One of my favourite Danish expressions is billigtskidt, which in literal translation means cheap crap. It is an expression I myself use - almost all the time, I'm afraid to say - for instance whenever I watch TV programs that deal with re-decorating houses. I'm always amazed at peoples' extremely high tolerance for receiving things that they don't deserve to get in this or other life. When their otherwise perfectly good furniture gets to be replaced by so called vintage pieces that supposedly exude an old and romantic soul, my verdict almost articulates itself: billigtskidt. It's fortunate, however, that the poor sods on TV expressing profuse gratitude for the new pink couch and turquoise drawer can't hear what I have to say about their new misfortune. The irony with cheap crap is that, while it materializes itself unmistakably, opinions about it often remain unvoiced where people who get it are concerned. Euphemisms abound, and it is interesting to observe that the proverbial claim which has it that the Danes are very frank denies itself here by becoming an expression about the value of simplicity and freedom. The pink thus merely contributes to bringing more light into the room, and the horrendous rest is all about creativity. Alas, as Einstein said: "we should make things as simple as possible, but not any simpler". We cannot all elevate billigtskidt to blissful shit.
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Anonymous said…
Where there is an avant-garde, generally we also find a rear-guard. True enough -- simultaneously with the entrance of the avant-garde, a second new cultural phenomenon appeared in the industrial West: that thing to which the Germans give the wonderful name of Kitsch: popular, commercial art and literature with their chromeotypes, magazine covers, illustrations, ads, slick and pulp fiction, comics, Tin Pan Alley music, tap dancing, Hollywood movies, etc., etc. For some reason this gigantic apparition has always been taken for granted. It is time we looked into its whys and wherefores.
Kitsch, using for raw material the debased and academicized simulacra of genuine culture, welcomes and cultivates this insensibility. It is the source of its profits. Kitsch is mechanical and operates by formulas. Kitsch is vicarious experience and faked sensations. Kitsch changes according to style, but remains always the same. Kitsch is the epitome of all that is spurious in the life of our times. Kitsch pretends to demand nothing of its customers except their money -- not even their time.
Camryn, I wish I could say that I'm sorry for you. Well, I am saying it. When it comes to Netto, the discount shop, I always advice: stick to the food in general and the olive oil in particular, rather than furniture and the like. On filling one's apartment with kitsch however, I don't want to pass off as the wisest on the matter, for I was thinking: if someone were to give me a Warhol painting as a gift, I would thank the person profusely. Warhol would be laughing all the way to heaven's bank.
One of my favourite Danish expressions is billigt skidt, which in literal translation means cheap crap. It is an expression I myself use - almost all the time, I'm afraid to say - for instance whenever I watch TV programs that deal with re-decorating houses. I'm always amazed at peoples' extremely high tolerance for receiving things that they don't deserve to get in this or other life. When their otherwise perfectly good furniture gets to be replaced by so called vintage pieces that supposedly exude an old and romantic soul, my verdict almost articulates itself: billigt skidt. It's fortunate, however, that the poor sods on TV expressing profuse gratitude for the new pink couch and turquoise drawer can't hear what I have to say about their new misfortune. The irony with cheap crap is that, while it materializes itself unmistakably, opinions about it often remain unvoiced where people who get it are concerned. Euphemisms abound, and it is interesting to observe that the proverbial claim which has it that the Danes are very frank denies itself here by becoming an expression about the value of simplicity and freedom. The pink thus merely contributes to bringing more light into the room, and the horrendous rest is all about creativity. Alas, as Einstein said: "we should make things as simple as possible, but not any simpler". We cannot all elevate billigt skidt to blissful shit.
Comments
Kitsch, using for raw material the debased and academicized simulacra of genuine culture, welcomes and cultivates this insensibility. It is the source of its profits. Kitsch is mechanical and operates by formulas. Kitsch is vicarious experience and faked sensations. Kitsch changes according to style, but remains always the same. Kitsch is the epitome of all that is spurious in the life of our times. Kitsch pretends to demand nothing of its customers except their money -- not even their time.
Clement Greenberg, Partisan Review, 1939