Wednesday, October 15, 2003
(8:31 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Mimes
I think we're all familiar with the fact that mimes are widely considered either stupid or annoying and with the many entertainment venues that use the suffering of a mime as a sure-fire gag (i.e., "Mime Time" from Animaniacs). I think we're also familiar with the fact that France is most closely associated with mime-ing. Is it possible that this is a persistent manifestation of an anti-French undercurrent in American popular culture? This theory becomes more plausible if my vague memory of some anti-mime humor on Monty Python is accurate, since the British are often much more overtly anti-French.
On another note, yesterday in Ted Jennings' class, we were reading some Hellenistic Jewish texts on Sodom that emphasized both the infertile nature of homosexuality as well as the blindness associated with following one's passions in a manner contrary to reason (and in the story, the crowd of gang-rapists is actually struck blind by the angels in Lot's house). Suddenly I made a connection -- could this be the root of the idea that masturbation makes you go blind? I asked Ted about it, and he said that he didn't know, and we just awkwardly moved on with the discussion. I still think there might be something to it, though.