Mamet's weird new book

so there's his new weird new book

i'm gonna find quotes from it

Mamet, a man of famously pugnacious rhetorical posture, according to Kurt Loder.

http://reason.com/archives/2011/06/02/david-mamets-conversion-story

“I look back upon my Liberal political beliefs with a sort of wonder—as another exercise in self-involvement—rewarding myself for some superiority I could not logically describe.”

“Those incapable of recognizing bushwa may assume that someone else surely knows what these things [theory] mean. But, sadly, this is not the case.”

“[A]s if getting beaten to death were more pleasant if one was not additionally called a greaser.”

“[S]hould we all simply mass behind a leader so charismatic and well-spoken as to induce in the electorate that state of bliss which, though it may momentarily be indistinguishable from madness or satori, necessitates eventual return to a world made more complicated by our surrender[?].”

“The honest man might observe…that no one gets something for nothing; that politicians go in poor and go out rich; that the Government screws up everything it touches; and that the Will to Believe is best confined to the Religious Venue, as to practice it elsewhere is just too damned expensive.”

That's what 99% of Mamet parodies miss--his convoluted, philosophical constructions alongside the you-fuckin'-fuck jabs.

that obama one is some qual-i-tee writing

“What is the difference between equality and fairness?’’ he asks. The answer: “A standard may be applied to the former, which the latter will not bear.’’

this isn't out of the book but it's just too good

"So it wasn't a great shift to adopt the tragic view, and it's much healthier," he says. "Rather than saying, as the liberals do, 'Everything's always wrong, there's nothing that's not wrong, there's something bad bad bad—there's a bad thing in the world and it's probably called the Jews,'" he says sardonically. "And if it's not called the Jews for the moment, it's their fiendish slave second-hand smoke. Or transfats. Or global warming. Or the Y2K. Or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. And something must be done!'"

oh brother

"The Anarchist," on the other hand, sounds like it will be red meat for conservatives. The two-woman show, which opens this fall in London, is about a prisoner, a former member of a Weather Underground-type group, and her parole officer. The play's themes have been developing since Sept. 11, 2001.

Our American plane has been forced to land at some foreign airport, by the outbreak of World War III. It will not be allowed to depart. Two planes are leaving the airport; we must choose which we want to board. One plane is flying to Israel and one to Syria, and we must choose.

That's where the sympathy stops.

No one reading this book would get on the plane to Syria. Why? It is a despotism, opposed to the West, to women, to gays, to Jews, to free speech. ... And yet one may gain status or a feeling of solidarity by embracing the "Arab cause."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/converting-mamet_561048.html

this is from the book this thread was started about

"To the Jews who, in the sixties, envied the Black Power Movement; who, in the nineties, envied the Palestinians; who weep at Exodus but jeer at the Israel Defense Forces; who nod when Tevye praises tradition but fidget through the seder; ... whose favorite Jew is Anne Frank and whose second-favorite does not exist; who are humble in their desire to learn about Kwanzaa and proud of their ignorance of Tu Bi'Shvat; ... who bow the head reverently at a baptism and have never attended a bris - to you, who find your religion and race repulsive, your ignorance of your history a satisfaction, here is a book from your brother."

Why would any American Jew wish to become a "citizen of the world"? This fantasy is akin to one who believes in the benevolence of Nature. Anyone ever lost the wild knows that Nature wants you dead. Enjoy the benefits of liberty and defend them as an American, rather than posing as a "citizen of the world."

"When," he asks, "was the last time you heard a racist remark or saw racial discrimination at school or work?"

"[T]hough much has been made of the necessity of a college education," Mamet writes, seeking to connect the rise of school shootings to what he sees as the aimlessness of liberal arts curricula, "the extended study of the Liberal Arts actually trains one for nothing. And the terrified adolescent, abandoned by society, coddled by society, may, if unbalanced, turn to rage and (a) kill; or, if merely clueless, (b) hide in college, as he does not possess the strength to grow up and leave."

"The Left insisted that we abandon, in 1973, a war we had just won in Vietnam and go on home"

"just as the camel is a horse put together by a committee," he notes, "actual 'government cars' … put together under the supervision of a board of majority government appointees, will be neither fish nor fowl, nor sufficiently safe, efficient, attractive, affordable, durable, or fun"

"The bifurcation of Humanity (as opposed to acts) into two identifiable camps, Evil and Good, is, essentially, a childish act," Mamet writes in his new book. The idea that "one may gain merit from this division, and that this merit makes one the superior of the unenlightened, is the act of an adolescent."

All train compartments smell vaguely of shit. It gets so you don't mind it. That's the worst thing that I can confess. You know how long it took me to get there? A long time. When you die you're going to regret the things you don't do. You think you're queer? I'm going to tell you something: we're all queer. You think you're a thief? So what? You get befuddled by a middle-class morality? Get shut of it. Shut it out. You cheated on your wife? You did it, live with it. You fuck little girls, so be it. There's an absolute morality? Maybe. And then what? If you think there is, then be that thing. Bad people go to hell? I don't think so. If you think that, act that way. A hell exists on earth? Yes. I won't live in it. That's me. You ever take a dump made you feel like you'd just slept for twelve hours?

ohhhh shit

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/books/review/book-review-the-secret-knowledge-by-david-mamet.html

David Mamet’s Right-Wing Conversion
By CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
Published: June 17, 2011

By CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

great opening sentence

there was also this, which i think is some kind of dining column, hence the weird food descriptions http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/14ee3cda-92d5-11e0-bd88-00144feab49a.html#axzz1P7Pl5PqN

"I ask whether he had read any economics before and he says not – he typically gets absorbed in a collection of books relating to his current play for two years at a time before moving on. I wonder what might have happened if he had picked up John Maynard Keynes instead of Friedman."

Fantastic review.

Man, he's doing interviews with Rush, NewsMax...

The annoying thing about this to me is that people are going to start hating him for his politics and gloss over the fact that he's a pretty bad writer and one of the worst directors of all time.

good old-fashioned lol

“I look back upon my Liberal political beliefs with a sort of wonder—as another exercise in self-involvement—rewarding myself for some superiority I could not logically describe.”

― goole, Friday, June 3, 2011 2:27 PM Bookmark

The more things change...