Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
CUCKODOX (n.) : A male movie character whose wife or girlfriend cheats on him. In spite of this, the producers of the movie fully intend that you somehow sympathize with the slut who started sleeping with someone else without leaking to her main man a single syllable about any reservations she might have had about their relationship. He is a rustic construct representing nothing more complex than simplistic rules, tradition, convention, all with an air of stuffy patriarchal mildew. A portmanteau of “cuckold” and “orthodox.” As a fictitious character, he is inserted into the story for the purpose of representing a value or system of values, and the rival for his affections is also inserted to represent a system of values and not much more. His role is to impose traditional rules of behavior on his sweetheart, and to be dumped by her once a more exciting and unkempt stud comes along, who is almost always from a lower economic class.
In Titanic it is Cal Hockley, played by Billy Zane. In Legends of the Fall it is Alfred Ludlow, played by Aidan Quinn. In The Piano it is Alisdair Stewart, played by Sam Neill. In Braveheart it is Edward, Prince of Wales, played by Peter Hanly.
In spite of the abundant screen time and depth of emotional interaction building the character, and the mesmerizing complexity of the story overall, such a character plays absolutely no role whatsoever besides being dumped and getting pissed about it. He is simply a cog in a vast machinery constructed to promote rebellion over tradition.
I’m just jotting this down for my own benefit. This is a “woman’s movie” cliche…now that I’ve gotten attached to a wonderful, mature and intellectual lady who doesn’t go for this kind of crap, I may never figure out what it takes to construct these popular chick flicks. But it’s clear to me there is a formula going on. It is not a very complex formula at all, and the Cuckodox plays an important part of it.
Well, we know it can’t take a lot of real empathy to construct such a thing. If you were to task me to come up with the most misogynist persons of all time, living or dead, James Cameron would have to come up near the top of the list — he of Titanic fame. Titanic, the most profitable dumb-womyns’-movie ever.
He dumped his fourth wife for the woman who would become his fifth wife…who he met on the set, fer chrissakes.
But that’s just one sample. The slutty-womans’-movie keeps on chugging along, like an Energizer Bunny of movie genres, even today. You need more ingredients than a Cuckodox to make one…but not too many more. It’s a pretty simple stew, and one day I’ll put together the complete recipe. Then — I dunno what. Maybe by then these things will have finally gone out of style.
But I’m pretty sure this is a staple ingredient.
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