Friday, October 30, 2009

"The Stepford Wives": A Movie Review.

"The Stepford Wives," (1975), Director: Bryan Forbes; Script: William Goldman; "Joanna Eberhardt" (Katherine Ross); "Bobbie Markowe" (Paula Prentiss); "Walter Eberhardt" (Peter Masterson); "Nanette Newman" (Carol Van Zandt); "Champaigne Wimperis" (Tina Louise); "Dale" (Patrick O'Neal).

Ira levin, The Stepford Wives (New York: Harper Torch, 1972) with Afterword by Peter Straub.
Gore Vidal, "Book Report: Robert Penn Warren's Band of Angels," in Rocking the Boat: Political, Literary and Theatrical Commentary (Boston: Little & Brown, 1962), p. 190.

Introduction.

Hi! Welcome to Stepford. I am your hostess. My name is Anne. I will be discussing all of the wonderful features of our lovely community. I have baked these cookies and cheesecake just for you.

I hope that you will like our spacious home -- Arthur likes me to keep everything spotless! -- and he is always so thrilled when I wear a Laura Ashley dress and low heels, a short string of pearls, and perfect make-up as he arrives home from a hard day at work.

I always have a martini ready, the evening newspaper, his pipe and slippers, and dinner served in our new English settings with antique silverware.

Arthur spoils me so much. Any cleaning product that I need or appliance for our home -- to make Arthur more comfortable -- he is only too happy to purchase for me.

Won't you sit down? May I get you some coffee? No?

Please, relax. We're all Republicans in Stepford. This awful movie that is so unfair to our community deserves a response.

Arthur always says that I am a "ninny." But even a ninny can tell when something is unfair. Whoever made this movie really hates women. Those terrible people in the city -- you know, dark people and liberals -- envy the peace and quiet in this gorgeous community.

That's what Stepford is -- a COMMUNITY, where everyone has peace and quiet and enjoys civil rights.

I have never spoken to or really met my neighbors. They live three miles down the road. I have only seen a negro twice. One time it was an optical illusion. I saw a person who I thought might have been a black-skinned person, but it was only a Latino gardener. Mr. Rubio?

I will discuss this terrible film made by Hollywood homosexuals and Communists by summarizing the plot; then the "feminist" (what a terrible word is "feminist" which means "lesbian") subtext of this work as well as what they call "existentialist" themes will be analyzed; strange postmodernist elaborations of these so-called "phenomenological" positions will be discussed; finally, I turn to the comments of these weird people called the "humanistic psychologists" while offering some "personal" observations as conclusions.

Arthur said I shouldn't bother with opinions. He's such a dear.

The performances are only adequate and the direction is uninspired. However, the script by William Goldman ("The Princess Bride") is magnificent, filled with philosophical ideas and puzzles of identity.

Make yourself comfy.

Feminist Rage and Men's Fantasies.

The film begins with a view of the Upper East side in Manhattan. A young couple with two small daughters -- the close-up on the young girls suggests the concern for girls and women in this work -- are heading out of the city, East of Eden. We see the couple packing their station wagon and driving away from their fancy building.

Everyone had station wagons and other large vehicles during the mid-seventies when this movie was made because those terrible Arabs did what we wanted them to do at the time with oil prices, except for that awful OPEC. Today we have bigger SUVs because oil is not a problem and neither is climate warming.

An image of a man carrying a manequin sets a symbol in place for what will transpire in this "cinematic text." That's what the professors at the New School University (where I enrolled in a cooking course) call movies. Movies are "cinematic texts." ("'The French Lieutenant's Woman': An Essay Review.")

Anyway, droll echoes of the early sixties t.v. sit-coms are heard in phrases like "moving is so much fun!"

Arthur says "moving is a pain in the ass" because it usually takes me a whole month to make everything perfect for him. The men and women in the movie refer to each other as "boys" and "girls" which is part of the infantilizing process encouraged by American culture reflected in sixties t.v. comedies.

Childhood, as an eternal condition for adults, is convenient for powerful forces in society which prefer a population stupefied by the mass media and women "domesticated" by the requirements of consumption, class- and status-competition, deprived of intellectual substance and genuine social connections.

The couple and their daughters are moving to what appears to be an ideal community: peaceful, lovely, overwhelmingly "white," filled with spacious homes owned by middle class families, good schools where obedience and conformity are taught -- especially to women! -- and patriotism in the form of adherence to the wishes of authority is instilled in people.

Many people living in such communities become "ninnies."

The Stepford "Men's Association" delivers the message of "separate, but equal" facilities for men and women.

This narrative appears almost exactly twenty years after Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ended racial segregation in schools and all public facilities in America, so that de facto segregation in places like this mythical Stepford became necessary. In fact, our town is very progressive and diverse. ("Abuse and Exploitation of Women in New Jersey.")

The young wife, Joanna, immediately experiences a sense of weirdness and dislocation. As a photographer, her creative work suffers from the fascistic and suffocating conformity absorbed in her new surroundings. Joanna's trip to a gallery in the city provides us with a second symbol in the form of the photo of Lewis Carroll in the window of the premises.

Joanna, like Alice, has fallen through a rabbit hole only to arrive in Wonderland. ("A Review of the T.V. Show 'Alice.'")

References to Disney, underline the process by which a fantasy of a Norman Rockwell-like Utopia and regained innocence in America emerges with the success of the sixties' civil rights revolution accompanied by the rise of previously excluded groups -- post-Watergate. This is the ambiguous legacy of the sixties -- Vietnam and the march on Selma as well as "Laugh-In" and "Bewitched." ("All you need is love.")

This perennial fantasy in America of a "controlled" society and rigidly enforced "niceness" combined with massive doses of hypocrisy by which we seek to convince ourselves that everyone of us is or can be utterly "normal" and that we are all really "happy" recurs every twenty years or so.

This cultural pattern may account for the election of such politicians as Reagan and G.W. to the U.S. Presidency. I am always amazed at the political lies that people need to "live" -- or that they pretend to believe -- as well as by the same people's inclination to judge the myths or imaginative needs of others. ("Good Will Humping.")

Recognition of enslavement, suffocation of women kept in golden cages, allowed for "consciousness raising" efforts in the seventies, even as the intellectual death of women devoured by alcoholism or pointless adultery -- or even more pointless "shopping" for consumer goods -- increased.

There are many kinds of prisons in America, especially for women, some of them are filled with consumer goods. ("Foucault, Rose, Davis and the Meaning(s) of Prison.")
All of these options were offered to women as tokens in compensation for the loss of humanity and freedom. So many women in the conditions seen in this movie became "robots," that is, died as persons -- deaths which may well have been a goal of the system. ("What is it like to be tortured?" and "A Doll's Aria.")

This story is about the gradual loss of humanity as a result of "docility" which was deemed desirable for women or control of persons surrendering their status as moral subjects in a Faustian bargain for security -- an evil bargain which America may have accepted, once again, during the Bush/Cheney years. Arthur says we are Republicans and must support our leaders, except for Barack Obama of course. ("Cherry 2000" and "Not One More Victim.")

Isn't it wonderful how secure we all are in America and that we have brought "democracy" to Iraq and Afghanistan where people are nasty enough to resent our help? Arthur thinks so.

Joanna discovers an absurd t.v.-like perfection in the wives and women of Stepford: homes are kept immaculately clean, frilly dresses, perfect hair and make-up suggest men's fantasies of women as both decorative objects and consummer goods like fancy cars or appliances -- my television set has been rendered inoperative this morning, how strange? -- and men's need to CONTROL women, still dominating, exploiting, "training" them today into becoming robot-like slaves of power and desire. ("Master and Commander" and see the character of Lulu's/Audrey's mother, "Peaches," in "Something Wild.")

The process of transformation into a robot is an internal one that involves the surrender of one's free will. The men get off on that power-trip of domination. America is perceived by the world as "getting off" on a similar desire to dominate (really to "screw-over," as the kids say!) the rest of the planet's human population in order to make billions of persons slaves (or robots) like Stepford's women. ("'The Adjustment Bureau': A Movie Review" and "'Revolutionary Road': A Movie Review.")

For a discussion of the reversal of this process of "robotization" as becoming human, see "The 'Galatea Scenario' and the Mind/Body Problem."

The self-presentation of women as "creampuff"-like tasty treats already conveys the message intended by power concerning female identity. Jonathan Miller, Marshall McLuhan (New York: Viking Press, 1971), pp. 84-124 and The Invisible Committee, The Coming Insurrection (New York & Paris: Semiotexte, 2009), pp. 64-84.

This process of enslaving and dominating others is a very sick sexual adventure for some highly disturbed people, sadists, who see the objects of their desire as trophies to be possessed and "kept."

There is an analogy to the view of many members of America's Right-wing fascists' brigades as regards the people. The people are "children" to be ruled for "their own good" by the annointed of the Lord, politicians and corporations together with their hired "experts." ("Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture.")

The Constitution of the United States of America provides a totally different picture of the appropriate relationship between citizens and government in a democratic Republic. The Constitution counters the power that comes with wealth or status with the dignity of each person before the law. I like the Constitution. Arthur says that makes me "sentimental and naive." ("Manifesto for the Unfinished American Revolution.")

I expect more computer warfare in writing this essay. Television obstructions will be common, preventing me from seeing news programs, phone calls from marketers will be received all day. I am sure that these things are just coincidences. These tactics are used "for my own good." ("How censorship works in America" and "Censorship and Cruelty in New Jersey.")

Joanna seeks the assistance of a therapist, who has a conference to attend, and offers only a banal, useless, and false explanation of this poor woman's troubles. Seeing the transformations in her friends, their gradual loss of humanity and enslavement in male fantasy (this was the golden age for Playboy and Penthouse) leads Joanna to a desperate effort to overcome her social isolation and confront the monster in his lair. ("Good Will Humping" and "Genius and Lust.")

"Dale" is the man who seems to run the men's association -- a former Disney executive -- who is seeking to do to Stepford what Reagan would succeed in doing for America: providing a fantasy to be chosen over the reality of pain, human imperfection, and suffering.

Echoes of George W. Bush and his dark minions are audible to today's viewers of this disturbing satire.

Joanna enters the dark mansion which is the home of the men's association -- her husband has long ago betrayed her to sexism -- faces evil, loss of affect, death of compassion and genuineness in the form of Dale who explains: "It's all for the best. Adjust." (Again: "What is it like to be tortured?" then "'The Adjustment Bureau': A Movie Review.")

Joanna's robot-double with enhanced breasts approaches the protagonist to kill her.

This robot identity is an externalization of what is clearly an internal process for many women in suburban communities, even today, the emergence of a middle class, perfectly normal and "nice" creature from the abyss of the subconscious -- reflecting the fantasies of the male power-structure -- allows for the slow devouring of what little personality and authenticity a woman is allowed to develop in the first place.

Compare Charles Hampden-Turner's "Anomie -- The Failure of Existence," in Radical Man (New York: Anchor, 1971), pp. 78-101 with Claudia Springer, "Techno-Eroticism," in Electronic Eros: Bodies and Desire in a Post-Industrial Age (Austin: University of Texas, 1996), pp. 3-16.

We cut to a scene in a grocery store where Joanna has come to resemble all of the other Disney-like robot-women -- some will run for Congress as "Soccer Moms" (Iliana?) -- and viewers experience a shudder of horror as well as compassion for Joanna's (and Iliana's) fates, a living death, no more need for creative work, reading, or thought. All questions have been answered for Joanna. Power knows best. She has been pacified by accepting the toys exchanged for freedom in consumer societies.

I hope that "Iliana's" name is not spelled correctly. This may be a good time for more inserted "errors."

When all satire is removed from this movie and all rhetorical devices are set aside, it becomes clear that this is the fate designed and intended for Joanna and all women in sexist societies and also for those who are deemed to be "like" women -- artists, homosexuals, radical intellectuals who question a society's understanding of normality and goodness, politics, or social justice. ("Carlos Fuentes and Multiculturalism.")

Maybe this paradise of conformity and niceness (feminizing?) has been prepared for you? Tea and biscuits?

Simone Weil defines power as "the capacity to transform a living person into a corpse, that is to say, into a thing." Or robot? ("The 'Galatea Scenario' and the Mind/Body problem" and "'Ex Machina': A Movie Review.")

See Eric Fromm, Escape From Freedom (New York: Rinehardt & Co., Inc., 1941), and E. Fromm's "Afterword," in George Orwell, 1984 (New York: New American Library, 1961), pp. 262-263.

Fromm's attribution of the epistemology of Oceania to the "idealists" is mistaken, at least as regards Kant. Fromm neglects the social as well as objective components of idealism, but is accurate concerning Orwell's hatred for relativism and all denials of truth. ("David Stove and the Intellectual Capacity of Women" and "David Stove's Critique of Idealism.")

Evil as the Death of Affect.

This book and film are concerned with dramatizing the loss of humanity, or the paradoxical "living death" produced by out of control mechanisms of acculturation, along with systems of commercial rewards and demerits, control and regimentation. This movie version of Stepford is a women's prison. Shechem Lafayette, Women Behind Bars (Georgia: Solid Pub., 2006), pp. 51-74. ("The Beauty, Beast, and Brutality.")

Advanced or late capitalist society appears less dictatorial than Communist and Fascist societies -- and, in a way, it is -- because most of the methods of control are internalized by subjects seeking to "fit-in" with a social setting and adjust to environmental pressures that prescribe acceptable roles for every person in the "community."

Frederic Jameson, "Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism," in T. Docherty, ed., Postmodernism: A Reader (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), at p. 62. Cornel West's discussion and analysis of Jameson's ideas is not to be missed: Cornel West, "Frederic Jameson's American Marxism," in The Cornel West Reader (New York: Perseus, 1999), pp. 231-265. (Again: "'Revolutionary Road': A Movie Review.")

Much of the work of Michel Foucault is focused on the ways in which power "inscribes" itself on subjects (you and me) by making us hate all that is in us that fails to adhere to the strictures of authority in our societies. The concern of authority is with controlling you whereas your concern must be to remain free. ("Judith Butler and Gender Theory" and "Michel Foucault and the Authorship Question.")

Manohla Dargis at The New York Times misses the Faustian analogy as well as echoes of the Charles Maturin parable in the existentialist horror flick, "The Box." That film is reviewed incoherently (and ungrammatically) by Ms. Dargis, who is incapable of explaining the Sartrean allusions not only to "No Exit" (Huis Clos), but also to the classic essay "Anti-Semite and Jew."

Richard Matheson's short story bearing the same title ("The Box") explores one of Matheson's great themes -- the corrosive power of evil and the dangers of television that may result in turning us into "robots." ("Network.")

Steven King has discussed Matheson's work and stories, such as this gem, which focus on the theme of the "evil gift." H.H. Munro's (a.k.a Saki) "The Monkey's Paw" is a classic example of the use of this device; another analogy is found in "The Portrait of Dorian Gray." Steven King's Dance Macabre is the critical commentary on American literature's pop-horror phenomenon. ("Sinbad's Excellent New York Adventure" and "What you will.")

Choices insinuate themselves into the psyche, altering and "deforming" both the torturer and his victim. Along with "The Stepford Wives," this new film -- "The Box" -- by the maker of "Donnie Darko" wonders how evil dehumanizes all of us as we begin to grasp the full horror of America's torture camps.

Obviously, the "The Box" engages with earlier movies like "The Third Man" and "Something Evil This Way Comes." The "button" is not only nuclear weapons, but all power over others. Manohla Dargis, "Simplifying One Life, Complicating Another," in The New York Times, November 6, 2009, at p. C10. (By the way, Manohla, "The Box" is a tribute to Stanley Kubrick's cinematic masterpieces.)

How can so-called "reviewers" miss the entire point of these movies? How is it possible for this barely literate person to write reviews in America's premier newspaper? Corruption? Payola? ("Manohla Dargis Strikes Again!" and "America's Nursery School Campus.")

Hannah Arendt's Eichman in Jerusalem explores the loss of humanity in the archetypal "functionary" of death in Hitler's factories of torture and murder, Adolf Eichman.

Machine-like and "impersonal" efficiency produces machine-like and impersonal "entities" that look human, but are not capable of feeling (or any affect) as healthy persons should be capable of such responses to their own situations and the plight of others.

Would you be willing to push a button in a box that kills millions in exchange for great wealth enjoyed in safety and ease? Too many of us will make that deal. ("'Invasion of the Body Snatchers': A Movie Review" and "'Holy Smoke': A Movie Review.")

Something as fundamental to societies as sexism is totally pervasive throughout a social system. In fact, sexist ideas and images will feature in the covers of cereal boxes or magazines, they will be visible in t.v. shows, movies, music, fashion, in how we have sex, even in forms of feminism that seek to combat sexism -- all of these cultural phenomena are heuristic devices revealing and serving the power-structure even as they instruct subjects in how to conform to that structure. Lois McNay, Foucault and Feminism: Power, Gender and the Self (Boston: Northeastern, 1992), pp. 83-116 and Ian Hacking, "Self-Improvement," in David Couzens Hoy, ed., Foucault: A Critical Reader (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986), pp. 235-240. ("Protecting Sex Workers" and "Is clarity enough?") (See the 2015 movie "Ex Machina.")

Would you want a "Stepford Wife"?

Many men would say: "Yes."

Quite a few men would opt for more than one such concubine.

Models of women's roles and idealized forms will reflect all of the POLITICAL assumptions concerning what women are or should want to be.

What women should want to be is "nice." American "niceness" produces, if not enslavement, at least subordination. This female "niceness," politeness, concern with decor and self-presentation, where form is substance, is -- and it is intended to be -- DISEMPOWERING for women. (Compare "The Northanger Arms" with "A Doll's Aria.")

Women learn to be slaves -- nice slaves, well-dressed and bejeweled slaves, but slaves nonetheless. Dogs are domesticated through similar behaviorist techniques. These methods are common in America's prisons, as I say, including prisons that look like this mythical Stepford.

Ridgewood, New Jersey must have a "Men's Association."

The same methods of control are extended to civil society where politics, for example, has become a process of misleading sound bites and clever "commercials" -- or advertisements -- while political conventions are about nothing except balloons and flags. ("Foucault, Rose, Davis and the Meanings of Prison" and "Master and Commander.")

What women are taught as an ideal, still today, is a Stepford-like condition of servitude and acceptance. They are taught to be as physically attractive and inoffensive as possible. They are taught to "think" (I use the word "think" loosely) in terms of "things" -- nice things to have in a nice home with a nice husband where one is always dressed nicely and serves healthy, but tasty snacks, to nice guests.

Life must become a Kodak commercial where neighbors are always watering the lawn and there's a party next door which is never too loud. It's really "nice" in Stepford. Men become convenient accessories with "jobs downtown." (Once more: "'Revolutionary Road': A Movie Review" and Robert Redford's "Ordinary People.")

What is not nice is the killing of 500,000 children in our Iraq adventure, consumption of 60% of the world's energy as we produce a comparable percentage of the world's garbage. Also, public displays of psychological torture techniques and censorship from people claiming to uphold values of freedom of speech and human rights or legal ethics in America.

It is reported that from 60% to 80% of the world's energy is consumed by Americans. There will never be enough oil for us in the world. ("'Interstellar': A Movie Review.")

Women provide the erotic energy that fuels America's male ego on the world stage. Marilyn French, The Women's Room (New York: Jove, 1978), pp. 27-28 and Elizabeth Wurtzel, Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women (New York: Random House, 1998), pp. 383-414. ("Did I shave my legs for this?")

R.D. Laing and others have argued that insanity and sanity are matters of adjustment to social settings that define these terms. What constitutes a "sane" response to an environment will depend on the environment. All environments will involve some adjustment and sacrifice of personal autonomy. However, there are situations -- a torture chamber, for example -- that make totalizing demands for adjustment from victims. There are situations to which we should never adjust even at the cost of death. ("Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture.")

Prison, army, schools and other settings explored by Michel Foucault as well as numerous social thinkers are obvious examples of this process of absorption into social identities. You are "made into" an inmate, lawyer, judge, politician, physician, or "whore" (a category that may include all of the others).

Arthur insists that I say a "lively" woman, never a "whore." Arthur is in advertising. Arthur is very "lively." ("Senator Bob, the Babe, and the Big Bucks" and, again, "Abuse and Exploitation of Women in New Jersey.")

It is important to realize that "feminine" is an equally constructed and arbitrary label or category. Anyone can be raped, dominated, beaten or choked, stolen-from, ostracized, impoverished and otherwise placed in the "role" of a woman in sexist society. Feminizing is about disempowering. This is what we are doing to the men at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, transforming them into women -- "for their own good."
We must make "femininity" a territory of struggle. To do this, however, is also to make "masculinity" contested turf. We must see that these are entangled terms both within the psyche and socially. It is impossible to make use of either of these words -- feminine or masculine -- without entering into power-relations in America. Furthermore, this issue is independent of the question concerning the morality of homosexuality or same-sex marriage. ("Ape and Essence" then "Metaphor is Mystery.")

Stepford is a totalizing environment -- at least, as it is depicted in this "terrible" movie -- which makes absolute demands of those trapped within it.

Powerful (if subtle) sexism in societies (like ours) makes similar totalizing demands of women and, to a lesser degree, of men.

My use of the term "totalizing" is indebted to Sartre's use of the concept in his "Search For a Method" in The Critique of Dialectical Reason. Essentially, the term refers to dominance of intellectual options so as to exclude empowering and autonomous choices, in terms of identity, for women; religion can perform the same function of control -- or the opposite of control -- depending on how religion is understood by believers.

Any religious belief-system that tells you that what or who you are is "sinful" -- or that loving anyone is cause for going to hell -- is absurd and malignant. ("Is there a gay marriage right?")

Women pay a heavy price in terms of sacrifice of self -- severe mental suffering at times -- including the ultimate price as millions of women are lost to alcoholism and mindless sexual encounters, or other efforts to erase themselves as persons, since equal, strong, intellectually curious and skeptical persons wielding power is the opposite of what the system desires for women. Freedom and equality are certainly what I consider to be the rights of women yet to be fully achieved in American society. ("Stuart Hampshire and Iris Murdoch On Freedom of Mind.")
Torture and enslavement of women injures everyone deprived of the contributions of talented women, contributions which are desperately needed today.

Raising a daughter in such a sexist social-environment is like waltzing in a mine field.

Is the reason for the vandalizing of my work the fact that I say such things? I suspect so.

I have loved women damaged and nearly destroyed by social evils that can only be described as sexist, making genuine angry forms of feminism unavoidable for me.

A television documentary features the lives of female inmates and depicted a prison visit by one inmate's mother who is clearly trapped herself in a lower-middle class hell that must make her daughter's rebellion (after probable abuse) understandable and obvious. I could not say which woman -- mother or daughter -- was in the worse prison.

I feel great sympathy for the suffering of those women. I also feel anger at U.S. society's need to keep working class women ignorant of their plight and unaware of the political realities that keep them in the various hells found in America. Ignorance may be the ultimate mechanism of control over women. Violence, drugs, and sexual exploitation may do just as well as "prisons" for women.

Notice that the culprit is a system and not an individual or group of individuals. Those at the top of the system are also enacting roles prescribed for them. We create systems and societies that become "reified" and that then recreate us as "objects" of the machine's own systemic-values. This is to define "Structuralism." (Lukacs, Barthes and Foucault.)
Women must be persuaded NOT to desire equality with men. They must be taught not only to reflect the bars of their cages, but even to believe that their prisons are freedom and happiness or "success." ("'The Matrix': A Movie Review.") Timothy Bewes, Reification: Or the Anxiety of Late Capitalism (New York & London: Verso, 2002), pp. 181-271. ("'The Island': A Movie Review and "'Inception': A Movie Review.")

If you begin early enough -- by educating little boys and girls into these theoretical pictures of social reality -- then chances are that most women will not only accept enslavement, but that they will come to love and defend their torture chambers. This is the meaning of the final image in The Stepford Wives which makes it so powerful to viewers today. Umberto Eco, "The City of Robots," in Postmodernism: A Reader, at p. 200 and "Umberto Eco and the Semiotics of Power."

Fritz Lang's classic "Metropolis" is obviously a reference for the film-makers. ("Ex Machina: A Movie Review.")

In one of my favorite films -- Mr. Demme's "Something Wild" -- the viewer begins to appreciate the tragedy and heroism of Lulu/Audrey only after encountering the shell of a human being that is her mother, "Peaches," a person deprived of all humanity and authenticity by being rendered into something created in a fifties' television series. A similar living death must be what the young Audrey sought to escape, even at the risk of her life (or freedom) by becoming "Lulu." (See the film "Something Wild" then "The Art of Melanie Griffith.")

Like the gorilla who was taught to draw and sketched the bars of her cage, all of us are made by educational systems and institutions to reflect the bars of our cages.

We must internalize our prisons. If we do not, then the logic of the system will soon demand that we be destroyed as "unethical" and unadjusted "anomalies." Revolutionaries are "anomalies."

The political and humanistic-psychological ingredients in this "reading" of the film should be emphasized:

"Like you," Jean-Paul Sartre writes to R.D. Laing, "I believe that one cannot understand psychological disturbances from the outside, on the basis of a positivistic-determinism, or reconstruct them with a combination of concepts that remain outside an illness as lived and experienced. I also believe that one cannot study, let alone cure, a neurosis without a fundamental respect for the PERSON of the patient, without a constant effort to grasp the basic situation and to relive it, without an attempt to rediscover the response of the person to that situation and -- like you, I think -- I regard mental illness as the 'way out' that the free organism, in its total unity, invents in order to live through an intolerable situation. ..." (Crime? Prostitution? Drug Use?)

Jean-Paul Sartre to R.D. Laing, Letter dated November 9, 1963, quoted in D.G. Cooper & R.D. Laing, Reason and Violence: A Decade of Sartre's Philosophy 1950-1960 (New York: Pantheon, 1971), p. 6. ("Psychological Torture in the American Legal System.")

Very often, insanity is the organism's communication that his or her situation is "intolerable."

I see African-American victims of racism, every day, enacting (like robots in Stepford) the roles assigned to them by American society. I am often driven to despair at the blindness -- also generated by the system -- blindness on the part of fellow citizens to what we, collectively, do to the least fortunate and most powerless members of our communities.
What we do today, in America, is to deny humanity to women and all dark-skinned people, to artists and radical philosophers challenging power, by making them into "unpersons."

Any more "errors" that you wish to insert in this essay?
Sartre along with Simone de Beauvoir came to understand, as revealed by their conversations with Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara, that this condition of anomaly or "weirdness" (I am also said to be very "weird" by Arthur) may be the most sane response to insane circumstances and environments, such as structurally oppressive social conditions or every day life in Union City, New Jersey.

We are all mirrors set facing each other. ("Master and Commander" and "The Allegory of the Cave.")
Get it, Marilyn? It isn't you. It is all of us placed in your life-circumstances who would act out, probably in worse ways in most cases than you can even imagine. You, Marilyn Straus, are better than most of us. ("So Black and So Blue in Prison.")

The attempt in postmodernist capitalism to deprive women, especially, of subjectivity in exchange for, say, "Palmolive" dishwashing liquid could only produce either psychological dislocation and self-destructiveness, or a surrender of women's subjectivity and acceptance of a totally acquiescent condition as an "appliance" designed for male comfort. (Last Time: "Magician's Choice" and "A Doll's Aria.")

Gizmos and gadgets, technology and science have been enlisted in the service of power by consumer societies because these societies could never satisfy women's need for authentic freedom and equality:

"Science condemns itself to failure when, yielding to the infatuation of the serious, it aspires to attain being, to contain it, and to possess it; but it finds its truth if it considers itself as a free engagement of thought in the given, aiming, at each discovery, not at a fusion with the 'thing' [i.e., making persons objects or commercial goods,] but at the possibilities of new discoveries; what the mind then projects is the concrete accomplishment of its freedom."

Simone de Beauvoir, "Freedom and Liberation," in The Ethics of Ambiguity (New York: Citadel, 1948), p. 79. ("Judith Butler and Gender Theory.")

Compare Angela Davis, An Autobiography (New York: International Publishers, 1974), pp. 144-145 with Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1792, p. 33:

"Women are told from their infancy," Mary Wollstonecraft writes, "and taught by the examples of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, [feminine wiles,] softness of temper, 'outward' OBEDIENCE and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of man ..." (discussed by Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch (New York: Ballantine, 1970), pp. 176-178 and "Why Philosophy is for Everybody" as well as "David Hume's Philosophical Romance.")

For Professor Davis, being sought by both Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse as dissertation advisers, finding herself utterly "safe" and "free" in Europe -- like Dietrich Bonhoeffer in New York as Nazism engulfed Germany -- there was only one choice.

Ms. Davis knew that her vocation as a revolutionary called her home to America to struggle for her people and, really, for the true meaning of the U.S. Constitution that would benefit all Americans. There would be no Obama presidency without Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, or even Mumia Abu-Jamal:

"Adorno had readily agreed to direct my work on a doctoral dissertation. But now I felt it would be impossible for me to stay in Germany any longer. Two years was enough. I arranged an appointment with Adorno at the Institute and explained to him that I had to go home. In my correspondence with Marcuse, he had already agreed to work with me at the University of California in San Diego, where he had accepted a position after having been practically pushed out of Brandeis for political reasons. I wanted to continue my academic work, but I knew I could not do it unless I was politically involved. The struggle was a life-nerve; our only hope for survival." -- As free and equal persons! -- "I made up my mind. The journey was on."

Conclusion.

Joanna's journey and struggle really began when she experienced her friend's loss of humanity. Transformations of vital, creative, intelligent women into the sub-humans they were made into by power offended Joanna as it still does many others -- men and women.

What killed Stepford's women, and what would destroy Joanna, was the totally coopted version of themselves that had been created by power to which they might surrender autonomy in a moment of weakness.

The totally adjusted self in an insane environment is necessarily crazy. The messiness and imperfection of genuine humanity is integral to human creativity and peace, passion, and intellectual achievement. These are not qualities that women will give-up ever again.

Not for all the "Palmolive" dishwashing liquid in the world will women give up freedom.
The only sane response to our asylum-like conditions in America is "struggle." Sexism requires women to become revolutionaries.

Joanna -- which is the English language, feminine version of the name "Juan/John" -- provides a cautionary tale for new arrivals in Stepford (America): There is great comfort, ease, luxury, many possessions available in this "lovely community," where it is always very "nice," but there is also a cost in terms of your identity and authenticity to pay for what you are offered. Alternatively, women can join those who are eternally unsatisfied with their still "unfinished" and imperfect selves and communities -- our national community is certainly very "nice" and much better than most other places -- but not yet fully free, equal, or good.

You should never be satisfied with anything less than freedom and equality.

We will be free and equal, or we will die fighting for that freedom:

"If we are stripped of experience, we are stripped of our deeds; and if our deeds are, so to speak, taken out of our hands like toys from the hands of children, we are bereft of our humanity. We cannot be deceived. Men can and do destroy the humanity of other men [and much more of women,] and the condition of this possibility is that we are interdependent. We are not self-contained monads producing no effects on each other except our reflections. We are both acted upon, changed for good or ill, by other men [and women]; and we are agents who act upon others to affect them in different ways. Each of us is the other to the others. Man is a patient-agent, agent-patient, interexperiencing and interacting with his fellows."

Censorship of my writings is the potential censorship of everyone in America. Here we receive a caution:

"It is quite certain that unless we can regulate our behavior much more satisfactorily than at present, then we are going to exterminate ourselves. But as we experience the world, so we act, and this principle holds even when action conceals rather than discloses our experience."

Therefore,

"We are not able even to think adequately about the behavior that is at the annihilating edge. But what we think is less than what we know; what we know is less than [what] we love; what we love is so much less than what there is [of us.] And to that precise extent we [-- all women in societies like ours --] are so much less than what we are."

Or so much less than we might be? ("Friedrich Nietzsche on Self-Realization.")

"Yet if nothing else, each time a new baby is born there is a possibility of reprieve. Each child is a new being, a potential prophet, a new spiritual prince [or princess,] a new spark of light precipitated into an outer darkness. Who are we to decide that it is hopeless?"

R.D. Laing, "Persons and Experience," in The Politics of Experience (New York: Pantheon, 1971), pp. 29-30.

U.S. Embargo Against Cuba Rejected by the World.

November 20, 2010 at 11:53 A.M. "Errors" inserted and corrected since last time.
September 18, 2010 at 10:25 P.M. Several efforts to reach these blogs were obstructed, the First Lady's name was altered, other "errors" appear to have been inserted in writings. I will do my best to locate these alterations and make the necessary repairs. It is no longer possible for the authorities to deny participating in or ignoring this course of criminal censorship damaging my blogs. The American media's silence speaks for itself. ("You give us three minutes, we'll give you the world.")

August 30, 2010 at 8:18 P.M. After the recent wave of computer crimes, this essay was defaced once again. I can only hope to have made all of the necessary corrections until the next violations of copyright by N.J. and Miami Cubanoids.
August 15, 2010 at 12:04 P.M. A review of a book listed as by "John Paul Rathbone," The Sugar King of Havana: The Rise and Fall of Julio Lobo (New York & London: Penguin, 2010) is written, allegedly, by Michiko Kakutani, "When Life in Cuba Was Elegant and Sweet," in The New York Times, August 13, 2010, at p. C22. ("When Life was Elegant and Sweet in Cuba" may be a better title.)

I find it impossible to believe that Ms. Kakutani wrote this review, that "John Paul Rathbone" (Jose Ginarte, Esq.? Mr. Diaz-Balart? Bobby Menendez?) is anyone's real name, or that anyone can take seriously the statements attributed to the ostensible "author" of this work:
"But Lobo was more than a tough guy businessman. He was also an ardent art collector and Napoleonic scholar ... [this is to suggest that Mr. Lobo lived during the reign of Napoleon!] ... 'Tinguaro' [this was the name of a popular comedian in pre-Castro Cuba?] ... " was not, to my knowledge, the name of a large international corporate entity as opposed to a sugar plantation in the pre-Castro Cuban sugar industry.
The following statement appearing in the leading newspaper in America is embarassing to Ms. Kakutani and to that newspaper as well as hurtful to readers who love this once great periodical. This review suggests a level of ignorance of Cuban history that is shocking and insulting to Cuban-Americans and to the people living in Cuba, Cubans and non-Cubans:
" ... Lobo believed, like so many others, that he could control Castro, or that the Americans -- only 90 miles away -- would. [Would what?] Conversations Lobo said he had had [?] with Allen Dulles, the head of the C.I.A., may have convinced him of that. [Convinced who of what?] In part[,] it was because Lobo believed deeply in Cuba and was critical of anyone who did not. [Anyone who did not what?] And [!] in part Lobo continued to invest in the island because events moved so quickly that it soon became too late to stop. [Too late to stop investing?]"
This is one of the most coherent passages in a review ostensibly written by a person whose prose is normally clear and elegant. I say this even as I often disagree with Ms. Kakutani's reviews and opinions. The recent review of Tom McCarthy's latest novel by Ms. Kakutani has convinced me to read this British writer's work. Insertion of texts by CIA (or ex-CIA) anti-Castro fundamentalists and New Jersey's lawyerly ILLITERATES in published works is damaging to the Constitution, to The New York Times, to Ms. Kakutani, just as "error" insertions in my essays are damaging to me. I doubt that the book referred to in this review even exists, but if it does exist, I would not rush to purchase or read this propaganda piece by a probable ex-C.I.A. drone.
This is the drivel published as a favor to the intelligence agencies, perhaps, at the expense of much better work that might be published in America. Blocking my computer's cable signal is not an effective response to these criticisms. ("Manohla Dargis Strikes Again!" and "What is it like to be plagiarized?" then "Let's win one for the gipper.")
This alleged book review makes The New York Times and Ms. Kakutani liars or fools before the world community. I am offended and outraged on behalf of both the newspaper and this critic. ("David Denby is Not Amused.") This is not -- or should not be -- acceptable behavior in America. You must not tamper with the legally-protected writings of others.
Senator Menendez, can you explain these criminal actions or identify the persons responsible for them? Mr. Diaz-Balart, is this an indication of the freedom and legality that you wish to bring to Cuba? Ms. Iliana Ross-Lehtinen, can you explain these crimes at my blogs and sites? Would either of you "gentlemen" or Ms. Ross-Lehtinen protect persons committing such crimes from the legal consequences of their actions? (Encore: "Manohla Dargis Strikes Again!")

February 10, 2010 at 3:31 P.M. "Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture" and "What is it like to be tortured?" have both been disfigured by hackers affiliated with New Jersey's government and courts. I have done my best to repair the harm done to both essays. Will the Barber of Seville -- or South Beach -- Marco Rubio explain these events?
November 25, 2009 at 12:55 P.M. A previous attempt to reach this essay was obstructed. I received the message: "Service Not Available." Is MSN "closed"? No images can be posted by me and publishing opportunities are mysteriously denied to me. ("How Censorship Works in America.")
November 19, 2009 at 9:14 A.M. This essay was defaced overnight in the continuing effort at further inflictions of psychological harm and censorship. So far, this effort has not been successful. Tell your friends about this spectacle. ("What is it like to be tortured?")
November 4, 2009 at 6:23 P.M. "Error" inserted and corrected. ("Stuart Rabner and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey" and "Sybil R. Moses and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey.")
October 30, 2009 at 3:37 P.M. An "error" was inserted in this essay since my previous review of this work about one hour ago. It is difficult to believe that these cybercrimes and the various harassment tactics aimed against me are "coincidental" or that they are not the products of state action based on the content of my opinions. You decide. ("Time to End the Embargo Against Cuba" and "Fidel Castro's 'History Will Absolve Me.'")

October 30, 2009 at 2:16 P.M. "Errors" have already been inserted in this essay posted earlier today. I believe that I have made all corrections for the time being. The process of "error-insertion" will be constant, further harassment, cyberwarfare, interruptions or obstructions of communication efforts must be expected at all times. The goal is exhaustion and collapse into despair through anxiety and induced-frustrations for all victims of "touchless" torture techniques.
C.I.A. "touchless torture techniques" are discussed in "Roberto Unger's Revolutionary Legal Theory." Most of the victims of such psychological torture methods will be African-Americans and other persons of color in the world, together with American prison inmates of all colors, male and female. It is deemed especially effective to use such methods against the family members of "targets," notably children and old people.
The word "torture" in the foregoing paragraph has been altered several times, then corrected by me. My cable signal to my computer is blocked periodically for purposes of frustration-inducement and to insert "errors" in these copyright-protected writings. ("Bulworth.") One "L" in that movie title.
October 30, 2009 at 9:19 A.M. Attacks against this essay must be expected. I will try to make corrections when they are needed.
Neil MacFarquhar, "U.S. Embargo on Cuba Again Finds Scant Support," in The New York Times, October 29, 2009, at p. A8. ("Larissa?")
"UNITED NATIONS -- The General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to condemn the American trade embargo against Cuba, with the speeches by the United States ambassador and Cuba's foreign minister reflecting that little has changed despite an expected shift under the Obama administration."
There is a wide perception in the world that President Obama is fenced-in by an intelligence community and military-industrial machinery that has grown out of control during the rule of the Bush/Cheney junta, which was largely supported by Miami's Right-wing Cubanazo factions that often do dirty work for Republicans. Also, Cuba may not be much of a priority for the current American government.
The Obama administration's reluctant and pro forma support for an embargo that is vilified everywhere in the world as symbolic of U.S. efforts at "hegemony" (China) was a matter of political necessity for an overextended Chief Executive without the resources for another political war. It is a costly mistake for the Obama administration in terms of world opinion. More costly is continuing Mr. Bush's torture policies and fondness for "secrecy." However, there is time for Mr. Obama to change his mind on this embargo issue. I hope that he will "recast" the embargo debate in a second term. ("Obama Says: 'Torture is a Secret!'")
Michelle Obama's trip to Spain has done much to enhance America's image in the world, especially in Europe, because the American First Lady is perceived (correctly) as the epitome of grace and elegance as well as concern for the suffering people of the world. No one expects that persons in the White House will vacation in a trailer park. (A letter was deleted from a single word in the foregoing paragraph. I have corrected that inserted "error.")
"The nonbinding resolution has been an annual ritual for 18 years. The vote this time of 187 in support [of ending the embargo,] 3 opposed and 2 abstaining underlined the utter lack of support for the 50-year-old American attempt to isolate Cuba. (Israel and Palau joined the United States, while the Marshall Islands and Indonesia abstained.)"
In 2010, only Israel joined the United States in defending the embargo. Perhaps these events explain my t.v. troubles. Maybe it was assumed that, without television coverage, I would not know of these events or write of them. Although I cannot imagine why anyone would care what I say about these matters. Apparently, people do care. Also, the paranoia among the Cubanazos is such that any assumptions concerning my actions or slanders of me are possible. I have reason to believe that the true number of hits at these blogs hovers at the 50,000 mark. Concerning my experiences of censorship and suppressions of speech, see "How Censorship Works in America" and "Censorship and Cruelty in New Jersey."
November 4, 2009 at 6:16 P.M. A new "error" was inserted and corrected in the foregoing paragraph. More such tactics must be expected from the fetid Garden State. I cannot say whether my books continue to exist or are still available on-line. I am reasonably confident that I have generated thousands of dollars for "Lulu" and that I would create substantial sales for any publisher of my writings who supplies me with a decent-looking book. I am still suppressed and censored in America. I have a copy of a page showing over 6,000 hits at my book's site, but after a recent visit to Lulu, I learned that only "one person" was said to have visited my book's webpage. How strange? ("How Censorship Works in America" and "What is it like to be censored in America?")
"The Cuban foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez Parilla, noted that while President Obama had taken steps to ease the strained relations, many Bush-era policies remained intact, including barring the export of medical equipment and pursuing fines against companies all over the world that do business with Havana."
"The United States has lifted some trade restrictions in recent months on Cuban-Americans visiting relatives or sending money, and opened the path for food and telecommunications companies on trade. But in September[,] Mr. Obama extended the trade embargo for another year."
Political pressure from the Right-wing Republicans who label President Obama as "not tough enough" or "afraid of making a decision on military matters" (Cheney), thus implying that there is, as they say in Miami, "something wrong with Obama's masculinity" may force the President to take tough decisions to "cover his political backside." I continue to hope and believe that Mr. Obama is not so easily manipulated.
There are limits to acceptable political opposition and protest in America. Arranging for the U.S. President to receive an elbow in the face or for the Secretary of State to be embarassed internationally ("Reset Button") are actions beyond the limits of "protest." Disclosure in the media (as opposed to in the hands of affected individuals) of secret documents revealing government policies resulting in great harm may also be impermissible. Once revealed, however, it is the duty of the media to report the controversy freely, including all secret documents.
Mr. Obama was correct on the Constitutional issue concerning placing of a mosque near the World Trade Center site. (Another "error" inserted and corrected.) Everyone, including critics of the President's statement knows that this is true. Unpopularity or wisdom of the decision notwithstanding, Islamic faithful have the right to worship along with everybody else and also to build their mosques on private property.
There is a matter of principle at issue here which, to paraphrase Mr. Obama's first speech in office, "should not be sacrificed to expediency": Human rights means not only freedom of speech and conscience -- the sort of rights violated by the state of N.J. in committing crimes against me every day -- but also rights to health (as Obama must know) and the struggle against hunger. Many of us have experienced hunger and feel for those afflicted with this horrible need and condition in the world. ("John Rawls and Justice" and "The Experiments in Guatemala.")
We are increasing human suffering both with regard to hunger and denials of medicines as well as other vital goods in Cuba (and elsewhere) because of this embargo. The embargo against Cuba violates human rights and costs American businesses billions in revenues. ("Time to End the Embargo Against Cuba" and "Hunger in America.")
Mr. Obama's success on health care, if it becomes final, will be remembered as comparable to LBJ's voting rights legislation and FDR's social security and welfare laws. This alone is a significant humane achievement in American history -- extending health coverage to all Americans. Mr. Obama's sacrifice of political capital for this goal is more than worthwhile. He still has time to do much more during his presidency. In the words of Yogi Bera: "It ain't over 'till it's over."
Mr. Obama's (I hope) terms of office "ain't over." Hold on to your hats: " ... 'The economic blockade has not met, nor will it meet, its purpose of bending the patriotic determination of the Cuban people, Mr. Rodrigues said.' ..."
I certainly will not be intimidated or prevented by threats from expressing my opinions. Enforced poverty and slanders will not cause me to accept or legitimate the crimes committed against me, including ongoing censorship efforts and copyright violations, also computer crime. I prefer that thefts and attacks be limited to me and not my family members. ("Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture" and "What is it like to be tortured?" then "Psychological Torture in the American Legal System.")
"'But [the embargo] generates shortages,' he added. 'It is no doubt, the fundamental obstacle that hinders the economic development of our country.'" Please notice that Mr. Rodriguez Parilla said not one word about Fidel Castro in these quoted remarks. ("Fidel Castro's 'History Will Absolve Me."")
"Susan E. Rice, the American ambassador to the United Nations, said the resolution ignored the oppression that she called the real cause of Cubans' suffering."
I invite objective interested parties from all over the world to examine the 300-400 articles that I have written (all of them supported by objective American sources) detailing the grotesque human rights abuses in the state of New Jersey that include: rape, murder, theft of goods from mentally ill and other helpless people, torture of persons accused and not convicted of crimes, censorship, computer crime based on political affiliation, pension frauds and tax scams -- victims are sometimes persons not even accused of criminality (immigrants) or AIDS patients -- massive thefts of public money, absurd legal proceedings lacking nearly all of the criteria of respected First World legal systems, corrupt judges, protected international child pornographers and promoters of child prostitution, efforts to obstruct and prevent dissidents' efforts to communicate opinions, politically tainted and mafia-influenced censorship efforts, daily sanctioned cybercrime, and much worse. ("New Jersey's 'Crimes Against Humanity'" and "Neil M. Cohen, Esq. and Conduct Unbecoming to the Legislature in New Jersey.")
Whoever is designated by New Jersey's power-structure to serve as spokesperson for this horror (probably it will be a comfortable Cuban-American member of the legal profession who will be rewarded handsomely for doing so, someone like "Zulima Farber"?), the atrocities committed against me speak for themselves -- as does Trenton's delay in dealing with them. Cuba, China and the global community are not easily deceived by advertising industry methods of propaganda in 2010 and beyond. Mary Marban, Esq.? ("Corrupt Law Firms, Senator Bob, and New Jersey Ethics" and "New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System.")
The torture of family members and totalitarian tactics will not deter the committed opponent of such evil from struggling against these oppressions for the sake of those same family members and all of society. We will not be slaves or laboratory animals in America. Why should we expect others to accept such chains? ("The Winter of the Patriarch" and "Havana Nights and C.I.A. Tapes" then "The Experiments in Guatemala.")
November 19, 2009 at 9:10 A.M. A word was deleted from the foregoing sentence since my previous review of this essay. I have now restored that word to the text.
Cubanazos find the reality of universal opposition to the embargo and disgust at their tactics (or at them) unacceptable and hope to change that reality by torturing persons who disagree with them. This is a good time to delete another word or letter from this text. ("Freedom is Slavery!" and "American Hypocrisy and Luis Posada Carriles.")
The United States has not issued an embargo against New Jersey. Mr. Obama recently visited New Jersey to be photographed with the state's (or Casino industry's) Governor, Jon S. Corzine. I do not believe that there are many dissident writers in Cuba whose work is altered every day, who have been raped, labelled "unethical" in rigged legal proceedings, assaulted in their homes, subjected to hypnosis against their will, denied their own records, and much worse. ("An Open Letter to My Torturers in New Jersey, Terry A. Tuchin and Diana Lisa Riccioli.")
Please note that "labeled" and "labelled" are equally acceptable. The latter is usually the older spelling which is more often found in legal documents. Questions? Ms. Kricko?
"Mr. Obama has said that the embargo will be maintained until Cuba eases its domestic oppression, but that he wants to 'recast' the relationship."
Those who have experienced "domestic oppression" in the United States -- like Mumia Abu-Jamal and Assatta Shakur (tortured by the same monsters who have tortured me) -- will, perhaps, suggest that Cuba (like many African-Americans) is still engaged in fighting the last battle of its Revolution for independence and freedom from slavery. Me too. ("Amistad.")
The release of Lori Berenson from a Peruvian prison is rumored to result, partly, from the diplomatic efforts of Cubans on the island. Many distinguished figures -- such as Mario Vargas-Llosa, and many persons of conscience throughout the world -- hope that Ms. Berenson will soon be reunited with her family in New York. Lori is our hermana in this struggle for social justice and we hope to see her home, soon.
Cuba's statement at the U.N., accordingly, is best seen as that nation's version of President Lincoln's "Emancipation Proclamation." This insistence on freedom and independence (from a small country with fierce as well as globally respected pride and dignity) is NOT the sort of statement that our first African-American president should oppose or deny. None can be free until all are free.
Perhaps Mr. "Lincoln" Diaz-Balart will agree with this sentiment? I am sure that Nelson Mandela supports the independence of Cuba and opposes censorship everywhere.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Manohla Dargis Strikes Again!

January 6, 2012 at 11:41 A.M. A spacing "error" that had been previously corrected was reinserted in this text. I have now corrected that "error" once more.

December 2, 2009 at 8:24 A.M. "Claudia Dreifus" must be related to Manohla Dargis a.k.a. (?) Ginger Thompson, Carlotta Gall. Claudia Dreifus, "Life in the Teens: A Conversation with Laurence Steinberg, Adolescent Psychologist," in The New York Times, December 1, 2009, at p. D1. (Any adolescent who is a psychologist must be pretty special.) Benedict Carey's incoherence is repeated -- "again, and again." Claudia, do you mean a psychologist who is an expert on adolescence? "Patricia Cohen" may be able to help clarify these matters. "Vivien Schweitzer"? ("The Heidegger Controversy.") What happened to the Times?

November 13, 2009 at 9:30 A.M. "Error" inserted and corrected, once more.

October 30, 2009 at 7:05 P.M. "Errors" inserted, again, in this essay. I have done my best to correct them.

October 30, 2009 at 9:41 A.M. During a week when 14 American servicemen died in a helicopter crash, new offensives by the Taliban began in Afghanistan and Pakistan, bombings resulted in hundreds of deaths in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan -- additional "errors" were inserted by Right-wing Cubans and their mafia-politicians in my essay celebrating and defending the Constitution for which those soldiers are dying. You decide: Who is "unethical"? ("Manifesto for the Unfinished American Revolution.")

October 28, 2009 at 12:10 P.M. My computer's clock is still off by an hour; no telephone service as of about (at least) 11:15 A.M. Since all of my bills are paid, I can only surmise that this is part of the psychological torture effort from New Jersey. Unfortunately, I have several aged relatives who may call in an emergency and whose lives or welfare -- in addition to other harms being suffered by many persons over nearly twenty-one years -- make this little exploit highly dangerous. Financial pressures on me and my family members should be next. "Error 101?"

Do you speak to me of "ethics," Mr. Rabner? A notice informs me that "the Internet is unavailable." Luckily, I was able to get on-line. At any time, I may be prevented from doing so from this computer. I will then find public computers to continue writing. ("A Letter From the DRB, in New Jersey" and "Another Letter From the DRB, in New Jersey.")

I wonder why these letters from the DRB were stamped with a postage meter from Union City, not Trenton? Coincidence, Senator Bob? ("Is Senator Bob 'For' Human Rights?")

October 28, 2009 at 9:00 A.M. A letter was removed from a word overnight. I have restored that letter. No t.v. yet. Telephone calls and other harassments are always expected. ("Che" and "Is Senator Menendez a Suspect in Mafia-Political Murder in New Jersey?") At any time, I may be prevented from writing. Also, I may experience an unfortunate accident. I will struggle to continue writing somehow and somewhere, from public computers perhaps. In the event of my death, I will probably will be unable to write further. However, I may still be able to draw a public salary from New Jersey's mafia-controlled government even beyond the grave. I can certainly continue to vote in local elections. ("New Jersey is the Home of the Living Dead" and, soon, "Sybil R. Moses Joins the Lesbian Love-Fest.")

October 27, 2009 at 1:03 P.M. An advertisement has been imposed on this blog: "CIA Intelligence Degree, Attend on-line CIA college and earn your intelligence degree. Start now. http://www.apu.edu/ "

After recent experiences, "CIA" and "intelligence" are mutually exclusive categories, especially when it comes to Miami's Ricky Ricardo agents or Hudson County's mafiosos. "My name is Cuban Pete ..." ("Fidel Castro's 'History Will Absolve Me.'") Senator Bob claims -- on very little visible evidence -- that he can "mambo with the best of 'em." We will be the judges of that claim. Exploding cigar? "Deuce Martinez"? I can only hope that these are not the people responsible for America's security.

October 27, 2009 at 9:00 A.M. My television signal is dead, again, and calls from marketers are expected throughout the day. I am sure that this "pattern" recurring for one of many hundreds of days is only a coincidence. Access to these blogs may be denied and additional defacements of texts must be expected to the indifference of American authorities in several states. Oh, well ... a cellphone call to Time/Warner resulted in the advice from "Mohammed" that we visit a P.C. Richard and purchase a new t.v. set. (I doubt that the person's name is really "Mohammed" or that he works for Time/Warner.) Racism is common among Right-wing Cubans. Is the idea to deceive victims into blaming other ethnic groups or races for your crimes? Does this explain "Patricia Cohen"? ("The Heidegger Controversy.")

A second call on October 28, 2009 to "Miriam" at Time/Warner resulted in the response that "our computers are down." It is amazing to think that Time/Warner's computers may be "down." I am tempted to believe that "Miriam" (Alina Falcone of "Univision"? Manohla Dargis?) does not really "work" for Time/Warner. What do you think, Senator Bob? I wonder whether Senator Bob can clarify these matters? ("Raymond Chandler and 'The Simple Art of Murder.'")

I also wonder whether disruption in phone service is connected to my t.v. troubles? Who could do such a thing? Surely, no U.S. Senator would lend himself to such tactics, right? ("Does Senator Menendez Have Mafia Friends?" and "Senator Bob, the Babe, and the Big Bucks.") Publish America? Lulu? ("How Censorship Works in America" and "Censorship and Cruelty in New Jersey.")

Is "Univision" involved in computer crime? Did Marilyn Straus work as an Executive Producer at Univision? Was she targeted by local politicians or gangsters with connections at that t.v. station? I wonder whether there is a "connection" between Univision and Lulu? ("Jennifer Velez is a 'Dyke Magnet!'" and "Trenton's Nasty Lesbian Love-Fest!")

October 26, 2009 at 2:57 P.M. Only a few "errors" were inserted in this text. However, I notice that my computer's clock shows a time of 2:00 P.M. This may mean that other writings at this blog were disfigured, again, or that "errors" have been inserted in the continuing effort at what they call "frustration inducement." ("Time to End the Embargo Against Cuba" and "Is Union City, New Jersey Meyer Lansky's Whore House?")

October 26, 2009 at 8:41 A.M. Please see "'The Reader': A Movie Review" and "'Revolutionary Road': A Movie Review." Attacks on this brief comment, which could have been much longer, are always expected. I experienced the usual difficulties in posting this work. I anticipate additional "error-insertions" from frustrated "Cubanoids" and their Mafia brethren. ("Fidel Castro's 'History Will Absolve Me'" and "American Hypocrisy and Luis Posada Carriles" as well as "New Jersey is Lucky Luciano's Havana.")

Has Manohla Dargis neglected her responsibilities in order to, as it were, "open her legs"? ("'The Reader': A Movie Review" and "'Revolutionary Road': A Movie Review.")


Manohla Dargis, "Now Starring at the Movies: Famous Dead Women," in The New York Times, Sunday, "Ideas and Trends," October 25, 2009, at p. 4. ("What is it like to be plagiarized?")

Incoherence and illiteracy are among the ideas and trends "celebrated" this week in The New York Times. The first paragraph of this memorable essay made my day:

"For actresses, it is no longer enough to be young and beautiful onscreen, they have to be dead and famous, too -- one of history's immortals."

So many immortals are "dead" (her word) -- that's why they're immortal. Given the definition of the word "immortal," it is wonderful to see immortals being mortal. Is Senator Bob "related" to Manohla Dargis?

"Filmmakers have long resurrected the dearly and notably departed with actors and actresses who flatter their memories, of course, partly because Academy members like to reward other success stories."

Whose "memories" are flattered? Filmmakers? Resurrected persons? Which "other" success stories are rewarded? Do you mean that "success" is rewarded with "success"? I think it is amazing that "dead women" can star in movies, especially when they are "immortal."

"Last year, Marion Cotillard warbled her way to the awards podium for her turn as Edith Piaf in 'La Vie en Rose.' [Warbled?] Since 2000, six of the best actress awards were for biographical performances, most of dead women." [sic.]

Any dead woman who provides us with a biographical performance -- or any other kind of performance! -- deserves some kind of award. I don't care what anybody says. Let's see what performances you give when you're dead, biographical or otherwise.

"This year, Julia Child, Coco Chanel, Queen Victoria, Keats's great love, Fanny Brawne, and now Amelia Earhart are all making a run for it."

I don't blame them one bit. I am certainly making a "run for it" anytime I see the writings of Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. Anything written by Ms. Dargis should be, as it were, "far flung." Later in this astonishing and brilliant analysis we are told:

"That's why Charlize Theron, who began her career brandishing a lot of leg and doing time as the usual masculine accessory ... "

I would love my masculine accessory to be Charlize Theron. Manohla, there is something called a "comma." Let me guess, you're from Miami and you attended Harvard University because your dad gave the school lots of money or pulled a few strings for ya, huh? Try a little flan.

" ... packed on the pounds in 'Monster' to play Aileen Wuornos, a Florida drifter turned serial killer."

Don't let this amazing wordsmith fool you. Her sense of rythm in English prose is unfailing:

"It's also why Nicole Kidman wore a fake schnoz to play Virginia Woolf in 'The Hours' and Cate Blanchett put on clown makeup to impersonate the Virgin Queen."

Is the "Virgin Queen" Jimmy Durante ("The Great Schnazola")? Yonder lies the castle of my fadder!

Things go downhill beyond this point:

" ... in the last Democratic primary, a lot of potential ticket buyers voted for an independent woman [horrors!] with cropped hair [Where will the nightmare end?] and a penchant for pantsuits."

Yeah, but what kind of man wears those pantsuits that she has a "penchant" for -- if you know what I mean. Does this refer to Ms. Palin? Ms. Rodham-Clinton? Who can say? Such is life. "Democrat" could mean anything. Ms. Dargis is a postmodern-ironist -- and then some. Somewhat? Who is to say? Who indeed. Ms. Dargis is "immortal."

My guess is that "Manohla Dargis" is a Cubanaza who can barely read or write (that much is obvious!), in any language, but who has purchased enough political connections from the oily politicians of New Jersey or Florida -- persons like Senator Bob or Mr. Rubio, perhaps Congresswoman Iliana Ross-Lehtinen -- to weasel her way on to this newspaper and inflict her illiterate prose and incoherent thoughts on readers. Oh, the horror of it all!

Please reverse the Mariel boatlift and send this person back to Havana -- if they'll take her, which I doubt. I have nothing but sympathy for this mongoloid imbecile, Manohla Dargis, but I prefer not to see her so-called "writing" in my favorite newspaper. Maybe that's just me, complaining, as I "open my legs." Jennifer Velez, are you "Manohla Dargis"? Or can you identify this so-called "journalist," Jenny-From-the-Block? Mary Ann Kriko? ("Jennifer Velez is a 'Dyke Magnet!'")

Would such a person insert "errors" in the writings of others through cybercrimes committed with the assistance of corrupt officials? I am sighing over coffee as in a Mexican soap opera! This person's view of life was formed by telenovelas. ("Cubanazos Pose a Threat to National Security!" and "Miami's Cubanoids Protest AGAINST Peace!")

I surmise that this person, "Manohla Dargis," (Walter Mercado?) is among the hackers into my computer and inserters of "errors" in my texts, probably out of envy at such modest talents as I may possess. I can see that Manohla will be sighing over coffee in high heels and too much make-up for many years to come, future-wise, even if she is a he. ("'Revolutionary Road': A Movie Review.")

" ... but the biggest romance of the year was the comic male three-way [kinky!] 'The Hangover.' ..."

There was a time when the writing of this illiterate "journalist" would not have appeared in any decent newspaper. This non-English-speaking probable anti-Communist must be among the hackers who deface and plagiarize my writings, and those of others. ("What is it like to be plagiarized?")

I wonder why they allow Ms. Dargis to get away with such crimes against the English language? Or to deface my writings? Daddy? Whoever engages in cybercrime and harassment, censorship, and the destruction of good written work -- out of envy or frustration? -- is revealing the desperation and stupidity of the inarticulate. Anne Milgram, Esq.'s "passionate and elegant prose" (irony?) is Shakespeare-like compared to this Manohla Dargis stuff. Ms. Milgram may be immortal and she sure is immoral.

Perhaps Manohla is another of Bob's "little female friends," one of his mistresses, allegedly? ("Menendez Consorts With Underage Prostitutes" and "Wedding Bells Ring For Menendez!")

Does this person, Manohla Dargis, work in your office, Anne? Are you responsible for her actions, Anne? Is this person's true identity known in New Jersey? I wonder whether Anne Milgram can explain my troubles with appliances this morning? Do you realize that these "games" with phones and computers hurt people and may put lives at risk? Who was behind the destruction of "The Philosophy Cafe" at MSN? State action? Publish America? Talk to me about your superior "ethics," Anne Milgram. OAE? Censorship? Cybercrime? Suppressions of speech are usually frowned-upon when committed by a state's Chief Law Enforcement Officer. ("Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture" and "What is it like to be tortured?")

No one's expressed "opinions" are harmful, under the First Amendment, but governmental interference with the expressions of opinions by others is deeply harmful to the Constitution of the United States of America. This may be a good time to insert another "error" in this text or to try to blow up my refrigerator. No problem, we can purchase another appliance at the Xanadu mall. How do you people even have the nerve to use the word "ethics" to me? ("Senator Bob Says -- 'Xanadu and You Are Perfect Together!'")

I can only hope that I will have the opportunity to meet these wonderful people and the politicians providing protection for such criminality for a small fee.

What is at risk in this matter is America's Constitutional commitment -- or the current lack of such a commitment -- to free speech at home as men and women are asked to fight for that document and commitment abroad. Our current lack of commitment to the Constitution is being seen by the world. How is it possible for such slimy, crooked politicians (like Senator Bob, "allegedly") to thrive in the highest offices in the land? Favors for the powerful, Bob? (Again: "Is Senator Bob 'For' Human Rights?")

Protected public and criminal censorship suggests a loss of the institutions of government in New Jersey to the mafia or out-of-control corruption. America must not become Batista's Cuba. New Jersey has already become exactly that -- Batista's mafia whorehouse. ("Is Union City, New Jersey Meyer Lansky's Whore House?")

The New York Times once had something called "standards." Standards of excellence would have allowed for the publication of good writers (you decide whether I fit that category), regardless of whether you agreed with or rejected any single writer's opinions. Censorship, suppressions of speech, behind-the-back character assassinations of enemies and professional destruction (I can't wait to see you, Senator!) were relegated to totalitarian societies. (Again: "What is it like to be tortured?")

Give my regards to Gloria, Senator Bob. Still at Univision, Gloria? How is Ms. LiCausi, Senator?

My book will not be sent to on-line booksellers, no images can be posted by me, MSN is still unavailable (to me), the true number of hits at these blogs is about 50,000 by now, readers from all over the world express interest in my books, also in a collection of my humble short stories with selected essays. I receive no response to my requests for information from New Jersey's corrupt tribunals. Publishers are intimidated. These writings are altered and defaced, every day, despite copyright protection and the Constitution of the United States of America. ("Manifesto for the Unfinished American Revolution" and "Senator Bob Says 'I Love Xanadu!'")

October 28, 2009 at 8:55 A.M. A letter was removed from a word overnight. I have now restored that letter, still no t.v. set. Perhaps my toaster will be wired to explode later? ("Senator Bob Struggles to Find His Conscience.")

Do we live in a free society where political expressions of writers and artists are respected? Does copyright protection still merit recognition? You decide in Cuba, China, the Middle East and elsewhere whether America stands for freedom of conscience and the dignity of individual speakers or merely utters such platitudes for public consumption outside the nation's borders while acting very differently at home. (Again: "Manifesto for the Unfinished American Revolution" and "How Censorship Works in America" as well as "Censorship and Cruelty in New Jersey.")

I could have added another ten to fifteen incoherent remarks selected randomly from this one essay published in America's self-proclaimed "premier" newspaper. This is a typical article by this writer which should be embarassing for everyone at the Times, also for American journalism, and for the Cuban-American community. Several other articles in Sunday's newspaper were on the same level as this essay, some were WORSE. ("Nihilists in Disneyworld.")

Tell me again how you are my intellectual "superiors" in New Jersey's corridors of power or at The New York Times. I wonder whether any of these amazing writers visited "The Philosophy Cafe"? Senator Bob? Anne Milgram? Stuart Rabner? Any one of you wish to debate me on these issues on-line or in print? I am available at your convenience. You have the choice of weapons.

Disdain for the intellectual work of "the little brown people" is, sadly, the attitude of many Americans (including some at The New York Times, perhaps), especially when that intellectual work is regarded as original, creative and suggestive to scholars, internationally, despite not receiving the blessings of Manhattan's media establishment.

Billions of persons in the world are relegated to silence in order that we may savor the witty epigrams of Jeff Greenfield, perhaps writing under an alias. ("David Denby is Not Amused!")

I wonder why the Upper West Siders deny their blessings to my writings even as they plagiarize my essays? Time to insert more "errors," boys? Perhaps spacing will be affected again? Do you have some insults for me today, folks? Come on, don't keep me waiting for my morning cyberwar. Who is your daddy, Manohla? Senator Bob? Iliana Ros-Leghtinen? Lesbian love-fest? Any more "errors" that you wish to insert in my writings, ladies? (I use the word "ladies" loosely.)

I am averaging between 11 and 22 security risks per day and more intrusion attempts from New Jersey's government computers. You can do better than that. ("What is it like to be plagiarized?" and "What is it like to be censored in America?" then "More Cybercrime and Censorship.")

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Saying Goodbye to Paul Newman.

Aperil 11, 2012 at 1:50 P.M. A previously corrected "error" was restored to the text. I have corrected it again. I will be spending another night in the box.
March 19, 2011 at 1:26 P.M. "Errors" restored to the text after my latest corrections have now been corrected, again. These violations of the text insult the memory of a great actor.


September 28, 2010 at 7:14 P.M. "Errors" inserted and corrected.

July 28, 2010 at 7:05 P.M. Over the past month, especially during the past two weeks, numerous essays have been vandalized and other attacks against me have been launched from New Jersey. This may mean that people there are desperate to inflict harm on me because they are concerned about their own "asses." I plan to keep kicking those asses.


I am unable to access Critique, my MSN group (if it still exists), and efforts are always underway to deface or destroy these writings and to deny me access to the Internet. I doubt this sustained effort would be possible without governmental cooperation. Bloggers in China, Cuba, and many other places seem to experience less hostility from their governments than I receive from New Jersey, which continues to ignore my requests for torture documents dating from 1988-today. I will persist in my struggle. Only one "error" was inserted in the foregoing paragraph since this morning. Not bad.

All international publicity is welcome. I am told that media in other countries are interested in this situation. American media (plural) are mysteriously "absent" from the controversy. Please see Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent.

Aljean Harmetz, "Paul Newman, A Magnetic Star of Hollywood for a Half-Century, Is Dead at 83," in The New York Times, Sunday, Section A, September 28, 2008, at p. A1.
Manohla Dargis, "An Actor Whose Baby Blues Came in Many Shades of Gray," The New York Times, Sunday, September 28, 2008, at p. 34. (She's amazing. "'The Reader': A Movie Review" and "'Revolutionary Road': A Movie Review.")
Manny Fernandez, "Leading Man Was 'Simple and Direct,' " in The New York Times, Sunday, September 28, 2008, at p. 34. (I wonder whether "Manny Fernandez" knows "Patricia Cohen"?)

Books Mentioned:

Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons (New York: Vintage, 1962).
Donn Pearce, Cool Hand Luke (New York: Fawcett, 1965).
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Vintage, 1975).
Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotions (New York: Citadel, 1957).
Gore Vidal, Palimpsest (New York: Random House, 1995) (Vidal was a great friend of both Newmans).

On Friday, September 26, 2008, Paul Newman died at his home in Westport, Connecticut. I had no idea that Mr. Newman was suffering from cancer. Unlike many "celebrities" -- a word Newman rarely used, since he had little interest or concern with the Hollywood bullshit ("bullshit" is a word he did use!) -- Paul Newman did not engage in public self-love or explorations of his emotional health.

Mr. Newman communicated his deepest feelings in his art, where -- much to his surprise given his early efforts -- Newman managed to place on screen several performances that are masterpieces. His work is meaningful for people all over the world from all social classes because of its universal concerns and discoveries. Melanie Griffith's first movie was "Harper" with Paul Newman.

I will discuss some of those Newman movie roles because it is the best way to remember one of our great stage and screen artists in the twentieth century. It is certainly what Mr. Newman would have preferred by way of tribute or recollection.
Discussions of his "blue eyes" (The New York Times) at the hour of his death would not have surprised him. In fact, he predicted it. However, it saddens me that this sort of People magazine drivel is among the first things mentioned about this gifted and kind man. I recall a 60-Minutes profile of Paul Newman when the actor was shown film of an interview that he gave to Edward R. Murrow as a very young man. Newman shook his head and said: "I don't know that guy."

My heart breaks for Joanne Woodward and all of those persons fortunate enough to have known Paul Newman who called him a friend, including the great Melanie Griffith and Robert Redford. Redford's transformation into a magnificent actor as well as director dates from Redford's films with Newman and their friendship. I am sure that this friendship is significant to Redford's development, artistic development and human "evolution."

Paul Newman was among a handful of living actors who "experienced" or lived through the Second World War and its aftermath, as a child. I believe that this contributed to a moral seriousness in their work that, otherwise, may not have been there. This generation of actors and an earlier group that included Tony Curtis, Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, James Dean (all too briefly), Marlon Brando, Montgomerry Clift and a few others shared a special sense of moral responsibility for their work and audiences.

Marilyn Monroe, Joanne Woodward, Elizabeth Taylor (Taylor is one of the very best screen actors you will ever see, as Richard Burton insisted, before and after their marriage), or Shirley McLaine in that elevator with Jack Lemmon in The Apartment, and so many others on the big screen at the time were mindful of the power that they wielded in an era when television was negligible. With few exceptions, American television is still negligible.

These actors and artists were not only America's royalty, they were (and still are) royalty or mythic figures for people all over the world. They symbolized America's beauty, genius and strength in a way that may no longer be possible for today's movie stars. Most of these talented people discharged that awesome responsibility with great honor and humility. No one displayed more of those qualities or virtues than Paul Newman.

Paul Newman -- you can get the dates and facts of his life from the Times obituary, most of the facts listed are accurate -- embodied a virtue no longer fully appreciated among critics and film-viewers. Newman managed to capture some of the quintessentially American spirit of rebellion for a moral cause, independence, concern "for the little guy," regard for the dignity of every human soul. Courage, intelligence, unpretentiousness, ethical struggle were key features of his screen persona as well as defining Newman's life. Tim Olyphant is a Paul Newman-like screen actor today, but there are not many others. ("'Justified' -- A Review of the FX-Television Series.")

Tony Curtis mentioned to an interviewer than when male actors came to Hollywood in his youth their goal was to become Cary Grant, Clark Gable, William Powell and/or James Stewart. They wished to appear as one of the flawless leading men of an earlier generation, in a tux perhaps. Newman did not fit this mold. Newman wanted to be an actor.

Newman's transformation into the young Rocky Graziano was weird and uncanny, suggesting all that this man might yet become. Among the most important common characteristics found in his best roles is a fierce individualism (Luke, Harper, that lawyer in The Verdict) and his passionate yearning for freedom with social justice.

Newman's musical artist in the classic Paris Blues (with Sidney Portier) anticipates many of his later roles playing characters struggling to be free in unfree situations. Joanne Woodward's star turn in that movie offers the first glimpse of women as they would live and express themselves two generations later in America. Something about Ms. Woodward in that little black dress in Paris Blues will stay with me until I die.

This yearning for freedom and justice expressed itself in Newman's personal life, as I say, where quiet efforts on behalf of civil rights and friendship with Dr. King were inseparable from his "true" identity.
The products placed on supermarket shelves all over the world bearing Newman's picture have done much good for many people today. The inward struggle for meaning and purpose, after the loss of his son -- where Newman faulted himself as a father -- together with his attempt to say something true about American men before they (no, we) became objects of universal derision and hatred are also on screen. ("'The Verdict': A Movie Review.")

Newman's humor, wit, literary knowledge, capacity for friendship is seen in both Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and The Sting. Nothing comes close to those "buddy movies." Those are the ultimate "guy movies."

If The Silver Chalice must be remembered as "the worst movie made in the fifties" (Newman's opinion), then Cool Hand Luke deserves to be called one of the great masterpieces of world cinema, achieving an archetypal status in a global mythological and religious language of images that echoes the Christian story, of course, but also America's political odyssey in coping with the new challenges of an era when psychology and social science displaced humanism from the center of social ideologies or policy thinking. Perhaps "Luke" is only another a reaction to the Holocaust.

"What we've got here," as spoken by the brutal warden of a southern prison serving as a model of the society the U.S. was turning into, "is a failure to communicate." Against impersonality, militarism, regimentation, control hidden in the jargon of social science "conditioning" that was coming into vogue, Newman's "Luke" asserts the playful and doomed freedom of America's Jeffersonian subject demanding creative expression, self-determination, most of all, the redefinition of human boundaries without end: "I can eat fifty eggs." I can, too! Compare Don Pearce, Cool Hand Luke (New York: Fawcett, 1965) with Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons (New York: Vintage, 1962). Today, Luke would be tortured at Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib.

Luke shakes his fist at power, law, even God -- because he is a man, one human being, a single person and, therefore, of infinite value. This humanistic-existential protest against mass-generated slavery and inescapable death resonates throughout Western civilization and is the "meaning" of Michelangelo's "David," Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Shakespeare's "King Lear," Virginia Woolf's "Room of Her Own" and Edith Wharton's "Lilly Bart" in "The House of Mirth," or James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time." Myra Breckinridge would have understood and loved Luke:

"I am the being which is in such a way that its being is in question. And this 'is' of my being is as present and inapprehensible. ..."

Then,

"[I am] a being which is compelled to decide the meaning of being -- within it and everywhere outside of it. The one who realizes in anguish his condition as being thrown into a responsibility which extends to his very abandonment has no longer either remorse or regret or excuse; he is no longer anything but a FREEDOM which perfectly reveals itself and whose being resides in this very revelation. ... most of the time we flee anguish in bad faith."

Jean Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotions (New York: Citadel, 1957), pp. 58-59.

Unfortunately, this obituary was defaced by hackers this afternoon. Perhaps they did not approve of my comments concerning Ms. Pelosi. I will now make necessary corrections, until next time. I am going to play it real cool.

Facing a jury stacked against him, a crooked judge, a corrupt and biased legal system (New Jersey?), without resources and fighting for a woman with nothing ("they killed her and now they're trying to buy it!"), Newman asked jurors for what he forced his audiences to consider -- an examination of their consciences and the nation's history, then he insisted that we decide whether we can live with atrocity and evil, with loss of humanity and reduction of persons to the status of laboratory animals or robots.
Newman decided that he could not live with such things without fighting against them. Newman fought these evils in his psyche and the world. Think of Muhammad Ali, Robert Kennedy, Dr. King, Jane Fonda (Klute and Coming Home) making similar or parallel journeys through American history.

"If there is an overall political issue around the prison" -- also surrounding the lives of those who must live beyond the boundaries of normality -- "it is not therefore whether [prison] is to be corrective or not; whether the judges, the psychiatrists or the sociologists are to exercise more power in it than the administrators or supervisors; it is not even whether we should have prison or something other than prisons. At present, the problem lies rather in the steep rise in the use of these mechanisms of normalization and the wide-ranging powers which, through the proliferation of new disciplines, [tortures and manipulations,] they bring with them."

Michel Foucault, "The Carceral," in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Vintage, 1975), p. 306. ("Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture.")

Paul Newman created lasting and important artistic works that will outlive all of us. Each of the artists named in this appreciation has done the same. I never met or knew Paul Newman. However, I am deeply sad as I type these words. I will miss you, Luke.

"There's going be some world shaking tonight, Luke."