The Meaning Of Edmond: The Film On Race In America That All White Men Find Scarier Than 12 Years A Slave

Atheists Still Act Religiously (In A Manner Of Speaking)

 

I know, in my case this probably isn't true, but it still rings true:

All sorts of people write with strong feeling, the way I do. But if they’re white, they won’t say it. I used to just pretend I didn’t notice it, and now I just think I don’t care. 

There are all sorts of reasons not to like my writing. But that’s not one of them. Saying something is angry is not a criticism. It’s not valid. It’s not a valid observation in terms of criticism. You can list it as something that’s true. But it’s not critical. 

You may not like it because it makes you uneasy—and you can say that. But to damn it because it’s angry…. They always say that about black people: “those angry black people.” And why? You’re afraid that there might be some truth to their anger. It might be justified. 

I promise you, if I had blonde hair and blue eyes this wouldn’t be an issue. No one ever says, “That angry Judith Krantz…” or whatever.

 

 Fighting a pain others turn from is but one of the many concepts I've had to wrestle with, practically all my life, starting much too early. I've learned to compartmentalize a lot of things, just to get on with it. But, whatever I do, I don't follow my "beliefs" just because they "ring" or (let's be blunt) feel true. 

I know how that "works":

Exactly a week after watching the movie Edmond, where a fortuneteller's "advice" helps screw up a guy's life, I accidentally bumped into another film that featured a male NewAger.

It was The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers starring Geoffrey Rush. 

Now - having no clue a fortuneteller was an integral part of Peter Sellers' story - I could have found this second NewAge occurrence significant, somehow, as a part of my own life.

I'm into this shit, right-right?

Somebody trying to "tell me something," maybe?

   

Hey, I might be that hot important.

But it gets even better because, after divorcing his wife (!) Peter Sellers goes to this fortuneteller who - fraudulently acting on a tip the director Blake Edwards wants Sellers to star in a movie - tells the actor to build a strong relationship with someone who has the initials "B.E.". 

Sellers immediately runs out and "marries" Britt Ekland. 

Which also doesn't end well.

But, otherwise, what's so weird? 

My very next movie was The Wicker Man, which I had no idea was starring - wait for it:

Britt-Fucking-Ekland!!!

   

 And not just Britt Ekland, but I'm talking Peter Sellers' second "wife" buck naked - this YouTube cut is edited and framed not to show it - and doing some Stonehenge-y white girl hoodoo love dance, using NewAge to try and make a good man go bad.

[Place the theme to The Twilight Zone here.] 

I was getting totally sucked in, like, Oh-My-God, Becky, Look-At-Her-Butt.

What the name of Oprah and Gail was going on?  Had I discovered The Matrix? 

   

Nope.

 Nothing was going on, except we're a nation of hysterics, seeing "signs" where there are none - and disregarding everything we know for "beliefs" - as unworthy as anyone who holds them.

The reality is, I pick up, and watch, random DVDs for free from the library. 

Y'all suit yourselves,...

 

Stop Crying (Or They'll Give You Something To Cry For)

It isn't often a good William H. Macy movie gets a 46% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but David Mamet's little nightmare, Edmond, has achieved it. 

Brutal honesty, punished, for making the West most uncomfortable. 

And it shouldn't be compared to Falling Down because, when it comes to *legit* mainstream movies about angry white men, Edmond ain't nothing like it - or even Fight Club - though the Brad Pitt vehicle is closer to the mark. They'd make a ruthless art house triple bill, somewhere, that's for sure. 

No, unlike the guys in those other films, Edmond is about a true NewAger. It goes unstated because, in this NewAge Nazi society, it's accepted "logic" that a "man" would use numerology to arrive in front of a tarot deck, and then - based on a combination of sexual frustration, emasculation, and what the cards "said" - proceed to leave his wife. He's "on the path". 

We know the path. Check it out, solipsism fans: 

For viewing online, someone's helpfully even broken Edmond into 8 individual parts,...