"Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. No, don’t blush, I am telling you some truths. That is just being “in love”, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident."

I like stimulation. Of all kinds. Physical stimulation should've been the natural priority but emotional stimulation is an easy escape for a child living in a house full of siblings and parents who wouldn't talk about where his brothers and sisters have come from. Sex is is hush hush, treated like a guilt trip taken once in a while. Masturbation becomes second nature.

Sounds like a selfish philosophy...

See life as a series of short stories. The experiences and people who have a big impact on your life must  especially be absolutely separate from each other. The end of every chapter must bring a sense of closure but must at the same time fill your eyes with the wonder and possibility of a new beginning. Each day will then become a white canvas for you to draw your vision and also a pit in which you could throw away all your years.

                           You usually try to remain oblivious to the strangeness around you.

                            Because when you take notice, it tends to create a revolting picture.

                           But strangeness grins at you and makes you think again.

                                              It hovers around you, persists a little.

1.                                                                      So you make some room for it and become somewhat like it.

The Terrible Beauty of Lady Gaga

“With Art Pop (her latest album) I wanted to put art in the front to show that being a student is okay. I feel that the knowledge that you’ve gained, every dancer that you’ve danced with, every paint brush that you’v touched, every book that you’ve read, every music bit that you’ve heard-if you channel that entire history into the thing that you’re creating, there is an intention of the work that runs to the centre of the earth.”

She is something else. Not very palatable to everyone, but brilliant nevertheless.

In all the Quentin Tarantino movies like Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, the audience is almost immediately introduced to the hyper-violent slaughter of characters; the viewer’s reaction is seen transforming from absolute disgust, to desensitization, to slow but sure realization of the utter ridiculousness of it all. This is also the riding theory of Postmodernism, and, to an extent, the theory that the pop sensation Lady Gaga has come to represent.

One of the characteristic moves of Postmodern Theory, by the virtue of the prefix “post”, suggests that there is a totalizing of history in which the postmodern is both a stage in teleological progression, but also a final containment of history into a null state. This null state has absorbed the past, present and future into itself. (Johnathan Bignell, Postmodern Media Culture, Introduction, Pg. 5). There is a determined resistance to the totalizing grand narratives of history, which will mean the set ideals of all epics like The Iliad, The Mahabharata and Paradise Lost no longer exist in the new world which has survived two World Wars. This is a world that doubts, questions and reconsiders everything. So the Postmodern Theory is both a grand narrative and a means to claim that such grand narratives have lost their legitimacy. The consequence of this is that the theory is marked by a sense of self-refrentiality (which takes the form of narcissism in Lady Gaga) and the power of theoretical discourse to produce it. The “centre” is now shifted to the “self”. 

What sets her apart from the others is the fact that she’s a “Performance Artist”. Performance art is nothing like traditional theatre- it rejects a clear narrative, makes use of chance based structures and makes a direct appeal to the audience. Like Tarantino movies, again, it forces its audience to pay attention to the absurdities and idiosyncrasies of human behavior by making an appeal to the physical and psychological needs for food, shelter, sex, and human interaction; our very personal secrets and fears and our concern about the world we live in. ‘Historically, performance art has been a medium that challenges and violates borders between disciplines and genders, between private and public, and between everyday life and art, and that follows no rules’. (RoseLee Goldberg. Performance: Live art since the 60s, New York: Thames & Hudson).

The biggest aim of Postmodernism, Performance Art and undeniably that of Lady Gaga is “Deconstruction.” The term was first introduced by Jacques Derrida, Paul de Man, and others, but now as a result of the popularity of these techniques, the word “deconstruct” is often used widely to criticize or demonstrate the incoherence of a position. (Jack M. Balkin, Deconstruction) Lady Gaga aims to deconstruct the very pop culture that has created her and now worships her.