Siding with bugs is praxis

Skip to content

Jack Graham

Jack Graham writes and podcasts about culture and politics from a Gothic Marxist-Humanist perspective. He co-hosts the I Don't Speak German podcast with Daniel Harper. Support Jack on Patreon.

4 Comments

  1. Richard Pilbeam
    September 6, 2011 @ 8:31 am

    And don't forget "Forest of the Dead", in which fulfillment = motherhood = dying.

    Reply

  2. Affirmation
    September 7, 2011 @ 5:00 pm

    I think we can take as read Moffat's distasteful opinions about women, since that's been the one constant throughout all his work and can be best summarized as the Gina Bellman syndrome (Dennis Potter, anyone?).

    The point I was trying to make is that Moffat doesn't have any interest in anything other than his old ideas and obsessions. So when something genuinely fascinating (like Nixon) is dropped into a Moffat script, there's no chemical reaction. The Moffat style, self-interested and narrow-focussed on narrative trickery and sitcom characterization, absorbs anything and everything. This is the opposite way to how a dramatist works.

    Should Moffat (who is now at his most productive and at the height of his award-winning esteem) ever challenge himself to look at things properly, to engage, to dump his style in favour of the subject, then he will be for once asking the viewer questions beyond the superficial.

    Reply

  3. Jack Graham
    September 8, 2011 @ 1:17 pm

    Affirmation –

    Thanks for contributing here, much appreciated. And thanks for the clarification (not that you were unclear before).

    I will say a couple of things in response.

    Firsly, lots of viewers/fans don't take it "as read" that Moffat has a distasteful view of women and are surprised and irritated by the assertion, as you know. To the extent that any of this is important at all, getting this point across is important (I think).

    Secondly, to his credit, Dennis Potter did sometimes at least seem to be trying to analyse his own issues with women.

    But, these tiny points aside, I agree with your broader point entirely.

    The sheer lack of interest in Nixon is a case in point, as you say. Of course, such a lack of interest allows an entirely ironical and complacent approach to heavily politically freighted subject matter… hence the sydrome where the apolitical treatment of the intensely political ends up being its own kind of highly political statement, which is not recognised as such because it is within the boundaries of mainstream orthodoxy.

    Reply

  4. Affirmation
    September 26, 2011 @ 4:27 am

    Glad to be here! The walls look pretty. Has Banksy been around?

    I'm trying to classify the type of writer Moffat is. He's never created an original drama series, and I simply couldn't see him thinking, "the UK riots… gotta say something about that in a drama". Whereas you could easily imagine Davies or Abbot or McGovern doing so because they like using drama as a vehicle for their concerns.

    Moffat hasn't contributed episodes to serial dramas, either. "The Street", or "Clocking Off" or things like that. Could you picture a Moffat episode of "Cracker"?

    Is Moffat interested in people? I don't think he is. And that's why he's not a dramatist. He has nothing to say about anyone, no burning interest in exploring why a kid in Manchester might burn down a police station, no questions he himself would like to raise within a dramatic framework.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Discover more from Eruditorum Press

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading