all these heroes fall

[rm]

Roman Polanski raped a girl and pled guilty to it (and let me add to this: RAPE. It involved force and drugs _and_ the girl was 13, and I don't care what she or her life was like, she doesn't deserved to get raped -- no one does).

The fact of this rape has nothing to do with the fact that Polanski is also a significant artist.

Polanski did not commit rape because he is an artist. He did not commit art because he raped. That art and rape can be present in one person, should not, but does, surprise us.

Because the person he raped wants the matter to be dropped, I am torn on what I think should happen next. But that is the only reason.

There is, if you have not yet heard a petition going around that has been signed by luminaries of the film world protesting Polanski's arrest in this case, with some specificity being made about the arrest transpiring at a film festival.

The list of signatories is breaking my heart. It includes not just people whose work I admire, but people whose existence and/or work I feel has made my existence safer (yes, I'm looking at you, Tilda Swinton). Perhaps more distressingly, it includes people I have also worked with, not just in the sense of yes, we got a check from the same production company and might have exchanged a smile, but in the sense of people who have given me direction, touched me in the act of scene composition and deemed me worthy not just of praise, but of work; in celluloid they decreed my existence.

How dare you all!

A child got raped, and while there are reasons to perhaps discuss what should happen to Polanski next and why, Polanski isn't less of a rapist because he makes important films. And he's not less of an important filmmaker because he raped.

But that's not even what's important.

What's important is that a horrible crime is not less significant because a bunch of people sign a piece of paper because they're upset something ugly happened amongst all their pretty. That those people are the people who inadvertently, or in a few cases by looking into my eyes and telling me how to feel, taught me that pretty isn't all that counts, has me utterly shaking, mostly, but not entirely, with rage.

I am not articulate about this. This is not how I wanted to see all my heroes fall. And I'm just sitting here watching the list grow and praying, praying, praying that no more names with personal meaning to me show up on it.

But more than that, I pray that we somehow manage to do right both by our judicial system and the person who was raped.

Believe it or not, this has nothing to do with art, and I don't get why people can't see that.

Comments

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

What's important is that a horrible crime is not less significant because a bunch of people sign a piece of paper because they're upset something ugly happened amongst all their pretty.

This. Absolutely this.

ETA because I haven't said anything about this anywhere and my mind explodes.

I have a coworker who is worried about her cousin, because he is about to be released from prison as a sex offender. He has nowhere to live. She is afraid no one will hire him. He has to register wherever he goes and will forever (he is a young man) be labeled as such. Oh, btw, he is also African American and from a low-income background.

Polanski has all the privilege in the world to create and travel and eat fine food and love beautiful people.

I wouldn't have such a problem letting the Polanski thing go, were it not for the way so many others are treated in the name of justice. Neither extreme is right.

So much lately I feel like I am screaming into a strong wind. Inside my head, anyway.

[angstzeit.livejournal.com]

I hope these people are doing this out of tribe feeling rather than suggesting his stature somehow erases his criminal deeds. I don't like the support your own no matter what thing, but I know a lot of people feel it is similar to a defense attorney -- a balancing force. And I get it at least.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Just adding in my agreement with all you said, including being disappointed to see artists I admire signing this petition.

I think you were linked to this some where else along the thread, but it has grown large, but this post (http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/09/28/puzzle-activity-time/) at Feministe is really superb. That is what rape culture looks like.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Good post. Thank you for the link.

But, she’s grown-up now, can’t we just drop it? She wasn’t then. And if she were, it would still be rape.

See, I like that they make this point. I've heard commentary like: "Well, he thought she was of age."

Okay, because getting someone intoxicated and performing sexual assault upon their person is fine if they're OVER 16. WTF?

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

I see Stephen Frears has signed the petition - and several other folks who I considered worthy of admiration. So much for that, I guess.

Gods, its disappointing - and disgusting.

[dsmoen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I loved High Fidelity. Sigh.

[dsmoen.livejournal.com]

I'm so not surprised that Woody Allen was one of the short list.

Wes Anderson and Pedro Aldomovar, though, they surprise me.

One would hope that with Jonatham Demme understood these things better after Silence of the Lambs, but apparently not.

Most of the people are ones I don't care about their work. And, as a rape victim, they apparently don't care about me, either.

Gah, and Soderbergh. He's one of my favorites.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I've spent most of the day really, really hoping Luhrmann doesn't sign the thing.

[dsmoen.livejournal.com]

For me, it's Daniel Waters (writer of Heathers, among others).

Or Charlie Kaufman.
Or David Mamet.

On the other hand, looking at some of the names on the updated list. Kundera? Sigh. Rushdie I can understand, in a way, because of how he had to live in seclusion.

Totally get why Mendes would be weird for you -- I can't imagine being in that position.

[tod-hollykim.livejournal.com]

The facts are he drugged and raped a child. He plead guilty to it, ie admited it, and then fled before he could be sentenced.

There is no way he should be let off for this. Even if the woman who was the victim says so. Because he commited a crime and has to pay for it.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Yeah, one can be a rapist and an artist independently of each other, both at the same time. Same as with plumbers gardeners , waiters and chimney sweeps.
And is as evident from the, it is heartbreakingly apparent that one can also be an artist and a damned fool.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Salman Rushdie.
God. I just want to go and flang myself off a high place.

[lllvis.livejournal.com]

Mmmm...that nice feeling of being in lock-step with someone on this issue! Just as you say the fact he is an artist and committed rape should not have anything to with each other, neither does the fact he got arrested at a film festival. How many movies have been made where the cops go looking for the bad guys WHERE EVER IT IS THEY ARE LIKELY TO SHOW UP?? Seems a no-brainer to me.

True, this took years. Far too many years, but now it has happened and he gets to face the music. And the simple fact of "he raped a 13 year old girl" is about all that needs to be said. Is this any different than Israel/Simon Wiesenthal STILL chasing down Nazi war criminals? It is far too easy to think enough time has gone by leave the poor guys alone, but when it is simply presented as what they did...I don't think there is any room for argument.

I have not yet followed your link but I will, and like you I expect I will be apalled with some of the names (if not all) that show up. I don't mind telling you I don't want to read that list...but it disgusts me to think someone could try and defend the action taken with Polansky on any grounds.

[lllvis.livejournal.com]

AAARRRGGHHHH....Terry Gilliam?!?!? I am crushed.

[timberwolfoz.livejournal.com]

Terry Gilliam. Tilda Swinton. John Landis. Alfonso Cuaron.

My brain hurts.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Apparently Whoopi Goldberg knows when it is "real rape" and not really a rape. I cannot fucking believe the words coming out of this person's mouth.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/sep/29/roman-polanski-whoopi-goldberg

[rm.livejournal.com]

That pisses me the fuck off. She's widely known in an open-secret way to be a former sex-worker, and doing what you gotta do to get by generally earns my admiration, but it's like -- in how many ways should she know better? I'm losing fucking count here!

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

The "we live in a different society" comment tipped me over into complete rage. What society is that, NAMBLA land?

I feel sort of like the world has gone completely insane.

[king-chiron.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I can't believe Tilda signed that. Ugh.

[amberite.livejournal.com]

Yes!

Yours is the first response to this whole thorny problem that feels right to me, that puts forth a thing I was trying to articulate in my own mind.

I think it is a typically American flaw, to want conversations with our artists. And if they cannot be our friends, we say, we don't want them for artists either; so if we want them for artists, they must be friends.

I cannot speak to the dead, but their art is still sacred to me. The same holds true for certain people whose philosophies, or actions, I cannot respect or condone. I wish more people recognized this distinction.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking it's coming down to an us vs them thing - to the petition signatories, Polanski is clearly one of "us" - socially, in terms of talent, in terms of interests - so he couldn't possibly be one of "them" - lowlifes, rapists, criminals.

I do not have to tell you how many and how heinous the crimes are that have been covered up for that same reason, and I don't think I have to explain here why I think it's bad morality as well as bad logic.

[meirion.livejournal.com]

I don't know what to say, but I'm well aware my mind isn't in a sane state right now. Last Thursday a good friend of mine killed himself after six months of torment and distress following accusations of historical indecencies in the 1970s, when he would have been just a boy himself. He didn't plead guilty, no-one even knows if the charges were true or not (I strongly doubt it personally). And now half of Cambridge is grieving while the vulture press sits around and gloats.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

What sickens me most, on top of the horrendous crime Polanski committed and the fact that he was cowardly and immoral enough to RUN FROM IT, is that in so many cases like his, artistic and talented people are somehow considered to be above the law because of their creative contributions to the world. White collar criminals are treated in just the same way, and it makes me SO ANGRY that somehow, these people are considered to be better than the rest of us and therefore no one thinks they should have to suffer the consequences of their selfish, disgusting actions. And much as I don't agree with everything Michel Foucault says about the judicial/punitive systems, I still wonder what he would have to say about the case of Polanski.

That, and what some others were saying about how people's signing the petition signifies a total lack of recognition of worth of that 13-year-old girl. Her life and sanity are effectively rendered worthless BECAUSE they believe that Polanski's art excuses him from justice.

[shadowravyn.livejournal.com]

May I link this? I'm doing a general linkdrop of OMG FAIL! over this.

Because it's the only way I can get a coherent discussion of this in my LJ. Otherwise I'm just "GRR ARRGH DEATHRAGESMASHY."

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yup, feel free.