Far be it for me to step in the large pile of turds
that Mel Gibson has left behind with his deft marketing of his deity-inspired
rendering of Christian mythology. As Joseph Epstein replied when
I queried him about his intentions to weigh in, it would require
him to see the movie, which he was loath to do. Joe added that in
the neighborhood guys like Gibson were called "jageoffs."
Also, least my headroom further resemble the habitats I have occupied
in my adult life—a perpetual fine arts grad student motif
with some black Italian leather mixed in—I have demurred for
the same reasons and one further. I am not interested in Christian
theology or any theology.
I am interested in anti-Semitism though.
There's more, the super heated public commentary, punditry, and
demagoguery that The Passion of Christ has created—so
(too) much noise and nuisance that I have had to set aside reading
the new LOA Studs Lonigan and do some thinking and conversing
on this whole sorry stink pool. There have been some really provocative
and exciting ripostes to the, uh, the heightened cultural noise
level surrounding "Twelve Hours," and in reading Christopher
Hitchens (2 versions), David Denby, Chris Lehmman, William Safire,
Peter Aspden (Financial Times) many of whom have quoted other commentators
such as Elaine Pagels and Leon Weiseliter, I am reminded of an interesting
little book that Verso put out, After Diana, a collection
of essays on the late British royal. Again Gore Vidal's heir apparent,
Hitchens contributes a, shall we say, unsympathetic view of the
immortal Di. I forget the who the other contributors were—what
I am trying to say is that there is an interesting pamphlet or broadside
in the air to be plucked as a useful marker of this, as the smart
people say, cultural moment.
It's not fun or comforting, of course, to hear that yet another
misguided Christian has conspired to present a historical vignette
with the Jews portrayed as unter menschen or rodent-like
apparitions, not to mention a phrase that can only be bleated or
brayed, "The Jews killed Christ." And on top of all this
hoo hah, magic Christian, Mel Gibson, threatened to kill Frank Rich's
dog (Does Frank Rich have a dog? Has anyone taken this seriously?
Did I imagine this surreal twist)…
The one thing in all this that has me really fascinated is the
news that cartoonist/illustrator Will Eisner is working on a graphic
novel response to that most infamous cartoon of a lie, The Protocols
of Zion. Given the marketing principle's dominion in all aspects
of society and culture, the campaign to put the word out on that
effort will be very interesting to follow. So will the movie's.