re Re: NP: Twain, Part One and more

[Richard Romeo]

malign sed:
Is there an >exploitation when an artist (not necessarily Pynchon, but he's 
the example >here) uses the drama of such an event (as the slaughter of the 
Herero) for >artistic ends?
>
>   Is there a sort of pornographic element in
>this?
>
>I had similar feelings watching Schindler's List whenever Spielberg 
>indulged
>his mastery of the craft of filmmaking.
-----------------
Odd--had similar feelings as a viewer watching the excruciating mass killing 
scenes in Klimov's Come and See.  Yes, these stories need to be told, but 
one does wonder if we're all living that vicarious lie of turning art into 
some sort of truth or religion as viewers, particularly when viewing works 
of art that mirror reality (or its unreality) to an extrordinary degree--the 
ghoul-like emergence of german paratroopers out of smoke, the vast 
explosions and falling trees, the burning buildings, a gang rape by drunken 
SS, the hateful beauty of flames arcing out of a flamethrower or out of a 
machine gun in twilight, the faces of weeping old women, the weasel nibbling 
on the shoulder of a german officer, the drugged up SS lady nibbling on 
lobster amidst the screams of burning children.

Can one say by our shock that we know more intimately about these events by 
passive viewing.  We may gain perspective, but it would be the ultimate in 
hubris to claim any such intimacy, which is what pornography is after all.

Rich






_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.