Yesterday C.C. asked me if I had seen the 1931 movie "Trader Horn." I hadn't, but I began to do a little bit of Googling. Now it is a must-see. Everything that could go wrong in making a movie went wrong in making that movie. They shot most of it in Africa where crew were eaten by crocodiles and killed by charging rhinos. The female star got so sick it took her six years to recover her health. And if that is not enough, the story is insane. It is the kind of stuff I grew up on, white people going into the world seeking exotic adventure.
I tried to find the film online, but it isn't there. I found trailers on YouTube, and I found this (link)--"The Blonde Captive," made the same year. Of course, I watched it. White people used to be crazy. They'd run off into inhospitable places just to find things. Of course, they had something they don't have now, a profound sense of cultural and intellectual superiority. It made them braver, perhaps, than they might have been otherwise. Thinking God favors you does give you a bit of an edge psychologically. Plus, you know, white societies were much more technologically advanced, so they had that advantage, too. They never went into the jungle only to find that the natives had advanced warning systems and ray guns. Poison dart blowguns and boomerangs were about it. And, of course, cannibalism and the worship of the darker, lesser gods. Sure, there were things to fear from the Pagans, but in the end, good old Yankee ingenuity would prevail.
Skip ahead.
It was a different time, another world.
I've been reading in the Norton Anthology of World Religions again. Boy oh boy, Christians were sure hard on one another. Hard on Jews and Moslems, too. But you didn't want to be a Protestant in a Catholic country or vice-versa. They did terrible things to one another and fought long and brutal wars.
My surgeon brought that up the other day when I visited his office. "In the Middle Ages," he said, "if you got a wound, your body either fought off the infection or you died." I don't know if he thought he was making me feel better or not. But yea, imagine the crazy injuries soldiers got from sling shots and arrows and boiling oil and swords. And still they fought. But it wasn't just them. The same happened in every culture around the globe.
Human life has never been so precious as it is today. We never talk about the little people on the bottom of the evolutionary totem pole. Everything is good. Everything is equal.
Until it isn't.
I don't think cancel culture is going to work with the right wing militia. AOC is going to have to rely on someone else doing battle to keep her safe. She's not feeling that so much right now.
My mother wondered yesterday how all this suddenly happened. The armed rebels, she meant. I told her it didn't. We have allowed them to go on and swell their ranks for decades now. Remember Timothy McVeigh, I asked her? Remember Waco and Ruby Ridge? My old gym was full of those people. Gun shows and conspiracy theories. They had dropped out of the mainstream long ago. They were part of an entirely underground economy. They were leaving no paper traces, as they used to say. I could buy just about anything I wanted in the back room of the gym as long as I paid cash. No, I told her, this was not surprising. It has been growing for a very long time.
Oh, yes, and there were many law enforcement people involved. You shouldn't believe that they are not involved in conspiracy theories, too.
It's not all UFOs and Big Foot. Those guys are armed to the teeth and have a good supply of exogenous testosterone at their fingertips. They are ready to beat the dark hordes back into the jungle.
They like hog hunting and air boats and swamp buggies the way some people like art festivals and a good glass of wine.
Well. . . that certainly went off the rails. I have no idea what I'm saying at this point. You will have to make your own connections. I'm pretty sure they are there if you can find them. Something to do with white people and shifting liberal values maybe. I don't know. I grew up playing Tarzan with all the kids in the neighborhood. I don't think kids do that so much any more.
ReplyDeleteI wrote three essays.
I had all the important stuff in my head driving home from picking up THC Salve for my friend in Florida from the Farmer. Only the Farmer dropped it off at his Father in Laws house - who happens to be the G.B. Who happened to text "I've got no beer or ciggies...lean times."
Yeah yeah yeah.
Anyway, I got him beer, got him stoned and we chatted for 45 minutes. I told him some good stories, one of the Russian Practitioner that made him bust up.
It's better live, I think.
And then, driving home, I had this big blob of narrative just dropped, fully done in my head.
I was excited to get home and put it here.
Hours later. It isn't anything like what was dropped in my head.
It's confusing and goes all around what I really wanted to say - or more really, what whoever is in charge of putting fully done narratives into someones head wanted to say. For as soon as "I" got involved it soured.
Oh well. I saved them and maybe they'll get better looking over night.
They are about Davinci's Madonna & Child and women's breasts and Barbie and Peter Pan & Tinkerbell. Lois Lane and Superman. Pete & Edie. Even Tarzan and Jane. And Sailor Venus. Hannah is in there. And museums and art, understanding, vulnerability, and life and love. There was some religiousity, cancel culture and even some food. AOC is there. Judgement.
Non-binary people. Hypocrisy.
Oh it was a big Idea.
It might have been all about human beings, art & the reality of the agreements we make with each other. I don't think just white humans. Of course not, Jesus wasn't even white.
And now, set to settle in with "Trader Horn," I come to find out my cable subscription does not include Turner Movie Classics anymore. It's been moved to a "Sports package." Cable TV - they sure figured out how to make money. No wonder my mother is TV miserable. She hasn't told me but she ALWAYS watched that. I have to check on it tomorrow.
It's Sunday. I did a lot of thinking today. My head hurts some. I'm lonely. Of course. I did a little weeping today listening to some music. Blah blah blah.
Don't worry C.S. I'll help protect you from the Awful Mean Ones. I will. I will use my super power. Pixie Dust and a really super shield. We can be very fierce you know. Us Girls.
Not that you can't do it all by yourself, of course.
But it's never a bad thing to have extra help.
Okies. Night you.
ReplyDeleteOk I had come back here because you made me remember that I grew up "playing house."
We would divide up areas (indoor play in my bedroom cause I was the only girl - it was ALL pink including a pink shag rug PLUS I had a bump out that was where the nursery was - cause I had an entire baby set up - crib, high chair, diapers, etc. The "houses" we lived in contained play telephones (sometimes real phones give to me by my mother or father to play with). We used to pretend to open the fridge and cook. We had husbands who were just the most manly men - and as we started knowing Teen Beat Boys or started to listen to records - they were from the bands we loved - Bobby Sherman, Donny Osmond, one of the Bay City Rollers - when Denise got a KISS record we graduated up to those Bad Boys.
Hannah played that way too. Endlessly, cause the friends she had loved to play the same way.
And remember this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_kzJ-f5C9U
It's silly of course. But given an opportunity to speak honestly and openly - doesn't even the most hardcore executive want to be sexy and turn on their partner? at least sometimes? I mean of course, a lot of life is dropping and cuddling - flannels yoga pants - whatever. But shouldn't a human want to turn on their partner human (Man/Woman or any combination thereof) I could care less. AND be smart, and do interesting things, like cook?
I know what I like.
In life, you hope you find a partner that likes at least some of the same things - lots of the same if you are lucky enough (to argue about and laugh - and/or both feel confident and trusting enough to talk about anything).
I'm good at being a woman. That's the way it works for me. I don't judge. If that doesn't work for you - don't suffer - find what does and treasure it. Savour it. Honor it. It's a gift.
I don't want them to cancel being naked or sexy or lingerie or being good to your Man or Woman in the Feminine Way. Why do they want to take that away? It's hardwired - biological.
Why does everything seem - these days - to have to get narrow and close when we are supposed to be about widening and opening with regard to - well each other especially.
Don't get me wrong, progress has been made. Lots.
But it seems - sometimes like while there is forward energy happening - there is also - a restricting energy battling.
I saw something on the Insta today it said
"Remove Judgement and Fear will vanish."
It's a pretty simple concept. Don't get me wrong - I will fight, speak out against tyranny, I'm bad with hypocrisy, and I have been working on my ill temperament against stupid. Purposeful stupid. Not like a person who has disabilities, etc. < --- do I sound like a liberal twathead? Fuck. I don't mean too. I just want people to be kind to each other as best they can (and the environment & animals, etc.)
Things would be a lot better all around.
I haven't a clue if that says anything like what I wanted to say. I'll have another look before catching up to today.
Nopey. I don't think so. But I'm posting it. Don't laugh at me or anything. Oh okay you can. So Fuck you in advance. :*