Iggy Pop in Richard Stanley's Hardware

Can a girl read Jane Austen and watch Richard Stanley's Hardware at the same time? Yes, indeed, especially if the girl is me. I remember watching Hardware when it first came out and I thought, aren't these low budget films so much better than some of the expensive stuff. It was just coming off the 1980s, a decade that produced some of the best small films and classic pop music ever. The 1990s cult classic Hardware reminded me a bit of how I felt when I first saw Bladerunner. Yep. A lot of people I knew hated that, too, and I was the lone member of my group of friends who said, Bladerunner is a classic in the making. Oh, well.  I felt the same way about Hardware though it was not as well made, acted, produced, or none of that; the post apocalyptical images still resonated with me and Angry Bob won my heart. (I always wanted to use a semicolon.)

I am watching some old cult classics this week, looking at characters and music and how the films were presented. Meaning the art and 'some such stuff' that nobody but me really cares about anymore. I am not a pop culture junkie. I just like to look at film like I would look at Sandro Botticelli which is very beautiful high art.

I've been trying to think about the 20th century. That's another story and another blog post. But I got to thinking about how hot it is in India this week, hotter than hell, hotter than it is in Hardware according to Angry Bob who says it's 110 F degrees. And then there is Judge Alito's draft of his "rooted in history" manifesto intended to repeal the 20th century. It's important to remember the 20th century. I mean it's the time where we really faced some incredible issues. It's the 'age of extremes' as one historian wrote. Look at the horrible wars. Dark days. Very dark days. The Great Depression, and I really dislike people who don't appreciate what people did doing that time. It was not easy and there was great suffering.  What has really affected us all is population, hence looking at Hardware. After all, the goal of technology was at one time in this film, to alienate humanity. And yes, population is  going to be a problem. But getting back to the good in the 20th century. Well, Civil Rights of all kinds and that is what Alito is after, that is what he is setting the precedent for, to take us back to the times before and don't let this get you confused. This is not about culture. This is not a culture war. This is a religious war. Extreme Evangelical and Charismatic Catholic war. After all, most of the people protesting the Court the other day were Catholics for Choice. 

I don't really worship anything but beauty and it's not the kind of beauty that is always pretty. And I read Alito's manifesto and it's all about religion and morality. Our parents and grandparents suffered and died so that we could be who we wanted to be, say what we wanted to say, and believe whatever we wanted. Two horrible wars in the 20th century and a bunch of smaller ones that are extremely dark, too.

But we can't have our cake and eat it, too. 

We are going to have to choose what battles to fight.

I hope the TikTok generation can handle it as good as my 18 year old father did.