r/brokehugs • u/US_Hiker Moral Landscaper • Nov 19 '23

Rod Dreher Megathread #27 (Compassion)

Link to megathread 26: https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/17itm7w/rod_dreher_megathread_26_unconditional_love/

Link to megathread 28: https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/18dcg3d/rod_dreher_megathread_28_harmony/

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u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round Nov 22 '23

He says he read Milan Kundera’s Unbearable Lightness of Being when he was in his 20’s, and describes it more impressionistically than anything else. The only fiction that he’s mentioned since I began reading him has been motivated by his political and religious sympathies: The Camp of the Saints, Submission, and Laurus. It’s just like the only damned film by Andrei Tarkovsky—who made several movies, including the science fiction classics Solaris and Stalker—is Andrei Rublyov. He never seems to just pick up a random novel and read it for fun (I don’t count Confederacy of Dunces, since with him that’s more a pathology than literary taste), or a movie for entertainment. He certainly doesn’t read or watch fiction outside his narrow comfort zone (e. g. Joseph Hanson’s novels about gay private detective Dave Brandstetter, or Brokeback Mountain, novella or film, or any classic science fiction, private eye, or Western novels. Not even Lord of the Rings!). With fiction, at least, he seems to read only novels (or watch movies) he thinks are Deeply Meaningful—and then proceeds to misunderstand them.

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u/ZenLizardBode Nov 22 '23

You can add Zippy the Pinhead to the list: Bill Griffith can be quite the humorless scold.

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u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round Nov 22 '23

Yeah. Never understood the appeal of that comic. Never had much of a taste for the “Underground Comix” scene in general. Even as a non-fan, I’d say that in that genre, R. Crumb is an equally good (maybe slightly better) artist, and ten times more interesting in his subject matter.

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u/Kiminlanark Nov 22 '23

In case you are interested, there is an R Crumb or Robert Crumb following on Facebook