Thursday, May 29, 2008

Unpotted Harry Potter

"The Story Teller" - Wil Cormier

David Seaton's News Links
I've had people ask me why I think the story of Stanley Anne Dunham, Barack Obama's mother, is of any general interest.

What got me started was the very human and complementary piece that Eric Stone wrote in his blog about her. What interested me most was that it was personal, first hand observation, unfiltered by the great "story teller" himself.

Since Obama is simultaneously Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling, any information about Obama that Obama hasn't already pre-chewed for us is of interest.

The interest is to check cold reality against a well told story.
"I went to school with Harry Potter and man he couldn't make himself invisible or nothing and Vernon and Petunia Dursley are real nice people and I sat next to their kid Dudley in algebra and he was the coolest kid in school."
Something like that might hurt sales.

Obama is, in fact, almost nothing more than Obama's story, Obama's words, Obama's speeches.

The other candidates (all that have contested the primaries in both parties) have public CVs not "stories", so what their mamas were like is not very relevant.... They all have obviously survived them.

The reason Stanley Anne is important is that all the buzz about Obama is from the stories Obama tells about Obama, not about the things that Obama has done publicly.

Let me remind you that someone is coming very close to getting his hands on the atomic bomb, strictly on the strength of a well told story.

Popular wisdom has it that "talk is cheap" and that "actions speak louder than words," but it seems that Hollywood has finally leached that simple common sense from the American mind.
DS

3 comments:

Unknown said...

It's strange to see someone who makes his living by the word value it so little. It's even stranger that an essay ending with digs at both Hollywood and the waning of American common sense should confuse Barack Obama with Chauncey Gardiner.

What my sense tells me is that someone who can take on the Clinton machine and win has more resources available than just a silver tongue. I get that you don't like him. I just don't know why. So I read some more (The Oozlum Protocol is AWESOME btw). And this is just completely harsh:

"My problem with Barack Obama is that my intuition tells me he is an empty suit. He is as proud, clever, gifted and as opportunistic as Lucifer, but I don't think there is really that much human content there."

Lucifer, no human content...really? Have you met him in person? I'm not going to bother trying to defend him. Clearly you've drunk the anti-coolaid. For what it's worth, my intuition warms to Barack but is completely chilled by Hillary 'Tuzla' Clinton or John 'Baghdad Cafe' McCain.

Still there's some good stuff here. I hope you keep exploring your Obama thing. I will definitely keep reading. I can't wait to find out who's right in the end!

David Seaton's Newslinks said...

I must continually repeat that I am not a Hillary supporter, although she seems to have a workable health plan and that is something.

I thought, that if the Democrats had any sense, which I seriously doubt, they would have run Al Gore... I think he could have won this year in a walk... instead they are beguiled by a... story.

John McCain is what is left in the race of human beings with a record, some hits, many misses, but a real record. Nothing great, just real.

Anonymous said...

I would like to know where Barrack Obama's mother got her first name Stanley.

I know of only one woman that was ever named Stanley. She is older than Barrack's mother. This particular Stanley does not appreciate people borrowing her name without permission. Of course this could be just a coincidence.