Jonathan,
Rick and Ilsa are now my most inspiring lovers, having replaced Heloise and Abelard. Have you read the letters exchanged by H and A?
I have never heard of Abelard and Heloise. Of course you have sparked my curiosity, so I have done a Google search. I will have to delve into their letters after we finish this book.
Speaking of finishing, I just finished reading
Book Three. Oh my heavens there is so much that is happening in these pages, I don't even know where to begin. I take notes as I read and mark certain pages to remind me of things that I find interesting, and I think I lost track. Mishka and Osip are very enlightening with their ideas, and then comes Captain Vanderwhile, who seems to be able to help the Count bring into focus the opinions of both Mishka and Osip, making him realize we can not hold back progress. Progress will continue, whether we are ready for it or not, whether we protest against it, or whether we see it as a destruction of our past. I think of how here in the United States this past year we have seen the protest of statues that have stood for centuries being destroyed, pulled down and symbols that reminded us of how far we have come as a nation. This millennial generation repudiates so much of what past generations fought and died for. I can see that in this book, even then, the same fights are being fought, just different ideologies or causes, but in essence the same, resisting or introducing progress be it industrial, technology, physics or psychology. I find myself relating so much to the Count, questioning how all this makes any sense. What really made me stop and take note was this:
pg 293
Osip Ivanovich had actually mastered the English language right down to the past perfect progressive as early as 1939. But American movies still deserved their careful consideration, he argues, not simply as windows into Western culture, but as unprecedented mechanisms of class repression. For with cinema, the Yanks had apparently discovered how to placate the entire working class at the cost of a nickel a week. "Just look at the Depression," he said. "From beginning to end it lasted ten years. An entire decade in which the Proletariat was left to fend for itself, scourging in alleys and begging at chapel doors. If ever there had been a time for the American worker to cast off the yoke, surely that was it. But did they join their brothers-in-arms? Did they shoulder their axes and splinter the doors of the mansions? Not even for an afternoon. Instead, they shuffled to the nearest movie house, where the latest fantasy was dangled before them like a pocket watch at the end of a chain. Yes, Alexander, it behooves us to study this phenomenon with the utmost diligence and care."
Like the seasoned scientist, Osip would coolly dissect whatever they had just observed. The musicals were "pastries designed to placate the impoverished with daydreams of unattainable bliss." The horror movies were "sleights of hand in which the fears of the workingman have been displaced by those of pretty girls." The vaudevillian comedies were "preposterous narcotics." And the westerns? They were the most devious propaganda of all: fables in which evil is represented by collectives who rustle and rob; while virtue is a lone individual who risks his life to defend the sanctity of someone else's private property. In sum? "Hollywood is the single most dangerous force in the history of class struggle."
"What is this?" he would ask of no one in particular. "Who is making these movies? Under what auspices?"
From one to the next, they seemed to depict an America in which corruption and cruelty lounged on the couch; in which justice was a beggar and kindness a fool; in which loyalties were fashioned from paper, and self-interest was fashioned from steel. In other words, they provided an unflinching portrayal of Capitalism as it actually was. "How did this happen, Alexander? Why do they allow these movies to be made? Do they not realize they are hammering a wedge beneath their own foundation stones?"
These are pretty insightful words our author Towles has written. He is placing them in a time frame of the 1930's and 40s, but look how they fit right into today's world. Look at the attitudes of Hollywood, look at their lifestyles, look at how they are such hypocrites who stand before their award podiums and preach to those who are willing to even tune into them any more, and tell us how their political views are superior to the rest of us. They have rapists, abusers, adulterers, sexual predictors, criminals among them, yet they continue to cast their stones out at the people who go to the movies to pay their wages. They live in gated, guarded mansions, wear thousand dollar gowns and tuxedos, drink the finest wines, champagnes, and eat at the most expensive restaurants, send their children to the most elite expensive private schools, make their violent, vulgar sexual movies and music and then pass their judgement out to the very people who have made them the successful actors and actresses they are today. They see their lives above reproach, they do not feel they are expected to live within a moral standard, they mock faith and family values, and now they intend to put someone like Oprah Winfrey up to run for the presidency, so they can control every aspect of the lives of the rest of us, when they don't even value or respect human life from conception. Yes, Towles's words, coming from Osip's mouth, has enormous insight where Hollywood is concerned. Dupe them, deceive them, and deflect them from their real life issues.
The show must go on..... there is only one difference today, the sleeping American people have awoken. They no longer are willing to pay the price to go be entertained by Hollywood, they no longer find watching their self aggrandizing award shows entertaining, they no longer place value in their self-righteous speeches, and more importantly, the American people see them for who they are, and are rejecting them. The Oscars had the lowest viewer ratings in history, this past Sunday night. It was reported most of the movies nominated were not at all known to the average American. Yes sireee times they are a changin, and Hollywood just may have lost their Midas touch. Social media, internet, cell phones, ipads, etc., is the new induced narcotic, Towles speaks of. People don't want to take two hours out of their day to sit in a movie theater, that charges them too much for a ticket, popcorn and drink, to watch actors and actresses who they have seen spew hatred and hypocrisy at them. Nope like myself, I prefer buying a new DVD/CD player and the actual movie for less than what it would cost me and my hubby to go to a theater, and watch it in the comforts of our own home. Sorry Hollywood.....
You've lost that lovin feelin. As Rick said to Ilsa, when saying his good-bye.....
Here's lookin at you kid.
