Ishaghpour

[Skylark]

Picked up Youssef Ishaghpour's first volume of his trilogy on Welles - interesting stuff - there's a 30 page general intro - then a 60-page general intro on art and history as it relates to the modern world.

Then he begins a section on Welles and modernity - starting with the the notion of individualism as it was in the Renaissance, referencing Ernst Cassirer - Modern individualism begins, he says, when there's a break from the Renaissance notion of individualism, a crisis that can be seen in Marlowe's Faust, the first great theatrical role for Welles...

[Tony]

Skylark: is that translated into English?

[Skylark]

I don't think so - I'm reading the 2001 edition in french from Éditions de la différence.

[Tony]

It seems to me that 2 of Welles's favourite authors- Cervantes and Shakespeare, were living in a "fin de siecle'- the end of the medieval and the beginning of the modern world. And Welles himself- and indeed all of us- are living in another "fin de siecle"- the end of the modern world and the beginning of the postmodern, beginning around 1973, precisely when Welles's directorial career pretty well came to a close, which is a shame, as he was more post modern than the younger competition. Welles was, in a way, a man of both periods.

It's too bad this trilogy you're reading hasn't been translated into English.

[Dan]

And Welles himself- and indeed all of us- are lving in another "fin de siecle"- the end of the modern world and the beginning of the postmodern, beginning around 1973...

Why 1973?

[Tony]

Dan: I just typed for 20 minutes and lost it all so here's the bare bones: It's actually 1972, when a modern public housing complex, built just in 1966, was deemed uninhabitable, and was torn down. Architecture was never the same after that, and neither was anything else. It was the end of the modern (based on the universal) and Welles's Wind was caught and interrupted in the middle as this cultural maelstrom blew through the West. F For Fake interrupted Wind, being an energized first explicitly pomo film for Welles. It took grip of him and wouldn't let him go until he had finished it, just like Tristan interrupted Wagner with it's new chromaticism in the middle of the Ring and insisited that it be finished, thereby transforming the rest of the Ring. Think of 1973 and Bowie, Elton John, disoc, punk, and the new Hollywood- Star Wars, Jaws, etc., not to mention that early proponent, Warhol.

Postmodernism for Beginners, (Appignanesi and Garatt) page 115
Postmodernism or the cultural logic of late capitalism (Frederic Jameson)
"Suddenly we found ourselves in a strange new world".

[Dan]

...It's actually 1972, when a modern public housing complex, built just in 1966, was deemed uninhabitable, and was torn down.

You're talking about the Pruitt-Igoe complex in St. Louis? I thought it was torn down because the residents trashed it beyond repair. Interesting point though. Newark, NJ has also thrown down a bunch of their awful projects since the 1980s.

1973 was also the year of Watergate (into 1974) and the first Arab Oil Embargo. Some economists say that signalled the end of the post-WW2 economic expansion in the USA. Bowie and Elton were the hot new things in 1973 but Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977), disco (1975?), punk (1977+) all came a bit later.

New York City began it's decline in 1973 under the inept Mayor Abe Beame, nearly defaulting in 1975. But 1977 was really NYC's year in hell.

[Skylark]

He mentions Cervantes and Shakespeare in the next section - (and he talks about Warhol in the following section) in a part on Mannerism and Baroque periods of art. He cites Erwin Panosfsky among several others. He makes a case for Welles being an exponent of a Mannerism perspective. I must say that looking at artists like Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Vermeer, El Greco, I'm struck by the number of 'cinematic' effects that they use. (i.e. chiaroscuro lighting, various compositional elements that emphasize certain dramatic and emotional points, ...)

[Tony]

Dan: yes, that's the project, and you are right, the residents trashed it. It has become the architectural beginning of pomo because of the idea that the residents trashed it because of its alienating style, not because they were animals. Or, perhaps they were acting like animals because of the socio-economic-architectural prison they found themselves in. Note the subtitle to Jameson's book.

The changes you and I mention all flow from the late 60s early 70s; there was an intellectual change also, as I'm sure you know: it's often been said the social revolution inthe west at that time was fomented in part by the intellectual class, i.e. the university professors.

Skylark: I was thinking primarily of the second-order kind of thought and art, such as the second book of DQ where the characters are recognized as characters from the first book. This kind of thinking runs throughout Welles's art, and is I think distinctly pomo, but only fully flowers in the 70s in TOSOTW and Fake. This is, of course, what philosophy is, as well, which is why, I believe, most people don't like Welles: they don't want mutli-level/perspective ironic art where you have to work at meaning, they want Star wars and Jaws, where the irony and self-consciousness in unintended by the artist and the work is apparently straightforward.

[Skylark]

The rest of the section basically outlines the development of modernism from the Renaissance to the presetn. He cites such authors as Descartes, Kant, and Heidegger and touches on such modern notions as representation, subjectivity, reflexivity, capitalism, the enlightenment, individualism, the autonomy of art, art and the marketplace, the commercial promotion of genius as begun in the romantic period via Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Carlyle, etc.. the notion of the 'Byronic hero' and Lord Byron are examined... Interesting stuff, the next section is my favorite, 'Welles and America', being a study of the american zeitgeist during Welles' lifetime.

[Skylark]

The second part, 'Welle' in America starts off with a comparison of a Norman Mailer article on JFK. Then there's a bit on the Puritan notion's of individualism and success in America followed by a segment on the Age of enlightenment, mainly citing Harold Laski. Then a bit on the transcendentalist movement with Emerson. There`s a more substantial passage on Melville with some interesting comparions between him and Welles.

There's a section on Walt Whitman, all of these brief segments serve to illustrate the development of the American zeitgeist via it's literary and cultural exponents. Henry James is used to illustrate a period that Mark Twain had termed 'the gilded age' , the age of the robber barons, business moguls, mentioning as an example Theodor Dreiser's novel, the Financier.

This is followed by a section on the cinema and the writer's known as the 'lost generation', starting with Dos Passos, comparing the structure of U.S.A. with Kane. Then a section on Fitzgerald and Hemingway that are more direct comparions with Welles' career. Then a section on Faulkner which notes a stuctural similarity with Absalom! Absalom! and Kane. The we arrive at the period where Welles' career begins with a section on the great depression and the new deal that goes into the efforts of Roosevelt, Henry Wallace, Keynes to counter the monopolistic tendencies of capitalism.

[Glenn Anders]

This work looks like a very important one.

I hope that it gets an English translation and publisher soon.

Glenn

[Skylark]

The next 40 pages or so deals mainly with Welles' theatre period.

Antifascism and the Popular Front

Wherein is discussed the fear of the threat of fascism following the depression and subsequent growth of the Popuar Front movement and Welles' involvement.

Welles political activism

Welles status as artist representing political values is touched upon.

The Work Progress Administration and the Federal Theatre Project is examined - Lewis Mumford and James Agee are mentioned. Discussion of Welles' relationship to the communist movement and to Archibald McLeish are dealt with along with a bit on The Cradle Will Rock and Welles' relationship with Marc Blitzstein and how the political elements in Buchner's Danton' Death served to alienate the various very political conscious factions of the Mercury Theatre audience.

The Welles radio episode, His Honor, The Mayor is discussed - The political strictures of Hollywood and how most of Welles' stories would be considered too controversial to film.

It is noted that Welles arrived at a very favorable time - i.e. a motivated and attentive public, a militant press, and state sponsored organisation and how his arrival in Hollywood marked a different period with less favorable conditions and how the Magnificant Ambersons, It's All True, and the Stranger reflect that situation.

The Lady of Shanghai is viewed as a commentary of Welles' alienation from Hollywood and the notion of strangement i.e. the alienation of the american intellectual.

[Skylark]

She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

[Skylark]

Strangement - the alienation of the American intellectual

In 1947, Welles, who had been called the Emperor of the United States a decade earlier is now being called America's youngest has-been. Welles' problem is seen as having tried unsuccessfully to bring intellectual and artistic content to the the mass market context of Hollywood, which left him alienated from both Hollywood and the american intellectuals. He cites an interesting book, 'The New radicalism in America 1889-1963', Christopher Lasch. There is much mention of the School of New York i.e. the avant garde of American intellegentsia of writers and painters. The romantic notion of the artist in isolation and rebellion i.e. art for art's sake, the purity of the artistic vision is discussed. Welles is in a paradoxical position between art and mass communication. Jackson Pollock is celebrated for the same excentricities that Welles is reproached for. Welles liberal radicalism partly explains his estrangement from American intellectuals.

Between popular and elite culture

Prior to the 20th century, there didn't exist the pronounced opposition between high and low culture, i.e. Shakespeare was still appreciated by all classes. By embracing elements of high and low culture, Welles was unable to interest either sides - he is compared to Joseph Conrad in that respect. The separation of art and the cultural industry is examined in relation to Welles career. MacBeth is seen in terms of contemporary political and cultural climate.

Welles political commitment II - Henry Wallace and the defeat of the Liberals

Welles works are seen as meeting ground of contradictions that are in opposition (Sovereignist and democratic tendencies, etc.) The decline in Welles' career is compared with the political decline of the Liberals and Wallace. Themes in Othello and contemporary socio-poltical climate is examined. Welles' political writings are examined, mainly his articles for the Free World. The question of the Liberals relationship with communism and the Soviet Union is discussed. Wallace's founding of the Progressive Party is discussed. Welles' support of the United Nations and how his political values are present in Touch of Evil. Welles' 1952 'Dialog of the XXth century' article is discussed.