Fascism Is What You Make Of It

[pipesdreams]

I know, I know - I can’t believe I have this much to say about my weekend, either. Bear with me, one more and I’m done. Since the Redhead Gallery trip was a bust, the three of us trudged off in search of oversized burritos, then pushed on through the sudden attack of chilly rain to Pages on Queen, where I spent money on books that I will have to

Comments

Thing is... [Part 2]

[anonymous]

I’m nevertheless willing to concede that questionable politics shouldn’t in and of itself be sufficient reason for condemning a work of art. It certainly seems like a knock against, though: if we had to recommend one of two novels to a friend, generally equivalent except for the fact that one is poisonously racist, I think most people would suggest reading the other.

Since it begs the question to invoke the authority of “the world’s greatest cultural works” and leave it at that, I’d therefore want to know what 300’s redeeming qualities are supposed to be. Beyond their purely formal or aesthetic attractions, most of the works you mention have a sophistication of narrative and characterization that means there’s more to the piece than just its exclusionary message. If nothing else, there’s at least a degree of ambivalence that opens the door to individual interpretation: Paradise Lost is a great poem partly because Milton’s Satan is so compelling, whereas we (rightly) ignore hundreds of similar works featuring one-dimensional caricatures of the devil as dogmatic and insipid.

300 is certainly visually striking, and might even be a graphic groundbreaker. But its narrative also straitjackets us into identifying wholeheartedly with the Spartans, stirring imagery & writing aimed at having the reader cheer unreflectively for them while booing the villainous Persians. In that sense, I think the comic functions far more like a morality play than something like Ulysses, working on the same literary level as The Fountainhead or Maoist propaganda novels. It’s art, in other words, which largely works by appealing to and exciting its audience’s prejudices.

Does that mean people shouldn’t read it? No, of course not: there’s something to be said for pretty pictures & cheap thrills, especially since we’re all sensible enough to recognize them as such. I just reserve the right to glibly call Frank Miller a pandering fascist.

- Alastair