4 ms·
I don't know why the Graeber context is missing from all examinations of this. It's not just a fall of Rome or Ayn Rand story. Graeber's writing was the dominan
by wahnfrieden 2y ago
I don't know why the Graeber context is missing from all examinations of this. It's not just a fall of Rome or Ayn Rand story. Graeber's writing was the dominant inspiration (since the rewrites that were turned into what we see today).
Context from Coppola via IG:
> These are 4 books that strongly have influenced @megalopolisfilm and my view of the "society we live in." I offer three by David Graeber and one short story by Herman Hesse.
> To see where I’m coming from, please understand that our family, Homo Sapiens, has been around for 350,000 to 400,000 years. There is much evidence that the last 10,000 years have been under patriarchy (male domination) due to male animal herders from Steppes of Asia and the advent of "the horse." With that unfortunate innovation, men swooped down like something out of a #Kurosawa movie, and began woman-enslavement in particular, slavery, war, caste, plague, and many things we all should agree are terrible. Also, "man" began writing, usually out of the need to record who was entitled to bags of barley and matrimony of various types, to ensure that our heirs were actually our children. Before this period of so-called “civilization” were thousands of years of matriarchy. Unlike patriarchy, women did not necessarily give out orders, but rather things were settled in egalitarian councils led by women, and often with a wise woman giving perspective.
> A wonderful glimpse into that world is in Herman Hesse’s unfinished tetralogy THE GLASS BEAD GAME, which is followed by three short stories, of which I recommend “The Rainmaker”
> #DavidGraeber #HermannHesse
(He completely misunderstands Graeber and Wengrow but his enthusiasm for their work is underrated)
- gradschoolfail 2y agoWhat do you make of the contrapuntal story Rainmaker? Is it more than a story of Sith masters amd apprentices? [or a matriarchal order (Bene Gesserit?) vs Sith knights/knaves]
- wahnfrieden 2y agoWhat is Rainmaker edit: oh Dune I'll have to think again I like the biographical detail that Herbert grew up near an anarchist town next door and learned from it.
- gradschoolfail 2y agoRainmaker is the short story that Coppola rec’d above, it appears as an Appendix in The Glassbeadgame
- wahnfrieden 2y agoThanks I missed that. I haven’t read Hesse
- subjectsigma 2y agoAn old, rich, out-of-touch director known for making intentionally obscure and pretentious movies sells this one with a sexist, pseudo-archeological rant. Really makes me want to go see it! EDIT: The more I read this the stupider it gets and the more angry it makes me. How do we know these societies were matriarchal if they didn’t write anything down and didn’t pass on any surviving oral tradition? Why did these matriarchal societies suddenly fail because of horses? How did males invent plagues? Is Coppola suggesting we return to a civilization without writing?!
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- mdp2021 2y agoIt just seems to mean that societies with sedentary spirit, construed to focus on construction and maintenance, are threatened by invaders of the conquering spirit.
- mdp2021 2y agoAlso see: https://www.newyorker.com/books/book-currents/francis-ford-coppola-on-books-that-influenced-megalopolis https://www.newyorker.com/books/book-currents/francis-ford-c... With comments from Coppola about Riane Eisler's The Chalice and the Blade, but also Cao Xueqin's The Dream of the Red Chamber, William Bolitho's Twelve Against the Gods, Cole and Chinoy's project Directors on Directing, and Goethe's Elective Affinities