... I suppose the joke is on me.
I did very little that was productive today.
I woke, checked my mail, updated my iPod, ran my miles, read most of the graphic novel Godzilla: Half Century War, moved my car (street cleaning), returned a call from Brian Kenner (one of the only people I care to speak to anymore) and watched Shortcut To Happiness.
Shortcut is an unreleased film that I've been hearing about since 2003 when Criterion released The Devil & Daniel Webster (one of America's great spins on the Faust myth... right up there with King's Needful Things).
Anyhow, the film has never been released. I think it's permanently shelved by the studio... though I don't see why they didn't just release it straight-to-DVD or to cable... I had to buy a bootleg of it... Anyhow, it's a PG-13-rated dark comedy with Jennifer Love Hewitt as the Devil and Alec Baldwin (who's apparently a fanatic about the short story upon which the film is based... You can read the short story here) as a writer who sells his soul to the Devil for fame & success. Anthony Hopkins, Amy Poehler, Dan Aykroyd and Kim Cattrall are also in there.
As I think of it... there was also a Faustian movie that came out a few years earlier. The Brendan Fraser/Elizabeth Hurley remake (yeesh! Another remake) of Bedazzled (directed by my second favorite Ghostbuster, Harold Ramis)... Incidentally, Shortcut is much better than Bedazzled.
Now, there's another great American Faustian tale from 1926 that I forgot to mention:
Sorrows of Satan direct by D.W. Griffith.
It was made the same year as F.W. Murnau's Faust (man, what was up with directors with initials for their first name directing Faustian myths!?) and follows the general storyline perfectly.
It was about a poor writer, who lives in a boarding house with another poor writer (a female writer) and they pine for success together until the male of the pair sells his soul to the Devil. It's creepy, beautifully photographed and entertaining & engaging like few other silent horror morality plays of its time.
My point is: why do modern Faustian myths always pick on writers?!
Are we such easy prey?
I love how the cliche of the starving artist has essentially translated to "the starving writer".
Apparently, we are a most pathetic lot.
I don't understand why.
I also don't understand why every douche bag with a word processor thinks he can crank out a book (I blame Shades of Grey, honestly) or a screenplay (that's just a matter of financial incentive...).
It's the same misguided thought process (I believe) that college students take when decided to pursue education as a career; they choose English.
They say, "English is easy! I like reading! All you do is talk to students about books! It's like a glorified suburban book club!"
They don't take into consideration that analytical thinking is an art and to teach it is extremely difficult. They don't take into consideration that teaching grammar, mechanics and formatting is just as precise and maddening as teaching Calculus and Trig.
But I digress.
I just don't understand why writers are picked on.
And I don't udnerstand why so many of us are poor... Or why teachers aren't paid the same as doctors and lawyers (without us there are no doctors and lawyers).
But many great people have been poor and humble.
It's not bad company to keep... Not bad at all...