'Whats done, is done'
Lady Macbeth
Originally I didn't see Sam Tanenhaus's article but it was this quote that caught my eye, 'Art imitates nature, but few artists observe like scientists. Especially in the United States, art is dominated by political correctness, which turns a blind eye to realities that aren’t supposed to exist. Both men and women are Homo sapiens, dangerous animals indeed.' It was a response to the article in the New York Times Book Review.
I wont quote it the article but read it if you must. I’ve now read it three or four times and I still don’t get what he is trying to say. Is art supposed to see the future? Artists pretty much record what they see, hear, what they feel. There are plenty of movies and books about violent women. Photos of babes with guns are all over the internet, not that I consider that art, oh maybe I should. But to say art has failed to see what is going on around it, has failed to see what is happening to women, is ludicrous. Maybe the world in general has failed to see what is happening as it does in most cases. And now I’m making no sense so I’m just as bad as him.
I mean, I thought it seemed pretty obvious that this was an open and shut case of a violently mentally ill woman who had just happened to be together enough to make it through a PhD program. Trying to generalize from it (‘feminist progress leads to violence’) just seems like grasping at straws for a story. Statistically speaking, women are much less likely to kill, and much less likely to have the sorts of violent mental illnesses that play out this way, but less likely does not mean never.
It reminds me of article I read about the shock around the world when the first female suicide bombers hit the streets of Iraq. The author concluded that, OMG, women make the same judgments and follow the same path of reason that men do! No way!! Somebody alert the psychiatric community that women can be anti social too.
Tanenhaus is what some people like to call a ‘smart conservative.’ He probably is. But being the smartest conservative is like being the best downhill skier in Tonga.
I think Tanenhaus is what some people like to call ‘full of shit.’
Obviously he doesn’t watch the show ‘Deadly Women’
tuneage
well I can tell you that people in the field aren't talking about the fact that she's a woman, but that is perhaps because biology is not as male-dominated as some fields and some sciences. They're talking about how can you put a person in such a stressfull situation that this could happen to a 'rational' person and how can they hopefully see it coming next time (we won't even mention gun control, now will we)
ReplyDeleteas to the article, well let's see, much of art, literature and film has historically been done by men, and most killings of this sort are done by me, so what's the conundrum that we have fewer examples of this from art/literature/film/theatre to guide us??
"But being the smartest conservative is like being the best downhill skier in Tonga." - can't stop laughing
nope staying away from gun control here.
ReplyDelete"as to the article, well let's see, much of art, literature and film has historically been done by men, and most killings of this sort are done by me, so what's the conundrum that we have fewer examples of this from art/literature/film/theatre to guide us??"
i was thinking too that most of the films and books you would get are, like you said, done by men but also with the male reader/viewer in mind. i wouldn't think many guys want to go see gurl kills your ass movies. but what do i know, i have limited experience. than again you just have to look at Kill Bill.
as always, in the end its all just sad