'70's edition!
Okay, first, watch this....
Pretty fucked up, right? Now dig this, this happened on a soap opera, and these two characters ended up getting together, and getting married. But this is the hilarious part. They left the show, and like a decade or so later, came back...and the fans were overjoyed!! They touted that shit!! Big fucking ad campaign! Luke and Laura are back! Oooh! Ahh! Oboy-oboy! Luke and Laura! YAY! Like they were the greatest imaginary couple of all time, y'know? Like, bigger than Romeo and Juliet or some shit. You'd think, anyway, from the aggressive ads.
I shit you not, this fucking happened. So, I asked someone in my family who knew soaps "hey, who the fuck are Luke and Laura, and why the fuck should I care?". Then I got the whole skinny on the whole rape thing, and was like "eeew-heew-heew!". Then, another decade and some change later, looking around for some other shit on Youtube one night, can't remember now what sparked off the memory, someone somewhere threw in a Luke & Laura reference...Oh! It was Rosanne, she had them on in a dream sequence! Yeah, Rosanne reruns were on while I was surfing, and that sparked it off. And I was like "..yeah, they're that rape couple America was in love with....say, I wonder how they played that off...like, did he rape her, but she liked it, like in that sick scene in "Cemetary Man"? How did they write their way out of that whole mess?".
Y'know, as a writer, I was curious.
How'd they cross THAT chasm? Turns out not very well. Wow.
Yeah.... Yeah, and it wasn't a weird horror movie rape, where everyone's insane, so you can kinda buy a weird reaction to things, it was a realistic creepy rape. Full blown, chick runs away screaming, and going crazy. Yep. Well, you know, you saw it. And soap fans rooted for that couple. Your moms watched that shit, kids. Yep. Poke around into that, see what side they took on that issue. Might be an important insight.
Might turn out that you might need to pack a satchel, and run away tonight.
Seriously. So, anyhoo, I put a mental bookmark on all that, and thought "when I'm hard up for material, I'll blog about this". And so I have. :D Whenever I wonder about how sick our culture is, I can just go back to this. I can say "this is the country, where the housewives cheered on a woman marrying her rapist. Why WOULDN'T they go for (insert whatever stupid cultural/political thing the masses latched onto this week)?".
Nothing phases me.
Nothing surprises me about human behavior.
It wasn't this particular item that did it, it was accumulative, but, this didn't help.
I truly am in Podsville.
Anyway, you'll probably never hear that song the same way again. So, enjoy that. *Evil grin*
5 comments:
I was 10 when the 'Luke and Laura' phenomenon hit, and I was acutely aware of it. Apparently, General Hospital had been a struggling soap opera and, when the writers brought the Luke character in for a temporary run on the show, the fans responded very positively.
There was big controversy at the time about a woman falling in love with her rapist (suggesting that rape happens because women want it to), but, because the rape is not shown on camera (of course) and there seems to be little brutality beyond that (i.e., as in real rapes when women are often beaten up pretty badly), the writers were able to hedge the line between rape and seduction.
Softening the rape also allowed viewers (mostly female, of course) to accept Luke's redemption after the rape.
Yes, the 'Luke and Laura' thing was big in '79...and it launched GH into being the top-rated soap opera for almost a decade.
Yes, it is fascinating.
Between this, and "human centipede", I've seen you really can do anything with writing.
It's been a sort of grim epiphany.
'Grim Epiphany' would make a great name for a rock band.
But, yes, look at the whole post-modern era. Michael Corleone can be a protagonist, and he's a gangster. Or how about Hannibal Lector (and even moreso his younger contemporary, Dexter)? Serial killers the audience is expected to empathize with, identify with, and--dare I say?-- respect and admire. Even Hitler can get a (somewhat) sympathetic and humanizing portrayal, for cryin' out loud.
But I suppose if the art of writing fiction--either for film or print--is to evolve, writers have to mine new material for stories. As long as they find some human aspect within, it will probably be worthwhile...but still a little discomforting to those who cling to more traditional story types...
Hmm...I got no problem with 'em writing it.
That ain't what I'm saying at all.
Hell, I'm into the Freddy movies, and the Hannibal trilogy, and I'm probably gonna end up buying the DVD of "human centipede", so I'm into dark characters.
And the whole "redemption of the character", deal is probably a healthier reaction than what I'm referring to.
I mean people that flat out thought the whole rape deal was sexy.
The actor that played Luke had broads holding up "rape me, Luke!", signs.
People are fucked up.
But that's the dark epiphany, there ain't nothing messed up about me if that gets by.
I can really cut loose.
B-)
Shit, the video is blocked.
Here's another copy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pYHnE-gkDc
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