Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2001 22:47:02 -0500
Subject: Re: Can't buy me Love! - or Philosophy!


hbone wrote:
> 
 How much can be crammed into a two-hour movie? Apparently, Moulin Rouge
encompassed enough to be entertaining, a giant mishmash  of popular
culture of the latter part of the century. One can imagine a similar
treatment of the tons of text emitted by the most-read philosophers of
the same era, how they were read, re-read, mis-read.  It wouldn't be
entertainment, but might emphasize the destruction of the "self", the
impossibility of a personal philosophy, when philosophic trends make
each human mind a constantly increasing landfill of the "other".

Hugh, I love this image. In Zarathustra, Nietzsche says: "I could only
believe in a god who knew how to dance." Perhaps, instead of writing so
many books, philosophers should spend more time singing and dancing."

Suppose truth were a musical? What then?

> I read unfavorable reviews of Moulin Rouge, but was tempted by your
description until the in the end it was compared with Titanic.

I must not have been clear about this. What I meant to say was that M.R.
parodied Titantic just as it parodied other aspects of culture. This
left the ending as a kind of aporia which could be read either way - the
triumph of art or just another silly love song (parody). By undercutting
the 'truth' and making it silly, the movie seemed more honest to me that
the 1,001 other movies that are so earnestly sincere in their
falsehoods.

At any rate, I urge you to go see it and see it on the big screen.  M.R.
is a visual delight and full of popping eye candy as well as fun music.

To quote Zarathustra again:  "Live dangerously; go to the movies."