Thursday, June 23, 2005
Whom do you serve???
Nothing too serious today - it's the end of week, I can't really think of political arguments. So today we have:
I-Spy
Please tell me someone's noticed the resemblance before:
Sheik Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of Hamas, murdered by the Israeli army
Saruman, spiritual leader of the Orcs, interned by the Ents
This can't be a coincidence. Peter Jackson must have adopted evil-doer du jour Yassin when planning the costume. Or maybe Yassin - who did come before - was a big fan of Christopher Lee and styled himself accordingly.
Communist Trainspotting
Anti-war novel by Dalton Trumbo
Anti-ableism video by Metallica, "One"
The latter is a retelling of Trumbo's popular novel, written on the eve of World War II, about a soldier who becomes a blind quadruple amputee due to his injuries.
Metallica, not noted for its left-wing sensibilities, struck gold here. Trumbo was a Communist Party member, and at one point the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood, who wrote scripts at the behest of President Roosevelt. He was also a Stalinist hack who faithfully followed every party line. This presumably explains the 'horrors of war' bent of Johnny Got His Gun. It was published in 1939 when the USSR was officially pacifist, having made its peace with Nazi Germany in the Hitler-Stalin pact. So Communist Parties dutifully repeated how awful war was - until 1941 when the Nazis invaded Poland, and war was OK again. Then Trumbo embarked on a series of anti-fascist B movies glorifying the can-do spirit of the American army. A sequel would have been good; perhaps Johnny survives to make prosthetic limbs for his fellow wounded soldiers?
I-Spy
Please tell me someone's noticed the resemblance before:
Sheik Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of Hamas, murdered by the Israeli army
Saruman, spiritual leader of the Orcs, interned by the Ents
This can't be a coincidence. Peter Jackson must have adopted evil-doer du jour Yassin when planning the costume. Or maybe Yassin - who did come before - was a big fan of Christopher Lee and styled himself accordingly.
Communist Trainspotting
Anti-war novel by Dalton Trumbo
Anti-ableism video by Metallica, "One"
The latter is a retelling of Trumbo's popular novel, written on the eve of World War II, about a soldier who becomes a blind quadruple amputee due to his injuries.
Metallica, not noted for its left-wing sensibilities, struck gold here. Trumbo was a Communist Party member, and at one point the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood, who wrote scripts at the behest of President Roosevelt. He was also a Stalinist hack who faithfully followed every party line. This presumably explains the 'horrors of war' bent of Johnny Got His Gun. It was published in 1939 when the USSR was officially pacifist, having made its peace with Nazi Germany in the Hitler-Stalin pact. So Communist Parties dutifully repeated how awful war was - until 1941 when the Nazis invaded Poland, and war was OK again. Then Trumbo embarked on a series of anti-fascist B movies glorifying the can-do spirit of the American army. A sequel would have been good; perhaps Johnny survives to make prosthetic limbs for his fellow wounded soldiers?
