GUILTY PARTY GIRL: Last night I finished Rene Girard’s study The Scapegoat, and then (re-)watched Derek Jarman’s Edward II. It was a pretty awesome juxtaposition–Jarman’s movie (it’s been yonks since I read the play, so I’m confining comments to the movie for now) is all vengeance, no mercy. I’m pretty sure the love… rhombus, at the center, is an example of “mimetic desire,” too, even though I still don’t really know what that is. (I sometimes felt like Girard was trying to make everything mimetic desire, which seemed… unnecessarily confusing.)

And although there are scapegoats and victims in the movie, it was largely about one thing that I really felt was missing from Girard’s book: guilty victims. I know he’s hammering on the innocence of the scapegoats for a reason; but if you’re going to have a comprehensive theory of victimization, and/or of Christian reconciliation (he seems to work hard to avoid the terms “mercy” and “forgiveness”), I really want to know what happens to the guilty people. I, uh, I take a personal interest, you know?

As for Edward II: The music is terrific. Tilda Swinton, for once, is awesome as a kind of Queen Bree van de Kamp, Homicidal Heterosexual Terrorist. I usually dislike Swinton’s acting in general and her roles in Jarman movies in particular–he seems to use her as a Javanese shadow-puppet figure of Woman. And I have no problem with characters as silhouettes; but I do have at least potential problems with stories in which the men are allowed individuality, but the women get only iconicity. And that’s happening in Edward II, I think, but I don’t mind it because Swinton is so crazily compelling. …Movie definitely falls into the typical Jarman traps described here. Despite the rancid atmosphere, it slid into sentimentality and self-pity, and I probably shouldn’t’ve liked it as much as I did….

As for The Scapegoat: Although my fur was up and my claws out for the first half of the book, I eventually felt like I understood where Girard was going, and was pretty amazed by it. Still have problems with it, need to read it at least one more time, etc etc. Comments, recommendations and so on w/r/t Girard more than welcome. Am working on story about Herod now.

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
—Matt. 11:12