JOH Eco

Greetings ~

Growing up in Phoenix for some time, the place to go for me, the magical place that captured my imagination and made me, even at six, consider the past, was Tombstone. I remember driving through the desert in my baby sitter's boyfriend's old muscle car (probably a Nova - purely speculation), riding on her lap and steering through the loose, golden sand as we fish-tailed down the road (probably listening to Journey - purely speculation). The car had a T-Top - not speculation. Anyways, on many a weekend we would drive to Tombstone to wander the streets, purchasing rock candy, touring the OK Coral, and sipping rootbeer at the saloon. Hearing an argument outside, we would rush to the walkway to see the "Sheriff" ordering some "guy in black" to "throw down his weapon!" Well, no luck this time, everytime, as the bad guy would pull and fire, the Sheriff and his deputies would exchange a hearty dose of violence, as invariably, some man would yelp and roll off of the roof of an unmarked building. Exciting. Until I realized that the "Sheriff" lived down the street from us, and, though he was a real Sheriff in our town, the whole thing was a hoax. Good thing we left that God forsaken fake town and moved to Orlando, Florida - nothing fake in Orlando.

Reading Eco made me think about a cultural anthropology class I took that addressed the Vietnam war. Initially, we studied the Viet culture, which was quite interesting - actually, more so now with PoMo in my pocket. Anyways, the second half of the semester we studied American culture, reading a book by Richard Slotkin called Gunfighter Nation. Much of the content concerning Am. Culture related to the "frontier myth," an energy perpetuated in great part by T. Roosevelt. The idea was that in order for man to continue to cultivate himself, he must search out challenges and overcome the savages of the world. When the frontier filled, rather than calling it a day, the U.S. sought to liberate, teach, dominate, or whatever other nations - starting, I believe, with the Philippines.

I swear I'm still here ...

The hero continuum (Regeneration through Regression in most American films follows the pattern of:
a) things are fine
b) things decline [challenge]
c) choice is made [by hero]
d) all others bail
e) hero stays the course, fights
f) hero wins [usually involves a blonde]
and he is better than when he began

The clearest examples of this continuum are western films. Here, the town is superficial, held up by 2X4's, the story is predictable, and the audience is enthralled by the strife of the star as he defeats the savages (bad guys) and the bugs (towns people), wins the girl, and saves the day. Ahhhh America. We are STILL loving this. With the predictability of the fake towns, this story line, told well through the westerns, skims the surface of reality and distracts the observer. Don't buy it? Some guy, from Texas, can't talk for S, but he's out there "fighting over there so we don't have to fight over here," defeating the savages (radical Islamists), spreading the truth, while attempting to win lady liberty's hand.

Going and going and going and going ...