Voices
Russell Brand has written a fascinating essay for Huffington Post about coming of age in Margaret Thatcher's England, and now reacting to her death. Thousands of column inches have been devoted to encapsulating Thatcher's life this week, and the most germane come from a comic with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder who is also a recovering alcoholic, heroin and sex addict, and has been arrested 12 times...The blunt, pathetic reality is that a little old lady has died, who in the winter of her life had to water roses alone under police supervision. If you behave like there's no such thing as society, in the end there isn't. Her death must be sad for the handful of people she was nice to and the rich people who got richer under her stewardship. It isn't sad for anyone else. There are pangs of nostalgia, yes, because for me she's all tied up with Hi-De-Hi and Speak and Spell and Blockbusters and "follow the bear." What is more troubling is my inability to ascertain where my own selfishness ends and her neoliberal inculcation begins. All of us that grew up under Thatcher were taught that it is good to be selfish, that other people's pain is not your problem, that pain is in fact a weakness and suffering is deserved and shameful. Perhaps there is resentment because the clemency and respect that are being mawkishly displayed now by some and haughtily demanded of the rest of us at the impending, solemn funeral are values that her government and policies sought to annihilate... I do recall that even to a child her demeanour and every discernible action seemed to be to the detriment of our national spirit and identity.
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Ta-Nehisi Coates on Brad Paisley:
Paisley wants to know how he can express his Southern Pride. Here are some ways. He could hold a huge party on Martin Luther King's birthday, to celebrate a Southerner's contribution to the world of democracy. He could rock a T-shirt emblazoned with Faulkner's Light In August, and celebrate the South's immense contribution to American literature. He could preach about the contributions of unknown Southern soldiers like Andrew Jackson Smith. He could tell the world about the original Cassius Clay. He could insist that Tennessee raise a statue to Ida B. Wells.
I would add that another good way would be to pay tribute in his music to a fellow artist, Louis Armstrong. Or how about organizing a 100th birthday musical tribute celebration this year for Rosa Parks?
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I haven't seen the new Jackie Robinson film "42", but I've heard a rumor about it, I have developed at least one theory about it, and I have one direct criticism after having seen the trailer.
The rumor is that the picture is light on drama. Jackie is supposedly portrayed as a pretty one-dimensional hero that white people get to react to, and the white people get to experience all of the personal growth in the story.
My theory is that the movie will make no reference, even in passing, to the political "radicals" that were instrumental in helping to integrate baseball, notably Lester Rodney, columnist for the Daily Worker, who was a very influential voice in New York City neighborhoods during the 1930s and '40s.
And my criticism, gleaned from the trailer, is that the filmmakers are thoroughly misrepresenting Jackie Robinson's speaking voice in this movie. They've dropped it at least two octaves. Why? Is Jackie not going to be perceived as "man enough" if he's portrayed as having a speaking voice that's rather highly-pitched? Because it was. It's almost seven full decades since Jackie entered the American consciousness and our heroes still have to fit inside a box.
posted by CM @ 6:56 PM
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