Finnish Design: Facts and Fancy [antikvár]

' 1. , ! . ! : ',1: I.:Foreword*Nole The following interview is a figment of your author's imagination.Mr. Sukkanen:Mr. Woolsox: Mr. Sukkanen: Mr. Woolsox : Mr. Sukkanen: Mr. Woolsox:Mr. Sukkanen:Mr. Woolsox: Mr. Sukkanen:Mr. Woolsox: Mr. Sukkanen Mr. Woolsox: Mr. Sukkanen Mr. Woolsox:Mr. Sukkanen Mr. Woolsox:Mr. Sukkanen Mr. Woolsox:Mr. Sukkanen Mr. Woolsox:Mr. Sukkanen Mr. Woolsox:"Tell me how you feel about the book I am about to read". "I feel fine"."Be serious that's not what I mean". "Well, what do you mean?" "I mean how do YOU feel about it ?" "Well, sometimes I feel that an author is a lot like the hero in a Hollywood western". "Hold on now. You can't possibly be serious. You must be pulling my leg". "Not at all"."Well isn't it a bit unfair to begin an intellectual non-fiction book by blatantly trying to compare your position to that of the hero in a Hollywood western?" "Not at all"."I'm afraid you will have to be more specific"."Well, take the case of John Wayne"."What about John Wayne?""Okay, so John Wayne is the perpetual lonelycowboy with the purity of a priest. Right?""Right"."He gallops through western after western on his oversized horse in the name of good and committed to the conquest of evil. Right?" "Right"."The structure of his films are built sequence upon sequence always growing toward a dramatic, nail-biting finale. Right?" ; "Right again"."So then, in one dramatic climax, our hero single-handedly rounds up the bad guys, and then races off to overtake the train in order to rescue the maiden who has been unfortunately tied to the railroad tracks a victim of bad guy foul play". : "Now we're getting somewhere". "Funny thing John Wayne always succeeds. At the final breathless moment, he outdistances the train, leans over in the saddle, whips out his knife, cuts the maiden loose, saves her from extinction, deposits her in theMr. Sukkanen Mr. Woolsox:Mr. Sukkanen Mr. Woolsox:Mr. Sukkanen Mr. Woolsox:Mr. Sukkanen Mr. Woolsox:Mr. Sukkanen Mr. Woolsox :Mr. SukkanenMr. Woolsox: Mr. Sukkanen Mr. Woolsox:Mr. Sukkanen Mr. Woolsox:arms of her joyful mother (untouched), and then rides off into the sunset again alone". "But what is your point?" "Please try to understand. What the movie viewer expects to see is PERFECTION. He has been taught to expect PERFECTION and in the case of a Hollywood western, a kind of super-human perfection". "Well what is wrong with that?" "This kind of perfection just doesn't exist. It's a myth. And as a matter of fact, it's an ugly myth"."What do yo mean it's a myth ?" "Hollywood has manufactured the hero and has constructed him into the living symbol of perfection. John Wayne rescues the maiden, and then captures the bad guys all as a tightly organized consequence of everything that has happened before in the film". "I still don't see your point". "Have you ever seen John Wayne fall off his horse?""No, I can't say that I have". "That's my point. Nobody has. Nobody ever sees the fifty rehearsals where John Wayne did fall off his horse, where he dropped his knife, lost his script, or swore at his director. And what's more, nobody ever sees the dozens of busy people on all sides of the camera who comb John Wayne's hair, brush his boots, remind him of his lines, tell him when to go to the bathroom, and encourage him to act like the super hero he is supposed to be". "Well, what has all this got to do with your statement about feeling like John Wayne?" "I didn't say I felt like John Wayne". "Well what did you say?" "I said I feel that an author is a lot.like the hero in a Hollywood western". "How so?""Okay, to begin with, a non-fiction book is supposed to be a kind of holy exercise of perfectly organized, and hygienically clear fact statements always building one fact building upon another headed straight as an arrow toward a final intellectual orgasm where all that has gone before suddenly explodes in logical sequence to reveal new wisdom. Right?"