Fear of suffering
Best-record-store-in-Houston Kate linked to an astoundingly good article by Mary Gaitskill, who wrote the story Secretary was based on. It's mostly about the story/movie, and is quite good on there, but I want to highlight a more general paragraph:
But I believe that this apparent desire to be a victim cloaks an opposing dread--I believe that Americans are in fact profoundly, neurotically terrified of being victims, ever, in any way. This fear is conceivably one reason we just waged a grotesque and gratuitous "war" in Iraq--because Americans couldn't tolerate feeling like victims, even briefly. I think it is the reason every boob with a hangnail has been clogging the courts and haunting talk shows across the land telling his/her "story" and trying to get redress for the last twenty years. Whatever the suffering is, it's not to be endured, for God's sake, not felt and never, ever accepted. It's to be triumphed over. And because some things cannot be triumphed over unless they are first accepted and endured (indeed, some things cannot be triumphed over at all), the "story" must be told again and again in an endless pursuit of a happy ending. To be human is finally to be a loser, for we are all fated to lose our carefully constructed sense of self, our physical strength, our health, our precious dignity, and finally our lives. A refusal to tolerate this reality is a refusal to tolerate life, and art based on the empowering message and the positive image is part of this juvenile condition.
There's an acronym online, OTM, which stands for "On The Money" and indicates strong/forceful agreement with someone else's opinion, argumentation or reasoning. Gaitskill is incredibly OTM here. The modern person's relation to suffering is deeply, damagingly fucked up, and I think Gaitskill is absolutely on the right track here.
But I believe that this apparent desire to be a victim cloaks an opposing dread--I believe that Americans are in fact profoundly, neurotically terrified of being victims, ever, in any way. This fear is conceivably one reason we just waged a grotesque and gratuitous "war" in Iraq--because Americans couldn't tolerate feeling like victims, even briefly. I think it is the reason every boob with a hangnail has been clogging the courts and haunting talk shows across the land telling his/her "story" and trying to get redress for the last twenty years. Whatever the suffering is, it's not to be endured, for God's sake, not felt and never, ever accepted. It's to be triumphed over. And because some things cannot be triumphed over unless they are first accepted and endured (indeed, some things cannot be triumphed over at all), the "story" must be told again and again in an endless pursuit of a happy ending. To be human is finally to be a loser, for we are all fated to lose our carefully constructed sense of self, our physical strength, our health, our precious dignity, and finally our lives. A refusal to tolerate this reality is a refusal to tolerate life, and art based on the empowering message and the positive image is part of this juvenile condition.
There's an acronym online, OTM, which stands for "On The Money" and indicates strong/forceful agreement with someone else's opinion, argumentation or reasoning. Gaitskill is incredibly OTM here. The modern person's relation to suffering is deeply, damagingly fucked up, and I think Gaitskill is absolutely on the right track here.
well the guys I was talking to who work with the woman were more focused on her almost not being accepted as a teacher somewhere because of some story she wrote where a professor gives an undergrad a blowjob. But yeah! That too! OTM.
and yay for being a record store!
Posted by
Lady K! : |
12:47 AM
You are totally a record store.
Posted by
Ian |
12:48 AM
totally. I eat 45s for lunch.
Posted by
Lady K! : |
12:51 AM