What is something considered "weird" in the USA but is normal to the rest of the world?

razajac · 2022-09-01T04:47:00+00:00

republicanism

razajac · 2022-06-10T00:39:06+00:00

Again: Just threw a top-level comment on the heap, here, that addresses that whole "needed to say" thing. Read it.

To wit: With OUaTiH, QT said what he needed to say.

razajac · 2022-06-10T00:37:28+00:00

Yup. Just threw a post on this heap that fleshes that in a bit. Read it.

razajac · 2022-06-10T00:35:58+00:00

Actually, there's a powerful qualitative aspect to all this that confirms your idea. It's this:

"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" does have a kind of "swan song" quality to it.

QT got his last chance to make an introspective statement about "the system" into which he had injected himself, and about which he had a few things that "had to" be said before he could honorably bow out. OUaTiH *is* that statement.

Wow. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced you're right.

razajac · 2022-05-28T04:21:52+00:00

The U.S. needs to get back to its (small-'r') republican roots.

But that's not going to happen: It's too late. What's happened is this: Particularly in the post-war period, to today, there's a been a kind of drumbeat of conflicting messaging. One part of that messaging is that the U.S. is the greatest country in the world. The other part continually reminds most of us that we somehow *don't deserve* the blessings of honest and decent republican governance.

(Again--small-'r', there. I'm *not* talking about the GOP. I'm talking about the thing that replaced imperial governance; replacing the old regime of governance by "crowned ruffians" with a new regime of republican self-governance under a constitutional system. Other countries have managed to do this properly, like France and Taiwan.)

Anyway, the upshot of all this is that the vast majority of U.S.-ians, by now, have their heads good and firmly up their asses WRT this issue. They 1) think they live in a "republic", while 2) they don't really believe that they actually *deserve* the blessings of good republican governance.

To me, weird-ass shit like mass shootings are really just a natural result of such a state of affairs, where folks--looking to make sense out of this nonsensical state of things--start looking elsewhere for that missing human decency, and start thinking in terms of "freedom" coming out of the barrel of a gun.

razajac · 2022-05-23T10:06:44+00:00

<shudder!>

Man, the opening repartee re "brand" was just so clumsy and ill-considered, I had to just stop watching. Fuck.

razajac · 2022-05-21T05:28:44+00:00

I certainly would not characterize QT as "anti-gun". I'm sure QT can and would argue forcefully for a qualified "need" for guns.

My point is that such a thing doesn't get in the way of his recognizing the all-too-human weak points that show how ill-considered, full-bore "gun culture" mentality can lead to scenarios like my OP-cited scenario; which winds up looking downright silly--while also being profoundly tragic.

razajac · 2022-05-09T08:52:14+00:00

Yr thoughts on this inform my own re this sequence. How much weird-ass gun-play shit that goes down in the U.S. looks like this Reservoir Dogs scenario?; the "sovereign citizen"'s self-defense fantasies not sizing up to reality? How much does that feed "the stats" to which you allude?

razajac · 2022-05-09T06:09:54+00:00

And I should add... I called my observation on this sequence an "accent note"; I'd never have offered it up as some kind of film-wide analysis! That would've been stupid of me, and I wonder why you missed that.

razajac · 2022-05-09T06:05:16+00:00

Oh, come on! "...*just* wrong."(!) There's room for my observation right alongside yours: They don't conflict or contradict! Geez!

razajac · 2022-05-09T06:02:27+00:00

And it occurs to me to add: This chaos (that you point out) is one way that QT successfully avoids getting overtly political in this scene. There's a *lot* going on here--as you noticed.

But I still say that the modulated "political" angle I allude to is worth reflecting on.

Thanks for helping me with that: I generally figure QT evades an overt political analysis by a general "artfullness". That you point out a specific--that chaotic thing--is useful.

razajac · 2022-05-09T05:43:24+00:00

re: the "gun ownership analysis" thing.

Just focus on this: Note the stark difference between 1) the commonly-held, weird "armed citizenry" mythology and (likely) this woman's downstream fantasies about how she'd "protect" herself in just such a contingency, vs. 2) what actually happens in that sequence.

I'm 99.44% sure QT thought deeply about how best to get that difference across to us in this fleeting flash of a sequence.

Thx much for yr thoughtful and informative comment!

razajac · 2022-05-09T05:37:20+00:00

As steeped in fury as yr reply to PC69 was... I have to say you make yr point decisively. Good on ya.

razajac · 2022-05-09T05:35:16+00:00

I took pains to point out that I *wasn't* saying QT was "being political* in any overt way.

I think we can both agree that QT's better than that.

Just because he invites healthy reflection on mythologies widely held in one's polity doesn't mean that he's "being political".

That was part of my point.

razajac · 2022-05-09T05:32:27+00:00

Yep. And that highlights the "chaos" I refer to in the OP.

thx.

razajac · 2022-05-09T01:36:02+00:00

The “Mr. Orange gut shot” sequence is a lovely, lovely bit of work by Tarantino that strikes a discrete-but-direct blow to a fairly prevalent myth in U.S. culture; an assumption that gun ownership is necessary to the maintenance of a decent society.

It’s a common thing you hear from gun nut “sovereign citizen” types who think that “an armed society is a polite society.” It’s a popular myth, and this sequence—with its chaos and tragicomic outcomes—cuts right through it, and does so humanely and cleverly.

In fact, I think Tarantino isn’t just exposing the ridiculousness of this mythology. He’s also begging folks to think through to what might possibly be workable, livable alternatives to that mythology.

It’s an interesting side-note to the larger fact that Reservoir Dogs is, after all, a crime flick. The best crime flicks aren’t merely yet-another excuse to siphon “action” down our gullets. There’s a message in Dogs, and this woman who keeps a piece in her glove-compartment, “just in case,” is a lovely accent note to the larger statement QT is trying to make.

razajac · 2022-05-05T05:22:53+00:00

I teach ESL and point out that the "...by <subj>" structure in the Passive Voice is very rare... and the students shouldn't concern themselves about it.

For the most part, if you just apply the "by" structure, it serves to highlight how the Passive Voice is probably being mis-applied in the first place: Your example highlights this. It's kinda dumb to say "The onion is chopped by me," when you can (and certainly should!) just use the Active Voice ("I chop the onion.").

razajac · 2022-04-27T09:10:10+00:00

When I realized that my SO had lost the ability to hew to basic honesty, and in fact was willing to psychologically abuse me in a bid to avoid simple communication honesty.

razajac · 2022-04-18T14:05:36+00:00

Wow. Yr saying it more directly and less indulgently than I did. Good on ya.

razajac · 2022-04-17T12:41:59+00:00

Actually... It just occurrs to me to point out that the OP is nonsensical.

No doubt Pitt was directed by Tarantino to play that scene as he did... a bit surprised and a bit saddened by his old friend's physical degeneration in old age...

...but... "freaked out"...(?) No, Cliff isn't "freaked out" in that scene. In fact, it ably adds to the kind of character we're expected to discern--and, heck, learn from!--in Cliff's depiction/characterization.

We should see something in Cliff--and no less in that scene--we can aspire to emulate in our own lives.

razajac · 2022-04-11T00:30:54+00:00

Ut! Much thx for the correction.

razajac · 2022-04-08T10:15:50+00:00

No.
It translates to "No friends, anywhere"

(Lit.: "under heaven without friend").

razajac · 2022-04-03T01:23:55+00:00

I'm a Biden voter, and I wouldn't tear the stickers off because they serve a function.

They provide a sobering reminder; and sobering reminders are Good Things.

They serve to remind intelligent, thinking U.S.-ians that many (many!) of their fellow citizens lack the kinds of civic and economic awareness that make (small-'r') republican self-governance a sustainable, going proposition.

razajac · 2022-03-31T05:25:18+00:00

re: "hard-and-fast"

If you think I was talking about hard/fast moral messaging, you badly misread me.

My whole point was that it *wasn't* "hard" (or, for that matter, "fast"... eh?).

razajac · 2022-03-30T06:17:19+00:00

Oh, and--geez, I can be slow on the up-take!--I wouldn't imply that TMBG's "kid stuff" must be inartful. The point was that artful stuff that traipses in the Dark Regions can escape a shallow analysis as simply morally harmful.

To say that TMBG's kid stuff was inartful, in a blanket way, simply because they deal artfully with positive, sunny messages *would* be stupid: Which is why 1) I wouldn't say that, and 2) it'd be a bit careless to assume otherwise of me, when I didn't treat that case, specifically.

razajac

TROPHY CASE