Word: symptoms
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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With virtually no plot line, these characters must carry the burden of Wilson's meaning, again more succinctly stated by Saroyan: "No foundation. All the way down the line." The same might be said for much of Wilson's play; it is most fascinating as a symptom. Why do U.S. playwrights and audiences regard derelicts as exotic romantics? Why should the dregs of society be regarded as the ultimate repositories of its wisdom? Why is a kinky personality presumed to be a rich one? And finally, how much of theatergoing has become a jaded form of slumming...
...militant filmmaker before he is a militant, and I'm afraid that much of his theory is more personal rationalization than revolutionary program. His critique of conventional political cinema is certainly well-taken, as is his contention that all film form has implicit political content. But that is a symptom, not a cause. The way to attack the problem is not to make isolated films that happen to be ideologically justified and then go unseen...
...scorn of the combat veteran for the rear-echelon soldier. Yet Author Weldon feels a kind of terror in the presence of the scarcely helpless woman of the future, as projected by Scarlet's daughter Byzantia. Condescending to her mother's generation, Byzantia sees men as the symptom "of a fearful disease from which you all suffered" With Byzantia, "nothing is hidden, nothing is feared. " Everything is discussed - that is, "rendered harmless" - and then "simply forgotten...
...abuse, crime in the streets, lack of respect for authority, racism-all these were conveniently stenciled "made in Viet Nam." The war's impact, goes the conventional wisdom, went against the American grain and splintered the country into discrete and angry factions. The bombing of Orientals was a symptom of the ethnocentricism implicit in American history. The great father figures of the presidency were shown to be aloof and unresponsive to their children. Parents, policemen, establishmentarians-all figures of authority-were correspondingly devalued. Moneys were diverted from welfare projects to military hardware, and in response, minorities turned to violence...
...acknowledgment of these facts will not necessarily be pleasant-but it should be healthy. It can force Americans to regard themselves in an unclouded mirror, to see the war not so much as a cause as a symptom. Only then can the repairs begin...