----------------------------Original message---------------------------- David Smith wrote: >In case anybody was wondering, I am not an advocate of film >censorship on the basis of violence or anything else. I do think >that the overall level of violence in America is truly frightening, >whether we are discussing the products of Hollywood, the >ceaseless domestic slaughter occasioned by the cult of the gun, >or America's collective glee at the mass execution of 100,000+ >Iraqi conscripts, burned and blasted by the technological might >of America while they cowered in their trenches, or in headlong >retreat. Excuse me, but this IS sick. > >What has been the role of Hollywood in fomenting America's >unslakeable thirst for blood? I'm speaking of course of the beloved >'action film', before which millions of braindead schlubs sit >entranced, getting their fix of vicarious excitement. Lest there >be any confusion on this point, I exclude art-house films such as >Tarentino's RESERVOIR DOGS, which I see as a parody of American >firearms machismo and not an 'action film' that seeks to apply a >quasi-repectable veneer of moral (or, at least, emotional) >justification over the violence-for-its-own-sake. Being one of those braindead schlubs, I'd like to recommend mr Smith some bedside reading: Richard Sparks: Television and the Drama of Crime - to understand that most action films/cop shows are tales of morality, including very LITTLE violence-for-its-own-sake and lots of violence-for-the-sake-of-saving-other person's lives/society/the universe. Pierre Bourdieu: Distinction - to realize that your aversion against popular culture is nothing but an attempt to, through the display of 'better taste' distancing yourself from the lower classes. The distinction between low-brow and high-brow culture is nothing but a way of defending class differences. Get well soon, Ulf Ulf Dalquist Phone: +46 46 104266 Dept. of Sociology Fax: +46 46 104794 Box 114 221 00 Lund SWEDEN E-mail: [log in to unmask]