From: "Alan Cook" <alangregorycook-AT-msn.com> To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org Date: Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:03:50 GMT Subject: [Puptcrit] G.K. Chesterton, Thank you critters for checking out the rest of the New Yorker article and noting G.K Chesterton's anti-semitism. I do not think we can blame that on toy theatre influence. There are other artists with various problems. Does one listen to Wagner's operas? Around 1979 at the Library of Congress I came across a photograph or two, of uniformed Nazi officials visiting a German puppet exhibit of little Kaspers. (The photo[s] were acquired by U.S. Occupation forces and eventally ended up temporarily in my hands). The Soviet Union & its satelllites used puppets for propaganda purposes. If you saw the film from Asia called The Puppet Master, the puppeteer is among other things, performing a puppet show on behalf of the occupying Japanese Forces in Formosa/Taiwan. Adam Gopnik's New Yorker essay raises many questions we need to consider. Among them is religious dogmatism used to overlook the Inquisition and the persecution of other religious people (Another thing Chsterton did). Chesterton derided the loss of neghborhoods of distinct character, opposed the sameness imposed by outside forces, yet he allied with a large religious insititution known for dogma (hardly a SMALL institution). So there is a major, MAJOR contradiction. I know there are critters who hope we can always avoid politics and religion in a puppet chat group. I don't think that it is possible to avoid in today's world or at any other time. Art, including puppetry in general and toy theatre in particular, does not exist in a vacuum. Art was used in the Reformation and the Counter Reformation to political effect. So rather than ignore topics at our peril, we need to maintain a CIVIL TONE and a respect for different opinions, avoid harrassment which unfortunately was the primary problem with Kismet. There was no dialogue possible there. ALAN COOK -----Original Message----- From: Stephen Kaplin Sent: Saturday, July 5, 2008 12:38 PM To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] G.K. Chesterton, noted 20th Century English Writer & Toy Theatre Great Small Works did a large mask version of Chesterton's "Man Who was Thursday" about ten years ago. It was directed by Mark Sussman and staged in a sort Russian Constructivist style with many references to bio-mechanics in the movement and choreography. At the time we did it, I knew nothing about Chesterton. The article in The New Yorker is fascinating not only because it dissects GK's childhood predellction for toy theater, but it also reveals the not-so-lolly side of the man as well, and then tries to square the two of them up. He was in his day well known as a political conservative, and he had strongly anti-semetic views (he disagreed with Hitler only on the crudity of his methods, not on his assessment of the essential nature of European Jewry.) And he did not keep these views a secret either. So the question is: Is it okay to admire the man for his aesthetic views while ignoring his social and ideological obtuseness? Perhaps Kismet would like to weigh in on this-- oh wait, he was banished from puptcrit. Stephen On Jul 5, 2008, at 12:47 PM, Alan Cook wrote: > The New Yorker Magazine for July 7/14 2008, beginning on page 52, "The > Back of the World" (The troubling genius of G>K> Chesterton) by Adam > Gopnik: > > Chesterton "explains that the transforming event of his early life" as > a child "was watching puppet shows in a toy theatre that his father > had made for him." > > > _______________________________________________ > List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org > Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit > Archives: http://www.driftline.org > _______________________________________________ List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit Archives: http://www.driftline.org _______________________________________________ List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit Archives: http://www.driftline.org
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