Watched some Youtubes.
Had this thing in recommends picking apart Joseph Campbell.
I always intuitively found Campbell's theories reductive and constrictive.
Felt good to have that confirmed by somebody, and that I'm not crazy.
Interesting to know what a dick and a shithead he was about WWII.
Anyway!! I needed a Star Wars antidote after that, and...
Spaceballs (1987)
Wishful Drinking (2010)
My still un-watched copy of "Spaceballs" acquired over 2 months ago needed unsealing and firing up.
And, I figured, what the Hell, let's give "Wishful Drinking" another spin too.
Mixed results.
I mean, both things make me happy, and still do.
The older both of these things get, the more necessary they become.
But..."Spaceballs" you get that "goddammit, I miss John Candy" feeling.
And "Wishful Drinking" it's "goddammit, I miss Carrie Fisher".
And that's if you haven't lost someone.
One of the last things I watched with my mother was a marathon of John Candy movies.
And jump back 9 years, and I remember Ma bawling over Carrie Fisher's passing like she was a relative.
So, that all got dredged up.
But, even tinged with grief, there's still more warmth and humanity in these two things than Joseph Campbell, or Arthur Machen's goddamned fop protagonists.
And, frankly, George Lucas, at least on the set of A New Hope, according to Carrie. 😏
So yeah, antidote indeed.
Hmmm, I guess I'm cheered up.
Carrie may not be here, but she did a damned good job of data-dumping her whole life into "Wishful Drinking".
And John Candy's stuff is quite the collection.
Of the movies I don't have, they still rotate on cable.
Maybe I just needed an excuse to blog something because these read-a-thons get horribly lonesome.
I need to be making something. Anything.
Yeah, this helps.
Whelp! 120 more pages of Machen fops, and I can get back to the fun books.
Push ahead, Mikey, push ahead.
1 comment:
From "The Dispossessed," p. 54:
(After the main character has his first sexual experience as a youth):
"'You know, I don't agree,' he said to long-faced Vokep, an agricultural chemist traveling to Abbenay. 'I thin men mostly have to learn to be anarchists. Women don't have to learn.'
Vokep shook his head grimly. 'It's the kids,' he said. 'Having babies. Makes 'em propertarians. They won't let go.' He sighed. 'Touch and go, brother, that's the rule. Don't ever let yourself be owned.'
Shevek smiled and drank his fruit juice. 'I won't,' he said."
Have you read Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead"? There's a post-coital moment between the main character Howard Roark and this woman named Dominique who is obsessed with amazing and individualistic he is and this sort of talk plays vaguely like some sort of parody of that? Huh, maybe I'm grasping at straws here but this reminded me of that...it being Ayn Rand, the whole thing is about how she has sex with him (Roark) because of how awesome he is, not because of anything *she* is going to get out of it.
Somebody should get on that and do a compare and contrast.
Skip the 2024 movie "Sharp Corner," it doesn't end very well.
Post a Comment