{"id":1068,"date":"2005-03-03T09:44:21","date_gmt":"2005-03-03T17:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2005\/03\/the_dead_hand_of_mr_ss\/"},"modified":"2005-03-03T09:44:21","modified_gmt":"2005-03-03T17:44:21","slug":"the_dead_hand_of_mr_ss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2005\/03\/the_dead_hand_of_mr_ss.html","title":{"rendered":"THE DEAD HAND OF MR. SS"},"content":{"rendered":"

The item<\/B><\/A> about
\nStephen Schwartz’s crackpot burial of Hunter S. Thompson continues to resonate: “I read his
\narticle on Thompson,” a Straight Up visitor writes. “It brought to mind the sound of an empty
\ngarbage can bouncing its way down a very long flight of concrete steps. It just bounced from
\ndeclaration to declamation. It makes sense that, as the tagline says, ‘Stephen Schwartz is a
\nfrequent contributor to The Weekly Standard.’ It fits your description of him in the City Lights
\nBookstore.” <\/FONT>
\n

<\/P>
\n

Another Straight Up visitor, citing Schwartz’s unfortunate initials
\n“SS,” writes of his article: “I love the part where SS trashes Burroughs & Ginsberg as irrelevant
\nto any time but their own. Obviously he hasn’t read them recently. They have never been more
\nrelevant than right now. We are seeing their visions come to life in front of our
\neyes.”<\/FONT><\/P>
\n

The item also drew a response from a reader about another
\nStandard article by columnist Wesley J. Smith, which dealt with Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning
\nflick “Million Dollar Baby”:<\/FONT><\/P>
\n

<\/FONT>
\n

I am intrigued by how fiercely the conservative
\nmedia are orchestrating attacks on [it], apparently because it presents a case for euthanasia at the
\nend. In this article — <\/FONT>“A Million Dollar
\nMiss”<\/B><\/FONT><\/STRONG><\/A> — they actually give away the
\nstory’s ending, probably to dissuade people from bothering to see it. The intent seems to be to
\nsabotage it as much as possible. That, apparently, is how they deal with things that are not in
\naccord with their beliefs. It reminds me of the zealous religious police in countries like Saudi
\nArabia.”<\/FONT><\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

<\/FONT><\/P>
\n

Point taken. But in fact, many reviewers have given away the ending
\nof Eastwood’s flick, sometimes warning of spoilers and sometimes not. More to the point is this:
\nThe Standard columnist paints the picture as Nazi-style propaganda by drawing a specious parallel
\nbetween “Million Dollar Baby” and the 1939 German movie “I Accuse” (“Ich Klage
\nAn”).<\/FONT><\/P>
\n

“It is striking and disturbing how similar the plotline of “Million
\nDollar Baby” is to the voluntary euthanasia story in “I Accuse,” Smith wrote, while noting that “I
\nAccuse” had “Goebbles’s blessing” and “promoted voluntary euthanasia as well as the propriety of
\nkilling disabled infants.”<\/FONT><\/P>I’d like to get away from all the
\nNazi references that seem to be multiplying right and left, including my own. But these days, for
\ngood reason, it’s <\/FONT>difficult<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>, maybe <\/FONT>impossible<\/FONT><\/B><\/A>, even (especially?)<\/FONT> in the U.S.
\nSenate<\/FONT><\/B><\/A><\/FONT>.<\/FONT><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The item about Stephen Schwartz’s crackpot burial of Hunter S. Thompson continues to resonate: “I read his article on Thompson,” a Straight Up visitor writes. “It brought to mind the sound of an empty garbage can bouncing its way down a very long flight of concrete steps. It just bounced from declaration to declamation. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-he","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}