In today's Times Rog Cohen explains that he hopes Obama will be guided by a mystically prophetic pig. He wants "magical realism." God, how I hate that phony genre label. So did Borges, and Rushdie, whom Cohen quotes, is no fan either. Rog seems to believe that the "magic" has something to do with optimism, or hope, or alternately, lying about current economic outlooks.
One thing seems certain: The meltdown is going to hang over at least the first 18 months of the Obama presidency. The Treasury is bare. Americans are deluged in debt. Confidence has been Madoffed."The three-syllable universality of a child's lullaby"? Where does Bill Keller find these guys?
That’s the realism. But this 47-year-old man of mixed race, whose very name — O-Ba-Ma — has the three-syllable universality of a child’s lullaby, has always had something of the providential about him, a global figure who looks more like the guy at the local bodega than the guys on dollar bills. That’s the magic.
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'Please savior, saviour, show us
Hear me, I'm graphically yours
Someone to claim us, someone to follow
Someone to shame us, some brave Apollo
Someone to fool us, someone like you
We want you Big Brother, Big Brother'-D. Bowie
Come to think of it...Obama does remind me of a character from One Hundred Years of Solitude.
jesu cristo, I never thought I'd see the moment when a white guy *literally* begs a black man to be his Magical Negro. Where's Will Smith when you need him?
By "magic" what they really mean is that they hope they get fuckin' lucky with business as usual. Of course there's White Magic and Black Magic, ain't there? Or maybe a little semi-mojo.
I think the key point here is that Cohen is one of the better columnists at the Times.
"Magical realism" is not so much "phony" as it is cliched or bowdlerized. "Genre" and "label" capture the trajectory, which by definition includes something substantive. I do understand that for hipsters a concept becomes obsolescent, like a new nightclub in L.A., as soon as it's officially codified.
No mystery about its romantic application to Obama---Rush Limbaugh calles him the "Messiah", and Cohen Of The Times puts it into words for Romantic Materialists (read: a good half of those who voted for him). Mind over matter; charisma, personal power and good intentions moving mountains. Jesus, Norman Vincent Peale, Tony Robbins, and the genie in the infomercial for "The Secret".
Now now, let's not be too hard on Roger. Poor guy has never worked a day in his life and is now looking at the end of his priviledged position unless the magical mystery pig can pull his fat out of the fire. God speed, Roger.
My favorite line: "In their abiding good sense, Americans intuited the imperative to reach beyond smartness for some ineffable quality, capable of unifying and inspiring at a time of national and global division."
The same Amerikans who have consistently voted to slit their own economic throats for the last thirty years have "abiding good sense." Right . . .
From Digby's comments yesterday:
Brilliant move. Obama will trap them in an eternal revolving door and they will think it's the best private ride at Disney World.
All Americans with the exception of very few should repeat this to themselves over and over. Barack Obama is a lot smarter than me.
EliteWino | 01.14.09 - 7:43 am |
Some people just can't wait to submit to a powerful leader.
"Some people just can't wait to submit to a powerful leader."
I know I can't.
As someone who WOULD prefer to follow somebody else, I'm continuously baffled by the fact that so many people think questioning authority is some kind of blasphemy.
What I want to know is, if the leader doesn't actually consistently demonstrate his competence and goodwill, how do you know he's not a doorknob or a scuzzbag? And how on earth is it comforting to be led by a guy who might well be a doorknob or a scuzzbag?
It seems to be the simple fact of submitting to a powerful person that comforts people, completely independently from whether or not this submission actually accomplishes anything useful.
It's appropriate. Magic realism is a literary form native to countries where the CIA stages electoral coups every five years or so. It's about time it came to America.
a global figure who looks more like the guy at the local bodega than the guys on dollar bills
Is that a direct quote from Joe Biden?
How does one "intuit" an "imperative," particularly one that is apparently beyond "smartness"? Is this some kind of hoo-doo curse, or what? If I say it three times in front of a mirror, will a naked aboriginal grant me three wishes?
Actually, the Latin American magical realists were ultimately influenced by the American writer Frederick Prokosch, whose "The Asiatics" and "The Seven Who Fled" are at least proto-magical realist novels.
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