Song from 'Requiem for a Dream'?

>I know this is off-topic, but Hubert Selby Jr. is an ASS. He's a total
>sell-out hypocrite. He rails against the American Dream and anyone who
>tries to achieve it...but he's the embodiment of the American Dream.
>He dropped out of high school, and by his own words, never read a book
>- yet decided to become a writer. He gets rich off the sale of
>millions of his books. This, folks, IS the American Dream.

He is also dead, and was hardly rich. He suffered from poor health
his entire life, and spent much of that time addicted to morphine
as well. So he struggled most of his life, before during and after
becoming an author. If you'd seen what he looked like at the
end of Requiem for a Dream, you'd hardly be accusing him of
turning into Hugh Hefner.

>From your tone it doesn't sound like you've actually read his
stuff or know anything about him. It would have been easy
to find out about him, but I guess it's easier to just relate what
you think is true rather than what actually is

The American Dream is not as mindless as people just wanting
to get rich. If that were true, then the Cato Institute, free trade
market proponents and laissez-faire economist think tanks
would have come out and promoted "Get Rich or Die Trying"
as a positive work ethic for the youth of America.

In Selby Jnr's works, the pursuit of the 'Dream' damns his
protagonists because they're pretty messed up people anyway,
trying to achieve the 'Dream' through destructive means.

You may see that as a criticism of the Dream, but isn't it
more a tragic lament of the lives wasted by the illusions
his characters choose to delude themselves with? Whether
they be drug addicts, speeding housewives, corrupt union
officials or prostitutes, he wanted the readers to empathise
with the misery these people visited upon themselves and
each other. These are the people Selby Jnr lived with most
of his life. He was one of these people.

And if you think his sole motivation for writing was hookers
and cocaine, then you're as deluded as one of the characters
from any of his stories.

Sandro - how hard is it to research something on the net
before you post about it? Jesus wept...
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Sandro wrote:
> >I know this is off-topic, but Hubert Selby Jr. is an ASS. He's a total
> >sell-out hypocrite. He rails against the American Dream and anyone who
> >tries to achieve it...but he's the embodiment of the American Dream.
> >He dropped out of high school, and by his own words, never read a book
> >- yet decided to become a writer. He gets rich off the sale of
> >millions of his books. This, folks, IS the American Dream.
>
> He is also dead, and was hardly rich.

In one of his interviews, he said that the sales from "Last Exit To
Brooklyn" allowed him to quit his job and concentrate on writing
full-time. I don't know what "rich" means, because it has different
meanings to different people, but if you are financially able to quit
your job and concentrate on doing something you love, like writing, you
are living the American Dream.

> He suffered from poor health
> his entire life, and spent much of that time addicted to morphine
> as well. So he struggled most of his life, before during and after
> becoming an author. If you'd seen what he looked like at the
> end of Requiem for a Dream, you'd hardly be accusing him of
> turning into Hugh Hefner.

I didn't accuse him of turning into Hugh Hefner. I accused him of
saying and writing that the attempt to achieve the American Dream is
immoral and harmful to society is a CROCK....since he himself was
relentless in pursuing it AND achieving it.

> >From your tone it doesn't sound like you've actually read his
> stuff or know anything about him. It would have been easy
> to find out about him, but I guess it's easier to just relate what
> you think is true rather than what actually is

I'm actually studying him in a graduate lit class. I think Selby,
along with similar writers, like Mamet are simply America haters. How
do you sit down, in America, and write successful, award winning works
that make you financially secure - about how hopeless it is in America?
It makes no sense. These folks are hypocrites. The live the Ameican
Dream, yet write about how it is unachievable.

>
> The American Dream is not as mindless as people just wanting
> to get rich. If that were true, then the Cato Institute, free trade
> market proponents and laissez-faire economist think tanks
> would have come out and promoted "Get Rich or Die Trying"
> as a positive work ethic for the youth of America.
>
> In Selby Jnr's works, the pursuit of the 'Dream' damns his
> protagonists because they're pretty messed up people anyway,
> trying to achieve the 'Dream' through destructive means.
>
> You may see that as a criticism of the Dream, but isn't it
> more a tragic lament of the lives wasted by the illusions
> his characters choose to delude themselves with? Whether
> they be drug addicts, speeding housewives, corrupt union
> officials or prostitutes, he wanted the readers to empathise
> with the misery these people visited upon themselves and
> each other. These are the people Selby Jnr lived with most
> of his life. He was one of these people.
>
> And if you think his sole motivation for writing was hookers
> and cocaine, then you're as deluded as one of the characters
> from any of his stories.
>
> Sandro - how hard is it to research something on the net
> before you post about it? Jesus wept...

Who the hell is Sandro? Speaking of deluded, pot meet kettle.....

I stand by my criticism of Selby and others like him who seem to want
to insist that the American Dream is a fantasy unworthy of even
attempting....look at Selby himself, for crying out loud. He drops out
of high school at fifteen, joins the Merchant Marine, and in his own
words says that despite the fact he never read a book, he wanted to
become an writer. He simply sat in front of a typewriter and forced
himself to write. Six years later, he produced "Last Exit To Brooklyn"
which thrust him into the ranks of the literati. His own life story
*IS* the American Dream. An uneducated high school dropout who almost
dies from tuburculosis becomes a wildly successful writer, despite, in
his own words, having never read a book.

What is more "American Dream" than that?

MJ
 >> Stay informed about: Song from 'Requiem for a Dream'? 

> > He is also dead, and was hardly rich.
>
> In one of his interviews, he said that the sales from "Last Exit To
> Brooklyn" allowed him to quit his job and concentrate on writing
> full-time. I don't know what "rich" means, because it has different
> meanings to different people, but if you are financially able to quit
> your job and concentrate on doing something you love, like writing, you
> are living the American Dream.

Uhm.. no.. you're just replacing one job with another one you like
better.
Or is simply enjoying your work the essence of the Dream in your
opinion?
 >> Stay informed about: Song from 'Requiem for a Dream'? 

> He gets rich off the sale of millions of his books.

Uh, are you sure you got your facts right? Selby wrote at least a
couple books before "LETB" became a *cult* hit -- meaning it didn't
sell much. He wrote a couple books after that, selling even fewer, and
then "LETB" became a movie. By my accounting, I'd say he worked at
LEAST ten years in obscurity, writing while working full-time jobs.
 >> Stay informed about: Song from 'Requiem for a Dream'? 

"Jack" <flashback96 RemoveThis @uboot.com> wrote in news:1132437955.213373.148330
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

> I was just wondering what the song was in
> 'Requiem' for a dream when the black bloke is dancing after they've
> just taken skag for the first time.
....
> There's a bit of reward for whoever knows!

What sort of reward?
 >> Stay informed about: Song from 'Requiem for a Dream'?