AUT: poor eye-hand coordination / Star Wars

[Ben Hoh <jebni@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry people, pressed "send" accidentally on the last post.

On the Star Wars thread: I think Michael's Moorcock reference is spot on
about Tolkein and Heinlein's cyphers being able to be wildly interpreted,
and I think Star Wars falls into this category, although for all my love of
it, I think it's pretty obviously dodgy (and The Phantom Menace is so
relentlessly and appallingly racist!). (On the topic of Lucas's politix,
I've also witnessed *endless* flamewars on the net about why Raiders of the
Lost Ark is/isn't reactionary. "But the Nazis are the baddies!" "But it's an
old-school colonialist fantasy!" <Sigh...> Again, after Harry's defense of
"Marxism", I think this underscores the importance of what we *do* with
culture, rather than quixotic quests for originary authoriality.)

Recently, I think the most relevant case of such ambivalence is the work of
Paul Verhoeven -- particularly _RoboCop_ (basically, "this is what happens
when you privatise the police force -- ain't it *scary*?") and his
adaptation of Heinlein's _Starship Troopers_ (basically, "hyperbolic fascist
propaganda! ha ha!!"), which are two of my favourite films. (When I worked
for a major pop culture magazine, I had the pleasure of inserting _Starship
Troopers_ into the top rung of "The 100 Greatest Films of the 1990s".)


Ben



On 17/2/02 1:29 PM, "Ben Hoh" <jebni@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 5/1/02 9:04 PM, "John Hutnyk" <John.Hutnyk@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Hi Jim
>>
>> Are you coming to London. I'm leaving next saturday. What news?
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>>
>>
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