Posted by NJStatuteSection2A170/51 at spider-we084.proxy.aol.com on March 01, 2002 at 00:06:02:
no one will even care about. but i will blast off on anyway, and probably for much longer than anyone here will read. or at least like my students do - skim....
We all here love Kevin's work. In fact, he could show us some avant garde bullshit of him and Walt eating Diggem Smacks for three minutes and a lot or people here would call him a "geniusly postmodern" film..maker
.oh well, hes a regular Wim Wenders . . but still
I am not comfortable, at least as a fan, artist wanna-be, and (for lack of a better term) "literary analyst" all of his references to his films being about dicks and farts. He claims that is all he writes many times. And while J&SBSB is a real homosexual-referenced laden cliché big ass dick and fart extravaganza . . . i still love it...as a fan of VA...i like seeing all the people from all the movies. I get off on it in a fan boy sort of way.
However, if I could return to what has prompted me to post this rather laborious message. I used to, and to some degree still, think that Clerks was his best script . . .not “work” mind you as a director, but in terms of a story laced with dick and pussy humor that has also has a more universal message. By that I mean this:
Yes, Amy and Dogma were highly jam packed with meaning that Mallrats and J&SBSB lacks. But Clerks still has more of a universal appeal that stretches into the genres of film and writing in general. What I mean is (I wonder how many are still reading this) the end monologues by Randal and Dante drive into the message of free will and volition in society. Of an individual being able to create one’s own certainty in a highly fragmented and post-modern society while still being able to keep one’s frame of reference in today for the most part, even if it contains a love of the pastiche’.
And while the main characters are still the proverbial white Anglo-Saxon male "types" I still think that he manages to provide a more meaningful message of the ability for people to transcend the realm of the Cartesian subject and still find the means to navigate the uncertain realms of the “chaos theory” of reality that even Borges would enjoy if not spit on. In other words. the signification that Randal provides to Dante is key to the thematic meaning of Clerks.
My point is that, I wish, and I know I can shit in my left hand and wish with my right to see which hand fills the fastest on this, that at least he could return his writing back to those themes. Maybe he does with Jersey Girl . . .i don’t know, but the supposed "college" words in Clerks as he as called them, are nothing but. They ultimately provide a frame of reference ofr the viewers to find meaning in a text that has layers of meaning inside of it like a cheap burrito. The thing is, I know that he is aware of these factors and has demonstrated the ability as a writer and artist to conceive of such matters. therefore he can do it again. And to a degree, the Flying Car is a harbinger, if not a reference back to what has been done .. In short...what the fuck did I just say????
-Eso