to argue that the 99th remake
of Superman or Batman
has at least as much artistic legitimacy
as a 99th remake of Hamlet?
because the icons of popular culture
resonate necessarily in new ways
as pop culture evolves
and remakes offer a perfect canvas
for deconstructing or rethinking
those icons and their evolution
take the addams family
when the cartoons were adapted
from Ross's prudish New Yorker
to network children's teevee
they lost all hint of menace
so it all became a pose
they'd never really hurt a fly
where the originals had a strain
of corpses-in-the-basement
more suitable to texas chainsaw masochists
but the remake i'd like to see
would follow more the lines
of twin peaks' dale cooper
investigating the black lodge
sociopaths with social standing
sacrificing cheerleaders by the moon
and it could be useful to explore
parallels to the current crop
of political sociopaths
richard perle as gomez
echoing leland palmer's psychotic songs-and-dances
ann coulter as morticia
loosing the dogs of war on the inferior races
dick cheney as fester
you really don't want to know
what he's up to in the basement
barbara bush as grandma
brewing potions in the rose garden
W (or rush limbaugh?) as pugsley
playing frog baseball with beavis and butthead
and i'm seeing wednesday
as a suicidal teen
a cutter (think fiona apple?)
whose redemption
could be the main storymover
and there's a little-noticed
psychological twist
in the observation that
among these sociopaths
uncle fester is unique in retaining
a slightly conflicted conscience
you can see it in his face
a distant memory
that all this is somehow wrong
so agent cooper (eg)
might at least
talk him into untying his bound hands...
