Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2001 13:03:05 -0600
Subject: Re: A religion for cyborgs


hbone wrote:

P.S.  After writing the above I saw the movie:  "The Man Who Wasn't
There". It's billed as comedy.  It is absurd and funny and sad.. If
you're thinking ethics, its a jarring journey into a  "no-man's land"
(in an old-fashioned military sense) or a "wasteland" as in Eliot.

Hugh:

I also saw the movie. I'm a big fan of the Coen brothers. For me, the
touchstone was Camus' The Stranger which is an ironic looping in a
number of ways. 

Camus acknowledged that James Cain's "The Postman Always Rings Twice"
was a big influence on his book.  In retrospect, this is fairly easy to
see.  Pulp fiction as an existential metaphysical thriller.

Now the Coen brothers have connected both parts together again. Both a
homage to film noir and Camus, this time the stranger is told as the
ultimately American story it always secretly was.

eric