SLPAD 82 - nonchalant compassion & genre conventions

[Mark Kohut]

I love, luv, this.....thanks....

On Mon, Jul 31, 2023 at 4:35 AM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

> “he assumed toward
>                her that same nonchalant compassion which he felt for the
> heroines of sex novels,
>                or for the burned out but impotent good guy rancher in a
> western.”
>
> Another cultural reference
> Actually 2, both generic:
>
> “The heroines of sex novels” - such as _Swamp Wench_ no doubt; presumably,
> while lying on his cot reading suchlike books he’s developed a “nonchalant
> compassion”
>
> This accords with theories of how reading expands one’s ability to
> empathize and care about others, as a sort of thought experiment; also, in
> buying & reading this type of book he demonstrates an interest in women who
> embark on sexual adventures.
>
> However, in addition to compassion (however nonchalant it might be), it
> seems that his reading has inspired him to create a category of person in
> whom he need only feel limited interest - which speaks to his own
> limitations, but also perhaps to the implied attitudes in _Swamp Wench_ et
> al.
>
> He skips to a generic Western movie reference in the same sentence, as an
> alternative stimulus prompting a similar “nonchalant compassion” to what he
> feels for sex novel heroines (and for Buttercup here), buttresses the
> linkage of his emotion/thought process to received patterns from the
> ambient culture.
>
> Levine himself is acting out a composite of anti-heroic roles such as
> Marlon Brando, eg, or Jack Nicholson in upcoming roles, would play.
>
> The impotent good guy rancher will be humiliated and ultimately rescued
> (one hopes) by more puissant defenders of goodness - it’s a genre
> convention.
>
> The wild woman in a sex novel is actually looking for true love, and Levine
> is one of the frogs she will kiss in vain - at least that’s the genre
> convention.
>
> He doesn’t appear to give proper weight to the idea that maybe she really
> is seeking the same sort of transient adventure that he is. So he
> perfunctorily accedes to genre convention, in his mind.
>
> It doesn’t stop him from carrying through with the experience at hand,
> there in the love shack, though, does it?
> --
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>