July 26, 2004

Summer Reading 04. 1.

Being There

Although Being There is over 30 years old, it is eerily pertinent to the current political scene. Only in one respect was Kosinski's prophecy too cautious. Writing during the reign of the uncharismatic, unphotogenic, yet canny and intelligent President Nixon, Kosinski was apparently unable to imagine Chance as a sitting president.... George W Bush is a simulation, a virtual figure upgraded from a prototype like that of Chance the Gardener. I am not interested in George W Bush's corporeal being but rather in his flatness and in the way that his obvious deficiencies are "spun" by supposedly disinterested media pundits. Bush's estrangement from the real - evident in his unfamiliarity with geography, history, ordinary English syntax and semantics, and a fund of common knowledge - stems from his own lack of reality. George W Bush does not exist.

Carol V Hamilton, "George W Bush as Presidential Simulacrum," CTHEORY, July 13, 2004.



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Posted by dwhudson at July 26, 2004 10:38 AM

Comments

Being There is over 20 years old, not 30.

Posted by: yDNA at July 26, 2004 11:09 AM

I believe she was referring to the novel, which was published in 1972.

Posted by: Filmbrain at July 26, 2004 12:00 PM

I believe she was referring to the book as well. (Admittedly, we made it a bit more confusing by linking to the film, but... figured y'all would forvige us. ;-) )

C

Posted by: Craig P at July 26, 2004 12:51 PM