master: There\u2019s a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/10\/nothing-left-but-sex-and-ennui\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/10\/nothing-left-but-sex-and-ennui\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/10\/nothing-left-but-sex-and-ennui\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Nothing left but sex and ennui\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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