Re: Lolita
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Mon, 15 Mar 1999 16:21:42 +1100
Jim wrote:
> Oh Gawd, guys, there's nothing worse than political "ANAL-ysis" that
> can't see politics from more than one point of view.
By `political', I didn't mean right vs. left. In our country the two major
parties, Liberal and Labor, translate roughly to Republican and Democrat
respectively. I used to be a member of Young Labor and there's one thing I
learnt there - there's only one group of people the Labor Left hate more
than Young Liberal - and that's Labor Right. So you can't use left and
right as your major polarity. It's Liberal vs Labor, which is a little more
complicated than that.
What I object to in this case is the fact that the movie is being turned
into a scapegoat. It could be labelled Potentially Pornographic Artwork X
and it'd be no different. A newspaper columnist the other day wrote an
article to the effect of `Just this once, let's not see this one. Let this
one be the one that didn't get through. We can really do without this
movie.' To which I say: no. I want to see this. And it is my right to be
able to if I wish. And I don't want a movie of undoubted artistic integrity
which I really want to see to be caught in a meaningless political game.
I'm not saying I subscribe to the belief in Art for Arts sake - art does
have an obligation to society, but as another politician put it, if you go
in to the movie a pedophile, you're probably going to come out as one too.
If you aren't, you're not going to come out as one either. It's the same
sort of pap that lawyers try to foist on bands that supposedly spur kids on
to hideous acts that could never be anything but wholly premeditated.
P.S. to Pierrot64 - if you liked `The Riders', try `Cloudstreet'. You'll
love it. Also give `Carey's `Oscar and Lucinda' a go, it's a more acquired
taste but very good.
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest