(no subject)

[pegkerr]

Here's a very different and decidedly cranky take on the Ice Palace.

Thoughts?

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

It's not a "take on the Ice Palace." It has nothing to do with the Ice Palace. It's about the idea of the Ice Palace versus the idea of a simpler pleasure.

It's not even particularly well written.

B

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

*shrug* I have my own fun wherever I go; how could I have someone else's? The first rule of play is that if you aren't having fun, you should do something else. But why waste your time carping on what other people enjoy? Some people watch professional wrestling. Some people garden. Some people grind their own telescope mirrors. My daughter and I are learning Latin for fun, but we also think it's very amusing to blow up balloons and then let the air out with a long farting sound. None of that has any moral content at all.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Wow. That guy was having a really bad day. Possibly a really bad life. I wonder if it's just not much fun to be him.

[aome.livejournal.com]

Well, sure there are always going to be more practical uses for money. However, culture and community are important too, and it sounds like the Palace has a longstanding tradition there. I was thinking similar thoughts myself this morning, of "Why go through the expense of trying to put a man on Mars when we have a war to pay for and our economy to restabilize?" but caught myself short. Exploration and cultural enjoyment is important. A luxury, yes, when compared to food and shelter, but important nonetheless. I am a very practical person by nature, but to live in a world where *only* practicalities are tended to would be a very dull, nonprogressive world indeed. And, incidentally, think how much the Palace has taught you already, about construction, and ice and traditions and lore. Think of all the other visitors and curious who benefit from that. It's not a soup kitchen, no, but it still has value.

[irielle.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with minnehaha in that I don't think he was actually condemning the Ice Palace. It sounds more like he's upset with all of the hoopla surrounding it. He did write that it was across from a homeless shelter, but he never followed through with that point. He doesn't seem to think enjoyment is bad either, since he thought the kite festival was cool, so to me, his point really seemed to come across as more against all of the publicity and commercialism surrounding the Ice Palace.

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

I think someone needs a time machine to go back and give his teenaged self a second shot at learning that obnoxiously rubbing your cynicism in other people's faces doesn't make you 'cool', it makes you a jerk.

[blackholly.livejournal.com]

I think that article perfectly articulates the position that someone in your book could possibly take, adding stress and confusion to Solveig. :D

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The sad thing to me is, he didn't have to choose. He could have gone to the indie festival and the Ice Palace. He could teach his kids that it's fun to play music *and* to listen to it, to cook and to eat in friends' homes and to eat in restaurants and to serve in soup kitchens...that there are all shapes and sizes of good, all different flavors. He set up a dichotomy for himself, but that doesn't mean the rest of us have to buy into it. Good thing, too.

It's not like the people who are involved in the Ice Palace huddle alone in their homes for the rest of the year. These are people who are involved in their community. I would be really surprised if at least some of them weren't the same people as those who serve at the soup kitchen across the street. Sure, time is limited, but they didn't pick these folks out of the phone book. These are people who *make* the time for things that are important to them, like some of us make the time to write stories or play music or make jewelry or the like. I think the indie sneerers are much more likely to find reasons not to give back in other ways.

[redbird]

I agree with the people who say this isn't much about the Ice Palace: it's either a reaction to hype (I'd love to see his comments on professional sports, if so) or some weird thing that isn't even showing up.

Sure, it's transient art: so are live theatre and concerts. If it's popularity he dislikes, I hope he doesn't stop his kids from going to the movies; even an unpopular movie is going to be seen by more people than visit the Ice Palace.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I can relate to this. I'm pretty much allergic to hype myself. The more "they" tell me I should be excited about something, the less excited I get, as a general rule.

However, as overhyped civic festivals go, the Winter Carnival has a lot of charm. It was originally created out of pure civic pride, not as a mechanism to get people downtown to spend Xmas money or whatever; its only function is to give people pleasure. It's run entirely on volunteer labor and private donations, and the people who spend all that time and money on it seem to have a wonderful time doing it. Builds community and all that.

Aesthetically I like the over-the-topness of the concept. Let's create our own cosmic mythology! It needs to have a great contest of good vs. evil, wild costumes and fire and ice and fit in really well with consuming a lot of alcohol! Yippee! I like the fact that somewhere along the way, the creators of the mythology lost track of what they were doing with the good vs. evil thing and came up with a plot where evil wins every year, or at the very least Chaotic Evil triumphs over Lawful Evil. (Possibly this had something to do with the copious quantities of alcohol that clearly started flowing early in the planning process).

And that's just the Winter Carnival, even without the Ice Palace. The Palace pushes the whole thing over the top into the realm of impossibility. The first ice palace was 160 feet tall! And not just a tall skinny tower, either - it was as massive as a real castle. This was built in 1886 by a city with, what, 50,000 people? And all without gasoline engines or portable generators. It must have been like building the pyramids! This year's Palace is just a pale shadow of the first two or three, but still a huge amount of work, and all for something that just looks pretty for a couple of weeks and then falls apart. Unbelievable! How totally "Last Unicorn."