Odd week, I guess I'm halfway through the workload. The Destiny's Church Rally was a strange & disturbing sight. Thanks to Iona & Fi for writing more & better about it than I could. Although Fi, isn't feeling pity for them for their hate-filled ways just the same as them praying for your homosexuality to go away? My own sexual orientation is boringly hetero but I was a bit shaken by all the fascist parallels.
Although Wellington's been seeing fascist scenes recently anyway - the disgrace at the Jewish cemetary and the triumphal parades for LOTR. Peter Jackson seems a hell of a lot more a benevolent dictator than Adolf or Benito though, the guy is a genuine artist. But there's the whole unity organised around a strong leader figure going on. The Nazi slogan 'blood and soil' could be an apt description of the LOTR aesthetic. Then again Jackson's probably more of a Roman general than a fascist dictator. I had to get out of that scene. I was at Bodega last night, met a guy I vaguely knew who said he was now working on King Kong. He added, out of the blue, "we don't use condoms".
Personally I think if HIV arrived in Wellington via the film industry that would be a horrible tragedy - but I'd laugh if the cosy insiders all start coming down with crabs.
I was also pleased to see in Illusions magazine John Downie's piece (my old theatre & film lecturer) about Return of the King. It's the first piece of writing about the films that I've seen (aside from the occasional bad review overseas) that's taken a remotely critical angle. The films are great in so many senses of the word and there's plenty more yet to be written about them, but it's nice that one little dissenting voice has popped up amidst all the hagiography. Am I not alone in thinking that the media's taken an astonishingly one-sided view of the LOTR phenomena? As Downie said, ROTK signifies nothing outside of itself - the world has been turned inside out by the films, no longer art reflecting life but life itself (in the sense of the wider culture of this country) being molded to reflect a piece of art.
I'm off to court again today. Defended hearing this time where they plead not guilty so it could go either way. Then another cultural story to write in the afternoon. And a letter asking for official information . And haven't even started my Treaty of Waitiangi assignment. And my shorthand still sucks.
On the other hand, I've got a bunch of stuff finished. I mailed in my script to Radio NZ for their Open Story Season, and have written the other stories I need to do for now. I've reached the course target of 40 published. But I'm getting bags under my eyes. Hopefully go tramping next week, that's a thought to hold onto.
And it's Dad's birthday today, Happy Birthday Dad.
Posted by fiffdimension at August 25, 2004 09:14 AM | TrackBack