Neal Stephenson on 300, etc.
The few conservatives still able to hold up one end of a Socratic dialogue are those in the ostracized libertarian wing — interestingly enough, a group with a disproportionately high representation among fans of speculative fiction.
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Woot! Go libertarians!
That was a fun article.
The objections about the corniness of some scenes in 300 is fair (what was up with that sex scene?!), and, due to the present climate, it's hard not to read it as shockingly pro-Bush, but that being said it was also fun.
I'm glad I went, I had a good time.
I thought it was kind of boring and bad, though it had its moments. I would have prefered if it wasn't so serious, 'cause a lot of stuff in the film was laughably bad. The deformed dude with the wizard hat at the end was cracking me up.
[please imagine Peanuts adult voice:] Wah wah wah wah wah wah. Stephenson still needs an editor. That said, I like the idea of a film that lets me into an alien mindeset. Not so sure I like bloody camp.
Relevant passage from Savage Love:
The Persian army is an armed gay-pride parade, a threat to all things decent and, er, Greek. The king of the Spartans—among the most notorious boy-fuckers in all of ancient history—dismisses Athenian Greeks as weak-willed "philosophers and boy lovers." The Persian emperor? An eight-foot-tall black drag queen—mascara, painted-on eyebrows, pink lip gloss. Emperor RuPaul is positively obsessed with men kneeling in front of him. Why gay up the Persians? So that straight boys in the theater can identify with the Spartan king and his 300 soldiers—all of whom appear to have been recruited from and outfitted by the International Male catalog.
What isn't up for debate is the film's politics. The only times the Persian army doesn't look like a gay-pride parade in hell, it looks like a crowd of madly chanting Islamic militants. And if the Spartan king has to break the Spartan law to defend Spartan freedoms? Well, sometimes a king's gotta do what a king's gotta do. Because, as the queen of Sparta points out, freedom isn't free. And, yes, she uses exactly those words. George Bush is going to blow a load in his pants when he sees this movie.
The fact that this movie seemed to be playing directly for GWB's affections was part of it's charm for me.
Also, in all fairness, the Spartans seemed pretty damned gay too. Could they have worn any less clothes? The only person who didn't seem gay was the guy with swords for arms. What was his deal?
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