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Gone With the Reich
Aug. 30th, 2022 07:52 amStarted the next Remunerative Project, an analysis of the cost-effectiveness of various ancillary medical personnel (phlebotomists, respiratory therapists, etc) in each of the 50 states. Drier than the Sahara in a drought, in other words. Still. I am lucky to have the work, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Didn’t get very far on the next Remunerative Project, though, because my brain is exhausted—not from the Edinburgh stay itself but from the associated travel.
###
My brain came by its exhaustion honestly.
If American airport security procedures are some sort of 10th Circle of Hell unimagined by Dante, UK airport security procedures would rate a 2 or 3 on the Inferno-tron. People are not actively rude the way they are in American airports, but there are endless lines, the lines move very slowly, and it’s never exactly clear what the lines are queuing up for.
My plane from Edinburgh was late taking off, arriving at Heathrow with only 20 minutes to spare for catching the plane to New York. Heathrow is a really confusing place. I had to laser down to figure my way through the maze in the short amount of time, and lasering down is always a headache. I was literally the last person on the NYC plane.
In NYC, it was 95°, and the E subway line had been rerouted, which gave me like five minutes to come up with an alternate route that had elevators, so I wouldn’t have to lug my suitcase up and down endless flights of steps. Because my suitcase had broken! In the middle of Grand Central Station on my way to Edinburgh:
It’s under lifetime warranty, so they’ll replace it, but having to MacGyver it together throughout the trip added a whole new dimension of anxiety.
And of course, I hadn’t really slept the night before and am incapable of sleeping on planes, so I was confronting problematic logistics while utterly exhausted.
###
Since my brain was fried, I worked in a desultory fashion while mostly watching Gone With the Wind.
There’s no getting past the fact that Gone With the Wind is a highly objectionable film.
If there were a similarly nostalgic movie, say, about life under the Third Reich, the gallant Schutzstaffel (SS guys,) the beautiful belles, the happy Jews playing volleyball at Terezin, I would be completely up in arms.
So I view my continuing affection for Gone With the Wind as a moral shortcoming.
But there is no denying I like it.
It’s an exceptionally well-made movie, practically seamless, and despite its length, does not contain one unnecessary scene or even one unnecessary line. Where it really excels is in visual shorthands that telescope immense events that would otherwise require reels and reels of exposition.
After I watched the movie, I watched a fascinating documentary about the making of the movie from which I found out:
• Butterfly McQueen (“I don’t know nuttin’ about birthin’ babies, Mizz Scarlett”) was a highly intelligent woman who had great qualms about taking the Prissie role. She refused to eat watermelon on camera.
• Black organizations in general were up in arms about the representation of enslaved Black people in the film. Hattie McDaniel (Mammie) shrugged off the criticisms: I would rather play a maid for $700 a week than be a maid for $7 a week.
• David O Selznick was an early Harvey Weinstein prototype.
• Very early in the production process, the entire film was story-boarded:
It may have been the first film ever to be directed from storyboards.
Wow!
That’s a graphic novel!!!!!
Didn’t get very far on the next Remunerative Project, though, because my brain is exhausted—not from the Edinburgh stay itself but from the associated travel.
###
My brain came by its exhaustion honestly.
If American airport security procedures are some sort of 10th Circle of Hell unimagined by Dante, UK airport security procedures would rate a 2 or 3 on the Inferno-tron. People are not actively rude the way they are in American airports, but there are endless lines, the lines move very slowly, and it’s never exactly clear what the lines are queuing up for.
My plane from Edinburgh was late taking off, arriving at Heathrow with only 20 minutes to spare for catching the plane to New York. Heathrow is a really confusing place. I had to laser down to figure my way through the maze in the short amount of time, and lasering down is always a headache. I was literally the last person on the NYC plane.
In NYC, it was 95°, and the E subway line had been rerouted, which gave me like five minutes to come up with an alternate route that had elevators, so I wouldn’t have to lug my suitcase up and down endless flights of steps. Because my suitcase had broken! In the middle of Grand Central Station on my way to Edinburgh:
It’s under lifetime warranty, so they’ll replace it, but having to MacGyver it together throughout the trip added a whole new dimension of anxiety.
And of course, I hadn’t really slept the night before and am incapable of sleeping on planes, so I was confronting problematic logistics while utterly exhausted.
###
Since my brain was fried, I worked in a desultory fashion while mostly watching Gone With the Wind.
There’s no getting past the fact that Gone With the Wind is a highly objectionable film.
If there were a similarly nostalgic movie, say, about life under the Third Reich, the gallant Schutzstaffel (SS guys,) the beautiful belles, the happy Jews playing volleyball at Terezin, I would be completely up in arms.
So I view my continuing affection for Gone With the Wind as a moral shortcoming.
But there is no denying I like it.
It’s an exceptionally well-made movie, practically seamless, and despite its length, does not contain one unnecessary scene or even one unnecessary line. Where it really excels is in visual shorthands that telescope immense events that would otherwise require reels and reels of exposition.
After I watched the movie, I watched a fascinating documentary about the making of the movie from which I found out:
• Butterfly McQueen (“I don’t know nuttin’ about birthin’ babies, Mizz Scarlett”) was a highly intelligent woman who had great qualms about taking the Prissie role. She refused to eat watermelon on camera.
• Black organizations in general were up in arms about the representation of enslaved Black people in the film. Hattie McDaniel (Mammie) shrugged off the criticisms: I would rather play a maid for $700 a week than be a maid for $7 a week.
• David O Selznick was an early Harvey Weinstein prototype.
• Very early in the production process, the entire film was story-boarded:
It may have been the first film ever to be directed from storyboards.
Wow!
That’s a graphic novel!!!!!
