20160203 (fairytale feminism)

A super, almost gut-busting spoof and tribute to the Disney "Princess" films by who but the Disney folks themselves. That it starred my current filmic heartthrob didn't hurt either.

There was one surprise among

The Amy Adams films I received

From the Cleveland Public

Library today—a film which if

My head were screwed on straight

I would probably never have 

Watched. But I did and I’m

Thrilled—Enchanted (2007)—

You might say and not be far

Wrong. The medical assistant

Who drew my blood today  

Confessed to a comparable love

For Ms. Adams. She advised

Me not to miss E’d as one of 

Her best performances. Have 

To admit the whole Disney

Thing put me off at first but

I could not have been wronger.

I knew it was not all animated

But it started that way with all

The cutesy forest creatures

In provocative hyper-primary

Colors. I thought I was in for

Snow White, Sleeping Beauty,

The whole shebang with a

Particular emphasis on she.

Suffice to say the transition

To live action occurs, if I 

Remember rightly (don’t get 

Old), when the animated

Giselle, who has fallen in

Love with Prince Edward

And agreed to marry him

The next day, is dispatched

By her evil soon-to-be

Stepmother into an almost

Endless well which terminates

At a manhole in a busy 

Real-world Manhattan street.

As Ms. Adams emerges from

The sewer by personally 

Chucking the heavy cover

We get the impression this is

Not going to be your typical

Feather-headed Disney princess

Story. Adam’s voice and delivery

Sustains the cartoonish simplicity

With endearing, magical power.

I had not seen or heard Ms.

Adams sing or dance in her other

Work and was truly en-tranced

By her terrific lead in a Central

Park-filling ensemble song and

Dance tour de force as only

Disney does. All other niceties

Aside, and there are many,

The story reaches its peak (how 

Apt) as the evil step-mom, who

Has transformed into a scary

Blue dragon and carried Giselle’s

True love to the top of the

Waldorf-Astoria a’la King Kong.

Except the Fay Wray figure is

The talented attorney (Patrick 

Dempsey) screaming, “Help,

Save me,” in a full-pour rain

Storm. Giselle seizes the sword

(Of course, there’s a sword—what

Kind of fairy tale wouldn’t have

A sword?), clambers up the W-A

And hurls the sword precisely to

Save Mr. Dempsey from tumbling

To the sidewalk below. I have

Long criticized Disney Princess

Flicks for their portrayal of 

Powder-puff girls being saved

By brave, clear-headed young

Men and then settling into

Connubial bliss “forever.”

While E’d qualifies as both

Homage and parody of the

Princess genre, I couldn’t

Be more pleased they made it.

If you haven’t seen it yet (which

After eight years is unlikely)

Watch it with a film-savvy

Crowd and have the time of

Your life.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016

20160202 (redemptive violence)

In one of the last scenes a lady sergeant remarks to her
accompanying general after he makes peace with S-man,
"You gotta admit, he's a hunk."

Watching 2013’s Man of Steel 

Brought a lot of thoughts to mind 

About the nature of the world, the 

Elements of  “fight” stories, which 

Hearken back to a book seminal

To my thinking about literature,

Myth, and theology, Walter Wink’s,

Engaging the Powers (1992). 

He illustrates how a religion

Of violence founded in ancient

Babylonian myth abounds in

American cultural life—religion,

Politics, and entertainment. If I

Might simplify (and may 

Scholars forgive my errors): the

Babylonian cosmos is the result

Of a dispute among primordial

Principles. Tiamat, the disorderly

Female equivalent of evil and

Chaos is violently subdued by

A stronger god Marduk, male

Principle. Ea, another god who

Slaughters still another whose

Drops of blood become humans,

Made simply to serve the gods,

Produce wealth, fight and die 

Without question. Wink says

The themes are everywhere in our

Culture: an indestructible good 

Guy becomes captive to an

Equally indestructible bad guy.

They fight it out until the good

Guy triumphs. But wait, there’s

More. The bad guy is never really

Destroyed and the cycle goes on.

Comics are an especially good

Source: Superman, Batman and

Robin, Lone Ranger. And the theme

Translates well into our system

Of military superiority, our police,

The national security state, even to

Corruptions of religion allying 

With our being the world police

Who must put down every instance

Of disorder, revolution, change.

To bow out now and suggest you

Read the book may seem 

Unfair but I want to say a few

Things about “fight” stories and

This movie. Fight films build up

To the big one and the drama

Consists in following the mayhem

Punch by punch, often in slow 

Motion so that you can watch

The blood splatter from the faces.

So too, MoS, ends in a tediously

Overworked blow-by-blow of 

These Titans of good and evil

Until more than half the window

Glass in all Manhattan has been

Shattered while they throw each 

Other’s bodies about. Humankind

Watches and waits in the streets 

Below, somehow not covered in

Blood and not recoiling from all

The death worked about them,

Ready to pay obeisance to the 

Demigod Kal-El from Krypton

Via Kansas. And since you’re

An American moviegoer capable

Of suspending tremendous 

Disbelief or not remembering

The Daily Planet building was

Destroyed in the fracas, who but

Our hero S-Man, mild-mannered,

Clark Kent assumes the task of

Stringer in the Daily Planet’s

Metropolis headquarters, to do

Mini-battles with human ne’er

Do wells? What a downer.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016

20160201 (arrow of time)

Telling someone where a thing is

Is fairly simple: Apt B, 123 G Street,

Somewhere City, OH. The example

Leaves something out and it’s not 

The ZIP code. “Between the hours

Of 11:00 PM and 9:00 AM most

Weekdays, as she often spends

Weekends with her Aunt Paloma,”

Nails it a bit better but the police

May want to know exactly where

She was at 4:36 AM on July 20,

2013. Namely, was she in the blue

1999 Pontiac when Sam “Punkie”

Webster shot and killed his drug

Dealer? For all we care she might

Have sat in that car all her life 

Except for the hour between 4:00

And 5:00 AM and no one would 

Care. Everybody’s free to wander

Through Punkie’s car hour by hour,

Like the queue lining up to see

Shamu at Sea World. But at the

Precise time when shots rang out

Terminating the sales career of

Punkie’s pusher only one woman

Was next to Punkie and his gun

Who could testify it was indeed

Punkie who sold him the farm.

If it’s the dicks looking for a 

Person they want an answer 

That includes the x, y, and z,

Axes and the time the person

Was at those x, y, and z axes.

In fact depending on how you

Construct reality, without time

Changing, we’d all be stuck

Exactly where we are unable to

Change places or even to lift 

A finger. Some nit-picking

Philosophers like Zeno deny

That motion occurs, but we 

Won’t get into that today. For

Now we’ll agree the motions

We observe are possible.

So whether the motions take us

Further x or higher y or deeper z

Nobody takes us earlier T although

Everything moves to later T at

The same rate. Ever since Sir Arthur

Eddington, British astronomer, ca.

1927, named the observation the

Arrow of Time, although practically

Everybody from Ugg, the first

Bootmaker to Punkie the cokehead

Of recent memory had come to

The same conclusion (so much for

Being first—you have to name the 

Damn thing), time as we all 

Experience it moves only in one

Direction. Physicists, cosmologists,

And psychologists have had a field

Day with this banal discovery and

Several good science fiction authors

Have been well paid to dwell

On the ramifications. I will spare

You the major topics and state

That although all physical laws

Can work in reverse as well as

Forward, time appears to move

Only forward, yielding as it goes

Greater and greater entropy . . .

Not a substance, like butter or

Hydrogen, but an overall measure

Of order and disorder in the

Universe. But, wait, there’s more.

Everything goes to greater disorder

Except for the paradox of evolution,

In which things of greater and 

Greater “order” or “organization”

Complex molecules, eventually us,

Thoughts, ballet, words, stories,

Take place in the midst of processes

Delivering the usual entropy—heat,

Motion, etc., without fail. And without

So much as a flick of the wrist

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J,

Almost comically upended 

The Darwinian atheism of the 

Late nineteenth century.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016