Stranger on Earth

Link to Vol. 1:   http://ed-is-a-stranger-on-earth.blogspot.com/2014/01/lars-von-triers-sex-therapy-nymph.html This is just the sort of movie that you wander into fully expecting to find Jamie Bell of Billy Elliot fame as a whip-wielding S&M master. Welcome to Vol. 2 . After the sex-o-rama of Vol. 1 , what other nasty surprises can there be, you ask? You get 40 lashes (or 39, according to Seligman) in perverted Roman fashion for asking such a dumb question. This is Uncle Lars’ house of fun we’re talking about. To start with, there’s the Catholic church parallelism. In the chapter “The Eastern and the Western Church (The Silent Duck)”, we’re asked to examine the (Western) Catholic penchant for sadomasochism (what do you know, Christ’s martyrdom is mentioned), and in the meantime, Joe gets herself strung up like a Christmas turkey when she hooks up with K (Bell), an exclusive S&M expert with a fetish for authentic leather horse whips, rope knots, face-slappi...

  Uncle Lars is up to no good again. I’d caught wind of Von Trier’s latest sex-heavy project as far back as early 2012. Even then, without having read a thing about its plot, I knew it’s to be something explosive. The title of course speaks volumes, but in the hands of the Danish nut-job, you just know you’ll be in for a cracking good trip. And then there’s the cast: Charlotte Gainsbourg (who’s known for having pulled off some sick stuff in Von Trier’s Anti-Christ ), Willem Dafoe, Christian Slater, Stellan Skarsgard, Jamie Bell (oh cripes, there goes Billy Elliot), Uma Thurman, and last but not at all the very least, the infamous head-case that’s Shia I-plagiarise-my-apologies LaBeouf. So there you have it: every single one of them talented individuals, regardless of your opinions of them. What in the world are they doing jumping into bed with Uncle Lars? You just don’t say no to Uncle Lars when he comes a-knocking. This is the devil-in-disguise who brought us scathi...

And the sky, the light, the trees, the whole of Nature would be, as always, in league with them: Daniel was a man of evil will. (136)  This curious line describes Daniel, the only homosexual character in The Age of Reason , and his perception of himself. It is an unflattering image imbued with self-loathing, indicative of a mind that views its perceiver as a social outcast and a victim of universal oppression. It is interesting to note that Daniel’s homosexuality is hidden from the public, and that there is no indication that he has been openly discriminated against – and yet, what we have here is a young man in his prime, possessor of a “dark, handsome, blue-jowled visage,” whom Marcelle ironically calls “her dear archangel” (82), grappling with a self-hatred so powerful that every thought crossing his mind is associated with destruction and death. Our first proper introduction to him takes place in Chapter 7, and it is here that we find Daniel shaving “naked to the...

A short entry about orthodoxy before I post the second part of the analytical essay on Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 next week.  While reading a short story entitled “Augustine de Villeblanche or Love’s Strategy” by the Marquis de Sade (not exactly a historical figure you would go to for moral rectitude), I came across the following fascinating passages on why human beings feel the need to judge, condemn, and censor others who hold different beliefs and values from them: The most foolish thing of all … is to blush about the penchants that Nature has given us. And to make fun of anyone, simply because his or her tastes are unusual, is just as barbaric as railing against someone who was born lame, or blind in one eye. But trying to convince fools of these reasonable concepts is like trying to halt the stars in their courses. People seem to take a kind of prideful pleasure in mocking “defects” that they themselves do not possess, and they apparently derive such enjoyment – e...