Killing to Be Famous

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.
--Paul, 1 Corinthians 1:27-29

Yesterday, possibly the deadliest shooting in the history of Nebraska took place in an Omaha shopping mall. Myriad horrible reasons can lead a person to shoot fellow humans en masse a la Columbine or Virginia Tech, and I don't believe any one reason can explain a complex situation. But the BBC news coverage included information about the shooter's suicide note not found in other news I read. Rumored to have lost his job that day at McDonald's, the gunman's note apparently also described his desire to be famous.

I refuse to write his name in this blog for that precise reason. While I am certain that a desire for fame could not be the sole reason that he committed an atrocity prior to suicide, the possibility of its contribution to this occurrence hangs heavy on my head. We as members of this culture are guilty in our support of fame over excellence. My friend Valerie, a Gen X-er, often challenges that those of us in our 20s tend to value fame over the excellence that should be a natural predecessor to fame. While excellence may have led to Meryl Streep's fame, it certainly had nothing to do with Paris Hilton's. What does it mean to seek fame for fame's sake?

I began this post with a quotation from Paul, not because he has the most psychologically stable advice to offer us today, but because its rhetorical valuation of what is dishonorable to the Roman world popped into my head today. Robert Jewett draws on this quotation from Paul in Saint Paul Returns to the Movies: Triumph Over Shame in part as a call for people to seek themselves in things other than those deemed great by the world. Excellence is not something the outside world can measure for us as individuals. I can only assume that we seek fame, at least in part, to relieve the existential quandary of human existence, but, though not myself famous, I am certain fame alone cannot solve that quandary. And if we, in that cultural space that somehow transforms individual psychology, cannot learn to value an excellence completely unmeasurable by how often our youtube video is played then we may all end up killing ourselves in Nebraska shopping malls.

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On a completely unrelated note, I just had to note that NewsCorp bought beliefnet.com, citing, at least in the Financial Times, the Pew study finding that 82 million people in the USA turn to the internet as part of their faith. What will Murdoch controlled online religion look like? And to what purposes will it be put?

Where have all the funny girls gone?

This is really just a short follow up on an earlier post. Today, the Los Angeles Times has a really good piece" on the dearth of strong women in comedic roles on the big screen. Carina Chocano makes some excellent observations about recent comedic films, and her observations should prompt further questions about why these movies have unappealing men playing opposite women with no character to speak of. Is it just money in the movie industry? Does Hollywood doubt that comedies with strong female characters and flawed male heroes can make money? Could they be right? Is there something more going on in our culture? I think it is worth noting that the U.S.A. may be the only film industry with such a problem. The film Persepolis suggests that France is capable of launching a solid film about a strong and complicated comedic female lead.
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Image still comes from the website for Persepolis.

Superhero is Super-zero

Last summer, on this blog, I claimed that the Sci-Fi Channel's Who Wants to Be a Superhero? was the answer to the reality show genre. I thought that a show that forced people to be good people in order to win did, in some small way, redeem the reality show genre.

I am sorry to say it. I was wrong.

The first season was charming, but the second season clarifies how much Superhero is just another reality show. A second season does not serve as a referendum on the genre, but a perpetuation of much that is wrong with the reality show genre: play-acting old scripts with a cast of characters far less compelling than the first.

Watching tonight's episode, I found myself wondering how they cast women for this season. Perhaps strong women don't need to be fake superheroes? Then, watching the treatment of the one woman left, it is clear that the show does reward a certain kind of behavior more common among the show's men: taking charge even when you're not really paying attention to how other people are reacting. Hygena, the woman left, does not take charge, but she also knows when she may not have the skill set that others have and that it might be good to let them air out their ideas.

On the other hand, she was not eliminated. The openly gay superhero, Parthenon, who has been a strong contender and the most compelling character for much of the season, was eliminated because he failed to inspire children. The winner from last season, Feedback, also failed that challenge, but he went on to become the superhero. I can't help but wonder if sci-fi feels children aren't ready for a gay superhero?

This leaves one superhero for whom the competition is his to lose, and that is Hyperstrike. The sad thing though, if he does win, is that he is the character who, at least on camera, has seemed the most scripted and least well acted. But then reality shows tend to reward those who follow the script best.

This season of Superhero has proven itself to be ruled by certain normative scripts. Even if they are scripts more to my liking, I still can't help but wonder why we (and obviously I am included here) want to watch "reality" shows that just perpetuate old scripts instead of helping us to create our own new ones.

Settling for Less

I just read a movie review for Dedication in the New York Times. It was a relief to read Jeannette Catsoulis' opening remarks. I haven't seen the film, but I have seen Knocked Up, which she references. Good humor aside, I was really struck by the completely flat portrayal of women in the film. Not only that, but I have always assumed successful, intelligent, and beautiful women don't generally settle for whatever random man they find in a bar. Whatever happened to the being alone, having friends, and having cats option? Oh wait, I just remembered, these are movies being made by men. I suppose it is a certain ever-adolescent male fantasy to somehow find a woman capable of standing on her own two feet and yet choosing to add this man to her life. And somehow, these same men would like to imagine they don't actually have to mature past the age of 20 in order to convince this woman to stay with them. Well, girls, I hope that you don't let these movies convince you of that. We all have to grow up and maybe the best thing to do in a situation like this is to grow up alone.

Hook a Canuck and Get Free Healthcare

I just saw Sicko, and I wanted to testify to my own experience that there is better healthcare in other countries who believe in socialized medicine. As Michael Moore tracked us down the list of WHO rankings, I noticed that the #36 spot, just above the U.S.A. was occupied by Costa Rica. Having actually been treated in hospitals in Costa Rica as well as the U.S.A., I would say that this feels accurate. Costa Ricans do get better (and guaranteed) healthcare than the average person in the U.S.A.

So I also ask, what is so wrong with the term "socialized"? Sometimes, it's a good thing to have if it works better than what we've got.

As tear-jerking and over the top as Sicko could be at points, it is a good reminder of the devastation that a for-profit health care system leaves behind. The logic of the free-hand globalized capitalist marketplace is not, in fact, always the best logic for everything. Those of us who have health insurance in the U.S.A. can generally testify to the hassles of dealing with our insurance companies just to get the basic coverage supposedly guaranteed to us by our insurance policies.

The next president will probably not revamp the system the way we need (which is to remove the "over 65" from Medicare and convince companies, business executives, and the middle class that they will all actually save money by supporting a socialized health care system with taxes). So I can see why, even jokingly, there would be some appeal in marrying a Canadian for a good health care system as proposed in the video above from a website advertised at the end of Sicko.

Catholics didn't play fair in American colonization

Or so the Pope admitted, after he had claimed the indigenous peoples of Latin America were "silently longing" for Christianity. Having been criticized for that statement by a number of people including Brazilian leaders and Venezuela president Hugo Chavez, the Pope responded "It is, in fact, not possible to forget the suffering, injustices inflicted by the colonizers against the indigenous population, whose human and fundamental rights have often been trampled." This is not actually an apology for the statement, just an acknowledgment of certain historical facts.

I find this whole story quite amusing. In my undergraduate school's daily paper, there was once a profile of a Latino janitor. The title included the terms "Spic and Span." Admittedly, these students came up with this title at 2AM. But what the titling reveals is the difference between their contexts and those of Latino/as, especially the janitor they profiled. While not intending to offend, the editorial staff of the paper did apologize for their limited vision that had led to the offensive title.

The Pope's initial comment in Brazil reflects a similar situation. An aging German man living in the Vatican, his context is radically different than that of the majority populace of Latin America. An apology is not to be expected from the Vatican. But maybe the Cardinals should consider, in the next papal election, someone whose context is more representative of the Church's faithful. Maybe next time around they can look to the descendants of those colonized by Christian Europe, i.e. Latin Americans, Africans, and Asians who make up the bulk of the Church's population now.

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Photograph from Reuters.

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Lies

Just wanted to post a short montage of our favorite booths at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Thank you Katy for the appropriate title for these photos.