Ask Joan Crawford! Wire hangers
Due to the abbreviated schedule next week, we are answering your letters early. Today's mailbag contains a query from Mari Q. Contrary of the Oneida Community, who asks:
Dear Joan,
I'm short on hangers, wire ones to be specific. Got any handy? I know you're a wealthy movie star and all so I thought that it couldn't hurt to ask.
Sincerely,
Mari Q. Contrary
ROLF. No! No wire hangers anymore. And no, I take no offense at the question. I saw the movie also (chuckles).
Once you are dead and your life story moves into the public domain, there's little that can be done to guard against the inevitable misinformation that leaks out. My lawyers tried to convince me to trademark my life story, but I didn't listen. Still, you would have thought they would have at least sent me the script ahead of time, so that I could have culled out the inaccuracies (such as that apocryphal scene).
Christina might have had some valid complaints against my behavior as a mother. The book, I admit, hurt me when I read it. However, by the time the movie came out, the myth of "movie star turned Atilla" had already garnered a certain kitsch cachet, and the resultant movie production (released in 1981) was glossed by a growing devolution of American culture. I am happy that I, albeit posthumously, participated in the deconstruction of yet another myth generated by American capital, that of "actress as icon." The quite unintended result was a total recasting of my life and career from this accidental cinematic bookend.
Marx states that capital will always create its own mythology, but as capitalism begins its terminal decline, one of the results (including a shifting of the means of production to militarism, to protect the artificial state) is that the myth will cease to hold power over the masses. Those who are "early adopters" of the new emerging communist state will take up the banner, as Faye Dunaway so artfully did in her distorted biopic.
Joan
Dear Joan,
I'm short on hangers, wire ones to be specific. Got any handy? I know you're a wealthy movie star and all so I thought that it couldn't hurt to ask.
Sincerely,
Mari Q. Contrary
ROLF. No! No wire hangers anymore. And no, I take no offense at the question. I saw the movie also (chuckles).
Once you are dead and your life story moves into the public domain, there's little that can be done to guard against the inevitable misinformation that leaks out. My lawyers tried to convince me to trademark my life story, but I didn't listen. Still, you would have thought they would have at least sent me the script ahead of time, so that I could have culled out the inaccuracies (such as that apocryphal scene).
Christina might have had some valid complaints against my behavior as a mother. The book, I admit, hurt me when I read it. However, by the time the movie came out, the myth of "movie star turned Atilla" had already garnered a certain kitsch cachet, and the resultant movie production (released in 1981) was glossed by a growing devolution of American culture. I am happy that I, albeit posthumously, participated in the deconstruction of yet another myth generated by American capital, that of "actress as icon." The quite unintended result was a total recasting of my life and career from this accidental cinematic bookend.
Marx states that capital will always create its own mythology, but as capitalism begins its terminal decline, one of the results (including a shifting of the means of production to militarism, to protect the artificial state) is that the myth will cease to hold power over the masses. Those who are "early adopters" of the new emerging communist state will take up the banner, as Faye Dunaway so artfully did in her distorted biopic.
Joan
posted by The Reluctant Muse at 2:35 AM
1 Comments:
the myth will cease to hold power!..? it implies that we will grow up and assume a moral health code, devoid of fantasy or dressed up heroes. The need for idealism is deep seated = ergo necessary. When we chose figureheads more carefully, we satisfy the hunger for authority/ security. A whole nation clamors for real personal heroes.
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