A Streetcar
Named Desire by Tennessee Williams http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/a-streetcar-named-desire-by-tennessee.html Magician Author of some of the
greatest plays, including Cat On A Hot Tin Roof http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/05/cat-on-hot-tin-roof-by-tennessee.html
10 out of
10
I have been
elated by watching A Street Car Named Desire, and the latest could be the third
time – the magic is still there, one of the most rewarding experiences will
have audiences admiring Marlon Brando, at his peak, as Stanley Kowalski, an
uneducated man, with an impressive Emotional Intelligence…studies have shown
that EQ is much more important (have I read it is twice as crucial) than IQ.
When this
masterpiece was on the other day, I thought of the Paradigm Shift (once Blanche
Dubois comes to live with Stanley and her sister, Stella, everything changes –
by the way, this chef d’oeuvre is such a hit that it pops up in the most
unlikely places and circumstances, one has Elaine from Seinfeld shouting like
Brando aka Stanley, after she gets drunk at a party ‘Stella’) described in the
Booker Prize Winner Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/vernon-god-little-by-dbc-pierre-divine.html one of my favorite comedies, and
books of all time, come to think of it…
Vernon is
told about Paradigm Shift in those terms, albeit I do not know the passage by
heart, and if you want to laugh out loud, then you better read this portion,
and much better still, find the magnum opus and enjoy it – you come into this
room and find a stranger with a finger up your granny’s arse, what do you
think…the answer is evidently that Vernon is outraged and ready to pummel the
fellow…
In a short
time, you see that the man had learned about a terrible danger your respectable
relative had been in, and overcame his massive reluctance, to try and save the elderly
woman, now what do you say about the new situation…well, he is a hero, kudos,
or words to that effect – this would be the fundamental change, that is
described in Vernon God Little, which has a good number of hilarious events and
characters, like the lawyer who looks like he just arrived from Cuba, with his
sleek costume, suit or what not
Blanche
Dubois descends upon the Kowalski family, to stay with her sister, and to begin
with, she acts with pomp and aristocratic hauteur, pretending to be an
authentic lady, with high placed friends, taking some leave form school and
lying about, well, almost anything, she could be compared with the Pinocchio of
our age, Trump, only her situation is much more serious and there are
attenuating circumstances for the woman, while the orange fellow can only be
forgiven for having lost his wits, if he ever had any…
Spoiler
alert, it will be uncovered that the claims to having an enviable position are
all pretense, for Blanche is in fact near destitution, she had been dismissed
by the school, because she might have had an inappropriate attitude towards a
teenage pupil, and then there have been a number of affairs and intimacies with
men
The context
is important, for at that time (and in many places today) male chauvinist pigs
dominated the scene, passed judgment on women and almost everything else, condemning
even the most banal connections and labeling those who agreed to accept their
advances as sluts, immoral and attaching many other slurs, insults, for humans
who were vulnerable, easy prey for the predators and the men that had all the
advantages…
Blanche
Dubois is one of the most intriguing, captivating, interesting, impressive characters,
for on the one hand, she is clearly a victim of the age, men, having suffered disappointments,
financial distress and so many more challenges, adversities, traumas, and on
the other hand, she shows resilience, if she is presenting a ‘false’ image, how
could anyone blame her, if life is so grim, then one has to survive it somehow…
There are a
few ways we could look at Stanley Kowalski, the present day standards would
disqualify him as a bully and abuser, for he is very aggressive, at least from
one point on, towards his sister-in-law – when he gives her a present, spoiler
alert, he means a ticket out of town, with the message that she has overstayed
her welcome and needs to get out…furthermore, Stanley pushes off his friend,
Mitch
Blanche had
managed somehow to get close to Mitch, and the latter seemed determined to
propose to the otherwise superior woman, but once he finds that she had had
affairs with men, this is a signal for the fellow that he can have sex, he
makes it clear that she is not good enough to take home to his mother, but will
nonetheless have a fling, exploit her if you will just to satisfy his more
primitive urges.
Reading
this in a contemporary, perhaps feminist key, we have males pushing Blanche
into what they would call promiscuity of worse, and then complaining about her
‘immorality’, some exploit her and other cry out and finger the ‘sin’…if we
look at the narrative from a perspective that was predominant at the time, then
Stanley could be praised for finding about his sister-in-law and ending her
stay.
Milan
Kundera explained the difference between pity and compassion, the former is
reserved for those we see as having a lower position, while the latter is poured
on the ones we feel that they are our equals…this might have been elaborated on
in The Unbearable Lightness of Being http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being-9-put.html perhaps the best known of his works
Blanche
Dubois has suffered and reached a nadir, but she is also a strong character, someone
we must admire, for the lying is a necessary defense mechanism (bastards like
Trump lie permanently to obtain massive privileges or maintain them) what could
she do, tell the men she meets that other males have taken advantage, they will
reject her, this is what they do…
http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world
this note
is signed by Realini, participant in the 1989 Revolution, as proved in this
page from Newsweek http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html
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