RARA-AVIS: Glory-frying

From: Steve Novak (Cinefrog@comcast.net)
Date: 21 Jul 2008

  • Next message: BaxDeal@aol.com: "Re: glorifying violence (was Re: RARA-AVIS: Elmore Leonard)"

    Here we go again...

    These things have been talked about many times on Rara on Rompol (Fr) on Europolar...wherever...who cares...this subject has been debated before about some damn film, or some damn book, or some damn graphic novel...or whatever form of personal/political discourse (murder/mayhem/spanish inquisition/kkk/...what have ya...whatever suits your fancy, your ethnic affiliation, your religious masturbation, your anger)....or practice
    (garrote/bomb/PPK/Berreta/bare hands/laptop-ipod cable, water down the throat, pretty poison, razor slash on achilleąs tendons, burning medieval oil...)....

    ...can anybody identify, isolate, demonstrate, certify, legitimaze...whatever is in the łgloryfying violence˛ stigma/definition/presupposition/supposition...and whatever variations you fancy...can anybody do that with a straight face and a Śreasonableą amount of literary Ślogicą in any of our discussion groups...for lack of any other def.....

    As I have said before here, I belong for many years, to discussion groups about Nick Cave, the aussie singer I have seen maqny times across the US...now, for any of you, is The Proposition (a noir aussie western if you had to find one) ladden with Śglorifyingą violence...or then what would you say about Bad Lieutenant (glorifying drug, smak and masturbation maybe???) or The Wild Bunch (glorifying slo-mo blood spurting and pistol shooting)....

    The reason we have these discussions, these discussion groups is because there are many criminals occurences, many criminals, many people who chase them too, many countries, many social classes ...etc...and some witnesses to all this general mayhem feel either compelled or drawn to bring it out in novels or film or graphic drawings...

    Is Hammet gratiutous/glorifying...is Tardi...is Tarantino...is Fernando Mereilles (City of God), is Ken Bruen or David Goodis, is Willeford or Sam Pekinpah....is John Woo....

    Itąs all in the Eye of The Behoder (cf Marc Behm), itąs all in the context, in what the viewer/reader bring Śto the partyą....ąto the shową (boy, do I hate this terminology for a film!!!)....to his/her/their own experience and fate...and the way they choose to walk under that beam...

    But to talk about Śglorifyingą (very close to gore-ifying, mindąya....and that tells you about the frame set)...or about Śgratuitousą as examples of
    łbad˛, of łout-of-bounds˛...etc...etc...is to enter territories where, in fact, our interests lie, where writers wallow, where readers/viewers sway....

    Films may be bad, books may rub away in a few lines, but to dismiss/reject/ignore/segregate...etc...because of Śglorifyingą or
    Śgratuitousą or any form of violence for that matter, is quite ludicrous given the subject of these discussion groups...

    Just a few slashing thoughts....

    Montois....

    [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 21 Jul 2008 EDT