Hi Loren,
You asked me earlier to warn you about videos that might have content that you would find disturbing, so I felt it was appropriate to mention that I hadn't yet watched the video. But, it did come well recommended: Allan has some very impressive testimonials & film festival mentions at his website.
So now I've watched the film, and I can say that it's a lot of fun to see. The production values are excellent. As to the theme, I think Allan is speaking about the loneliness that results from an understanding of how the world works; which is something I'm sure all of us have first-hand experience with.
It was Allan's post about "banana fish" here at the forum, that catalyzed the new analysis of Catcher that Joe and I came up with. As a novelist, screenwriter and filmmaker, I think Allan has a lot to teach us as well. I hope we're open to learning it.
"Was I hostile in my post? I say YEs hostile to the world"; so Allan shouldn't take it personally, right? But, there's enough hostility out there in the world; in here I hope we can be kind to each other.
Yes, I still would say I enjoyed the Salinger novel, even with this new understanding about how he slipped Phoebe's sexualization in under my conscious awareness at first reading. Whether Joe would watch Allan's movie and say that his lifestyle is "degenerate", well, I hope not... Allan doesn't seem to be a family man, but I think there's room in the world for surfers.
Here's another video that comes with a warning: how far hyper-sexualization of children in the media has gone. This is what kids have to deal with today. This is being done for profit, or whatever else it is that's motivating "them". Very sick if you ask me. Not that I would agree with the filmmaker's perspective: they equate all sexuality with "prostitution", and their judgment and condemnation seems to be coming from a fundamentalist Islamic viewpoint.
