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From: lwe3207@acf4.UUCP (Lars Warren Ericson)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: Purple Rose of Cairo
Message-ID: <1110008@acf4.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 10-Apr-85 22:06:00 EST
Article-I.D.: acf4.1110008
Posted: Wed Apr 10 22:06:00 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 12-Apr-85 07:39:35 EST
References: <1110005@acf4.UUCP>
Organization: New York University
Lines: 43

[]

>  Goodness,  we are getting judgemental.  You sound like a politbureau when
>  you say something is an incorrect portrayal...

I am not trying to legislate art.  I am being judgemental.  Maybe you can 
suggest a nonjudgemental form of critical and emotional reaction?

All I am saying is that PROC is A) trash and B) antisocial.  In a very
provincial fashion it borrows a culture it doesn't understand to make a
relatively uninteresting point, and in the process misrepresents
a real social problem.  I have nothing against Woody Allen's artistic
freedom.  But I also have the freedom to comment on the meaningfulness of
his entertainment.

"Incorrect" means just that: go to a women's shelter.  Look for Mia Farrow.
If you can't find her, try talking to some ordinary mortals and see what
the real psychology of wife-beating is.  Or do you prefer your computers
with large blinking lights and rows of spinning tape drives?  Or is there
no truth?

> PS.  and anyway, why is satire nihilistic? -  Marcus Hand	(hou5h!mgh)

I worried about this phrase before I used it.  "Satire", according to
the American Heritage dictionary is "the use of derisive wit to attack 
folly or wickedness".  This presumes that all satirists have positive
social intentions.

The dictionary defines nihilism, in part, as "the rejection of all
distinctions in moral value".

Now suppose the nihilist imagined the consciousness of valuelessness to be
the supremely moral outlook.  The nihilist would then, to promote the point
of view that valuelessness is the only true value, pick truly horrible
things, and make fun of them.  For example, a comedy involving incest,
apartheid, incurable disease, mental retardation, or rape.  To the nihilist,
values are folly, values are wicked.  Therefore, to satirize the cherishing
of values, one satirizes events which should be cause for concern.  This is
"nihilistic satire".

Lars Ericson
Arpa: ericson@nyu
Usenet: {floyd,ihnp4}!cmcl2!csd1!ericson