James Lileks versus Woody Allen
Guess who wins? It ain't pretty, folks, but somebody had to do it:
Allen: No, it's because I don't find political subjects or topical world events profound enough to get interested in them myself as an artist. As a filmmaker, I'm not interested in 9/11.
That’s fine; his prerogative, of course. It would be wrong to insist that every filmmaker say something about 9/11 as some sort of litmus test. But let's review.
Insufficiently profound:Attack on America by illiberal religious fanatics; the mass murder of Jews at a hotel; the Holocaust; the tsunami
Sufficiently profound: The incessant attempts of nebbishy intellectuals to get into the pants of ripe young women
(Continuing with Allen: ) Because, if you look at the big picture, the long view of things, it's too small, history overwhelms it. The history of the world is like: he kills me, I kill him. Only with different cosmetics and different castings: so in 2001 some fanatics killed some Americans, and now some Americans are killing some Iraqis. And in my childhood, some Nazis killed Jews. And now, some Jewish people and some Palestinians are killing each other. Political questions, if you go back thousands of years, are ephemeral, not important. History is the same thing over and over again.
Gah. So: if the Romans kill to conquer, and build cities, streets, sanitation systems, water-delivery systems, courts, and regulate trade to provide a stable economy not based on raiding the next town, this is the same as Barbarians sacking Rome and carting off the gold. Because in both cases you have killing. “Some Nazis killed Jews, and now some Jewish people and some Palestinians are killing each other.” Same thing. Without the ability to make moral distinctions based on motive, consequences, the ethical constructs of various parties, everything is equal, and you end up with people like Woody Allen: a tiny speck of compacted narcissism, revolving around the dead sun in an empty universe. What’s left? Well, thank heavens for little girls.
Not that there’s a heaven.
Read the whole thing.
Allen: No, it's because I don't find political subjects or topical world events profound enough to get interested in them myself as an artist. As a filmmaker, I'm not interested in 9/11.
That’s fine; his prerogative, of course. It would be wrong to insist that every filmmaker say something about 9/11 as some sort of litmus test. But let's review.
Insufficiently profound:Attack on America by illiberal religious fanatics; the mass murder of Jews at a hotel; the Holocaust; the tsunami
Sufficiently profound: The incessant attempts of nebbishy intellectuals to get into the pants of ripe young women
(Continuing with Allen: ) Because, if you look at the big picture, the long view of things, it's too small, history overwhelms it. The history of the world is like: he kills me, I kill him. Only with different cosmetics and different castings: so in 2001 some fanatics killed some Americans, and now some Americans are killing some Iraqis. And in my childhood, some Nazis killed Jews. And now, some Jewish people and some Palestinians are killing each other. Political questions, if you go back thousands of years, are ephemeral, not important. History is the same thing over and over again.
Gah. So: if the Romans kill to conquer, and build cities, streets, sanitation systems, water-delivery systems, courts, and regulate trade to provide a stable economy not based on raiding the next town, this is the same as Barbarians sacking Rome and carting off the gold. Because in both cases you have killing. “Some Nazis killed Jews, and now some Jewish people and some Palestinians are killing each other.” Same thing. Without the ability to make moral distinctions based on motive, consequences, the ethical constructs of various parties, everything is equal, and you end up with people like Woody Allen: a tiny speck of compacted narcissism, revolving around the dead sun in an empty universe. What’s left? Well, thank heavens for little girls.
Not that there’s a heaven.
Read the whole thing.
posted by Kate Marie | 12:22 PM | Permalink
|
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home