Woody Allen

[jenkins]

It was workers at Little, Brown and Company, which is an imprint of Hachette

I've never been a Woody Allen fan and one time my friend tried to give me one of his books but I wouldn't take it, which was awkward and before cancel culture

[Drill]

Good lord, the excerpts I've read are so poorly written.

[Sleepless]

Currently #1 on Amazon 

[jenkins]

it's #1 in its category, which still has easy riders raging bulls at #4 to put that into perspective

[©brad]

Eh I think cancel culture is largely a myth.  The subtext behind people, comedians especially, who whine about it are really saying 'why can't I say the bigoted racist ignorant bullshit I used say with impunity.'

The very few instances of people legitimately being canceled (i.e. Weinstein) fucking deserve it.   

[Drenk]

If that's a real quote, then Allen wrote this thing in two weeks with his iPhone:


https://twitter.com/WillSloanEsq/status/1242913771334569984

[Alethia]

He probably spoke the damn thing into his iPhone then transcribed it directly.

Whatever, he hasn't been artistically relevant (to me) in 20 years.

[wilberfan]

Yeah, the last Allen film I actually enjoyed was probably in the early-to-mid 90s.   I must say, though, that son Moses' take on The Scandal (above) has made me question taking every assertion every time as unwavering truth.  There seems to be plentiful evidence that Woody has a "thing" for (very) young woman, but he's certainly not unique in that regard (Chaplin being the one that comes to mind immediately).  Doesn't excuse any inappropriate behavior, etc, etc.   

[Alethia]

I find Moses' take to be the more credible one, but we'll likely never know what really happened. If he's guilty, fuck him; if not, well, what's the point now anyway.

The films of his that mattered to me still matter, and the rest: I just don't care. He oughta just let himself fade away.

[Robyn]

The difference between Allen and other great directors is that in-between the good ones he makes 5-6 bad ones.

[Sleepless]

He probably spoke the damn thing into his iPhone then transcribed it directly.

I'm almost certain that he dictated a chapter every night while soaking in a bubble bath and sipping a martini, then had a secretary transcribe it to put the punctuation in the correct place.

[Alethia]

The difference between Allen and other great directors is that in-between the good ones he makes 5-6 bad ones.

I think his run from the early 70s to basically 2000 is pretty damn remarkable, packed full of good-great films (admittedly, haven't seen many of them in some time) with only a handful of duds along the way. After that he pretty much goes to shit, every few years grinding out some half-competent retread of a past glory amidst a blizzard of general garbage that gets unanimously overpraised for, I don't know, sentimental reasons I suppose.

I was a huge fan growing up. Still love many of his films, yet don't really feel a need to revisit most of them these days because I want my memories to remain fond.

Still gonna read the book.

[Neil]

Eh I think cancel culture is largely a myth.  The subtext behind people, comedians especially, who whine about it are really saying 'why can't I say the bigoted racist ignorant bullshit I used say with impunity.'

The very few instances of people legitimately being canceled (i.e. Weinstein) fucking deserve it.

Perhaps I hang around people that aren't as open-minded as you, after all, I do reside in the mid-west, but I cannot imagine a scenario in which I could defend his films or his film career to one of my peers. Not saying I feel persecuted or anything, but the times in which I've tried to bring up Ronan's account, etc, it was not met well. I'm not sure how far and wide this goes, simply telling you this is my experience regarding Allen and his work.

Also, with this in mind, I'm wondering if you think the pendulum has leveled out/centered with regards to "cancel culture," because based on what I just said about Allen, it seems to me that we're still waiting for it to level out. Some people out there still think Louis CK is basically Harvey Weinstein. I think getting into the nitty-gritty of nuance is where this all heads and it is important to note that a lifetime/life lived is full of nuance.

[Alexandro]

I don't believe Allen is cancelled. He's treated as a king in France. He can self-publish all his thoughts.The workers at Hachette made a strike, they're in their rights to be against publishing Allen, especially when the person has a contract based on his fame. We don't know the names of all the cancelled writers.

Mmmm yeah. Woody Allen is too big a name and powerful to be cancelled. But that's not the point. If those employees didn't believe it possible to cancel the book, why would they walk out in protest? Not only are they certain they can accomplish that, they actually did. Is it censorship, like pure old school government censorship? Certainly not. But if a film doesn't get exhibited or a book doesn't get published here and there not by the judgement of an overwhelming majority but because of the outcries of a very small group of humans all things considered, these are happenings that should be called out somehow.

And yeah, they have the right to not publish him, and they can cite any reason they want for it, business reasons, principle reasons if you like. We can reason it like that, but it would be naive, at the least. You know, those were the reasons Hollywood gave, back when they started blacklisting artists without real evidence of any wrong doing. Just because someone is wealthy and powerful doesn't make the deed, by itself, less wrong.

It's also hypocritical. Is Hachette going to stop publishing books by Condoleezza Rice? Or their book by Anthony Kiedis where he talks about having sex with a 14 yr old while in his 20's? Let's wait. Are those employees going to walk out again and make a difference? Maybe. I think it would do zero. I think Hachette caved in to appease Ronan Farrow, who will keep writing best sellers for a while, and they don't want to lose him. So this is not some gesture of solidarity with anyone except their own pockets.

And what about Farrow? This guy won the Pulitzer Price? Shouldn't a JOURNALIST have the backbone to defend basic principles of journalism like freedom of speech and the right to reply at all costs? He's just another hypocrite.