Mein Kampf: Who Profits?

[R Nitelight]

http://www.consider.net/forum_new.p...ewTop=200106250039&newDisplayURN=200106250039

 

[Merelan]

I find I aggree with the author in the last paragrah.

"How fitting it would be if the money earned from Mein Kampf could be used to support writers and
artists trying to reconstruct a fragment of the world Hitler destroyed."

Thank you for the article. Again, a subject I never thought much about, but am now more aware of. Also makes me wonder what his family goes through.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Interesting article.

It brings to mind the controversy surrounding the brilliant if racially repugnent films of the Third Reich.

A friend of mine (A German, who as a boy was in the Hitler Youth, and came to Hollywood to eventually play Germans in war movies and TV shows like "Combat") just watched the original language version of "Triumph of Will", and found that one could not agree that the film is astonishingly good, if morally evil. So -- who should see it, and in what context?

I just learned that The Cartoon Network will now air those racially offensive Bugs Bunny cartoons they decided to ban from their recent Marathon. But, the cartoons will only be shown late at night, and most likely with be preceeded by commentary. I find nothing wrong with this. Persepective is everything.

However, I feel that even in the light of "historical perspective" you can go too far. For example, I recently had to excise a Fred Astaire clip from a project I'm working on. It's from "Swing Time", and it's Fred dancing to Kern's music "Bojangles of Harlem". The number is pretty good, but Fred's in blackface. He also wears white gloves, and a dandified hat.

Now -- obviously Fred is paying tribute to a fellow dancer, and great performer. Unfortunately the Minstrel aspects of his performance contain offensive implications far beyond the dark make-up.

Minstrel Shows were an incredibly popular American art form that preceeded and inspired Vaudeveille, and, like Vaudeville, contain ideas, concepts and generalizations that resonate today.

The image of a white man in cork-face and white gloves with shuffling mannerisms became THE way white America perceived blacks, and was damaging beyond measure. It's not just the act of putting black on your face, it's the continuation of a tradition that had a terrible, terrible effect on black advancement.

So, Fred was not a racist, but the clip is. You can view it in perspective, but that sort of perspective is not possible in the project I'm working on, so out it goes.

Mein Kampf is a laborious piece of crap, but it's a piece of crap that rallied a nation and created the most powerful fascist state in history, one that almost captured the world. It should be read. It should no be banned. But it should also not be distributed with impunity, without prefaces, and NONE of the royalties should ever be surrendered to Hitler's family.

 

[Mensa]

Not a labour of love!!

I've actually read the thing. What a chore that was. It would be a fitting punishment for anyone who still believes Hitler's claptrap to be forced to do the same.

I've also waded through Mao's little red book and Das Kapital. Any one believing in Red claptrap should be made perform a similar chore on those two nightmares.

I think they worry needlessly about the influence it would have on German youth today. I once was at a screening of some of Hitler's old rants at Nuremburg and other sundry venues. The Germans couldn't understand his appeal at all. They thought he looked funny and sounded ridiculous.

I guess times change and so do people!

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

His speeches were carefuly crafted exercises in the science of manipulative body language, not really that effective in today's image savvy world, so of course they're going to look ridiculous.

It's the same with acting. Only a hundred or so years ago an actor who cried real tears would have been laughed off the stage. Acting was all about "showing", not "being". No method crap for Garrick thank you very much.

If Hitler were alive today he'd forgoe the ranting and grumpy face and the dramatic crossing of the arms -- he'd be doing late night infomercials in a rainbow sweater and saying things like, "Now look at MY Fascism. Why the Anschluss only takes HALF the time, and leaves Bavaria smelling pine fresh!"

 

[Mensa]

It slices. it dices, it chops

His speeches were carefuly crafted exercises in the science of manipulative body language, not really that effective in today's image savvy world, so of course they're going to look ridiculous.

It's the same with acting. Only a hundred or so years ago an actor who cried real tears would have been laughed off the stage. Acting was all about "showing", not "being". No method crap for Garrick thank you very much.

If Hitler were alive today he'd forgoe the ranting and grumpy face and the dramatic crossing of the arms -- he'd be doing late night infomercials in a rainbow sweater and saying things like, "Now look at MY Fascism. Why the Anschluss only takes HALF the time, and leaves Bavaria smelling pine fresh!"

Thanks a lot,DCL, there's an image I'll carry with me for a while!!

 

[rambling man]

I remember watching those "racially offensive" cartoons as a kid. However, they were not half as bad as what Bugs did to those two Arkansas hillbillies in that one cartoon

I looked up mein kampf on Amazon just now....strange to see that title beside words gleefully exclaiming "Now free shipping!"