Eve Tushnet continues our discussion about Eyes Wide Shut. She and I are pretty much at the “agree to disagree” point regarding whether or not EWS lives up to the “with a great big boner comes great responsibility” issue at the core of her objections, but to me that only makes her criticisms more interesting. I must say that I hate how much I’ve been centering my response to Eve’s on her personal history of sexuality-related activism, because in a way that doesn’t seem fair to me, and I don’t mean to dismiss her objections at all. But I think in the same way that saying “Sean is a horror fan” can help explain why I love the film so much, those biographical facts can help explain why narrative oversights that don’t phase me at all knock Eve right out of the movie.
Maybe I’m just arguing from a place of ignorance, I don’t know. Eve’s response to my argument that Bill and Alice’s daughter doesn’t feature in their sexual landscape is essentially “wrong!” As a childless married man, maybe I just don’t know what I’m talking about. But in reading Even on sexuality before, I’ve always thought she oversold the importance of the reproductive/”generative” aspect of sex. But to not do so is a sin, is what I believe she thinks (man, am I out of my depth in this discussion–if I’m mischaracterizing you, Eve, please say so!), so, yeah. Now, while I’m all for guilt, even for shame–both of which I maintain Bill feels in abundance; indeed they drive his confession, and as someone who’s made his share of guilt-and-shame-driven sexual confessions I can state without fear of contradiction that I’m on solid ground with that assessment–sin is entirely alien to my conception of how the world works. My guess is that that’s the page Kubrick is on, too (not to resort to the intentional fallacy, but hey, if you’re gonna do it with any director, Stan’s your man).
Anyway, go, click, read, especially (if you’re a genre fan) the part where Eve counters the notion that EWS is a dream narrative.