Dates inspired by Murakami and Moore
Thanks to Murakami Haruki and Michael Moore, I’ve got a couple of hot dates coming up.
I’m just about to finish Murakami Haruki’s The Elephant Vanishes, which I’ve been reading at my wife’s suggestion. She’s taking me to a new play based on this book, you see, and she says I need to have some background knowledge to fully appreciate the performance.
She introduced me to translations of Murakami’s work when we lived back in the States, and I’ve always enjoyed them a lot, but it has only been more recently that I’ve started reading his work in its original Japanese (again, with the aim of understanding the Japanese in the play). It’s been good exercise for my brain, because I don’t read Japanese for pleasure as often as I should.
Although I think Murakami’s best work is found in his stand-alone stories, this collection of short stories was perfect for reading on the train during my daily commute. I can also imagine that these shorter stories would be much easier to adapt to the stage than, say, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Still, the surrealistic fringes of Murakami’s stories are sure to be a great challenge for both the actors and the director. I look forward to seeing how they handle them.
In the same vein, my wife has been reading Michael Moore’s Stupid White Men in preparation to see “Bowling for Columbine”.
Hmmn…The Elephant Vanishes and “Bowling for Columbine”. Odd choices, perhaps, but that’s what our respective cultures are producing these days.
gosh I love Murakami but there’s no way I’m game enough to read any of them in the original Japanese! \r
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That might send me over the edge….
I"ve tried to get in to see Bowling at the Ebisu cinema but it’s been sold out. On the other hand, Moore should be watched and read with a bit of skepticism. Here is a good site detailing the distortions in Bowling. I can’t judge for sure since, as I said, I haven’t seen it yet. URL: http://www.hardylaw.net/Truth_About_Bowling.html
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Reading Murakami in Japanese is a bit difficult, but I doubt it would drive you over the edge. It might lead you to hold up a McDonald’s to settle an old score, but that’s nothing you wouldn’t have done anyway, right?
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Absolutely. Although I’m sure this blog doesn’t reflect my political views as accurately as I would like, I’m actually pretty objective about most things. Although I rail against the Bush administration a lot, that doesn’t mean that I take everything someone like Moore says at face value.\r
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These days I’ve also been reading Greg Palast’s “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy,” which is a lot like Moore’s Stupid White Men: The’s a lot in there that really needs to be taken with a large grain of salt, but should not simply be dismissed. Personally, I think both Moore and Palast are kind of tacky in the ways they choose to express their criticisms, but I admire their determination, their courage to stand up for what they believe (whether I share their beliefs or not), and the way they stick to their guns, so to speak.
I stil hope to see Bowling and I’ll try to keep an open mind about it but if the facts on the webpage I linked to are true, then I can’t admire Moore for his courage or for sticking to his guns (ahem). I’ve seen deconstructions of his other works like SWM and it seems clear that the guy lies and distorts (sorry, too tired to google for links now but Spinsanity did a piece on SWM).\r
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Ultimately, his biggest fault is that he destroys his own causes. The guy is political poison because people know that he’s a jerk and dishonest. If you want to see Bush go down in ‘04, I would not rely on Moore’s work to get out the message. I sometimes wonder if he’s not a mole working for Karl Rove to discredit the opposition. Do you remember his work for Nader in ‘00? They failed to get out the targeted 5% of the vote but did manage to get enough to help tip Florida to Bush. He had the same effect last November. In the campaign season, he went around triumphally anouncing how the Republicans were going to go down and he timed the release of his movie and his SWM book promotion tour to bolster this. What happened? Moore triumphantly predicted Democratic resurgance but the Republicans gained firm control of the government. I won’t claim that Moore threw elections across the nation to the Republicans but I sense a connection between him and failure (of his causes, he profits quite handsomly I’m sure). If Moore ever embraced a cause that I cared deeply about, I would be really worried, knowing he would ruining it. \r
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Back to Bowling, I’ve heard that it is surprisingly not a pro-gun control attack on the Second Amendment. Instead he takes up the issues of racism, media-hysteria and the culture of violence. This sounds like an interesting thesis, which is why I want to see it. But it’s unforgivable that he ruins any chance of honest discussion by resorting to lies and distortions. \r
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Sorry for this long meandering post but I think Moore should have covered the case of (Yoshi?) Hattori. That incident fits his thesis much better than the Michigan grade school case (which he distorts, anyway). Remember the poor Japanese exchange student who was shot and killed in Louisiana as a result of a halloween prank gone awry? \r
In many respects, I have to agree: Moore is rather obnoxious and very sure of himself (sometimes even to the extent that he won’t let contrary facts get in the way—a trait he shares with Bush, oddly enough). Still, I don’t think he really has any political clout to speak of. I certainly wouldn’t blame him for the losses the Democrats suffered in the mid-term elections. The Dems have only themselves to blame for that. \r
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If I were a candidate—for any party—I would probably just ignore Michael Moore (and I’m reasonably sure Karl Rove does, too) and let him do his thing.
Well I see that we agree on most things. This is good but it makes for boring blog commentary - better to flame, uhhh, I mean argue and debate. \r
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I’m not convinced that Moore should just be ignored. He’s a corrosive influence pushing the party to the far Left and pushing voters like me towards the Republicans. \r
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Did you hear about his latest project? Rumour has it that it’s a film about Bush and his family ties to Saudi Arabia and Bin Laden’s family and maybe to 9/11. It’s supposedly going to come out before the election. \r
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As I said before, his main crime is not dissent - criticizing the American government. His main crime is ruining legitimate dissent. Exploring the issues of Bush’s ties to oil and Saudi Arabia and whether they compromise American security issues and the way the war on terror is fought is a very important question. The issue is too important to be dominated by to a known liar with little remaining credibility (Oscar notwithstanding). I’m pretty sure that this movie will follow the patterns of his other work (i.e., vindictive and distorted) and I’m pretty sure it will likely cause a backlash against Bush’s opponents. It’ll be popular in France though. \r
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Democrats should actively distance themselves from this guy. Afterall, they should want to punish him for his Green Party activism in ‘00.
Well I see that we agree on most things. \r
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Well, maybe not: I think you give Moore far too much credit for the influence he wields, which I think is actually quite marginal. I don’t think he has the power to push voters at all. No one I know makes political decisions based on what Michael Moore says or does. That would be like saying the Dixie Chicks are pushing voters to vote Republican. Maybe it happens, but voters that flakey are not likely to swing elections.
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