This is the age of monopolist art! The age of disgusting formulaic outcomes! The age of predictability and simplicity! The age of the stupefaction of the masses! The age of dregs. As time has ticked on we have watched the waning of creativity towards formula through the aggregate seizing of 'intellectual property' by large production companies for the mass dissemination of unimaginative fantasy strewn about the scape in a display so gaudy as to make even pornography seem tactful. We have watched as 'happy endings' have become the standard for storytelling, how adversity is beaten without cost, and how 'heroes' are heroic based on their feats rather than their suffering and sacrifice; a fucking disgusting display!
At every turn I find myself looking at vapid displays, hollow comedic attempts at low brow laughs intertwined with sloppy storytelling and empty characters. Each individual feels divest of soul and each scene a listless distraction. No one is worth caring for, in the story, and no one is interesting. The people are often empty vessels whose sole purpose is that of a hollow shell propelled through the empty space of progression until reaching their final destination at the conclusion. Nothing is being said or implied, what implications their may be are sad displays of pleading that should have been snuffed rather than seen, and the basic parameters of the overarching formula are oft never breached; for fear of loss of audience, and thereby profits.
What a harrowing experience of cringe worthy viewing and by all accounts a mind shredding investment in the grating nails of banality on the chalkboard of dreams. I find myself averting my eyes in embarrassment at the sight of such intellectual malfeasance, even demanding retribution, yet I round the corner and ever am I greeted with another plethora of artistic black-holes; devouring all possibility and radiating the cremated dust of artists.
This cannot stand! We have allowed the total capture of expression! Patent and trademark law has walled off whole sections of creativity in favor of the corporate expression of monetary gain over the individual expression of artistic endeavors. The corporate state is allowed protections of character, concept, and title all for the sole gain of profit over the art. This is cultural violence! We only harm ourselves by limiting our artistic scape of expression. These laws have hamstrung freedom of speech and expression, they have tied the hands of artists and forced them away in favor of the capitalist machine; the engine of profit speeding onward. These laws, patent and trademark, have infringed on the rights of all artists; they have unjustly bound us!
If any binding be allowed, and I hesitate to wall things off long, it should be short; allow the creator time to work with it as they will. Five years, this seems fair, and than entrance into the public domain; no less, and applied retroactively to all intellectual property across the board. No reapplying for an extension, no endless patent, five years. This in no way would stop the creator from using the property, as in public domain all persons can use it, it would just mean that others would be able to express themselves and show other possible applications of said idea. This is a liberation of expression, not a constraining of it! If ever a time for freedom of expression was needed, it is in art!
How does one tell a hero? It is after the story is told, can that hero look back, in the wake of sorrow and sacrifice, that bloody path of pain, and can they count the losses, weigh them and say "It was worth it" or perhaps, in dreaded inner silence, question will they 'Was it worth it?'
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