August 08, 2002 - 10.12 pm
I have so much flying around in my head tonight. I read a great book called Good In Bed. Read it. Right now. It's up there with Devine Secrets.
I watched a special on Emeniem. They kept calling him Em, which, being my nickname weirded me out a lot. I'm very divided on Emeniem. I don't like what he does. I'm not impressed by his "art" or his "poor me I'm a tourtured white boy rapper, I'm deep really no one understands me" persona. My impression is that Emeniem is a glorified woman-hating-gay-bashing-testosterone-driven-redneck-hick. And all this bullshit about "he doesn't really MEAN it" I don't get either. Why say something that you don't really mean? To make a quick buck? Or several million quick bucks? I wouldn't.
But at the same time, can I say the government should sanction what Emeniem says? Should Lynn Chaney be able to slap his tatooed little wrists and say "go forth and sin no more!" No. I feel like a fink saying you can't sensor Emeniem, but you can't. I don't agree with him, I don't like what he has to say, and hell, maybe he's a genuis because everyone in the world knows his name, like him or hate him, you know him.
If I said, "Go Lynn!" What would happen when someone tried to tell Steve he couldn't write about what he wanted to? What would I say if Steve's God musical was censored? Could I then in good conscious fight that? What if it was then decided that Rent had to be taken off Broadway because it has sex in it? I say these things have a message, they have purpose, they are art. But who decides what art is? If it's OK to start censoring paintings of the Virgin Mary covered with shit, where does it stop? What about censoring Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds because it's rumored to be about LSD? What about censoring The Laramie Project because of the descriptions of Matthew Sheppard's broken, bleeding body. If you want the right to say whatever you want to say, then you have to realize that having that freedom means that everybody gets the right to say whatever they want to.
I hate that Emenim has found such a group of ardent followers. But I don't think we can blame Emenim or Marilyn Manson (though that dude is creepy as hell) for the Columbine massacres. I think we have to look a lot deeper than just violent music or movies or video games. What opened these kids to the suggestion in these medias? Why were they in particualr seseptable to the message that aren't so hidden in these "art" forms? I don't know. I haven't any anwers. Kids can be mean but there's an extra trigger that changes an angry, hurt kid into a murderer and I don't think it's Emeinem's music. I think THAT's what we pay attention to. Why are these kids, people, identifying with the rage they hear? Why do they see themselves as raping and murdering their mothers? Why can they identify with the feelings of loss and rage and terror that Eminem voices for them? Those are the real problems, not some pseudo-intellectual masochist out for some thrills.
Anyway. I know I'll get some hate mail for some of these comments (ooh! how exciting! hate mail!) but if you want to talk, as always, emilysmills@yahoo.com
Goodnight.
Emily
