Breakfast of Champions

Jordan Hayes jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com
Sun Sep 19 09:39:27 PDT 1999


Doug quotes Zizek (about how Kubrick 'gets it' and Altman doesn't):

The lesson is therefore clear: an ideological identification

exerts a true hold on us precisely when we maintain an awareness

that we are not fully identical to it, that there is a rich human

person beneath it: 'not all is ideology, beneath the ideological

mask, I am also a human person' is the very form of ideology, of

its 'practical efficiency'.

I think that another excellent example of this can be found in Louis Malle's "Murmur of the Heart" (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0067778) when Laurent is left with his pal after being an alterboy at a Catholic service and is asked by his mischevous friend if he wants to munch on some leftover wafers -- the bad old priest has left them alone to clean up -- and he replies: to blaspheme means you still believe.

Does Kubrick not let Modine's character off the hook because it's impossible or simply as a dig on Altman's attempt to let the MASH crew off the hook? Clearly Zizek thinks they still believe.

Kirsten tells me that Yossarian in Catch-22 finds a way to get off the hook, but it just reminds me that I've never read it.

/jordan



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