Culture Briefs

By | Tuesday, March 18, 2008

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Sex fusion

"Ashley Alexandra Dupre ... has been a staple in every form of media we've laid eyes on all week. Her song, 'What We Want,' sounds as passable (and forgettable) to me as any of the pop tarts that have burned up the Top 40 charts for far too long. ... The song is already for sale. ... The word is, she won't be facing charges. Which means that the path is relatively clear for her to run right through the open door of celebrity.

"Which brings me to my point: We've already so blurred the line between female celebrity — be it pop star, actress, or socialite — and prostitute, is there really anything standing in her way? We live in an age when certain porn stars have virtually household names. Perhaps through Ms. Dupre, the fusion of the world of beautiful celebrity and sex-kitten-for-hire will finally be complete.

"After all, isn't that precisely what we want?"

— Steve Skojec, writing on "I Think the Girl's Got a Future," March 14, at his Web site (http:// skojec.word press.com)

Other-directed

"It's back in style: the political fashion of issuing official 'apologies' for wrongs committed by others — especially long-dead others — in order to cash in on the compassion sweepstakes and Dutch Rub the opposition in the process. ...

"Bless me, Father, for my ancestors have sinned. It has been two episodes of '60 Minutes' since my last confession. ...

"My Uncle Louie was part of the 3rd Armored Division in the sweep to liberate Dachau and Buchenwald. He operated an avgas-powered Sherman tank with no concern for carbon monoxide and noise pollution. Also he failed to condemn the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. For these and all his other sins of emission I ask pardon and penance."

— The pseudonymous blogger Diogenes, writing on "The oh-so-compassionate me," March 7 at the blog Off the Record, at Catholic World News (www.cwnews.com)

Indian fakes

"[Vladimir] Nabokov wrote that there are three kinds of stories that are utterly taboo as far as American publishers are concerned. In addition to the subject of Lolita, 'the other two are: a Negro-White marriage which is a complete glorious success ... and the total atheist who lives a happy and useful life. ...

"I would add to that list one more: relatively happy Indians going about living relatively happy lives. Sometimes people ask what I am and I say, 'Native American.' And they reply: 'I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry.'

"Tragedy is a shortcut that sells, and the particular tragedy of being an Indian has an amazing ability to make readers lose their capacities to discern good writing from bad, interesting ideas from vapid ones. ... Sadly, until we break the habit of reading Indian lives as necessarily 'Indian tragedies' — and see the shallow types and terrible prose and awkward, tragic poses for what they are — there will be more Indian fakes."

— David Treuer, writing on "Going Native," March 7 at Slate.com

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