Canadian IDiot Denyse O'Leary wants you to know that she's fed up to here with all that fancy-schmancy book larnin' of you hoity toities:
Would you go to see a film about a pregnant New York waitress from a deprived background - estranged from her family, dumped by her lover, fired for being late, and about to arrange an abortion? Really?
Um ... no, not really. Not unless I knew a bit more about it. That's not really enough to go on, Denyse. Why do you ask?
If you said no, you would certainly be affirmed in your decision by critics at the top Entertainment sections.
OK, that might be good enough for me. My time is limited so I'm more than willing to take advice. What's your point, Denyse?
But then Bella stunned film mavens by winning the Toronto Film Festival People's Choice Award. Audiences have since made Bella a popular, award-winning - and well-rewarded - movie.
Well, good for it. Are you going somewhere with this, Denyse? Ah ... yes, you are:
There is currently an enormous cultural divide between elite culture and popular culture in North America, and film's future rests with popular culture. To understand what will happen next for Expelled, ignore the derision of the elite; note whether people "with jobs" go see the film.
Because the true test of the value of Ben Stein's "Expelled" movie is not whether the educated "elite" like it; no, it's whether it sells well to the scientifically illiterate Lumpentariat who are, of course, the appropriate judges of what qualifies as acceptable scientific theory.
Frankly, Denyse, I'm not comfortable with your average, badly-educated yob with a job being asked to decide what is valid science and what isn't. We've already seen what happens when rubes like that get their hands on the levers of government and, well, it's just not a pretty sight, is it?
What the average person on the street thinks is perfectly acceptable when you're asking them about whether the Kitchener Rangers are going to win their next game. "Yeah, Rangers rock, dude! Fuckin' A! Whoo hoo!" It's not acceptable when you're asking them to pass judgment on the scientific validity of biological evolution. 'Cuz, quite simply, most of them are just not up to the task.
I'm sorry ... was that "elitist?"
TAKE IT AWAY, STEPHEN:
It is not hard to see why “Bella,” a saccharine trifle directed by Alejandro Monteverde, won the People’s Choice Award at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. This is a movie that wears its bleeding heart on its sleeve and loves its characters to distraction. Nothing — not even significant plot glitches and inconsistencies — is allowed to get in the way of its bear-hugging embrace of sweetness and light...
If “Bella” (the title doesn’t make sense until the last scene) is a mediocre cup of mush, the response to it suggests how desperate some people are for an urban fairy tale with a happy ending, no matter how ludicrous.
Pardon me while I go get my insulin.
4 comments:
What a deceptive bitch. It's not like the theory of evolution is something the average person can't grasp in a fundamental way. It's elegantly straightforward.
The existential and philosophical issues brought up by intelligent design and the complexities involved in academic research require more abstract thinking and more attention than the average person should be required to engage to grasp a basic scientific fact. And this is what Denyse and her conspiracy of liars are counting on...it's all very difficult and therefore, since the average Joe and Jane won't understand it all, it must mean that some elite cabal is hiding the truth from them.
Now that they're losing the battle, they're pushing ID as fodder for a class war? What manipulative liars.
Hey, when you can't rely on facts and evidence to back up your ideas, populism and faux anti-establishment rebellion will have to do.
Just like all those poor persecuted Christians out there....
We need not complicate this:
"Will the Expelled film turn out like Bella?"
No.
Jeebus.
Elitist?
Ya means book larnin is what fills heads with them crazy evolooshun thoughts?
Edjumacashun is like witchcraft! Yesiree. Burn the books!
Or do like the US did, and start the no child left behind act.
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