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Green Lantern bar, DC, 2022-3
“The Tragedy of Being Rich” (aka “Let Them Eat Cake“, 53 min) is the last of a series of featurette videos by gay life critic James Somerton and Telos Pictures (which has an Indiegogo link). It is co-written by Nick Hergott.
Perhaps he could have based this video on the parable of the Rich Young Ruler in the New Testament (essentially “don’t pander me!”) and I have a libretto of a cantata based on that (some music sketched by hand, entering into Sibelius will be a chore).
He bases his argument on analyzing two miniseries.
Part 1 of the video is titled simply “Young Royals”, based on the series. The crown prince of Sweden is sent to a boarding school, and falls in love with a lower class boy Simon. But it is Simon who has all the power in the relationship (in a true Rosenfels-like sense; this is a story right out of the Ninth Street Center). Simon is “poor”, but in a democratic country with strong socialism of the essentials, his own family was not destitute. Somerton then compares the series to other items, like “The Crown”, “Crazy Rich Asians” (Sept. 3, 2018), and even “Gone with the Wind”, where Miss Scarlett has what she never earned herself anyway taken away from her by war, but she gets it back with two lovers.
Part 2 is titled “Shameless” and looks at the relationship between two young gay men in Chicago’s south side, Mickey and Ian, one of whom is a bit criminal when necessary. Somerton describes what it is like when a nuclear extended family has to remain cohesive, with members sacrificing to help pay next month’s revolving bill. One could extend this idea to note that for many men, having command of a large socially cohesive family gives sexual incentive to the passion of marriage, which gets lost in modern liberal values. Isn’t that what some of the global culture war is about?
The remaining four “parts” of the video are untitled and the divisions are arbitrary. In the end, he concludes that being rich is a challenge, because then you have something to lose, to be taken away from you, maybe by force, particularly by war. The grievances of others, when neglected, always rise up through despots.
(Posted: Wednesday, March 23, 2022 at 11:30 AM EDT, by John W. Boushka)
Posted onMarch 23, 2022
CategoriesB-TV-series, collage film, documentary, inequality, inherited wealth, LGBT
TagsTelos Pictures