drama

POINT-COUNTERPOINT: GUN CONTROL

/ Benn Bell / 3 Comments

A Play

Characters: 

Fred, moderator

Jane Draper, Mothers Against Mayhem

Peter Steele, The National Rifle Association.

Place: Television Studio: Fox News

Time: Now

Lights up to dim. Jane Draper and Peter Steele are sitting in chairs opposite each other center stage. They are in silhouette. Lights up to full-on Fred stage right at a lectern.

FRED

Good evening, ladies, and gentlemen, and welcome to another edition of Point-Counterpoint where issues of national importance are debated on stage in front of a live audience. At the end of the show, we will take a poll to see which side was persuasive enough to earn your vote.

The topic of tonight’s show: Gun Control. It is brought to you by our sponsor Colt Manufacturing, proud manufacturer of the AR-15, when you absolutely, positively have to kill everyone in the room. Accept no substitutes.

Our guests tonight are Jane Draper, president of Mothers Against Mayhem, or MAM. Yes, Mam! Who will argue that we need stricter gun laws or gun control if you will? And on the other side of the issue is Peter Steele, vice president of the National Rifle Association.

And now, let’s meet our panel for another rousing edition of Point-Counterpoint. Leading off our debate tonight will be Peter Steele.

Lights fade on Fred and come up on Jane and Peter who are positioned center stage in chairs facing each other. 

PETER

Thank you, Fred. I would just like to say at the outset that our position over at the National Rifle

Association is that the right to keep and bear arms is protected and enshrined by the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution and that every American, every American! Should own and carry a firearm. Our motto is that God created man and Samuel Colt made him equal. I will give up my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hands.

   JANE

Well, that’s a good place to start, Peter, because a close reading of the Second Amendment references the right to keep and bear arms in order to maintain a well-regulated militia. Emphasis on “well regulated.” It doesn’t say a thing about arming all Americans.

PETER

Well, Jane, you are obviously not well-versed in the law because if you were you would remember the case of Heller, in District of Columbia v. Heller. In 2008, the conservative majority of the Supreme Court,  in an opinion written by arch-conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, decided that “a well-regulated Militia” was merely “prefatory” language.

                                                                                     JANE

Yes, I am familiar with that case. Justice John Paul Stevens, who dissented, called it “unquestionably the most clearly incorrect decision” of his lifetime.

                                                                                     PETER

Well, we’re going to have to agree to disagree on that one, Janey, because in our view it was rightly decided and is the law of the land.

                                                                                     JANE

I could disagree with you more, but I don’t see how.  The Supreme Court has made us all a little less safe with that ruling. The problem, dear Peter, is that there are too many guns in the hands of Americans. Did you know that the leading cause of death of children in this country is gun violence? Not drowning, not car accidents, but gun violence! And don’t call me Janey.

                                                                                     PETER

Ok, Jane, or Miss Draper, or whatever you prefer to be called. The Second Amendment not only gives Americans the right to bear arms, but it also creates equality for women! Guns are the great equalizer. What do you think about that? Why, I would dare say guns give women more equality than the entire feminist movement.

                                                                                     JANE

You can call me Jane, but I wish you would keep your condescension down to a dull roar. We are both adults here and I would appreciate being treated with a little respect.

                                                                                     PETER

I will treat you with the respect you deserve, Jane!

                                                                                     JANE

Well, that’s just ridiculous! The Second Amendment doesn’t make women equal. That would be the Equal Rights Amendment. That is what we need. Let’s replace the Second Amendment with the ERA. Burn bras, not bridges!

                                                                                     PETER

Don’t get carried away, there, Jane. Let’s put things into perspective, shall we?  It’s not guns that kill people. It’s people who kill people. A gun is just an object. A tool for use. It is private property. And we all have the right to own private property, don’t we? We shouldn’t infringe on law-abiding citizens’ rights to own property. It’s a delicate balance we have to strike as we dance between safety and individual freedom. Man has a God-given right to defend himself!

JANE

Let’s get back on topic, shall we? I think it’s sad we live in a world where we have not outgrown our need for guns to settle our differences. Why haven’t we outgrown that? Why haven’t we outgrown our dependency on guns? Maybe we just need to exercise a little common sense. What we need are common-sense gun laws. Look! Nobody is talking about taking away your guns. You act as if you are being emasculated or something. 

                                                                                     PETER

There you go again. Listen, Joe Biden’s constant efforts to gut the Second Amendment will not usher in safety for Americans. Instead, it will only embolden criminals. Criminals are not going to obey the law. That’s why they are called criminals! The NRA will continue our fight for self-defense laws. Rest assured, we will never bow down, we will never retreat, and we will never apologize for championing the selfdefense rights of law-abiding Americans. 

                                                                                     JANE

In any given year in the United States, more than 120,000 Americans are shot in murders, assaults, suicides, and suicide attempts. Unintentional shootings, or police actions. Of these, 35,00 result in deaths. Over 17,000 of those injured or killed are children and teens. On average, 34 people in America are murdered on account of gun violence every day.

The United States is a global outlier when it comes to gun violence. The number of firearms available to Americans is estimated to be about 310 million. Americans own nearly half of the 650 million civilians owned guns in the world today. Americans own the most guns per person in the world. The number 2 country is Yemen. Yemen for Christ’s sake! They have 54 guns per 100. We are at 88 guns owned per 100. We have 5 percent of the world’s population but hold 31 percent of global mass shootings.  Gun homicide rates are 25 times higher in the United States than in any other developed country. The United States has one of the highest rates of death by firearms in the developed world. Americans are 51 times more likely to be killed by gunfire than people in the United Kingdom.

PETER

Look, Jane, guns are needed for self-defense. If you took away all the guns only criminals would have guns. Criminals and the police. Lord help you if you ever needed a policeman in a life-and-death situation. When seconds count a policeman is only minutes away. We have the right to stand our ground! And having a gun is our only means of self-protection.

                                                                                     JANE

We love our guns more than we love our children in this country. The Second Amendment is cherished more than public safety. It makes no sense! We have 352 million guns in circulation in this country. More guns than people. More guns than common sense. Your so-called “stand your ground” laws are a license to kill. What happened to due process? What gives you the right to be a judge, jury, and executioner?  

PETER

When seconds count you don’t have time for the due process. If I feel threatened, if my life is on the line or that of my family, I am going to stand my ground! 

JANE

Don’t you realize your hostile, loudmouth, hyperventilating, knuckle-dragging posturing only reinforces negative stereotypes about gun owners? Can’t we reason together to come up with common-sense gun laws that will satisfy both sides?

PETER

Well, what do you have in mind, Jane? Do you have a proposal we can maybe talk about? Something we sink our teeth into?    

JANE

Yeah!  What about gun shows? Why can you buy a gun at a gun show without a background check? We need to close the “gun show loophole” to keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people.         

PETER

Because you’re gullible, that’s why. There is no such thing as a “gun show loophole.” The dealer you’re buying a gun from at a gun show is running the same background check as he does in his shop. He is  using the same form. There is no “gun show loophole,” Jane! And anybody who says any different is a goddamn liar! 

JANE

Well, that’s a red herring, Peter! We are not talking about dealers. We are talking about private owners transferring weapons to each other.

                                                                                     PETER

Which they have every right to do!

                                                                                     JANE

I know! That is what I’m trying to get changed! 97 percent of Americans support background checks for all firearms sales. 70 percent back “red flag” laws.

                                                                                     PETER

What’s a “red flag” law?

                                                                                     JANE

Don’t play dumb with me. You know perfectly well what a “red flag” law is.

                                                                                     PETER

I know. I just wanted to see if you knew.

                                                                                     JANE

Red flag laws enable authorities to confiscate guns from people found to be a threat to public safety.

                                                                                     PETER

And just who is supposed to decide who is a threat to public safety?

JANE Doctors, psychiatrists…the mental health community.

                                                                                     PETER

That’s not good enough Jane! You can’t take guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens without due process.

                                                                                     JANE

Oh, now you want to talk about due process! That’s just insane! I can cite you case after case of mass shootings in America, and some very recently, where the perpetrator had a history of mental illness.

PETER

That may be so, but that just goes to prove the point that people are to blame for mass shootings, not guns! Your radical gun control agenda will do nothing to prevent attacks by demented and disturbed individuals.

                                                                                     JANE

There’s nothing radical about common sense gun laws, background checks, and closing loopholes. We can protect innocent Americans from senseless gun violence while still protecting the constitutional rights that citizens enjoy for hunting and self-defense.

                                                                                     PETER

Look! I have no problem with vigorous background checks when it comes to firearms if we do the same thing when it comes to immigration, Voter ID, and candidates running for office.

JANE

At last! Some common ground!  And speaking of mass shootings, most are committed with a militarystyle assault rifle. We are talking about the AR-15, which we, The Mothers Against Mayhem are against. We want these weapons of mass destruction banned. No one needs a military assault rifle to defend themselves on the streets of America. It is absurd! You can’t hunt with them. Their only purpose is to kill human beings in the quickest most efficient and destructive way possible.

PETER

What ho! Now just hold on there a dog gone minute little missy! I beg to differ! I think that is a little bit small-minded of you.

                                                                                     JANE

Small minded?

                                                                                     PETER

Yes. Because without them ranchers would be completely defenseless against varmints. Blaming the gun for what’s happening in America is small-minded. In rural Colorado for instance an AR-15 is the gun of choice for killing raccoons before they get to our chickens. It is the gun of choice for killing a fox, it is a gun that you use to control predators on your ranch, on your farm, on your property. Preventing chicken deaths…That’s what I’m talking about!

               JANE

Chicken deaths? What about the deaths of over 11,000 humans last year alone, including 400 teenagers and 71 children? Americans have the right to feel safe in their homes, on the street, in theaters, and at the grocery store. Children should be safe at school, which should be the safest place of all instead of   having to participate in active shooter drills. In Dayton Ohio, 10 people were killed in a bar while in Texas a shooter killed 22 in a Walmart store. This is insanity and it must stop! We need stricter gun laws!

                                                                                     PETER

The number one city in America with the strictest gun laws is Chicago. And number one in murder and gang violence. If gun control actually worked, Chicago would look like Mayberry RFD. Democrats should ask themselves why every major city they’ve run for decades is plagued by violence despite having some of the most draconian gun laws in the nation.

JANE

Please learn some of the stats on Chicago before coming in here and just repeating your prepared talking points. Chicago’s massive gun violence is because all the guns are purchased legally in red states like Indiana and then brought across the border illegally into Chicago.

PETER

Please! That is a myth! The origin of most guns is untraceable.

                                                                                     JANE

Republicans are the first to pounce on crime spikes while never acknowledging that the dismantling of reasonable regulations is responsible for the spiraling spikes in the first fucking place. And hundreds of millions of gun sales later, gun deaths have reached an all-time high. 

The Supreme Court decided long ago that your right to free expression stops at the tip of the other guy’s nose. You have the right to own a car but you don’t have the right to drive it a hundred miles an hour on the wrong side of the road.  You have the right to own a gun, but just as the state requires you to have a license to drive a car, to be of a certain age, and to demonstrate competency with driving skills and regard for public safety, the state can place reasonable limits on ownership of guns.

Only some kind of fascist would regard gun ownership as a higher priority than public safety. Can’t we have a reasonable conversation on what we can do to prevent the next mass shooting?

                                                                                     PETER

Well, yes, we could do that, but I take exception to the premise of your statement.  Using the word fascist the way you did clearly shows you don’t know what you are talking about!  Because in fascism, public safety outweighs the rights of the individuals. Mass shootings are caused by criminals who disregard the law. All you want to do is create more laws but offer no real solutions that will be effective legally speaking.

                                                                                     JANE

Gun laws alone cannot solve the problem. But gun laws will make a difference. There may be no single answer, but we must do what we can. Sitting on the sidelines is not an option when our children are being killed daily. We are facing public health crises of monumental proportions and attention must be                                                                                  JANE (CONT.)

paid! We need to act now to enact sensible common sense gun laws. The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same over again and expecting a different result. Failure to act will result in a failure to protect the innocent lives of countless Americans! For, God’s sake, how much more carnage are we willing to accept?  How many more innocent American lives must be taken before we say, “Enough is enough!”

PETER

We already have plenty of gun laws on the books. They need to be enforced. We have mandatory minimum sentences for criminals using guns and many states allow sentencing enhancements for crimes involving firearms. These laws need to be enforced! If you want to pass a law how about one that will allow those with concealed carry permits be allowed to carry their weapons into other states? If you want to prevent school shootings why not arm teachers and give them training? The best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun. Why do you want to trample on my rights and leave me defenseless? If I give up my guns, do you think the bloods and crips will give up theirs?

                                                                                     JANE

Calm down there Peter, you are liable to have a stroke.

                                                                                     PETER

You cannot imagine the enormity of the fucks I do not give!

                                                                                     JANE

You know, I’d like to challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see that you are unarmed.

                                                                                     PETER

Unarmed? Unarmed? Why, I’ll show you who’s unarmed.

                                                                                     JANE

Peter, you pathetic little man!

                                                                                     PETER

Jane, you ignorant slut!

PETER reaches for his firearm holstered under his arm. At the same time, JANE reaches inside her purse and pulls out a .25 automatic. They both point and shoot simultaneously. There is an explosion of sound and the acrid smell of cordite.

Blackout. 

The end.

The Tragedy of the Chairs

/ Benn Bell / 5 Comments
My Photo

I have been reading Eugene Ionesco’s The Chairs – A Tragic Farce, in the service of a play that I am writing called, The Tragedy of the Bull. Ionesco because he is a master of the Theater of the Absurd. Absurd because my play is existential. Existential in the sense that life is meaningless and man’s relationship to life is absurd. I often read other plays when I am writing for inspiration. Now, here is where the tricky part comes in. This play was written in 1950. I have never read it before. Many eerie similarities are revealed in The Chairs that are relevant to my life and my play. For instance, here is a bit of dialogue from The Tragedy of the Bull:

                                                                  OLD MAN

Do you believe in coincidence, Maria?

                                                                   MARIA

I have heard of coincidences, senor, but no, I don’t really believe in them.

OLD MAN

Neither do I. But I do believe in synchronicity. I connect the dots and look for patterns and when I see them, I pay attention. They are like signposts guiding my way. And that is what ultimately led me here. To you. Tonight.                 

MARIA

What are you talking about?

                                                                   OLD MAN

I have a picture of Silvia Morales in my apartment that was painted by my friend Diane Kahlo.       

                                                                     MARIA

Oh, that is a coincidence, Old Man.

                                                                    OLD MAN

You must let me march with you. I will carry the portrait of Silvia Morales in the parade while marching by your side.

                                                                     MARIA

Si. I think it is a good idea senor. We will march together.

The main character in my play is named Old Man. The main character in The Chairs is named Old Man. The conversation between the Old Man and Maria is about coincidence and synchronicity. That is what I found to be strange about some of the references in The Chairs besides the fact the two main characters have the same name. There are other points of synchronicity.

Such as: The Old Man in the Chairs claims to be a general factotum. He makes a running joke of it as if he is an actual general. Part of the essence of the absurd is the contradictory construction of the language. Words used together that have the opposite meanings. Here’s where the coincidence comes in. For years I have claimed to be a “factotum” as a joke. I put it in my bios, and it is on my Facebook page.  I originally got the idea from a book I read by Charles Bukowski entitled, Factotum. There is also a movie based on the book of the same title starring Matt Dillon. I, of course, identified with the main character and to a certain extent Charles Bukowski himself and I adopted the name “factotum” for myself. Years ago.

What else? There are other points of synchronicity that I will reference, although the whole play seems oddly familiar.  First, the Old Man says, “It’s all a marvelous dream.” This is the main theme of The Tragedy of the Bull. Most of the play is a dream sequence The Old Man is having while he dies. One of my characters says, “Truth and illusion, Ron, you don’t seem to know the difference.”  This indicates that what we are seeing might be a dream or an illusion.

The Old Man says, “I’m proud of it…proud and humble.”

Another one of my stock phrases is, “I’m right happy, humble, and proud to be here…” I say this whenever I am called upon to make a speech. I love the contradictory paradoxical nature of the construction of it. How can you be proud and humble at the same time? Brilliant! Now, I stole this saying directly from a past governor of Texas who always began his speeches, “I am right happy, humble, and proud to be here tonight.” Governor John Connely. When I first heard him say that I was tickled pink. I’m not sure he realized the irony of it, but I sure did and I have been using it ever since. For years.

The Old Man says, “In order to forget I went in for sports…for mountain climbing. I wanted to travel, I wanted to cross the river, they burned my bridges.” I was never one for sports but I did like the sport of Mountain climbing. I have done quite a lot of hiking and I have claimed some modest mountains. On my bucket list has always been MT. Kilimanjaro.  Traveling has also been my passion and I have traveled extensively around the world. And lastly, I have crossed many rivers. I have lived for years along the Ohio and the Delaware Rivers.

Coincidence? I think not. Like Maria, I don’t believe in coincidence. But I do believe in Synchronicity. After three points of synchronicity are chalked up on the board, I see a pattern and from that pattern, I derive a meaning. It is perhaps the only meaning I find in a meaningless universe.

Reverend Billy Bob Weatherspoon

/ Benn Bell / Leave a comment

Of the Space Chapel of Life

Photo credit: Scott Norsworthy/Google Images

Meet the Reverend!

Lightghts up to dim. There are two chairs located center stage. Rev. Billy and Jimmy Joe Starter are sitting in the chairs in silhouette.)

ANNOUNCER: (Disembodied voice) Good evening, ladies, and gentlemen, and welcome to MEET THE REVEREND!  A thirty-minute question and answer show where issues of national importance are discussed with prominent individuals from our society and the world at large.

Our guest this evening will be former president, Jimmy Joe Starter from Monkey’s Eyebrows, Kentucky…and to start the questioning will be the host of our show- Reverend Billy Bob Weatherspoon of the Space Chapel of Life.

Reverend Billy…

(Lights up full)

REV. BILLY: (Rises from his chair and crosses down center to address the audience directly) Thank you, Fred. Friends, I want to welcome y’all here to my new weekly show, MEET THE REVEREND! I’m sure y’all are going to enjoy it. I know I am. And be sure to tell all your friends and relatives to tune in too and just keep those contributions rolling in…cause ya know, it cost so much money to appear on TV and it cost so much money to spread the word…and friends you all know how much I like to spread the word.

And now…I’d like to welcome our guest, President Jimmy Joe Starter! (Crosse back to centers and resumes sitting across from Jimmy Joe Starter).

President Starter…

JIMMY JOE: Please…call me Jimmy Joe.

REV. BILLY: Why I’d be happy to Jimmy Joe…and you can call me Rev. Billy.

JIMMY JOE: Okay Reverend Billy. Ya know, I’ve got a brother named Billy. He’s kind of the black sheep of the family. Of course, when we were growing up back in Monkey’s Eyebrows, we always used to call him the goat. You know Billy Goat…that’s because he’d eat anything he’d put his hands on. I’d be going, “Now Billy, don’t be going putting your hand on that. Well, as you can imagine it got pretty embarrassing sometimes. (Big smile)

REV. BILLY: Monkey’s Eyebrows…Now that’s a strange name for a town. I wonder…I wonder if you could shed some light on that for us, Jimy Joe. Just why do they call your town Monkey’s Eyebrows?

JIMMY JOE: (Blank stare) Ya know…I don’t rightly know…but I’ll be glad to look that up for you and get back to you sometime next week.

REV. BILLY: No, that won’t be necessary Jimmy Joe. Now, Jimmy Joe, what would you say was the biggest surprise of your administration? Was it anything as surprising as the Iran/Contra affair or Ollie North and Fawn Hill? Or what about the current fiasco with Donald Trump and the Big Lie? Not to Mention January 6th?

JIMMY JOE: Well, Billy, I’d say the biggest surprise was that the job was going to be as hard as it turned out to be. Ya know, when I first took office back in ’76, 1976, not 1776, (Big Smile) I thought the presidency was going to be a snap, but I soon learned that it was going to be more of a Zbigniew Brezenski. Then things sort of went on the Fritz after I gave America the Lance-thank God for Vance- he was a real credit to the arms race. So, I’d have to say that my biggest surprise was that it was going to be so hard.

REV. BILLY: Have there been any other surprises?

JIMMY JOE: Well, yes. Another surprise was that there were so many bathrooms in the Whitehouse.

REV. BILLY: Bathrooms?

JIMMY JOE: Yes, Billy. There are some 46 of them, and all of them are inside too! I never did get around to using all of them, but I did commission a white paper…or was that toilet paper… No, it was a white paper, on how one could accomplish this task during one administration. I’ll be glad to get back to you later with the results of that study if you like.

REV. BILLY: No, that won’t be necessary. Tell me, Jimmy Joe, what do you think of the current situation in Ukraine with the Russian invasion and all in light of your own SALT II Treaty which you negotiated with the Ruskies?

JIMMY JOE: Yes…I’m proud of my record on SALT. The most significant part of that agreement was to trade Amarillo, Texas for Leningrad in the event of a first strike situation involving nuclear weapons.

REV BILLY: Would you gentlemen have seriously considered offering a Russian an Amarillo?

JIMMY JOE: Yes…We believed that using this small Texas town as a bargaining chip would be in the best interest of the country.

REV. BILLY: Do you hold out any hopes of stopping or at least curbing nuclear proliferation?

JIMMY JOE: Yes…What I plan to do is…

REV. BILLY (interrupting) Before you answer that question, let me break way for a message of vital importance…

(WINGES SERAPHS COMMERCIAL. Crosses stage right to a prop table where the book is staged. Light fades on center stage as a spot comes up on Reverend Billy at the table where he delivers his commercial speech)

REV: BILLY: Hello friends. Rev. Billy Bob Weatherspoon here for the Space Chapel of Life…

Ya know…just how many times have ya wondered how many angels could dance on the top of a Bic Butane Lighter?

Have ya ever wondered where ya could find a Guardian Angel when ya really needed one?

And what about Charlies Angels?

…The answers to these and many more important questions may be found in my latest book—

WINGED SERAPHS I HAVE KNOWN

This book is available in both the hard and soft editions. Also, available is the leather-bound edition which comes suspended from a chain.

So ya don’t forget, send now to

SPACE CHAPEL OF LIFE

BOX 666

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA

$8.96 RECORDS

$9.96 TAPES

And now, back to the show…

(Crosses back to the center and resumes sitting across from Jimmy Joe Starter. Light fades out at right and comes up center).

Okay, Jimmy Joe, now we can continue the fascinating conversation about the wonderful world of weapons.

JIMMY JOE: Yes, as I was saying, I support the introduction of legislation by congress that would make it a federal crime to own a nuclear weapon if you are a convicted felon, drug addict, or legally insane. Also, we hope to register all nuclear weapons. In this way, we will know who has them and we will have additional control over who gets them.

In addition, I am proposing an outright ban on the most insidious nuclear device of them all, the Saturday Night Special. These small, concealable radiation-enhanced devices are capable of taking out small targets such as single-family dwellings with little or no blast damage to the surrounding area. These weapons are, however, a very “dirty weapon,” spreading deadly radiation for many square blocks killing all life forms within the size of oh, say, Fort Knox. These devices would make the riots of the 60s look like pep rallies. (Big smile.)

REV. BILLY: Well, Jimmy Joe, you certainly paint a grim picture. What are your feelings about the peaceful use of nuclear energy, say as an alternative energy source?

JIMMY JOE: Well, Billy…I feel that nuclear power will most likely be the energy source of the future, along with solar power and wind. Eventually, we will run out of coal. We are going to run out of oil, but according to leading experts, we won’t run out of matter for several thousand years…and being a nuclear physicist myself, I ain’t just whistling Dixie (Big Smile).  

REV. BILLY: As a scientist, I wonder if you could comment on the recent UFO controversy.

Jimmy Joe: Yes, Billy, I have myself, seen a UFO…it was a close encounter of the weird kind.

Rev. Billy: You have??!! Well, Jimmy Joe…that’s truly an amazing statement. Would you care to elaborate?

JIMMY JOE: Sure. You see, I was on my farm back in Kentucky, plowing a field on a tractor when all of a sudden, a shadow fell over me and I looked up and there was this strange craft hovering overhead.

REV. BILLY: Wow! Was it big?

JIMMY JOE? Big? I’ll say!

REV. BILLY: Well, how big was it?

Jimmy Joe: It was big I tell ya! (Starts gesturing with his hands and arms) It was a hunnert foot, by a hunnert foot, by a hunnert foot, you know BIG!

REV. BILLY: (Interrupts for a commercial): Excuse me Jimmy Joe, but we need to fit in a break.

(YOU TOO CAN BECOME AN ORDAINED MINISTER COMMERCIAL. Rev Billy crosses to the prop table again to deliver the net commercial. Light fade center and come up on the table).

Friends! You too can become an ordained minister! Through the special powers invested in me…you can become an ordained minister in the Space Chapel of Life – think of it friends – for only $6.95 you can save souls – perform miracles –  perform marriages – perform funeral services – and perhaps the best advantage of all – tax-exempt status – That’s right folks, you heard it here tax-exempt status! – so ya don’t forget, send $6.95 today for your credentials to: Space Chapel of Life, Box 666,  in care of this Television station – Thank you so much!

(Crosses back center and resumes interview. Lights fade at the table and come up at center.)

…and now, please continue on with this alleged story about beings from outer space.

JIMMY JOE: Well like I was saying, there I was out there on God’s little acre, plowing my fields and minding my own business when there appeared up in the sky a giant alien spacecraft. It was just hovering overhead, and it let out a slight humming noise, and all of a sudden it emitted a beam of light and the light fell over me and bathed my entire body and the next thing I knew I was being pulled off my tractor up into that beam of light and heading towards the spacecraft… that’s the last thing I remember until the next day when I was returned to earth and there I was, as naked a Jaybird in my ‘backer field, singin’ my fool head off!

REV. BILLY: Yes, well isn’t that special. Well, Jimmy Joe, we are just about out of time, here, and as you know, time is money. I would however like to ask you just one more two-part question. Number one, are you really a born-again Christian? And part two, have you ever really had lust in your heart?

JIMMY JOE: Well Billy, I don’t really feel that these two are mutually exclusive – In answer to your first question. Yes, I am a Born-again Christian; and in answer to your second question, yes, I have had lust in my heart…but it was lust for another Christian.

REV. BILLY: Well, there you have it, friends! Right from the former president’s own mouth. I’d like to thank President Starter for taking time out of his busy schedule to be with us tonight, and I’d like to invite all of you to tune in next week to another exciting episode of, MEET THE REVEREND! My next week’s guest will be that silly old buffoon and darling of the media, Attorney Michael Cohen! Watch him drop a dime on his former boss, Donald J. Trump!

(Jimmy Joe exits. Rev. Billy crosses down center).

And now, my friends, comes a very special part of our show, the hour of power. During this period of the show, I would like to take a few moments to demonstrate the power of our Lord and say a few words and lay a few hands.

(Lights dim)

Announcer: And now, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Reverend Billy Bob Weatherspoon, in all his magnificent glory, preaching to you all on the word of the Lord coming to you straight from our studios here in the Space Chapel of Life. Reverend Billy!

(Lights up full)

REV.BILLY: Good evening, friends – This is Rev. Billy Bob Weatherspoon here and I want to welcome you all here to Space Chapel. It’s so good to see ya! I’m so glad ya could make it out this evening. Ya know, we are all brothers and sisters on this spaceship we call mother earth, hurtling through space at thousands of miles an hour – why, when you think about it, it’s quite a miracle. It’s a miracle we don’t all fall off!

Now, my friends, we are gathered here this evening to worship Jesus – Oh Sweet Jesus – praise the Lord! But I need your help.

Now, give me a “Praise the Lord!”

(Pause for the response)

Now give me a “Hallelujah!”

(Pause for the response)

Now give me an “Amen, brother!”

That’s wonderful! God is with us here tonight! Can you feel him my friends? Can you feel the power of the Lord?

Now, my friends, I’ve got so much to tell ya! I’ve got so much to tellya! I’m going to tell you about communism. It’s everywhere!

I’m, going to tell ya about fascism. It’s everywhere!

And friends, the worst evil of all, Socialism!  Why, I’d rather be dead, than red!

Wouldn’t you?

And I’m going to tell ya bout Satan. Satan is an all-pervading evil force that lives right here in our very midst. It’s Satan that makes you go out on Saturday night and sow your wild oats. It’s Satan that makes ya come to church on Sunday morning and pray for crop failure. It’s Satan that makes us tell lies. Satan is the master of lies. And it is Satan that leads us into temptation. We have to tell Satan to get behind us. Say, “Get behind me Satan! Get Behind me Satan!” Why, I believe that is Satan behind me right now…He’s a sneaky little devil! He will creep up on ya when you least suspect it.

But mostly, I want to tell ya about our Sweet Jesus – and after the service is over, I’m going to ask you all to come forward and accept Jesus as your personal savior.

But before that, my favorite part of our service – We are going to play a little game that I think you will enjoy. It’s called “Stump the Choir.”

If any of you in the congregation can name a hymn our choir cannot sing, then you are going to win dinner for four at the Last Supper. Judas his Seven Piece of Silver will be playing for your listening enjoyment.

Now, it’s time for a miracle – Praise the Lord! I feel the power of the lord coursing through my body. Who needs a miracle? Bring me you afflicted, bring me your sick, bring me your wounded. Let the Blood of Jesus make you whole again. Who needs the hand of the Lord? Who needs to be healed? Don’t be shy – come forward.

(Someone from the audience, the actor who played Jimmy Joe Starter, stumbles forward with his arms extended)

BLIND MAN: Rev. Billy! Rev. Billy! Can you help me? I cant’ see! I’ve been blind since birth!

REV. BILLY: Why yes! Come on up her young man! (Speaking in tongues, waving his arms about, placing his hand on the blind man’s shoulder.). Son, do you feel the power of the Lord? Do feel the power?

BLIND MAN: (Nods his assent)

REV. BILLY: There are none so blind as those who will not see! (Places his hand on the Blind man’s forehead. Pushes him away and throws his hands into the air)

BLIND MAN: (Drops his cane) I can see! I can see! It’s a miracle! (Runs off stage)

REV BILLY: All right young man. Go and sin no more. And while you are at it, go up to the bar and bring me back a drink. That was quite a miracle!

I’d like to finish tonight by singing along with the choir an old favorite of mine, “Save a Place in the Light Bulb For me.” This song has a lot of meaning to me. And while we sing along, I would like to ask for your generous contributions to the Space Chapel of Life so that we can continue our important work. Please be generous my friends, please be generous! And now, like I said,  “Save a place in the light Bulb for Me.”

(The actor who played the Blind man now comes on stage to a microphone and plays acoustic guitar and sings the song: “Save a place in the Light Bulb for Me.”)

SINGER: (Singing) Save A SPACE IN THE Lightbulb For Me (Lyrics by Daniel Buddha Hildenbrandt)

Leave me room for my couch and tv

Well don’t worry about the weather

Just as long as we’re together

Save a space in the lightbulb for me

Weather started getting rough

Went to turn the gas on

Lit a match, stuck it in the hatch

Blew me to Saskatchawan

Save A SPACE IN THE Lightbulb for me

Leave me room for my couch and tv

Well don’t worry about the weather

Just as long as we’re together

Save a space in the lightbulb for me

Sheila’s such a pretty girl

Sure knows how to use it

If I get a hold of what she’s got

I’m afraid I might abuse it

Save A SPACE IN THE Lightbulb for me

Leave me room for my couch and tv

Well don’t worry about the weather

Just as long as we’re together

Save a space in the lightbulb

Don’t forget the right bulb

Save a space in the lightbulb for me

REV. Billy: This concludes this evening’s service…Thank you very much and may God bless!

(Lights fade to black.)

Finis

Meet the Reverend!

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Photo by the author

ANNOUNCER: Good evening, ladies, and gentlemen, and welcome to MEET THE REVEREND!  A thirty-minute question and answer show where issues of national importance are discussed with prominent individuals from our society and the world at large.

Our guest this evening will be former president, Jimmy Joe Starter from Monkey’s Eyebrows, Kentucky…and to start the questioning will be the host of our show- Reverend Billy Bob Weatherspoon of the Space Chapel of Life.

Reverend Billy…

REV. BILLY: Thank you, Fred. Friends, I want to welcome y’all here to my new weekly show, MEET THE REVEREND! I’m sure y’all are going to enjoy it. I know I am. And be sure to tell all your friends and relatives to tune in too and just keep those contributions rolling in…cause ya know, it cost so much money to appear on TV and it cost so much money to spread the word…and friends you all know how much I like to spread the word.

And now…I’d like to welcome our guest, President Jimmy Joe Starter!

President Starter…

JIMMY JOE: Please…call me Jimmy Joe.

REV. BILLY: Why I’d be happy to Jimmy Joe…and you can call me Rev. Billy.

JIMMY JOE: Okay Reverend Billy. Ya know, I’ve got a brother named Billy. He’s kind of the black sheep of the family. Of course, when we were growing up back in Monkey’s Eyebrows, we always used to call him the goat. You know Billy Goat…that’s because he’d eat anything he’d put his hands on. I’d be going, “Now Billy, don’t be going putting your hand on that. Well, as you can imagine it got pretty embarrassing sometimes. (Big smile)

REV. BILLY: Monkey’s Eyebrows…Now that’s a strange name for a town. I wonder…I wonder if you could shed some light on that for us, Jimy Joe. Just why do they call your town Monkey’s Eyebrows?

JIMMY JOE: (Blank stare) Ya know…I don’t rightly know…but I’ll be glad to look that up for you and get back to you sometime next week.

REV. BILLY: No, that won’t be necessary Jimmy Joe. Now, Jimmy Joe, what would you say was the biggest surprise of your administration? Was it anything as surprising as the Iran/Contra affair or Ollie North and Fawn Hill? Or what about the current fiasco with Donald Trump and the Big Lie? Not to Mention January 6th?

JIMMY JOE: Well, Billy, I’d say the biggest surprise was that the job was going to be as hard as it turned out to be. Ya know, when I first took office back in ’76, 1976, not 1776, (Big Smile) I thought the presidency was going to be a snap, but I soon learned that it was going to be more of a Zbigniew Brezenski. Then things sort of went on the Fritz after I gave America the Lance-thank God for Vance- he was a real credit to the arms race. So, I’d have to say that my biggest surprise was that it was going to be so hard.

REV. BILLY: Have there been any other surprises?

JIMMY JOE: Well, yes. Another surprise was that there were so many bathrooms in the Whitehouse.

REV. BILLY: Bathrooms?

JIMMY JOE: Yes, Billy. There are some 46 of them, and all of them are inside too! I never did get around to using all of them, but I did commission a white paper…or was that toilet paper… No, it was a white paper, on how one could accomplish this task during one administration. I’ll be glad to get back to you later with the results of that study if you like.

REV. BILLY: No, that won’t be necessary. Tell me, Jimmy Joe, what do you think of the current situation in Ukraine with the Russian invasion and all in light of your own SALT II Treaty which you negotiated with the Ruskies?

JIMMY JOE: Yes…I’m proud of my record on SALT. The most significant part of that agreement was to trade Amarillo, Texas for Leningrad in the event of a first strike situation involving nuclear weapons.

REV BILLY: Would you gentlemen have seriously considered offering a Russian an Amarillo?

JIMMY JOE: Yes…We believed that using this small Texas town as a bargaining chip would be in the best interest of the country.

REV. BILLY: Do you hold out any hopes of stopping or at least curbing nuclear proliferation?

JIMMY JOE: Yes…What I plan to do is…

REV. BILLY (interrupting) Before you answer that question, let me break way for a message of vital importance…

(WINGES SERAPHS COMMERCIAL)

REV: BILLY: Hello friends. Rev. Billy Bob Weatherspoon here for the Space Chapel of Life…

Ya know…just how many times have ya wondered how many angels could dance on the top of a Bic Butane Lighter?

Have ya ever wondered where ya could find a Guardian Angel when ya really needed one?

And what about Charlies Angels?

…The answers to these and many more important questions may be found in my latest book—

WINGED SERAPHS I HAVE KNOWN

This book is available in both the hard and soft editions. Also, available is the leather-bound edition which comes suspended from a chain.

So ya don’t forget, send now to

SPACE CHAPEL OF LIFE

BOX 666

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA

$8.96 RECORDS

$9.96 TAPES

And now, back to the show…

Okay, Jimmy Joe, now we can continue the fascinating conversation about the wonderful world of weapons.

JIMMY JOE: Yes, as I was saying, I support the introduction of legislation by congress that would make it a federal crime to own a nuclear weapon if you are a convicted felon, drug addict, or legally insane. Also, we hope to register all nuclear weapons. In this way, we will know who has them and we will have additional control over who gets them.

In addition, I am proposing an outright ban on the most insidious nuclear device of them all, the Saturday Night Special. These small, concealable radiation-enhanced devices are capable of taking out small targets such as single-family dwellings with little or no blast damage to the surrounding area. These weapons are, however, a very “dirty weapon,” spreading deadly radiation for many square blocks killing all life forms within the size of oh, say, Fort Knox. These devices would make the riots of the 60s look like pep rallies. (Big smile.)

REV. BILLY: Well, Jimmy Joe, you certainly paint a grim picture. What are your feelings about the peaceful use of nuclear energy, say as an alternative energy source?

JIMMY JOE: Well, Billy…I feel that nuclear power will most likely be the energy source of the future, along with solar power and wind. Eventually, we will run out of coal. We are going to run out of oil, but according to leading experts, we won’t run out of matter for several thousand years…and being a nuclear physicist myself, I ain’t just whistling Dixie (Big Smile).  

REV. BILLY: As a scientist, I wonder if you could comment on the recent UFO controversy.

Jimmy Joe: Yes, Billy, I have myself, seen a UFO…it was a close encounter of the weird kind.

Rev. Billy: You have??!! Well, Jimmy Joe…that’s truly an amazing statement. Would you care to elaborate?

JIMMY JOE: Sure. You see, I was on my farm back in Kentucky, plowing a field on a tractor when all of a sudden, a shadow fell over me and I looked up and there was this strange craft hovering overhead.

REV. BILLY: Wow! Was it big?

JIMMY JOE? Big? I’ll say!

REV. BILLY: Well, how big was it?

Jimmy Joe: It was big I tell ya! (Starts gesturing with his hands and arms) It was a hunnert foot, by a hunnert foot, by a hunnert foot, you know BIG!

REV. BILLY: (Interrupts for a commercial): Excuse me Jimmy Joe, but we need to fit in a break.

(YOU TOO CAN BECOME AN ORDAINED MINISTER COMMERCIAL)

Friends! You too can become an ordained minister! Through the special powers invested in me…you can become an ordained minister in the Space Chapel of Life – think of it friends – for only $6.95 you can save souls – perform miracles –  perform marriages – perform funeral services – and perhaps the best advantage of all – tax-exempt status – That’s right folks, you heard it here tax-exempt status! – so ya don’t forget, send $6.95 today for your credentials to: Space Chapel of Life, Box 666,  in care of this Television station – Thank you so much!

…and now, please continue on with this alleged story about beings from outer space.

JIMMY JOE: Well like I was saying, there I was out there on God’s little acre, plowing my fields and minding my own business when there appeared up in the sky a giant alien spacecraft. It was just hovering overhead, and it let out a slight humming noise, and all of a sudden it emitted a beam of light and the light fell over me and bathed my entire body and the next thing I knew I was being pulled off my tractor up into that beam of light and heading towards the spacecraft… that’s the last thing I remember until the next day when I was returned to earth and there I was, as naked a Jaybird in my ‘backer field, singin’ my fool head off!

REV. BILLY: Yes, well isn’t that special. Well, Jimmy Joe, we are just about out of time, here, and as you know, time is money. I would however like to ask you just one more two-part question. Number one, are you really a born-again Christian? And part two, have you ever really had lust in your heart?

JIMMY JOE: Well Billy, I don’t really feel that these two are mutually exclusive – In answer to your first question. Yes, I am a Born-again Christian; and in answer to your second question, yes, I have had lust in my heart…but it was lust for another Christian.

REV. BILLY: Well, there you have it, friends! Right from the former president’s own mouth. I’d like to thank President Starter for taking time out of his busy schedule to be with us tonight, and I’d like to invite all of you to tune in next week to another exciting episode of, MEET THE REVEREND! My next week’s guest will be that silly old buffoon and darling of the media, Attorney Michael Cohen! Watch him drop a dime on his former boss, Donald J. Trump! Until then, I wish all of you a pleasant good night, and may Glod bless.

I can’t go on, I’ll go on

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I am doing a deep dive into Samuel Beckett, and I feel that I must come up for air. I can’t go on, but I must go on.

I just finished reading The Unnamable, the third novel in the trilogy after Molloy, and Malone Dies. There have been about 20 years intervening between each reading and I have read a lot of other books since including other works by Beckett.

The Unnamable is the story of the self that strives for silence but is obliged to go on. It is about three things: The inability to speak, the inability to be silent, and solitude. It is full of internal contradictions, doubt, and paradoxes.

I keep coming back to Beckett because something about his work resonates.  Not only that but I came across an interesting tome by Paul Foster that analyzes Beckett’s work in terms of the “dilemma” presented in his work through the lens of Zen Buddhism. Wow! That is what I said. So, I read The Unnamable in preparation for Beckett and Zen, by Paul Foster.

One of the dilemmas alluded to in Beckett and Zen is the doctrine of grace: grace given, and grace withheld. St. Augustine tells the story of the two thieves that are crucified with Christ, one is saved, and the other is damned. How can we make sense of this division Beckett wants to know? There is a scene in Waiting for Godot where this theme is played out by the characters Vladimir and Estragon.

Then there is the dilemma of human reason confronted by an outrageous relentless irrationality, a universe giving birth to the spectacle of life, of which the main feature is suffering and death.

There is the problem of time which leads to decay and into the abyss. Personal identity and isolation and need I say, alienation?

Distress is at the heart of Beckett’s work which arises from a mental and spiritual confusion resulting from the recognition of the dilemma of existence.

The problem of God. Does God exist? If He does is He an all-loving God or a monster? And what about the Silence of God? Why don’t we hear from Him?

Beckett refers to a fundamental sound resounding in the universe that can only be described as a howl of pain.

That is enough for now. I think I have caught my breath and can now emerge from this rabbit hole that I seem to have fallen into and get about my day.

Thanks for reading.

Book Review: Recessional by David Mamet

/ Benn Bell / 1 Comment

The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch

Photo of book by the author

David Mamet is a good writer. That is not to say that he is a brilliant writer. I think not. Although, his plays might be considered so. Who can doubt the brilliance of Glengarry Glen Ross or The Verdict or Wag the Dog. However, these little essays of three or four pages each fall flat. And they are loaded with misinformation, lies, and incorrect conclusions. He sometimes gets his facts right but draws the wrong conclusions. I could disagree with him more on some of these points but I don’t see how. Mr. Mamet seems to have lost his way if not his mind.

There are a few things in the book that do I agree with, and one or two things that I actually identify with. But for the most part it is poppycock.

Here is what I like and agree with:

He says, and I quote: “…works that I have found helpful writing drama: Aristotle’s Poetics. Campbell’s, Hero with a Thousand Faces.”

I have both of these books in my library and have always wanted to read them. I will now be putting them on my TBR list.

“Each characterization of the hero…that does not jibe with our self image takes us out of the story. An invaluable understanding for the story teller.”

And an invaluable lesson for the writer as well.

“The script exists to describe to the cameraman what to shoot and to tell the actors what to say. Everything else is besides the point…The nature of a script is a recipe.”

Very sensible.

“We human beings are a bad lot. Unchecked, we divide into predators and food.”

“Great paintings and music can inspire, suggest, soothe, thrill, but they cannot teach, Neither can literature. The arts exit, as does religion, to touch those portions of the human soul beyond the corruption of consciousness.”

OK, you had me all the way up to that last sentence. What exactly is the “corruption of consciousness?”
“Most plays are no damned good. The only way to write a play is to write a lot of plays…To write a good play requires talent. There is not a lot of it around.”

“…The journey of the writer and that of the hero are one and the same. Both are forced to make difficult choices.”

“I was raised in the horror of the Chicago public schools…I didn’t learn a goddamn thing. It might have helped my grades if not my education if I ever opened a school book, but I was bored to catatonia…but outside of school hours, I read voraciously and was certainly better read than the teachers.”
Now, this I can relate to. I had the same experience going to public schools. But I went to 14 schools in 12 years. My father was a Navy man and I transferred schools quite frequently as we moved around the country whenever my dad got new orders. I did however manage to get a pretty good education, even thought I was bored out of my mind much of the time.

“Samuel Beckett was the greatest dramatist since Shakespeare.”

No argument here. I would add perhaps Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee.

“What is art for? It has no use. No more than a sunset…Art has no purpose, but it has a use (direct contradiction, but I know what he means). The oyster cannot use the pearl (cue Steinbeck). Observers may admire its beauty, but that does not allow them to understand the pearl, beauty, or the oyster.”

Now, for what I don’t like:

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war. The offer of Freedom (American constitutional democracy) is at issue, and the tyranny of the left displays the carrot and the stick to a legitimately disturbed populace.”
I think the tyranny is on the right and not on the left. And there is ample evidence to support this contention. But I won’t use up valuable space here to refute it. Suffice it to say, I beg to differ. Domestic terror attacks emanate from the right far more than they do from the left.

There is another place in the book at the beginning where Mr. Mamet makes the argument that the left tried to steal the election. This is patently untrue and is rather the other way around. Has he forgotten about the January 6th insurrection when the members of the right-wing stormed the capitol in a failed to overthrow the government? Bill Maher called him out on this on his show and Mamet just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Skip that page.” Unfortunately, he makes similar statements and arguments throughout the book. We should perhaps skip the entire book.

August Strindberg

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Sunday. 2/6/2022. 2:58 pm Riot Café. Reading August Strindberg – Miss Julie and Other Plays. Notes to follow.

Riot Café. Photo by the author

The Red Room, A satirical novel written by Strindberg in 1879. It is not a far cry to go from Red Room to Redrum to Murder. Just saying.

“Strindberg’s naturalism is not a slice of life, but rather the intense, immediate drama associated with what he called, ‘the battle of the brains.’ This is fought, not with theatrical swords or daggers, but with the equally lethal mental cut and thrust of two implacably hostile minds, bound to each other by desire and hatred. It is a battle in which one of them ultimately destroys the other’s will and commits ‘soul murder.’” One is immediately put in mind of Edward Albee’s, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Indeed, Translator Michael Robinson makes the very same observation writing about, The Dance of Death, a play written by August Strindberg in 1900, as a depiction of a marital inferno. He cites the numerous critics who regard it as the forerunner to Eugene O’Neill’s, Long Day’s Journe into Night and Edward Albee’s, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?

Why read Strindberg today? Because he is as relevant today as he was in 1887.

Strindberg was one of the most extreme theatrical innovators of the late 19th century and ultimately the most influential. The five plays presented here mark his transition from naturalism to modernism.

In The Father, Strindberg shifts away from social and political questions towards more psychological writing. Strindberg was more concerned with the discussion going on in Scandinavia at the time about the “woman question,” sexual morality, marriage, and the shifting psychological states of his characters (Robinson).

The Father is a three-act play with eight characters. The two principal characters are the Captain and his wife, Laura. It is a naturalistic tragedy about the struggle between parents over the future of their child.

The Captain is a scientist and freethinker whose marriage has gone south. He is engaged in a power struggle with his wife, Laura, over their daughter who wants to keep the girl home under her own influence whereas he wants to send the girl away to school. In an attempt to dominate her husband and get her way, Laura decides to drive her husband insane by first insinuating that he is not the girl’s father. The mother (Laura), uses her cunning to subdue and finally destroy the father (The Captain).

Strindberg is a great purveyor of naturalism, but in The Father, he is reaching for “greater naturalism” which is intense, immediate, and associated with a battle of the brains. (Battle of the sexes, battle of wills). The two main characters can be seen as representing the male and female principles.             

Strindberg believed that life is a series of struggles between weaker and stronger wills.

What initially brought me to revisit Strindberg were the films of Ingmar Bergman. Always a big fan of Bergman I began to realize what an influence Strindberg had on the filmmaker. I began to do a little research and it turns out in his lifetime Bergman directed eleven Strindberg plays for the stage, eight for radio and two for television. He was responsible for altogether twenty-eight Strindberg productions. He often returned to the same plays, producing A Dream Play and The Ghost Sonata four times, The Pelican three times and Miss Julie, Playing with Fire and Stormy Weather twice.

My favorite Bergman movie is The Seventh Seal. It has many similarities to the play, The Saga of the Folkungs. They are both set in the 14th century, the plague is present and religion is a major component.

Sources:

  1. Michael Robinson, Translator, Introduction and Notes to Miss Julie and Plays by August Strindberg.
  2. Strindberg and Bergman, Egil Tornquist, November 2012

Follies of God

/ Benn Bell / 3 Comments

Book Review

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Follies of God is a book that came a long at just the right time for me. I had been thinking about Tennessee Williams for a while and had just read one of his plays. He has long been a figure that has fascinated me, both the man and his work.

I was watching YouTube videos one evening and came across an interview with a young man who told a story about meeting Tennessee Williams. It seems he got a call one morning and his mother woke him and said there was a man on the phone who says his name is Tennessee Williams. The young man realized that it must be him because he had written him a letter asking for advice on how to be a writer. He took the call. As the young man related the story, Tennessee asked him to come to have lunch with him. Where are you, he asked? I am in New Orleans, Tennessee answered. But I’m, in Baton Rouge. Well, you better hurry. So, the next day James Grissom drove to New Orleans to meet Tennessee Williams for lunch and thus began the amazing story of how this book came about. Well, I was hooked. I ordered the book that night on Amazon and it arrived very shortly thereafter.

James met with Tennessee Williams and was given a mission. To find the women that had meant so much to him, the women who appeared in his plays and movies, and some of whom were his muses and characters he modeled his characters on or wrote for. He wanted to know if he mattered to them. He called these women, The Follies of God. The characters he created for the stage he called, The Women of the Fog. Tennessee described his writing process as one of creating a mental theater in his mind. The fog rolls in across the boards and a female emerges. “I have been very lucky. I am a multi-souled man, because I have offered my soul to so many women, and they have filled it, repaired it, sent it back to me for use.”

This book is the story of that mission and how it came to be. It also gives us deep insight into the mind of one of the most creative geniuses of the American theater. Tennessee Williams needed a witness and young James Grissom was who he chose.

“Good Lord, can I get a witness? Here is the importance of bearing witness. We do not grow alone; talents do not prosper in a hothouse of ambition and neglect and hungry anger. Love does not arrive by horseback or prayer or good intentions. We need the eyes, the arms, and the witness of others to grow, to know that we have existed, that we have mattered, that we have made our mark. And each of us has a distinct mark that colors our surroundings, that flavors the recipe of every experience in which we find ourselves; but we remain blind, without identity until someone witnesses us.”

During the course of fulfilling his mission James Grissom talked to some of the most important figures on the American Theater scene: Lillian Gish, Maureen Stapleton, Marlon Brando, Elia Kazan, John Gielgud, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter, Geraldine Page, and Katherine Hepburn, to name a few. This book is the fascinating account of his interviewing these witnesses and the sometime startling things they had to day. And yes, Tennessee did matter, and so he still does.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Big Knife (1955)

/ Benn Bell / 9 Comments

Movie Review

The Big Knife poster

Directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, and Rod Steiger. Screenplay by James Poe, based on the play by Clifford Odets.

The Big Knife is a movie that defies easy classification. It is billed as a crime picture, a drama, and a film-noir. I would call it more of a melodrama. It is a poison pen piece directed at the cruel and heartless Hollywood system of the time, which, when you think about it, hasn’t really changed by much. At one point the Shelly Winters character says, “I’d rather see a snake than a Hollywood producer.”

The writing is a bit turgid, approaching the Baroque. It is hard to tell where Clifford Odets leaves off and James Poe begins. But I suspect it is Poe, who is doing all the declaiming. Example: “How dare you come in here and throw this mess of naked pigeons in my face.”

Big Knife

Ida Lupino and Jack Palance

It seemed to me to have a strong Homo-erotic undertow. I don’t know, I didn’t see any mention of it in any of the reviews, but it was certainly apparent to me. In the opening scene the Jack Palance character, Charlie Castle, and his personal trainer, Nick, were boxing in the backyard of his plush home in Bel Air. Both were half naked and there was a lot of clinching going on. They were having a lot of fun. Later Nick gives Charlie a rubdown on a massage table in the backyard while Charlie took a meeting with the head of the studio and his henchmen. Lot of sensual rubbing going on. Then, Nick has Charlie turn over on his back and he pours alcohol on his chest and belly and continues to rub. All the while Charlie is talking to others in the scene. Towards the end of the scene, when it looks like Charlie is going to crack from the pressure, Nick sidled up to him from behind and gets very close and says into his ear, “Is there anything a Greek can do for you? Anything at all?”

Throughout the movie all the male characters refer to Charlie as kiddie, darling, and dear. All very strange. And then there is the matter of the Big Knife. What big knife? There’s no knife to be seen in the movie. Obviously, a symbol of something, but what? Usually considered phallic, but there was a lot of backstabbing going on and then there was that last scene. Plenty of heterosexual activity too. Charlie the movie star was something of a player. Every time somebody went up the spiral staircase it was to have sex with someone. Usually Charlie.

Big Knife 2

Rod Steiger and jack Palance

All the acting was over the top and the actors chewed the scenery plenty. Rod Steiger went nuclear in one scene which probably will go down in the history of cinema as the most explosive ever. The only actor who escaped this phenomenon was Ida Lupino, who was pitch perfect in every scene.

Now, you may have gotten the impression that I didn’t like this film. Not so. I thought it was very entertaining and fascinating to watch. I thoroughly enjoyed it! It is definitely an important part of film history. Highly Recommended.

 

The Plague

/ Benn Bell / 8 Comments

Social Distancing in Elizabethan England in the Time of the Plague

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William Shakespeare

In William Shakespeare’s time, London was ravaged by the bubonic plague. Public health regulation was haphazard at best in Elizabethan England, but one official measure that people seem to understand was that isolation of plague victims seem to slow down the spread of the disease. Hence the nailing shut of quarantined houses. They grasped too the relationship between the progress of the epidemics and large crowds. Authorities did not cancel church services, but when plague deaths began to rise they did shut down the theaters. This, of course, included the Globe Theater in which Shakespeare mounted his productions. The rule of thumb to shutter the theaters was 30 deaths per week. The enemies of the theaters became even more strident in their criticism, shouting that God had sent the plague to punish London for its sins, above all whoredom, sodomy, and playacting.

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The Globe Theater

Source: Will in the World, by Stephen Greenblatt

Photos: by Benn Bell