[lbo-talk] Philosophy of Science & Sex, Kink and Ick

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Thu Sep 23 06:31:44 PDT 2004


Carrol Cox wrote:


>A major form of bourgeois art is devoted (how self-consciously I do not
>know) to dramatizing the ease with which the "superior part" of society
>can rise above the rest by transcending capitalism in their private
>life. That is the essential thrust, for example, of _Lost in
>Translation_, in which the central protagonists float easily above the
>"alienated" world about them, engendering similar illusions (or
>delusions) in the audience.

Wow, that's a weird interpretation. The protagonists are in a foreign country, whose language they don't speak and culture they don't understand, trying to deal with their problematic attraction to each other. They're alienated (and the Murray character is alienated from his job as a pitchman), but there's nothing easy about it.


>It is really quite absurd to attempt to predict what sexual behavior
>would be like in post-capitalist society. Mao again, "Marxists have no
>crystal ball."

He'd be shocked to learn that China is now the #1 target for foreign direct investment, having surpassed the U.S., wouldn't he? Still waiting for that analysis of what went wrong with his revolution.

Doug



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