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Author
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Comment
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Jess
Unregistered User
(4/16/04 9:45 pm)
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A time and a place
Re: Moore. He and others (I first recall Vanessa Redgrave doing this) abuse their award to get on a political pedestal. This is inappropriate given that the award is given for their art, not their politics. I have ceased to watch the awards because they have become such a farce. On the other hand, actors, directors and others are entitled to their views. I just don't feel it is the right place to share them and generally I just don't care what they think. Authors, however, are using ideas in their works. I think that makes their views more cogent.
Re: Woody Allen. Sick, SICK, SICK. The man is disgusting. This is not politics, it is child abuse. I don't like his films anyway, but sheesh.
Re: Gone with the Wind. The story has little to do with sympathies for slave owners. It is a good movie if you like melodrama and generally strong women - although Scarlet's Achilles heel of the milksop man is interesting. As far as slave owners, well, that is history. I hate to admit it, but I have slave owners as ancestors, but I also have abolitionists as ancestors. I guess when I watch these movies I watch someone's interpretation of history. I don't feel sorry for them losing their "property" built on the backs of human slaves. It doesn't mean it isn't interesting or entertaining - after all they do lose. Btw, does anyway else see the loose parallel between Scarlett and Cinderella - riches to rags to riches?
Jess
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alina
Unregistered User
(4/17/04 9:37 am)
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Orson Scott Card
I've been a fan of Orson Scott Card for years--since the first time I read Ender's Game in fifth grade! He's definitely had his hits and misses over the years as far as his writing is concerned, the main miss being that he let his hatrack.com guests mold his writing in the latter part of the Alvin Maker series, making for at least one truly horrible book (I stopped reading them after that).
Gay marriage is such a hot, emotional topic right now, and people are either wholly for it, or dead set against it. Half the people in the world disagree with your viewpoint (whatever it is), some of whom you'd probably really like otherwise! I think I've changed a few minds about the issue, others I've had to respectfully disagree with. I still think they are great people even though I can't understand the particular dogma they support.
The anti-gay-marriage stance is definitely a Mormon perspective, (I lived in Utah for many years and am intimately familiar with many of their philosophies). I don't agree with OSC at all on this specific viewpoint, but I can understand that the community that he comes from would make it hard for him to have any other point of view. To give him credit, OSC is really considered too-liberal by many Mormons. He's not so blindly caught up in his faith that it makes him afraid to write novels that do not follow its teachings.
Ender's Game is one novel that I tell people I couldn't do without on a desert island because it touched my life deeply at a young age. I still re-read it every few years.
A person will almost never agree with another person's world-philosophy 100%. My husband and I are a lot alike but even we don't agree with each other about everything! Orson Scott Card has a lot to offer and I would definitely recommend (most of) his books.
~ Alina
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Veronica
Schanoes
Registered User
(4/18/04 2:54 am)
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Re: GWTW
Yeah, that's what I mean when I say I'm no doubt missing out. I don't doubt anything you say about the fun of the movie. I just don't think I could appreciate it. Unless it ended with a lot of slaves dancing on Scarlett's grave, which I'm given to understand it doesn't!
On the other hand, I was just told that Bob Marley's wife's book
about him revealed some really foul things about him, but I don't
want to think about that. I believe I will consign it to
the corner of my brain where I put information about the evildoings
of Yankees players. Such information is only released once the players
play leave the team. Then they receive the hatred they would deserve.
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Jess
Unregistered User
(4/18/04 7:07 pm)
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GWTW
No, they don't do that, but a whole lot of people spit on her, figuratively
speaking.
That being said, movies, like books, are often a reflection of the attitudes of their times and are interesting from that view point. Like the books that many are based upon, they can reflect the general political attitudes and cultural of the time, or an particular author's/director's view. You and I obviously differ on our tolerance and interest in analyzing these things. As I said before, I enjoy reading these things not just for "fun" in the purest sense, but in the sense that I like to dig deeper. I would rather do that without listening to the endless political speeches of these people. Often the works speak for themselves. And to think I hated doing analyzing things like that for school, but do it all the time now.
Jess
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redtriskell
Unregistered User
(4/23/04 12:04 am)
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political views
Well, I may be too late to weigh in on this subject, but I'm new to the site and was fascinated by the opinions. I must admit that I avoid finding out too much about the private lives of writers I admire. Sadly, I am not enlightened enough to separate the writer from the writings. If you assume that all creative work comes from the spirit of its creator (and I very much believe this) then it's impossible to separate the two. However, all artists, be they great,terrible, or mediocre, are still people. People, as we all know, are not perfect. They are also products of their environments- no writer exists in a vaccum. OSC lives in my hometown, and the article mentioned was published by a small, very conservative, local paper. OSC writes a regular column for this paper called " Uncle Orson On- fill in the blank with whatever subject" and each week he expounds on whatever is on his mind. I find this blather exhausting and, while I was never a huge fan of his, now that I know exactly how narrow-minded and shallow his views are, I really can't derive any enjoyment from his work. His personal views, stated so clearly in our local rag, make me feel like he lied to me when he wrote his stories. How could this guy making broad,sweeping statements about homosexuals be the same guy who made up Ender? I will never read or purchase anything by him again. This article was the last straw- you guys should have seen the one about the war in Iraq...
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Nalo
Registered User
(4/25/04 3:36 pm)
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Re: A time and a place
I get really uncomfortable when people try to divorce art from what it exists to do, which is to comment on our world. It's kind of like saying that the point of food is its taste, and that what it does inside our bodies is immaterial. I think art is political and needs to have a conscience, so I don't object to people who are given awards making political statements during the ceremony. The award thanks them for their contribution as artists, and they are simply doing what artists do.
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Jess
Unregistered User
(4/25/04 5:45 pm)
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I agree and disagree
Nalo,
Your point is well taken, but I don't enjoy the speeches during the ceremony. If one wishes to listen to the political ideals of the artist, there is a place for that, but I disagree that it is during the awards ceremony itself. The ceremony can give the artist the visability to give his or her views afterwards. The exception, perhaps, is when the work for which the artist is being awarded is of a strictly political nature.
Jess
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Nalo
Registered User
(4/26/04 10:47 am)
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Re: I agree and disagree
NH: *nods* okay. (Meaning that I still don't mind award-winners using the award to make political comments, but that I can see the reasons for your objection too.)
-nalo
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