Anti-Climacus

Leftover paragraphs from yesterday's post, #1 in a series:

Whatever else may have been wrong with the 20th century, it did a good job of filtering out aesthetic sensibilities that grew from communism and fascism. One might admire in an objective way the aesthetic of Leni Riefenstahl and The Triumph of the Will, but the gut reaction of any viewer--my reaction, anyway--is of viewing something cold and dead. The stylistic flourishes are all known and never copied, because there's little to be admired on aesthetic grounds. One never bothers unless for intended transgressive purposes. In the same way, Soviet realism is reducible to the boring and pompous and nonsensical, or else provides the joke re: Eastern Europe's favorite cat and mouse team, Worker and Parasite.