Saturday, January 20, 2018
Thursday, January 18, 2018
Percy
Walker Percy in his 1971 dystopian novel Love in the Ruins paints a picture of a morally degenerate America consumed by hedonism, wallowing in ignorance, led by kleptocrats and fools, fragmented into warring and often violent cultural extremes and on the cusp of a nuclear war. It is a country cursed by its failure to address or atone for its original sins of genocide and slavery. The ethos of ceaseless capitalist expansion, white supremacy and American exceptionalism, perpetuated overseas in the country’s imperial wars, eventually consumes the nation itself. The accomplices, who once benefited from this evil, become its victims. How, Percy asks, does one live a life of meaning in such a predatory society? Is it even possible? And can a culture ever regain its equilibrium when it sinks into such depravity?All of Chris Hedges's brilliant, impassioned reading of Love in the Ruins can be found here.
The single-minded pursuit of happiness, with happiness equated with wealth and power, creates a population consumed by anxiety and self-loathing. Few achieve the imagined pinnacle of success, and those who do are often psychopaths. Building a society around these goals is masochistic. It shuts down any desire for self-knowledge because the truth of our lives is unpleasant. We fill the spiritual vacuum with endless activities, entertainment and nonstop electronic hallucinations. We flee from silence and contemplation. We are determined to avoid facing what we have become.
And here for the novel itself.
Monday, January 8, 2018
Sunday, January 7, 2018
Thursday, January 4, 2018
When It Rains
Going back a couple or three decades, even with the perspective time gives which tends to goldenize works of the past, there hasn't been much to cheer about in the dreary Marketeer world of American movies. Look at our recent director heroes: Eastwood, the Coen Boys, Shyamalan, James Cameron, David Fincher, Lynch, Ronnie Howard, Tarantino, Guy Ritchie, P.T. Anderson, Ang Lee, Kathryn Bigelow, Spike Jonzzzzz, Christopher Nolan, Darren Aronofksy, Peter Jackson.
Christ. . .
The exception that proves the point: Charles Burnett.
Funny, because the greatest American filmmaker of his generation can't seem to find work. Since 1995, the year of "When It Rains," Burnett has been allowed to direct nine made-for-TV movies destined for the Hallmark Channel or Lifetime; and a half-dozen mostly self-financed shorts. Theatrical features since 1995? None. (Ron Howard and the Coen Boys?: Forty.)
Jonathan Rosenbaum:
A fine way to start the New Year.
Christ. . .
The exception that proves the point: Charles Burnett.
Funny, because the greatest American filmmaker of his generation can't seem to find work. Since 1995, the year of "When It Rains," Burnett has been allowed to direct nine made-for-TV movies destined for the Hallmark Channel or Lifetime; and a half-dozen mostly self-financed shorts. Theatrical features since 1995? None. (Ron Howard and the Coen Boys?: Forty.)
Jonathan Rosenbaum:
A strong case can be made that Charles Burnett is the most gifted and important black filmmaker this country has ever had. . . . Given the difficulties he had in the 70s and 80s [and 90s and 00s and 10s] getting films made, Burnett seems in danger of becoming our Carl Dreyer -- the consummate master who makes a film a decade, known only to a small band of film lovers.Rosenbaum lists the 13-minute short "When It Rains" as one of the ten greatest movies ever made.
A fine way to start the New Year.