Last month I wrote about D-MYST and its creator Helen Casstles. That post was quite long, so I had to leave out a few things. Today, I'd like to return to Councillor Casstles, particularly her fantasy world where smoking should never be depicted in movies past and present.
UPDATE: Many of the below links are now broken. Read this post to find out why.
UPDATE: Many of the below links are now broken. Read this post to find out why.
Take this example of a comment she left on D-MYST's Facebook page:
Just watching an old sci-fi film - Blade Runner. Set in the future, 2019 - the amount of smoking in it is outrageous!Blade Runner, one of my favourite films of all time, was released in 1982. It won 6 awards and was nominated for more than twice that number. The film regularly appears on all-time best film lists. Wikipedia states that in "1993 the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.'" Oh, and Sean Young and others smoke in this film.
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| Sean Young in Blade Runner. And she's smoking. |
Helen is so blinded by her belief system, her faith in Public Health, that she obviously doesn't get the reasons why smoking is important in this film. The androids or "replicants" believed they were human, particularly the character Rachel. The main premise of the film was that it was nearly impossible to determine if someone was a replicant or human, thus the use of the empathy test. Since many humans do smoke then by logical extension, some (but not all) androids will smoke. It makes them seem more human. "More human than human" was the Tyrell Corporation's motto after all.
The Voight-Kampff empathy test scene with Sean Young was so beautifully acted, filmed and edited that it is legendary in the world of film-making. It is iconic. Photos and images of Sean Young in that scene are also iconic. People make artworks based on that scene to this day. I take great joy knowing that people like Helen Casstles never will be able to airbrush that scene or stills out of history. Never. All they can do is bitch about it.
Still, such a shame that Helen's view of acceptable fictional entertainment is so utterly warped and deluded that she cannot enjoy a classic, much-loved film because people are smoking in it. Did she even notice the severe class division between the rich and poor in that film? I wonder if she thought that it was normal and acceptable for most of the population to be living on the fringe of society, barely surviving, while the rich were safe in their penthouses protected from the riff-raff below. This woman is fucking insane to be worried whether people (or androids) are smoking in a film.
Another example then -- one she wrote today:
Went to see Looper yesterday. How disappointing to see smoking being promoted in new movie and even more disappointing that the director's vision of our future still includes smoking.
What about the Olympic ceremony? you ask:
So, why exactly does Kenneth Brannagh have to have a cigar in his mouth during the Olympic opening ceremony? Even if it's historical for the character - I bet no one would miss it.
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| That cigar is not even lit, for fuck's sake! Might as well be chocolate biscuit curl from M&S. |
Thought you'd like this Health Education circa 1976
People like Helen Casstles have no business infecting our children's minds with their brand of hate against a significant percentage of the population, and ultimately it seems the kids are unable to separate fiction from reality.
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| Yes, him too. His name is Daniel, by the way, kids. |
