talking dogs

[Ben Freeman]

Someone had bought up the talking dog in the movie Men in Black and
its Pynchonian parallels, specifically, the talking dog scene. I too was
immediately reminded of the L.E.D., and of course the dog from GR ("You
ver expecting mebbe Lessie??") and following it back I would even make
an argument for Garryowen, that lovable Irish dogee at the Citizen's
side in Ulysses, you know:
	
	We subjoin a specimen which has been rendered into English by
an eminent scholar whose name for the moment we are not at liberty to
disclose... The metrical system of the canine original, which recalls
the intricate alliterative and isosyllabic rules of the Welsh englyn,
is infinitely more complicated but we believe our readers will agree
that the spirit has been well caught. (310/312)

	I'd be interested in knowing how far back and forth you guys
can trace the whole talking dog phenomenon. To argue that the Men in
Black writers were versed in some Pynchon/Joyce wouldn't be hard... at
the very least they dig Shakespeare, or thats what I got out of the
whole galaxy in the cat Orion's pendant thing, some sort of oblique
reference to Hamlet talking about his kingdom in an egg-shell. I'm not
sure they took the talking dog from Pynchon or Joyce, though... maybe
Mr. Ed? I can also think of Homeward Bound, I think that's the movie
with Michael J. Fox in his laughable role as burntout talking dog
wishing he was back in the 80's where belonged, although, hey, it was
good to see him die in Mars Attacks (hands down one of the best
movies I've ever seen). Then there's Mr. Ed, and myriad cartoons with
talking animals... and the like...
 	
	Also interested in what you guys made of the whole
scale/morality issue in Men in Black. On one hand, characters are
deemed killable because they are exterminators and kill bugs
senselessly; the overriding theme of the flick seems to be, humans are
small and fragile and should take good care of things that seem small
and fragile to them, because, hey, were are just a speck on some
bizarre aliens basketball as the ending signifies? The "we" here is
Americans, as in, we should treat Mexicans well, we should treat bugs
well, we should evolve as a species because we're puny and our
thoughts are inferior. 

	Then things really symbolically begin to confuse me. I am
tired of the whole "Will-Smith-alienkiller" theme. The message here
and in Independence Day as well as others seems to be, the black man
can work with the white man against common enemies, some sort of Henry
V thing, you know, I eat leeks and you don't but we can still
chill and fight a common enemy... the guess who's coming to dinner
thing with Will Smith 
though really starts to get me angry. He's really very funny in this movie,
and I'm pro-blackwhite integration, but its such thinly veiled
propaganda... I hate that part of any movies these days... you can
almost identify whether Republicrats or Demoblicans picked up the tab
for the film... and the "sassytoughsmart" Black character jivin and
jazzin' up the lives of these soulless white people is an overdone,
silly "better" stereotype than the ones we are presently stuck with.

	Further confusion.. whats the symbolic significance of Edgar
the farmer? Anybody wanna bite and give some crazy analysis based on
the name? Why is a farmer a bug grazing the land? 

	One more thing on bugs in that movie: If you're not supposed
to kill bugs, and if Edgar the bug/farmer loves roaches and doesn't
want Will Smith to kill them, why should our "heroes" save the day by
blowing up an Edgar that wants to love other bugs? It seemed like
they wanted to get away from that, but somehow couldn't! Yeah, Edgar
is killing the peaceful aliens, but, Hollywood always give us these
silly excuses for people to be on the side of good so they can
exercise their violent vocabularies and instill us with our own.

	paranoid theory #375389AF: Violence in tv and movies with
thinly veiled moral backing is just a way to create a bunch of
Americans who will be willing to go to war and use violence for
whatever "good" premise. Combine that with patriotism (anything
America does is good) and you get a bunch of sleeping zombies who will
go to war for any reason... 

	I hate America. Where should I move? (And don't give me love
it or leave it or I'll come and kick your ass.. uhoh, there's that
violence creeping back into things.)

	One more parallel. Sitting in the theatre with my 7 year old
brother, watching him shake with fear during randomly violent scenes,
noticing that the rest of my siblings and myself are totally
accustomed to this violence. Then we go home and toss around a
football, this is one of those neat V2-missile style footballs with
the dorsal fins so you can throw them incredibly far. Watching the
same 7 year old kid shake with the possibility that the football might
hit him, and how my brother and I can catch it square in the chest
without flinching... weird how we become accustomed to random
violence.