Greetings Economists, On Feb 8, 2008, at 5:36 PM, Jim Devine wrote:
does every film have to be a message film?
Doyle; I think this is a strong question. When I look at the early comments by Marx and Engels about culture much of their questions were about thumping the tub with a message that failed to gauge the reality of society. A sort of critical realism was more important to them than dare I say it 'political correctness'. Their idea was about someone who grasped the dynamics of society to give us the reality, and Balzac was their man, a Royalist whose picture of early 19th century France dove tailed with the reality they saw in class society. Secondly, my question in a time of Intellectual Property questions do we not ask what sort of product modern culture is? For thirty years Pop culture has reigned as the dominant sort of cultural take in the U.S. Post Modernism is but one facet of embracing capitalist culture in it's chaotic glory. Where is the voice of class? Not in the sense of 'populism', nor a focus on ethnic rights and struggle? Where will we find that? It is underground by the nature of big corporate control. There is a voice there, and plenty of ways to produce something. I mean by voice there are people who continue to see class as meaningful part of their life. What is missing is the timing of social change. The collapse of the catastrophism of the sixties a late version of 1917 has a hand in obscuring how we see culture. Big class related social change is a product of the shifts of fortune of big capitalism. A willingness by the left to be bold has stayed with the left, but a clarity of reality of vision like Marx liked has withered. The close appreciation of the many fissures and challenges the left can take on is a legacy of the last thirty years. I mean exactly that thirty years has removed a sense of narrow understanding about class and what to do. I do not look to Hollywood or independents to address social change. I look to find a resurgent left able to once again take what we have and build upon that to something bigger and more powerful as we once again see what is to be done. thanks, Doyle Saylor
