Prince Myshkin

drawing of his character by Dostoevsky

Prince Myshkin, the anti-hero of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot is a simpleton. His innocence is a force of nature. He possesses a perverse trust, his love is a paraphilia considering the norms of not just the society in which he lives but "society in general, and even the species, in its broadest sense--Homo habilis? He's a figure out of the world of early Christianity in which man’s relationship with God was not yet mediated by the Church. Is he a Christ figure? Perhaps not since his presence is even more illuminated by his humanity.

read "The Waste Land" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and also read "Punk" by Francis Levy, Vol.1 Brooklyn

The Trojan War

The Trojan Horse is the ur example of confounding the enemy, the wiles of Odysseus the epitome of the cleverness that has characterized great generals. But remember Pyrrhus? Win the battle and lose the war or there's Clausewitz famous dictum, war is simply a continuation of diplomacy by other means. The fine line between war and diplomacy is echoed in the choice between B-2 bunker busters and a delegation proceeding to Geneva. Then there's "the domino theory" and  "spheres of influence" another Cold War adage --that’s curiously relevant today considering the new Axis of North Korea, Russia and China Finally, there was Mata Hari and the Trojans  undoubtedly enlisted by The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.

read "The Waste Land" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and also read "Punk" by Francis Levy, Vol.1 Brooklyn

Has Humankind Sunk Into a Fetal Position?

Is this still the childhood of civilization? After all human kind is only 5000 years old (give or take), allowing 2000 for AD or AC and 3000 for BC which takes us back to Ancient Greece and the Peloponnesian Wars. The mythologies of the great heroes, Odysseus and Achilles and conflicts like The Trojan War, mediated by Gods such as Zeus occupy a space of imagination outside history—that also informs historical memory and the history of culture. “Judith Beheading Holofernes” was a subject undertaken by both Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi. But what about adolescence and early adulthood? There is Jaques “Seven Stages of Man” speech in As You Like It. Will human life itself end up “sans teeth, sans eyes, sans everything?” The scale of conflagration only increases. It feels as if history has gone from being Stephan Daedalus’ nightmare to a flesh eating bacteria. The wonderful thing about B movies such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Night of the Living Dead (1968) is that they offer a vision of value free horror and misery that is oddly in tune with this moment in time. Perhaps civilization has sunk back into a fetal position.

Listen to "Shake Your Groove Thing" by Peaches and Herb

Statecraft

Putin can’t be too happy about the Middle East. He’s lost two proxies Syria and Iran (and in turn Hamas and Hezbollah). Many years ago an Atlantic contributor analyzed how Putin compensates for a chronic physical deformity. In short, it’s similar to a snake which curls up protectively before making a deadly strike. No doubt a single physical deformity can lay claim to history! Putin also has his hands full with Ukraine. It’s doubtful he has enough arms to offer the embattled Iranians. Of course he could offer the Ayatolah asylum as he did Assad (imagine those two fellow travelers as roommates), though the Ayatollah carries a good deal more baggage than his Syrian counterpart. It’s doubtful Putin wants to set up a Muslim version of the Vatican in his otherwise secular state. Nor does he want to open his arms to every dictator who attains refugee status. Come to think of it maybe North Korea will become the nominee. Imagine Kim Jong-un will regale his deposed visitors with tales of Dennis Rodman and the NBA.

read "The Waste Land" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and also read "Punk" by Francis Levy, Vol.1 Brooklyn

Was Camelot Stormy?

You may remember Robert McNamara tearfully repenting of his role in the Vietnam War. He was a formidable presence with his scholarly glasses and slick backed hair. Camelot was not always what it was billed to be. In fact The White House pool area often had the look of one of those seedy spas with Caesar in the title— so popular during the 70s era when NY was a wide open city. In her memoir, one of Kennedy’s assistants recounts how the president issued executive orders for her to pleasure a friend while he'd watched. Sounds reminiscent of P. Diddy no? Don’t believe for a minute that Jackie was oblivious to what was going on. Of course Access Hollywood is hard to top. Would that Stormy Daniels had simply created her reputation as a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

read "The Waste Land" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and also read "Punk" by Francis Levy, Vol.1 Brooklyn

Materialists

Nathaniel Kahn's The Price of Everything was about the commodification of the art market. Materialists, closer to the bone, centers on a matchmaker, Lucy (Dakota Johnson), who  trades in human worth. At one point a client bridles at being "a good catch" protesting that she "is not a fish." If art is a tangible asset, love should ideally be unquantifiable, an "intangible asset." Note the movie is Materialists, not The Materialists. Is speciation the  subject? But what happens when the seller of flesh finds herself on the auction block? Prostitution is of the film's subliminal themes. Lucy has two suitors John (Chris Evans), an impoverished actor and sometime waiter and Harry (Pedro Pascal). One plays nothing to the other's everything. The conceit which is fleshed out at Lucy's agency, Adore, ad nauseam, can be tiresome. However, the director, Celine Song, cleverly introduces devices. Love and worth are, it turns out, not fungible currencies. In this sense she is heir to the romantic comedic tradition of Preston Sturges in which a sociological idea, whether political corruption, The Great McGinty, (1940) the plight of the disenfranchised, Sullivan's Travels 1941) or the  love of money, Palm Beach Story (1942) is the igniter. Song, like Sturges has a gift for pithy exchanges which epitomize her satiric point. That including her gift for unexpected turns of plot, which appear just in time to rescue the script from moments of tedium, is not surprising, since Song is also a playwright. 

read "The Waste Land" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and also read "Punk" by Francis Levy, Vol.1 Brooklyn

They Fight With Cameras

When you visit Omaha beach, you're astounded by the Sisyphean nature of the task the invading allied armies faced. Soldiers stared death in the face. One can't imagine mustering up the level of courage required to scale those cliffs under enemy fire. Nina Rosenblum and Danny Allentuck's They Fight With Cameras tells the story of Walter Rosenblum, the famed photographer who filmed D-Day, Dachau and numerous signposts of invasion, as a member of the Signal Corps. It's a rather amazing document that will break the composure of even the most hardened souls. The film also tells the story of its own inception through lost letters, miraculously retrieved, that Rosenblum had written to his first wife. But it's particularly significant today, since it trades in empathy and sentiment, two notions that are in short supply in the current universe of self-regard. Soldiers risked their lives and cared about their compatriots from other countries. Sounds obvious, no? Not in the transactional hell, the world of Trump, Putin and their minions where no human being does anything for anyone, unless there is something in it for them. "Lasciate ogne speranza voi ch'intrate" abandon all hope, ye who enter here" are the words that graced the gate of Dante's Inferno and that should be the warning to visiting dignitaries like Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Cyril Ramaphosa who dare to enter the current White House.

read "The Waste Land" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and also read "Punk" by Francis Levy, Vol.1 Brooklyn