[lbo-talk] Seductions of Crime/That's Entertainment

andie nachgeborenen andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com
Wed Nov 5 07:26:33 PST 2003



>
> I really cannot understand the infatuation that many
> American, including
> those on this list have with crime and violence. I
> find violence
> repulsive under _any_ circumstances.
>

Not just Americans, and not just recently. See, e.g., Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, where Tamara has her brute sons rape T's daughter and cut out her tongue and cut off her hands, and Titus feeds them to Tamara in a pie, and everyone kills everyone on stage. Or Hamlet, "where the prince and ghost meet, and everyone ends in mincemeat" (a quote from the song That's Entertainment*) Or John Ford's Tis Pity She's A Whore, which ends with whatisname, the protagonist, entering with his sister's heart on the point of a knife. Or Dante and Milton, where the torments of the damned are much more fun and interesting than the enjoyments of the blessed. Or Homer, whose Illiad is an ode to slaughter. "And his teeth gripped the cold bronze, and the black blood spurted forth, and hateful death closed like a mist about him, and he fell, heavily, and his armor clattered upon him." I quote from memory. I know little of Polish literature, but in Russian literature, I recall psycho killers who whack old ladies with axes, and sprawling battles where princes and others are blown to bits, and the like. So, you hate indule in your US-hating, but we're not special in taste for blood as entertainment. Etc.

jks

* That's Entertainment Lyrics

Sung by Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray, Fred Astaire and Jack Buchanan (in The Bandwagon, directed by Vincente Minnelli)

Everything that happens in life Can happen in a show You can make 'em laugh You can make 'em cry Anything Anything can go....

The clown with his pants falling down Or the dance that's a dream of romance Or the scene where the villain is mean That's entertainment!

Nanette : The lights on the lady in tights

Oscar : Or the bride with the guy on the side

Jack : Or the ball where she gives him her all

All : That's entertainment!

Nanette : The plot and the hot simply teeming with sex

Oscar : A gay divorcee who is after her ex Fred : It could be Oedipus Rex

Jack : Where a chap kills his father And causes a lot of bother

Nanette : The clerk who is thrown out of work Oscar : By the boss who is thrown for a loss Fred : By the skirt who is doing him dirt

All : The world is a stage, The stage is a world of entertainment. That's entertainment! That's entertainment!

The doubt while the jury is out Or the thrill when they're reading the will Or the chase for the man with the face That's entertainment!

Nanette : The dame who is known as the flame Jack : Of the king of an underworld ring

Oscar and Fred : He's an ape Who won't let her escape

All : That's entertainment!

It might be a fight like you see on the screen A swain getting slain for the love of a queen Some great Shakespearean scene Where a ghost and a prince meet And everyone ends in mincemeat.

The gag may be waving the flag That began with a mystical hand Hip hooray! The American way The world is a stage, The stage is a world of entertainment

[www.STLyrics.com

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