[lit-ideas] Re: Superman Returns
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2006 10:56:38 -0700 (PDT)
There's this and there is that. It's a bit of a
stereotype in China that you should never ask
Westerners about their age and marital status, since
it's a "secret". What I usually say to my students is
don't ask, wait for them to tell you, or something in
those lines. In Chinese culture it's certainly
acceptable to ask for anyone's age, but quite often
people give false answers I suspect. (Especially
women; gender difference really needs to be kept in
mind here, as in Chinese society the woman is still
supposed to be 5 to 10 years younger than the man.)
Personally, as I approaching my 36th birthday I am
beginning to learn to give sincere-sounding yet false
answers to such questions; there didn't seem to be any
problem until a couple of years ago but now being 35
or 6 and single (well, divorced but you don't always
want to go into that) is beginning to raise some
suspicions.
It is also true that there are increasing numbers of
Chinese people (again, especially women) who obviously
diet, exercise, use make-up and so on, in contrast to
many Westerners who... well don't seem to bother with
any of these things. I think that we are seeing the
effects of globalization on both sides of the Great
Divide. Is that good or bad, I wouldn't know. (I'll
assume that it's probably bad though.)
O.K.
--- Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> [Original Message]
> > From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
> > To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Date: 7/2/2006 6:07:29 AM
> > Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Superman Returns
> >
> >
> >
> > --- Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > He also complains, appropriately, I think,
> > > that the characters are too young-looking for
> the
> > > part. They probably are, but that might be in
> > > large part because movies today are made with an
> eye
> > > toward world, rather than U.S. consumption.
> Most of
> > > the world (especially the developing world) are
> > > obsessed with youth. In a lot of the world,
> once
> > > you turn 30 you enter the realm of the living
> dead
> > > for the rest of your living dead life.
> >
> > *I find this rather puzzling. I would have thought
> > that it is the modern cultures that tend to
> emphasize
> > youth and physical looks, while traditional
> cultures
> > tend to place more value on maturity and social
> > accomplishments. This is no doubt a generalization
> but
> > I am still surprized that you would assert the
> > opposite with such certainty.
> >
>
>
>
> I would have thought the same, but it turns out that
> what I would have
> thought is a failure of logic. I was at one time
> personally acquainted
> with a quite number of Indians (I was taking a
> programming course run by
> and pretty much for Indians, although there were
> some Americans in it). To
> be sure, a lot of them were over 30 and quite alive
> and well. But age was
> definitely a consideration. There was one girl in
> the class (sample size
> of one, but not really), 25 years old, who
> considered herself the "baby",
> literally used the word baby. She agonized at a
> birthday. The instructor
> herself, who was probably about 35, claimed to be
> 25. And on and on. It
> was kind of pathetic, actually. The very fact that
> Superman?s producers
> cast such young-looking actors, says it all. Note
> that Lois Lane is now a
> single mom. I almost defy you (almost) to find a
> Hispanic family of
> father, mother and children. Almost invariably it?s
> mother and children,
> no husband, and more than one father, even several
> fathers, for her
> children. The new and improved Lois Lane is the
> reality; the young Lois
> Lane is the societal construct. Note she?s both
> young and with a five year
> old child. That?s reality the way it really is in a
> lot of the world,
> including the changing U.S. with its illegal
> immigrants.
>
> I invite you to watch a Bollywood movie. Notice
> that all the main actors
> are young, and white skinned (I have yet to see a
> white skinned Indian; I
> don't know where they get them). The old actors are
> all normal darker
> skinned. I don't remember if the bad guys were
> darker skinned or not in
> the movie I saw recently. Back when taking the
> course, I was invited to
> the home of one of the Indians (she had quite a nice
> home) and her
> television was on with an Indian movie. It was
> virtually the same thing,
> young white or light skinned actors. All their
> movies are basically the
> same formula. In the movie I saw in my Indian
> friend's home, there was
> also violence against women. That was absent in the
> Netflix Bollywood I
> saw. Also, much of the developing world has a high
> birth rate, so a lot of
> the population is in fact literally young,
> teenagers, as Andreas pointed
> out. It's also my understanding that in India a lot
> of Bollywood movies
> are what we would consider soft porn. Young women
> "clothed" in see through
> saris, etc. (Wall Street Journal I think.)
>
> Europe might be a little better in terms of allowing
> people to exist in
> time. Judy can tell us about England. I know when
> I was in England a long
> time ago, newspapers advertised for specific ages,
> invariably under 45 and
> most a lot younger than that. Russian employment
> ads are the same. Here
> in the U.S. there certainly is ageism but it's more
> covert and it's against
> the law. I think the laws that were enacted in
> around 1990 give protection
> to people over 40. 40, can you imagine. I also
> remember a post once from
> Didier about how he came to open a bookstore. It
> was because he turned 50
> and basically (paraphrasing) he was too old to
> continue in his regular job.
> Here 50 is, they say, the new 30, and 60 the new 40.
> In theory anyway, but
> at least the sentiment is in some of the air and
> some of the water. Having
> said that, there are plenty of people in the U.S.
> who dread getting up in
> the morning because they're one day older, and try
> and find a birthday card
> that isn't some variation of older the hill,
> starting at, yes, 30. I have
> a personal friend who, when he turned 40 about 25
> years ago, all but
> thought his life was over. He and his wife still
> have the potholder on
> their wall that says, 40 and still cooking. Kind of
> puts a perspective on
> things.
>
> I had no intention of seeing Superman Returns, but I
> think I'll see it
> after all. It might be fun for everyone to go out
> and see it and we can
> talk about it. Or not, as the case may be.
>
>
>
>
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