I'm sure this blogger game has been invented already and has a well-known name but I sure as shit haven't seen it before, so I'm claiming it as my invention. I thought it would be fun to present a little bit of life imitating art. I'm giving my game the name Retrospective Allegory Party (acronym is R.A.P., not bad, si o no?) and I'm sticking with it, cumbersome as it is. The idea is to find elements of the Bush presidency in this case in earlier works of art. I'll start. You finish. It's a "rocket-round" all the way. I'm doing it with bullet points but if anyone wants to go deep with lots of prose and analysis and/or propose other pre-2000 works of art, it's OK by me.
Representing Life: President George W. Bush (inclusive)
Representing Art: The novel Autumn Of The Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and the movies The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original) and The Manchurian Candidate (original).
Autumn Of The Patriarch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Autumn_of_the_Patriarch
- Protagonist is a dictator
- Below average intelligence
- Questionable sanity
- Rules by caprice
- "Loyalty" whose measurement knows no standard is official policy
- Affectless sadist; socio-path in foreign policy
- Even more sadistic in domestic policy
- Incarceraton and execution of minors almost at whim
- Delight in pain and suffering of subjects
- Has obsessive/quasi-incestuous relationship with and feelings for overbearing beastly mother
- No relationship whatsoever with natural father
- Takes on an even more sadistic surrogate who assumes role of "father"
- PART I: Subordinates are so frightened of Patriarch's power that his foibles and failings are seen as strengths and are always to be imitated (examples throughout novel; good real life examples: Dr. Rice's use of the pronunciation "nuke-u-LAR" Dana Perino's use of Bush's favorite word: "opine"
- PART II: Limited brainpower is always seen as asset by wholly-owned press
- Completely mortgages his country to the point that he has to sell the sea itself to make good on government debt
- Sees himself as completely blameless
- Assumes he is loved by all
- Subordinates tell him enough so that he's happy with what's happened but can maintain deniability
The Manchurian Candidate (original)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056218/
- Right-Wing politician
- Popular based upon his bellicosity but personal courage is strongly in doubt
- Highly-questionable sanity
- Has obsessive/quasi-incestuous relationship with and feelings for overbearing beastly mother
- No relationship whatsoever with natural father
- Programmed by overbearing beastly mother as part of plot to betray United States to "Red China" (Happy ending to movie; wretched ending to real-life story: how much of the USA does the PRC own?)
- Is media darling
- Is opposed by a flag-officer of high repute who is ignorned by media and authorities (movie Ben Marco, real-life: Admiral William J. Fallon)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072271/
- DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS!
- Oldest son of villainous family
- Oldest son of villainous family with "special problems"
- "Special problems" perhaps cause lack of success in previous remunerative venture
- Perfectly suited, though, for this work
- Sadism+
- Control over environment -- including law-enforcement -- by family is complete
- Has obsessive/quasi-incestuous relationship with and feelings for overbearing beastly mother
- No relationship whatsoever with natural father
- Has caused wholesale slaughter of innocents
- Tortured animals as a child
- Personally executed many in part of baroque ritual approved of by citizens of town (in Bush's case citizens of the State Of Texas)
- Psychopathology throughout family allows for disregard for well-being of any member other than "Leatherface"/George
- "Loyalty" whose measurement knows no standard is official policy
- Grandfather active participant in genocide
- Opposed by "rebellious" American youth, a large percentage of whom are made to suffer
- Sees himself as completely blameless
- Acts out lack of love as child in rather unsavory ways
- Gets very, very testy with protestors
Have fun.
Kelso's Nuts love you
10 comments:
Kelso this is the first post in a long time without an Obama rant.
What gives? Goin soft?
Got bored with the subject.
If he needed to suck at the motherly teat of Pat Robertson after getting tested a little by Clinton that pretty much says it all. I can add nothing more poignant.
But if you insist...it certainly lends credence to my point that he's been super-cozy with the Religious Right, White and Black.
I always laugh when people think having a middle name "Hussein" is a disqualifier. It's a pretty common name in this world, actually. I find his Fundamentalist Christianity a lot more troubling than having the Arabic equivalent of "James" as a middle name.
More troubling stil are his bedfellows in that sorry arena. Robertson, Dobson, McClurkin, Warren, Jakes....
But until he really scalds my nuts again, I'll be on other topics.
Gee whiz, Dave, even us racist straw-men need a little rest now and then. Being a full-time ethnocentric bigot with a special loathing for aristocratic corporatist candidates whose skin color really is not much darker than mine tends to tire a man.
Better to relax by the pool. Have a beer. Go the movies. Play some cards. Watch TV. Read a book. Do a crossword puzzle. You know?
Kelso, I think this is a fun idea. I only wish I had the time and mental ability to give it the go it deserves. But I don't. So I have to go for the obvious ones.
Moby Dick: Duh. That's easy.
1984: Duh again.
Christ, I know there are much better ones, but my brain just can't function right now!
River Runs Through It
---------------------
2 brothers, one straight arrow, the other a rebel
rebel brother has some athletic prowess (fly fishing, but could be running)
straight brother protective of rebel but doesn't like his behavior
rebel brother has a drinking problem
rebel brother likes to gamble with the big boys, but doesn't have the smarts to follow through to victory
rebel's father won't say bad things about him
rebel falls way short of his potential, meanwhile interfering somewhat with the development of the more talented straight brother
SuziRiot: 1984 may have been obvious to me, but MOBY DICK was not. Very good.
HM: Outstanding. You're good at this game.
That episode of Twilight Zone and the short story it was based on starring Billy Mumy as the kid that everyone was afraid to say anything negative to lest he transform them into a freak and they have to be "wished out to the cornfield" to die.
G's B: I did a whole post on the "Anthony Presidency"...right now I'd like to be the Billy Mumy character and wish Obama into the cornfields!
Poifect
Perhaps something a bit more esoteric:
St. George and the Dragon
oil on canvas by Gustave Moreau c. 1870
+ Child-devouring beast menaces countryside
+ King's daughter loses lottery - must face the flame like the rank & file
+ St. George, by the power of La Croix, subdues beast and forces conversion through terroristic threat of releasing the beast.
Or maybe it was just a dream I had?
O'T:
Way to push it forward.
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