Here is my nomination for the most fatuous article of the week: on Comment is Free, one David Thomson, described as "author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film", tells us that the Oscars aren't important and that Iraq is. He wishes media interest would correspond.
Thanks are due to Mr Thomson for this insight. I look forward next week to being reminded that Britney Spears' hair is less important than Tony Blair's departure, or that Jade Goody's rehabilitation is not as significant in world terms as the troop levels in Afghanistan.
Friday, February 23, 2007
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18 comments:
What a stupid piece from the Guardian- the Oscars aren't important but on the other hand films and good films do have a cultural importance and often an important argument within them. Yeah they aren't on the same scale as Iraq but nobody would argue that they were. And nobody would argue that just because of Iraq I ought to stop watching films, listening to music or reading books
And incidentally if deaths are his vector I'm not sure but Darfur might be even more important than Iraq.
Absolutely, but Dafur doesn't give him as big a stick to hit America with. It really was a ridiculous article, and I am going to watch a film rather than read the Guardian in future ...
...I've also just heard that bears are shitting in woods...
Darfur is as important as Iraq. Ridiculous article or not, the Guardian is really a great journal.
pappusrif
The Guardian proper is a respected broadsheet, no question. Shame though that "Comment is Free" all too often means you get what you pay for.
I hope Leo Di Cap gets it for Blood Diamond.
By the way, hi PU, hope you're well, so many of your posts to read and comment on - I will drop in and out with them today :-)
vlcsnm
oops, the visual verification ended up as a post, sorry!
Hello Umpire - I've read that piece a couple of times now and simply cannot make sense of the thing. I see absolutely no logic in the "argument" put forward. It is a travesty of half-baked, ill-considered, bullshit - excuse the language, please.
I remain entirely unable to make the logical link between his starting and final position(s). And I remain unable to do so for the very simple reason that no logical link exists. The leap the writer takes is too wild, too unspeakably pious, too frothily inadequate to merit serious consideration. It is fatuous to the Nth degree, and quite possibly beyond.
Now, the thing is, the points that David Thomson makes about the Iraq war in the second last paragraph strike me as reasonable enough concerns. I share many of them, in fact.
What bothers me greatly, however - and Gracchi touches on this above - is the near fatal levels of imbecility required in order to jump successfully from a position of reasonable concern, to one of proposing a cultural shutdown as a suitable response to these concerns.
Because that, surely, is all that his argument amounts to, really: your leaders did a very bad thing, therefore you should all stop going to the cinema and simply ditch your petty daily concerns. That should help, yes.
Is it actually possible to be any more stupid? It made me seethe. I felt insulted reading it, because I loathe cack-handed attempts at piety, and I loathe unthinking anti-Americanism. And that, in the final analysis, is all that this was. A very poorly constructed, and utterly pointless, attack on America. It dripped with a gooey self-righteousness. What a lamentable piece of drivel.
I've just ranted again, haven't I? Sorry.
How are you, Politico? You've been very quiet lately. Hope all is well.
Kind regards etc....
PS. I may need to return to give a calmer, fairer response. Try not to let this thought alarm you.
Good morning all, thanks of course for stopping by.
Huma, I haven't been to the cinema in so long I haven't seen any of the films that were nominated. I suppose it is good Scorcese has won at last, but I doubt The Departed is his best film (nb without having seen it ...). I did manage to see Walk the Line over the weekend - found it tedious, full of Hollywood cliches about drugs, abusive father etc etc. And I didn't buy Joachin Phoenix as Johnny Cash, which rather undermined the whole thing.
Englishman, are you sure it isn't YOU who has been quiet, what with disabling comments for some time ... I shall be over to yours shortly ...
Melancholy, quite right. Though I don't know if that's more important than Iraq or just on the same level as the Oscars. I need Mr Thompson to help me out on that one ...
I wondered what Tiberius' reaction to this would be and he saved me the time and effort. Fatuosity abounds at the Guardian.
Good point, Grumpire. I meant, I suppose, that you hadn't posted over the weekend and that I hadn't seen you anywhere on my fevered travels.
Anyway, that's not why I'm here. I just noticed the quote things you put up on your front page. And I'm here to tell you that the one from Ms Melancholy is a stormer. I came across it when she originally said it on these pages and laughed gleefully. And I've just done so again. I like it.
I just wish I had been more lusty in my praise now, so that my own lame offering was not so overshadowed by hers. I need the limelight, Umpire, and don't care for being made to look ordinary. Not even in matters such as these. No.
Expect to be met by a barrage of (highly quotable) praise the next time we meet on our travels. That's sort of enough to make you feel like staying indoors, isn't it? Oh dear.
I think I'll just stand by my earlier rant, by the way. Careless language, true, and the points could have been made better, certainly - but I feel more or less happy with the essential thrust of the thing. I'm also emboldened by James Higham taking a swing at The Guardian. A nifty sort of an ally, in my book, and I plan to hide behind him if anyone comes looking for a fight.
Later, PU.
David Thomson neglected to mention that he's still on the waiting list for his sense of humour transplant, and it would be another six months normally, but this article has pushed him right to the top.
What a pompous, patronising git. I feel sorry for anyone who's stuck next to him at a party... oh, I forgot - parties aren't as important as the impending invasion of Iran, and therefore have no value whatsoever. My bad.
Indeed China Blue. Watch it, or Thomson's thought police will force you to delete a very great deal of your own blog, and only post about Serious World Issues in future. The only relief is that it is a safe bet that Thomson probably won't get many party invitations in future.
Anglocossrishymru - thanks for your kind words. Pleased you liked what I said about you in the blog battle, though as my blog-serf I shall be extracting a tithe from your winnings should you triumph in that competition. Notwithstanding your closing down the comments section AGAIN. In fact, because of it. That post was to comply with my demand that you put up something which WE could comment on but YOU could not. I released the shackles at the behest of those young ladies NMJ and Melonchoholic, and I've doubted it was a wise move since. But I'll forgive you, as I never asked permission to use the quotes, and I'm about to use another of yours again ...
James, thanks for stopping by, of course.
Hokey dokey - I can see I'm going to need to be very careful about what I choose to say in your company in the future.
Sleek move, Umpire. I'm now serving to stay in the match. New balls, please.
Late to the party again! I'm thinking maybe David Thomson is regretting his career choice, if films are not as important as current affairs.
Current affairs are pretty bad at the mo, true, but I seem to recall others before these that weren't exctly like "Singin' in the Rain"... a small matter in Kosovo springs to mind, and wasn;t there something in Ropmania...? Or was that a long time ago now?
Anyway, I was cheered to bits this morning to read that when Helen Mirren got on the plane to come back to London after the Oscars, her fellow passengers gave her a standing ovation. To BITS, I say.
Not to worry, Ms B, I'm sure that you were only being fashionable ...
Yes you are quite right that the really silly point about Thomson's article is that it somehow requires political events now to be more important than at any time in the Oscars' history. Quite how anyone could have had a party in the Great Depression, even for the original King Kong, I don't know ...
Well done indeed to Helen. I've not seen the film, though the snippets on the news seemed to show her doing a good job as the old girl.
Oh and Eyrelishman - I really like "Grumpire", I think that's the best of them, save possibly "Umpilical"
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