May 5th, 2009 / 6:48 pm
 Technology

Youtube yet again teaches me something about writing.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ond4jMOlpI

This time, though, I’m not entirely sure what.

Someone has taken Matthew Barney’s Cremaster films, and made them into levels for a video game called LittleBigPlanet.

It actually sort of makes sense, too. The piece of the films that I’ve seen is that section of Cremaster 3 available on DVD, the one called “The Order.” It’s a 30 minute piece in which Barney as The Entered Apprentice overcomes a series of obstacles to reach the top of the Guggenheim.

(And interesting visual gag in the video game version: the player rides up on the “field emblem” in various places. The cremaster muscles raise and lower the testicles. The field emblem in the game goes up and down on a chain. I think that made me giggle.)

Is this a lesson about “high art” and “low art”? Naw, no one cares about those lessons anymore.

How about this: Annie Proulx should be less concerned when people write Brokeback Mountain fan fiction. No one will mistake those pieces of work for your own. And often people find that the way they want to react to art is by borrowing pieces of it and putting it into their own contexts.

See also: Paul Di Filippo’s “Slumberland” from his wonderful book, Little Doors.

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15 Comments

  1. May 5th, 2009 / 7:21 pm pr—

      Matthew Barney should be with me, not whatshername.

  2. May 5th, 2009 / 11:35 pm chelsea martin—

      matthew barney sucks.

  3. May 5th, 2009 / 7:35 pm chelsea martin—

      matthew barney sucks.

  4. May 6th, 2009 / 12:41 am davidpeak—

      i liked matthew barney most when he was a whale

  5. May 5th, 2009 / 8:41 pm davidpeak—

      i liked matthew barney most when he was a whale

  6. May 6th, 2009 / 12:53 am Brent Bogardus—

      Yeah, that guy does suck.

  7. May 5th, 2009 / 8:53 pm Brent Bogardus—

      Yeah, that guy does suck.

  8. May 6th, 2009 / 5:13 am Blake Butler—

      you’re wrong

  9. May 6th, 2009 / 1:13 am Blake Butler—

      you’re wrong

  10. May 6th, 2009 / 5:42 am Jimmy Chen—

      first shane jones, now matthew barney.
      who’s next?

  11. May 6th, 2009 / 1:42 am Jimmy Chen—

      first shane jones, now matthew barney.
      who’s next?

  12. May 6th, 2009 / 8:06 pm Matthew Simmons—

      Me, possibly.

  13. May 6th, 2009 / 4:06 pm Matthew Simmons—

      Me, possibly.

  14. July 27th, 2009 / 9:15 pm Merzmensch—

      Ah, I would be glad to roll a Katamari Damacy over the uniformed female dancers in Guggenheim.
      /end of post-pubertal fantasy

  15. July 27th, 2009 / 5:15 pm Merzmensch—

      Ah, I would be glad to roll a Katamari Damacy over the uniformed female dancers in Guggenheim.
      /end of post-pubertal fantasy