for 22 November 1999. Updated every WEEKDAY.
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Children of the Corn Masterful essay. "Locally grown form of Orientalism" — perfect! As a Mississippian, and thus from a breed roughly analogous to one of those Zagros mountain tribes the Sean Connery and Michael Caine characters were lording it over in The Man Who Would Be King, I know what it is to be romanticized and loathed. (Well, not me personally. Only culturally. I don't have the charisma for romantic loathing, myself.) Yr. obt. svt., Amy O'Neal '01 <aoneal@brynmawr.edu> Thank you, though, to give credit where it's due, the Orientalism coinage comes from my masterful editor, the Jersey-bred BarTel. Go figure. And don't sell yourself short — isn't Bryn Mawr something of a finishing school in romantic loathing? Holly  Greetings, I enjoyed and very much agreed with your article "Children of the Corn." The attitudes toward the Midwest are similar to the attitudes toward the South, or let's say toward rural America. Consider the movie Deliverance; all the country people were either congenital idiots of depraved killers, or some combination of the two. Unlike the book, which didn't, in my memory, make much of this, the movie was all about urban paranoia, conscious or unconscious. People from the cosmopolitan centers are just very uncomfortable with noncosmopolitan America, and they often express that feeling with scorn born of ignorance. Although I guess I'd have to say the sentiment is returned, also usually based in ignorance. Frank Drew <f.drew@starpower.net> Apropos of Deliverance, did you happen to see the quite unintentionally hilarious Meryl Streep vehicle The River Wild? It's a Yuppie-triumphs-over-nature allegory, in which hapless, negligent dad/architect David Strathairn gets to redeem his frontier patrimony on a rafting trip by contriving — with the aid of the family dog! — to rig a Rube Goldberg device out of abandoned riverside machinery to rescue Meryl and their plucky son from the backwoods psychopath Kevin Bacon. Basically, a Rambo-style revisionist take on Deliverance in which the urban professionals win. Holly Dear Holly, You crack me up! "Pliant and forgiving polarity of hipster auteurship," "pusillanimous egghead?" Have you ever played the game Balderdash? You'd be really good. As a once and future Midwesterner, I applaud what I perceive to be your plea to the entertainment industry to make a decent movie or TV show about the "echoing symbolic warehouse known to moviegoers as the Midwest." Although set even farther south than Oklahoma, I think David Byrne's (more "hipster auteurship") film True Stories showed the plight of small but good people in a big and crazy world with emotion and empathy that makes the viewer want to join them, not detest them like in American Beauty. Perhaps this is what Lynch is trying to do with his current film. Mike Orlet State College, Pennslyvania PS Aren't "pliant" and "forgiving" synonyms, at least when used in the above phrase? No, actually, I think you can be rigidly or dogmatically forgiving, as is the case with some of the world's major religions. And thanks for your kind words — though we differ, to put it mildly, on arch-exoticizer David Byrne. I was actually thinking about how all these stereotypes contrast with the small furor kicked up by the portrayal of the "rabbit lady" in Michael Moore's Roger and Me. That was assailed for being mean and scornful, but it was obvious to me (and, I would argue, to anyone who had spent time around any such people) that the bunny-clubbing interview subject was quite self-aware, and even stringing Moore along. And so I think the really upsetting thing about such footage is that it hands the mike over to such subjects, revealing them as complicated humans, able to laugh at themselves, wield a good deal of their own irony, etc. And that robs everyone else of the pleasure of making them into two-dimensional glyphs of heartland cluelessness- cum-guilelessness. But, as usual, I digress. Holly The New Biography While I think associating Microsoft with fascist Italy is a tad heavy-handed, I appreciate the visual pun (bundling/fascio) you employed. Sort of ... appropriately complex. Oh, I also enjoyed the article, in case you were wondering. Benedict Warr <warrped@hotmail.com> Fascists make great party guests and pun targets, and the reference is even more appropriate in light of Friday's findings of fact regarding Microsoft's friendly overreaching in some of its business dealings. But the kudos for that go to Terry Colon, the artist, not to me. Glad you enjoyed the piece and that you got the Fascista reference. We've gotten some good feedback and will attempt to employ Mussolini-esque art whenever possible. Cheers, Peter Hyman Peter, Fascinating. I am writing my own autobiography (whose else?) and would like to cite you (for contempt, or perhaps for paraphrasing the obvious). Your permission is not required, but appreciated. Mark <beer@dirtroad.net> I have absolutely no idea what your email meant, beginning with the paranthetical "whose else" ... did you mean who else's? And if so, what were you referring to? The obvious fact that only you could write your own autobiography? In the literal sense, obviously you are correct. That is why my piece was called The New Biography, not Autobiography. The Morris book is Biography as Borgesian memoir, a sort of first-person insertion exercise. I cited the review quote simply as a means to get into my piece. Very opportunistic, eh? If you do cite me, please make sure to do so in proper bibliographic format. That way you'll be protected when they link the sourcing back to my obvious essay. Best of luck with your book. Yr pal, Peter Hyman Why is it that our first thought when recalling killing and murderous people is of "hate-mongering white supremacist groups" and not of hate-mongering black, Hispanic, and Asian street gangs? I do it too; it is my first thought when thinking of such things. I have taken an informal survey and the results are staggering: Ninety percent have no idea why they think of whites first. Most of the remaining 10 percent believe it comes from a higher expectation of whites than from other racial groups. The higher expectation leads to more shock at the behavior. I wanted to get your unique perspective, as I noticed the phrase "hate-mongering white supremacist groups" in your words. Michael Davis <bearcot@yahoo.com> Yours is quite a serious question and as such, I'll refrain from making a sarcastic remark. I cannot claim to have scientific evidence of the increased propensity of whites to inflict hate crimes and to then defend those crimes under the banner of some "higher" calling (e.g., an Aryan Nation, the Creator), but there have certainly been rencent articles that examine this. I did not, however, mean to imply that only whites commit murder. My point was to reference Buford Furrow, Benjamin Matthew Williams, the killers of Matthew Shephard, and other recent events (Jasper, Texas; Columbine) in connection with the boiled-down party line of the NRA (that guns don't kill people) in order to satirize the notion and link the two thoughts. I'm sure there are plenty of nice, honest, well-intending members of the NRA and, conversely, plenty of hate-filled white supremacists who are not dues-paying NRA members, but I'll just bet the points of intersection are bigger than anybody can prove. Peter |
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