[lit-ideas] Re: Sunday waffle...
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2005 17:27:56 -0400
> [Original Message]
> From: Ursula Stange <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 6/4/2005 1:28:31 PM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Sunday waffle...
>
> Andy Amago wrote:
>
> How do you describe
> a society that says it's good he died at 24 because now we can worship his
> eternal youth. Or the fact that Porsche sales went up after he was killed
> in one. Not down, but up. And that's just one tiny example of values
that
> are twisted beyond belief, then coveted. Explain that to me without using
> the word stupid.
>
> US: It's called love, stupid. (Sorry, Andy, just playing with the
> words -- nothing personal meant.)
A.A. I love it.
It's called yearning and
> identification. If women bought the Porsches, they wanted to feel what
> it felt like to ride in one. If men bought them, they wanted to impress
> the girls who wanted to feel what it felt like to ride in one. Thus the
> world turns.
A.A. Yearning and identification implies what? An unsatisfying reality?
Why not change reality to make it more satisfying? On the other hand,
maybe I'll give yearning a shot and let you know how it feels. Let's see,
who's been killed recently whose life I can vicariously live? Suggestions
would be appreciated. Just wondering, after the men/girls bought/rode in
the Porsches, were they fulfilled? Or did they then move on to something
more thrilling?
>
> Alternative answer: it's called mythology. We want to ride in a
> Porsche because then we partake of the magic. The story of the young
> hero who chooses a different path is a powerful one. (And Christ
> himself couldn't have held an audience if he'd gotten old.) The story
> of Christ is instructive because we see that many are called but few
> have to answer. The fact that he turned the other cheek and did his
> father's bidding means that we don't have to. His doing it is enough.
> We just have to point and say, "yeah, like him" and go our merry way.
> So James Dean died for all of us and we can grow old and fat and lazy
> and greedy, all the while saying, "yeah, like him...." And if we're
> riding a Porsche while we say it, so much the better.
A.A. Mythology is great except that it's real people we're talking about.
I wonder how James Dean feels about it. How would you like to be loved for
the myth you could have generated by having died at 24? I guess it's like
wearing a fur coat. The animal is dead anyway. James Dean is dead.
Nobody killed him. Why not turn him into a myth? Except that it's our own
selves we're rejecting in embracing the myth. Reject ourselves, celebrate
a Porsche. Maybe it is love stupid. BTW, by saying Christ turned the
other cheek so we don't have to fits right in with our war genes.
Andy
> Ursula
> Porscheless in North Bay
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