I’m going to make a prediction.
I’m going to predict that the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo that starts in theaters today is going to be a massive hit here in the US. The books, written by Swedish journalist Stieg Larsson and translated from Swedish, were best sellers in this country. But many Americans stay away from foreign subtitled films. I don’t know if that reflects poorly on our literacy or our anti-intellectualism. I did see the Swedish version of the film- twice. But I had to see it in an older “art-house” theater (where all of the good movies are).
I suspect a lot of young women don’t have time to plod through a book these days. Without audible, I might have skipped it myself. But this book is the stuff that dreams are made of. You know, the dreams where you want to kick some young male asshole in the balls for smashing your mac or fucking up the White House for 4 years? Yeah, swollen and bruised testicles are only the beginning.
Our heroine is the tiny dervish Lisbeth Salander who, with Kalle Blomqvist, a reporter for the investigative magazine, Millenium, takes on rapists and murderers and the arrogant, seemingly all powerful investment class. This movie is saved from being a cynical caricature of the She-Woman’s Man Hating Club by some sensitive new age Swedish guys. Thank God, because I like men. They’re not all bad. But in Dragon Tattoo, the vengeance is sweet and sublimely satisfying. Finally, justice has her way with them. And this is just the first of three films, each one of them taking on a different aspect of misogyny and sexism that women of every class and background are forced to accept.
Now, this country is different than Sweden or many European countries where the original Swedish versions of the films were well received, so all bets are off as to how the average American mens folk will weigh in on it. Sweden is an enlightened country when it comes to gender equality compared to here so if they’re still dealing with this shit, imagine how bad it is here in America. Women here don’t have to imagine it. We live it everyday and 40 times over in 2008. That election set us back by decades. But this film will give men some insight into the internal thought processes of women and they might not be comfortable with what they see.
In fact, I hope it scares the living daylights out of them.
Ladies, charge your tasers.
**************************
Joseph Cannon alerted me to some weird group robocalling on behalf of runhillary2012.net. Here’s the rundown from Cannonfire:
An email from Howard Rodman, vice president of the Writers Guild West, popped into my Yahoo account today. Good news about that Aleister Crowley biopic I wrote? Nope. That one went straight into some of the finest round files in town, and it never escaped.
Instead, Rodman spoke about something far more intriguing.
Today I got a robocall (!) telling me that the banksters would be in jail and unemployment ended and college would be affordable if Hillary were President. It directed me to runhillary2012.net
The site is minimal; and whois didn’t tell me anything of note. The site says it’s from “the 99%.”
Perhaps you can find out more? For whatever reason — and I could be very wrong — this seems to me more like ratfucking than like a genuine Hillary campaign.
Cannon calls it a “ratfucking” operation and I would have to agree. “the 99%” don’t endorse candidates and their occupation is based on the immorality of economic and social inequality. As far as it being a PUMA operation, I really couldn’t say because as far as this site is concerned, we stopped being PUMAs after the 2008 election. Yep, you can go back and check our attempts to organize. Pretty early on we discovered that the acronym PUMA had been poisoned by both sides of the aisle and we decided that evolution is a good thing. A group that fails to adapt to its environment doesn’t last very long. The environment was over the top Obama triumphalism. Now that the truth is out and lefties are recovering from their psychogenic fugue, we face an altogether different environment than three years ago and we must adjust accordingly.
I still think that Hillary would make a much better candidate and president and it would be better for the Democratic party to give its voters what they want because that’s the best way to win next year. If not Hillary, some other highly qualified candidate from among their ranks could be found. I can think of a few right off the top of my head who would be an improvement over Obama and those names do not include Howard Dean.
But the small evil group that is currently in charge of the Democratic party is being hand fed by the wealthy and well connected to do its bidding and one of the things this group is charged with doing is poisoning the memory and history of the Clinton era. It’s gotten so bad that every lefty media outlet has to genuflect to the idea that Clinton was a terrible president because of NAFTA, welfare reform and the repeal of Glass-Steagall. There’s very little balance or accuracy or even a soupcon of reflection. Yes, every one from Mark Schmitt to Sam Seder has to make the Clinton Presidency Disclaimer. But you know, people who were around to see it happen don’t buy that shit. It’s only the people who have some kind of investment in group dynamics who do. And the small evil group who runs the Democratic party knows how to yank that chain. What surprises me is even after those same people know how badly they were played in 2008, they are still willing to be played yet again as useful idiots for 2012 in order to not lose the love. The thing that will bring down American is the inability to think for oneself. I don’t put the blame on Republicans. We all know what malevolent sociopaths they are. I blame Democrats for their capacity to get sucked into a trap over and over again. They’re no better than right wingers. They will believe absolutely everything their mouthpieces tell them even if it leads them straight over a cliff. And they suppress their better judgement and defer to the “serious people” in their own party.
Anyway, I have no idea who is making the robocalls but think of it this way, robocalling is not cheap. And whoever is doing it is trying to tie Hillary to the Occupation, which will steadfastly resist being associated with any politician. Those of us who are political junkies know that Hillary is human and a politician, not some ethereal magical person who makes promises she has no intention or capability of keeping. That’s Obama’s thing, not Hillary’s. So, either this is a terribly misguided group with a lot of online donations who is highjacking the Occupation’s logo for its own benefit or it’s one or both of the two parties up to no good.
Don’t believe anything you hear until you hear it from Hillary herself.
Filed under: General | Tagged: Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Steig Larsson |
The Confluence 
The original title of the book is as direct as could be–it translates to Men Who Hate Women. That title could apply to countless books and movies.
John W. Smart says, “I truly believe women everywhere on the political spectrum crossed a threshold after 2008. Actual representation is now on the agenda. Many women want to see women in power. Men who are “good on womens’ issues” is no longer enough.” He certainly speaks for me. Brazil and Argentina can elect women presidents, but not the US? That kind of American exceptionalism I can live without.
In France even the loathsome far-right Marine Le Pen is not subjected to the kind of misogynist invective female politicians can expect here–and French culture is very sexist.
I agree. It’s now on the agenda. Did you see the rollout of Women in Public Service Project that Hillary announced last week? Watch that video and tell me that there weren’t a roomful of Lisbeth Salanders. Even Christine Le Garde was spitting nails. Oooo, baby, I could feel it. Bring. It. On. It’s about time.
And let this be a lesson to females who vote Democratic: The next time you have a choice between a reasonable woman candidate and a guy, vote for the woman. You can never expect men to take your issues seriously until you force them to.
vote for the woman.I do every time. 🙂
The “extended” Swedish version of the trilogy is scheduled for release in the US, soon. It restores about two hours that were cut from the theatrical releases. Subplots and characters that were cut or reduced are added back, esp. Erika Berger.
I wondered what happened to Erica Berger in the first film. Without that subplot, you never really understand the relationship between Blomqvist and Salander.
I read where theater receipts were down all across the board, a reflection on the economy. If this doesn’t do well at the Box office it would be no surprise as mainstream movies are suffering.
As I said below Rat-op or not the Hillary 2012 makes me smile.
I like it to and a smile is not that easy to come by some days.
Stieg Larsson wrote a marvelous trilogy that just built and built on itself. It looked like one long split split by editors. I hope the movies are a bit as good.
The runHillary stuff may be somewhat real, in that an editorial in Politico yesterday was urging NH primary voters to draft Hillary. In any case, it’s a meme that won’t go away for now.
And what way does politico sway? I have no doubt that the republicans want a Hillary draft but the reason they want it is because the guys at the top are so fucking determined to keep Hillary out. It’s a combination of power madness and sexism. They made their mind up that no matter how bad things get, they absolutely will not champion a competent politician. They don’t like politicians. What they want is the equivalent of hiring an accountant with an MBA to run a company lab. The idea is to get someone who is inexperienced and emotionally unattached from the area he’s supposed to be managing. As long as he’s the right kind of person, they want him. It’s a disaster. It takes a politician to be a politician. This is not a career for theoreticians.
The powerbrokers will have to lose before they get it.
They want to draft Hillary because they are determined to keep her out of the race?
On what planet does that make political sense?
It makes sense if you know your enemy. The GOP understands that the public would vote for her in a heartbeat. They have to make sure we never get that opportunity. That’s why the right has periodically floated this trial balloon. When it gets brought up, the Obot contingent, well, just anti-Clinton contingent, of the Democratic party goes into paroxysms of frothing spin. All the nonsense gets repeated: NAFTA, welfare reform, Larry summers and Tom Geithner ? How many times do we have to hear the same crap about the Clinton advisors that Obama appointed?? A smart, thinking person would say, “well, if they were so bad, why did Obama appoint them? Why didn’t he learn from Clinton’s mistakes? Better yet, why did Hillary avoid these people like the plague? Obama had the benefit of learning from Clinton’s mistakes. What’s his excuse?”
But the GOP is counting on the Democrats to do their dirty work for them. It’s like reverse psychology. The more popular she is, the more frantic and insistent they are to smear her husband’s record. They know that as SOS, the public will never blame her for carrying out obama’s foreign policy and she’s a phenomenally good adminstrator. They HATE that about her. So it makes perfect sense for the GOP to tweak the Chicago Democratic machine. When it comes back with its anticipated, “no Hillary and that’s final”, it will drive another wedge between itself and its base and demotivate voters even more.
Oh, and associating it with the 99% meme is a twofer. Except that occupy is definitely not a fan of any politician.
I netflixed the original GWTDT and it immediately cracked my Top Ten of All Time movie list. I see no way the American remake can be better– but I will watch it. It was a great movie as a movie and an even greater movie for the gender issues it raised and addressed. (And I am counting Lisbeth’s revenge as a part of addressing grievances.) btw, I still call myself a PUMA (I was on the comment thread here when it all occurred) because it makes me feel historical and besides– it is easier to say than A-Really-Pissed-Off- Democrat Who-Will-Never-Support-Obama-Or-The-Leaders-Who -Robbed-Us.
I don’t think it can be better. It will be the American version, altered to appeal to Americans. In fact, I can’t wait to see the director’s cut of the original since so much was missing from the American release of it. Bit I can believe that it will still be a huge hit. The material is riveting. My favorite line in the movie was, “hold still, I’ve never done this before”. Do you remember? Priceless. Worth every cent to see it again in English.
Oh, yeah. I remember that (and squirming big time). I saw the movie several months ago and don’t recall if it was the director’s cut or not, though it was very long. My hearing is going so I watch everything w/subtitles so the subtitles don’t bother me at all. (I’ve been watching a bit of Spanish tv so my recognition of Spanish has vastly improved over just a few months) My wife didn’t like it as much as I did (she movie-cringes fairly easy). I agree that it will be an Americanized version but I am hoping that the stuff that gets revved up for an American audience is the right stuff. I will see it for sure, just don’t know if I can drag anyone to the theatre with me (maybe the daughter). If I get to see it I will check-in and I will be waiting for your report.
(Teresainpa,
Several threads ago you raised the question: why are only women whacked for the fundamentalism-stuff? Why not the two male Mormons in the race? Mormonism can be pretty whacky.
I would say . . . at a sub-political cultural level, Mormonism has been whacked over and over . . . especially on places like South Park,
Millions of younger people see that and it affects their outlook even if only at a subliminal level.
I would also say that however whacky Mormonis is, it is not a part of the violent mass-misanthropic Christian Satanaist (Raputuranin-Armagedonite-Dominionist ) traditon. I see no reason to think that a President Romney or a President Huntsman would want to begin WWIII to to thermonuke the earth in order to bring Christ back to bein his Thousand Year Kindgom on earth. I have every reason to believe that Paylinn or Bachm,ann , togehter with the Christian Sataniist infiltrators in the Air Forc (Air Force Academy, etc…) would absolutely do that very exact thing. And if not that, then certainly Concentrations Bible Camps for millions of us and Forced Sunday School 7 days a week for the rest. That sort of thing is not part of the Mormon political tradition, but it is very much a part of the Christian Satanist tradition. And I don’t know if other male posters have noted it, but I have certainly noted the danger that the male candidates Perry and Gingrich would be trojan horses full of Christian Satanists. And in past cycles, when the high profile Christian Satanists were male ( Huckabee, etc.) I drew just as much attention to them then as to Paylinn and Bachmann now . . . but on other blogs. Blogs like Hullabaloo which has no functional archives anymore, and from which I have been banned for disturbing the peace of Digby’s new David Atkins Veal Pen agenda.)
By the way, any mispellings are due to the ugly icons and the herkyjerky screen flashing imposed by Mircosorft Exlporer which they give us here at work.
This runhillary nonsense sounds to me to be a repub ploy, a divide and conquer maneuver. They are desperate with their clown candidates and with the public’s souring on their U. S.House shenanigans. It also diminishes Obama and his presidency by throwing back in his face her high competence and work ethic (her plans). The repubs can only win first if they keep dems from the voting booths and second if they rekindle Hillary supporters preceived hatred for Obama and they sit home or vote republican. (The repubs have a longer list of tactics for winning that they’ll unveil later.) Any way, everyone knows Obama controls the DNC and the nominating and rules committees like in 2008. Hillary is not interested, repubs. And fwiw, we’re on to you r dirty tricks!
I see nothing wrong with diminishing Obama and his Presidency. It has been a pretty self-diminishing Presidency, if you ask me. (Not that you did, but still . . . )
I don’t really perceive the repug leadership as weaker than the Chitown dems. I see two possible scenarios:
1) Mitt Romney is going to be their candidate, but they are allowing the TP folks to blow off some steam and pretend they have a say in the eventual outcome. The leadership wins here because Romney has a shot at winning, and the TP will vote as they are told, just as their “revolutionary” congress critters have done.
2) The repug leadership is intent on keeping their lap dog in the WH for another four years, in which case they will allow one of the morons to run an under-funded campaign. The moron loses, the TP folks STFU and fall back in line, bowing once again to their “betters.” If their use for the Tea Party is done, this is the smarter option.
I don’t think Hillary Clinton is interested in running this time around (and probably never again). If she was, I’d support her in a heartbeat. Since she’s not, I’ll just be voting third party again — ANY third party that appears on our ballots. I don’t even care which one, since 99% of my fellow citizens will once again be choosing between two crappy candidates and telling themselves they are making an informed decision of great import. At least I know my vote won’t make any difference.
RD, when I was younger and watching movies on a trip to Europe, I didn’t mind reading the English subtitles below, but now that I’m older and am in the habit of absorbing the entire scenes of a movie, reading subtitles is a nuisance. However, I’d much rather view this particular movie in the original Swedish version. I may get a crack at it at an artsy movie-house here, but I plan to see the American version over the holidays. There is another alternative: English-speaking actors dubbing the lines. It’s not great, but it allows me to “absorb” every inch of screen imagery.
arran–Get/see the Swedish version– I enjoy listening to other languages–you can really learn from them. I was stationed in Holland for a while and managed to learn enough Dutch to get around fine and I got it mostly from subtitled Dutch & German tv and American movies both subtitled and dubbed.
If Senator SecState Clinton ends up running in 2012, I will vote/work for her. There is every chance that she could be “better than Romney”, not merely “no worse than Romney”.
As I may have mentioned before, when Kucinich dropped out of the process, I lost detailed interest in who remained. I would have voted for whatever Democrat got nominated . . . Hillary or Barry or whomever . . . to spare myself the ordeal of President McCain and President Paylinn after that. So I wasn’t paying much attention to MSM reports about Senator Clinton’s advisers and so forth. Did the MSM make plain at the time that Senator Clinton was rejecting contact with President Clinton’s Wall Street Rubinite advisers? If not, hopefully she herself will make very plain her rejection of them in 2012, if she ends up being the one who is running.
It should have been pretty clear since Bob Rubin was supporting Obama and not Hillary in 2008.
Well, I did not know that. It goes to show you how little attention I was paying to any aspect of the process after Kucinich dropped out.
So . . . Rubin supported Obama, huh? That’s a recommendation for Secretary of State Clinton right there. That raises my comfort-level about voting for her in 2012 right there, if she runs, which she won’t.
Why won’t she? Because she recognizes what a poisoned chalice the Presidency has become and will remain for years into the future.
Maybe she could run in 2016 and Gore could be her VP running
mate. I think he would be satisfied with elder statesman status by then.
Their slogan could be: “remember the Peace? Remember the Prosperity? All the Peace and Prosperity, none of the cigars.”
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Riverdaughter,
I am not sure that teenage girls and young women would not slog through a book. I know that at work, many of the young women were/have been reading that Twilight series of books. I would not claim that series to be Great Literature ( though since I haven’t read them, I can’t say that they are NOT Great Literature), but they are books, and millions of girls and young women have been reading them.
I know they slog through books. But like I said before, who has time? I prefer audible. It leaves my hands free to do other things.
Yes, now I understand. I thought you meant “they are not interested or patient enough to slog through books” and I had seen hopeful evidence to the contrary. But if it is a matter of brute time-availability . . .
Of course, the more one reads, the faster one becomes. But it takes several years to develop that semi-speed, which gets back to a matter of available time . . .
Though on third thought , teenage kids are the people who have time to slog through books, if they have the interest. It is grownups burdened with multiple layers of multiple obligation and responsibility
who don’t have time. So if this set of books can be brought to the interested attention of enough local clique-leader bookreader-kids; they might spark a multiple-points-of-ignition takeoff for getting this set of books widely read.
One other thing to consider is that while Stephanie Meyers books are about “a love that dare not speak its name” {{snort!}}, Dragon Tattoo is not really a love story. It’s a mystery on the surface and a complex story about money, government and sexism. It’s dense. It is not a book to take to the beach. It is not chick lit.
Not all young women are ditzes. Quite a few aren’t. But there’s a reason why the Twilight series is such a hit. So, I’m betting that a lot of them have skipped the book and will go straight to the movie.
Howie Rodman! Knew him while at Cornell…he was Editor-in Chief at the Cornell Daily Sun…I was Ad Manager for a semester then did some work on the News Board.
Howie was an activist during that time…
his Facebook page is rather tame…the pic freaks me out….Back then, his dark hair flowed long and a bit scruffy!
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=147311375279
An interview I found talks more about his activities…Interesting about the robocall….and that he seems to be in touch with Cannonfire.
http://cornellsun.com/section/daze/content/2008/09/11/being-howard-rodman-71
RE: Hillary…
Her new project for developing women’s leadership around the world is great, but we need it here, too!
I hear talk that she want the Supreme Court.Personally, with the bunch sitting there now, I rather she do something in more public view…like running NOW and reawakening the women’s movement!!!
I didn’t get the impression that that project was only for foreign women.
Another “oddity”…
This may be totally unrelated…but…
Rachel Maddow was “losing sleep” over who has been polling in New Hampshire about Jeb Bush.
As it turns out, she found out via a Twitter by Jimmy Carter’s grandson (I think) that it’s a bipartisan polling group called PurplePoll…
The guy she interviewed tonight (12/20)was supposedly from the “Democratic” side…he said that so far, Jeb Bush is not the savior for the GOP…at least this go-round.
He said they might poll with other names…just another way to get a feel for where GOP voters are.
So we have “bipartisan” polling from PurplePoll and robocalls about Hillary….
I have recieved robocalls in the past. I dislike them intensely. I deeply resent the people who make them. Are there any people who like getting robocalls?
It seems to me that anyone using such an obnoxious technology as robocalling and linking it to someone’s name is doing it to get that someone’s name resented or hated by all the people who had their attention hijacked and time wasted by a robocall. So if someone is making robocalls “on behalf of” Hillary Clinton, they are doing it to make Hillary Clinton resented or disliked by every person who recieves such a robocall.
Does anyone have evidence to the contrary? I mean, about a measurable percentage of people enjoying robocalls and hoping to recieve one?
Caller ID and voice mail are your friends. when the phone rings and we don’t recognize or the identity is blocked it goes into voice mail for deletion at a later time.
Anyway who ever is behind this Hillary 2012 wouldn’t have a hook had the Democratic party heads behave in an honorable way back in 2008. No matter who is behind this the Dems brought it on themselves.
If it’s a republican ratfucking op it won’t be the last one. Get used to it.
Wait until late next Spring when the republican controlled House starts to look into Obama’s Chicago shenanigans or this thing about Pelosi’s Visa IPO profiteering.
Women who hate men, or – “We go Girls!”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/21/world/middleeast/violence-enters-5th-day-as-egyptian-general-blames-protesters.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
Nice one RD & Co. Didn’t read the books, but, maybe will go to the movie! On your recommend & loves art house films, omg. Loves Foreign subtitled films! xxoo! ps: wishes all of you a Merry Christmas and all the best to all of you! Yeah the 90’s — such better times for the country overall. You had to be there like RD says!
For various reasons my computer-access is limited, so I don’t have the time to address all the different points brought up in these posts and threads with the care needed and in the detail required. Right now I will mention a little something I noticed.
I followed the link to Mr. Cannon’s blog (yet another good blog I won’t have the time to read in any regular way) and read the comments. One particular comment caught my eye by virtue of its style and “feel”. It was from anonymous and was whining about how Riverdaughter whines about this and that, has only 10 readers, etc. It reminded me of someone called “Mary” on the Crawdad Hole blog. I gather this “Mary” used to be a regular here before I had ever heard of The Confluence. I wouldn’t bet any money that “Mary” and that “Anonymous” are the same person, but I would be willing to bet a few percentage points off the top of my embryonic slow-building fund of reputational respect as a sometimes-worthy commenter.
So an intriguing experiment suggests itself to me. If Mr. Cannon and Riverdaughter were to look up the individual computer’s IPAddress
from which “Mary” typed her comments and from which this “Anonymous” has typer herm’s comment referrenced just above . .. I bet a few percentage points off my fund of respect that the “Mary” comments and this “Anonymous” comment both come from the very same computer-machine. It’s not my place, of course, to request that Riverdaughter and Mr. Cannon go back and search for this address, but if they find the idea so intriguing that they are motivated-from-within to do that very search, I would be interested to hear what they find.
I have a problem with a movie about misogyny written, cast, directed, filmed and edited by men. I don’t want to watch images of brutal rapes and murders and dismemberment of women because it feels manipulative. I am sick of plots where all women die nude or where women’s complex characters and strengths are attributed to violent sexual abuse. I predict the movie will not do well. It is a distorted male version of female empowerment.
Stieg Larsson was no Barack Obama. He actually walked the walk. By all accounts, his live in girlfriend had quite a lot of input.
I guess you *could* get a woman to direct it. The woman who directed The Hurt Locker would have been a good choice. But the plot speaks for itself. All three books revolve around a single act of brutality.
Yep there are very brutal scenes in there and wish reviews would make that clear as could be immensely disturbing to younger female viewers. The empowerment message gets diluted by all the explicit and somewhat salacious violence directed toward several female characters. I agree with your comments and find the idea of the remake to be fairly pointless.