David Mamet wrote a book, inspired by Beck and Hannity as he was
I think it was Irving Kristol who commented on the deluge of submissions to his neo conservative or conservative publications of ex-communists testimonials, well nigh not insightful and repeating the same insights of all the other ex-Communist submissions and literature. Somehow the more merely partisan jumps elide the rule in this day and age. Witness the over-joyed response to a book by David Mamet — complete with a Weekly Standard cover story (William Kristol’s magazine)– National Review story, etc. — to a matter that’s been met with indifference by, say, The Nation.
But they have a book to push, I guess.
The liberals seem to be a tad self-flaggelating, though, on the score of conversion stories. The Nation published Christopher Hitchens as he wrote support for George W Bush, before finally parting their ways. And the kernal for David Mamet’s book comes from a piece he wrote for The Village Voice.
The synopsis for the book suggests that this famous playwright for “Death of a Fucking Salesman” — “Glengarry Glen Ross”? — and “Wag the Dog” found that Beck and Hannity were making more sense than the mainstream media and his Hollywood pals, so he “converted”. And thus the background for his pieces on our culture.
I leafed through his book, looking for the first thing that struck me as interesting. Here is something: an item going after Gloria Steinem for a piece she wrote about Marilyn Monroe — commissioned for a book of essays on the famous tragic actress. He faults Steinem for not understanding the nature of acting, belittling Monroe for how hard she worked at her craft, how much joy she brought to how many people, and in not understanding the lifespan of a career in Hollywood. Mamet believes that Steinem envisions Monroe as, if she had not died and in a better world of more gender equality, going on to highly didactic works — Medusa-wise.
I didn’t quite pick these from the excerpt of Steinem’s piece. I will say that in contemplating a career for Monroe that does not shove into tedious polemical work, and with a natural career arc, I imagine something not identical but parallel to — say — Betty White’s career. Was this option possible or seeable by Marilyn Monroe? The non-answer you provide gives some credence to Ms. Steinem’s piece.
But the thing about David Mamet — in 1992, sometime before Beck and Hannity had a national radio following — he produced a play called “Oleanna”. It is political correctness gone amok by way of exaggerated sexual harassment charge at an ivy league school. Whether the message is correct or not, the point is I imagine Mamet could’ve written this before his supposed “conversion”. Which fits in the banner where culture and politics and policy are not so 1 dimensional.
Lately I’ve seen this conservative editorializing in trying to claim John Lennon, noting his conservative principles. My basic thought is twofold — 1: Who the hell cares? 2: You can do so when support for the MIC and defense spending is not part of conservative principles. The move to claim John Lennon as partisan gadfly strikes me as desperate — but then again, he did end Communism along with Reagan, so maybe they just need to find their way to all of those “Communist – Busters”.