Lovely Monsters
In Hollywood, Hannibal Lecter and de Sade are heroes
Notes on four dubious cultural products.
Another nude Jesus. The Brooklyn Museum of Art is at it again. No, it's not elephant dung and porn photos on the Virgin Mary. This time it's a naked female Jesus at the Last Supper. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani took the bait and called for a decency commission. Better to let it go, or next year the museum will come back with a statue of Jesus as O. J. Simpson in drag or a painting of Mary as a WWF wrestler. The demeaning of Christian symbols is a mainstream activity in our art world. Nude female images of Jesus are old hat in this game. So are sendups of the Last Supper. Many versions are available, including one with Jesus and the Apostles as dogs and another featuring Jesus as Mrs. Butterworth, the syrup lady. Are these feeble blasphemies political acts by the massively untalented? Oh, no. They're art.
Eminem. A new Eminem problem confronts the cultural left: He may represent the crude beginning of a big backlash among the young, not against gains by women and gays but against the regime of political correctness. Students in high school and college face the most politically repressive atmosphere America has seen in almost 50 years. Jokes, rumors, questions in class, comments by teachers are all tightly monitored. That work is accomplished by the use of speech and behavior codes, zero-tolerance policies, heavy indoctrination at freshman orientation, and the sexual harassment police. Everybody knows that teenagers are apt to rebel. Why hasn't it occurred to people that they might want to rebel against the smog of orthodoxy that hangs over their schools? Eminem's fans include millions of young people who clearly aren't interested in hating women or gays. But they may be thrilled that he can get away with breathtakingly unorthodox (though stupid) opinions and force the Establishment to give him awards for it too. If so, the backlash against PC may be less dependent on the Bill Bennetts and Irving Kristols than on a musically talented dolt who thinks he should have killed his mother.
Hannibal Lecter, romantic hero. The makers of the movie Hannibal had the wit to swerve away from the nihilistic ending of Thomas Harris's book. (FBI agent Clarice Starling runs off and finds happiness as Lecter's lover.) But they didn't swerve all that far. The movie's view of Hannibal is similar to the view many journalists had of the Unabomber: Sure, blowing people up (or eating them) isn't a defensible activity, but still he's a pretty riveting fellow who lives by his principles. One of Hannibal's major principles is that he prefers to eat only rude people. Yes, he has some off-putting moments in the film. He cuts open the head of a living federal agent and feeds him his own brains. But in the end, he's a noble, self-sacrificing fellow who is so fond of Clarice that he doesn't even eat her. Lecter is something like Heathcliff, stormy and controversial, maybe, but darned attractive. We end up rooting for him. Memo to Producer Dino de Laurentiis and Director Ridley Scott: Stop now, before you film again.
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