Brand New - Science Fiction (August 17, 2017) [ARCHIVED] Album • Page 1660

Louis C.K. Told Us Who He Was, But That Doesn’t Make It Better

It’s a different kind of work, holding men like C.K. to account, because we so desperately don’t want the truth about them to be true. Years ago, I made a comment to my boyfriend that we should stop watching Woody Allen movies because of the rape allegations against him. “So, should we stop watching Louis C.K., too?” he asked. I bristled, instinctively, thinking, Can’t I have this? Can’t I just have this one thing? I was mad at him for reminding me that C.K.’s work wasn’t something pure I could enjoy without acknowledging the allegations around him, too.

Regardless, I saw C.K. live at the beginning of the year. It was the most depressing stand-up set I’ve ever seen, not because it was bad (it wasn’t) or because he’s lost his touch (he hasn’t), but rather because, even then, even before I knew for sure, there was no way for me to ignore the mental asterisk that followed every joke. I didn’t want to deal with the possibility that C.K. wasn’t any different from the other rich, powerful, famous men who use women as toys or spectators to their own grotesquerie. I didn’t want to have one more person be a disappointment to me, personally.

C.K.’s work now takes the same tone that Blue Jasmine does, that House of Cards does, that The Birds does, that Manchester by the Sea does. Now he joins the ranks of countless creative geniuses who we thought were on our side, who we were sure were both artistically generous and self-aware. But C.K. isn’t merely another disappointment; he’s a reminder that you can’t trust even the men who say the right thing in public, who align themselves with the right people, who present as allies. He’s another reminder that being aware of the ways humans fail and hurt each other doesn’t mean you aren’t also doing it yourself.

Watching C.K. live was joyless because I already knew then what we know now: He isn’t an exception. You can’t separate him from his work. And so it seems somehow appropriate that C.K.’s greatest strength in his work turned out to be his downfall. He was always very good at telling the truth.

Thought this did a good way of summarizing some thoughts I've been having too.

 

maybe I'm a huge idiot but I don't understand what she means by the last paragraph.

"And so it seems somehow appropriate that C.K.’s greatest strength in his work turned out to be his downfall. He was always very good at telling the truth."

help out your non-native speaker boy here. How was him telling the truth his downfall?

 

He fully admits to the accusations. He told the truth.

 

Well sure but that was his downfall, the accusations alone were enough.

Spacey denied them and he’s still rightfully fucked.

 

that third paragraph is sooooo spot on though - i feel like culturally there's this tendency to ascribe many positive qualities to a person who's proven to be intelligent, or talented, or funny, when in reality those are character traits that do not necessarily imply that a person is good/bad/beyond reproach/etc... success is not on its own an indicator of moral standing, and I don't think we think about that enough

 

Earlier in the piece it talks about how his "jokes" where he seemed "woke" about predatory men were actually about him.

 

Thanks ;) that was my missing link!

I’ve kinda stopped watching his stuff like 3-4 years ago because it was just gross and weird. Like there’s only so many times you can tell a joke about being gross/old/fat/weird before it becomes depressing.

 

There is truth beneath the floorboards
There is hope in brick and stone
They tell me just to shut my mouth
Leave well enough alone
But I think maybe all that's needed
Is a match and gasoline
Because I don't think that any one of them believes that there will be a reckoning

 

Obviously the victims have gone through and are going through worse than anything most of us can imagine. I wanted to say that first.

After saying that, I'm almost reacting to this the way one would react to finding out they were cheated on; looking back at everything and reexamining it all in light of what is now known. Now it's hard to see how I couldn't have known all along, how dumb I feel for being in denial about it this whole time. So there's my two cents, not that anyone needed or wanted another shocked and saddened reaction

 

Yep, "Millstone" is ruined for me.

Matthew 18:6 "If anyone causes one of these little ones--those who believe in me--to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

 

Can you just lock a whole subreddit? Cause that needs to happen.

 

I listened to TDAG yesterday which is really the only one I'll attempt to listen to right now and yeah that song really jumps out

 

The whole "I used to know the name of every person I kissed" line is just disgusting in light of all this.

 

Yea... one of the many examples of why I won’t listen to them anymore.

 

Tried to tell y’all Reddit is bad for years.

 

I haven't listened since I read up on all this and I don't plan on listening again, but every song is so ingrained in my memory right now. I've been thinking back on so many of his lyrics and I'm sure I'm making some stretch connections here and there, but it's sounds so different in my head now.

 

Slight unrelated but it looks like more might be on the way...

 

It is Alt Press so they might be catching up to what we know

 

Same. Lyrics or melodies and such have popped up and I don’t get mad at myself, because that’s just how good/catchy music impacts me, but I quickly push those away and focus on something else. It’s so weird to have to actively ignore music popping into my head where normally I would let it play out.

 

And right after, he talks about how he made the bed he can no longer sleep in. He knew he was guilty. He knew everything he did was wrong, but all he did was write songs about it and hope no one would notice. The timeline given by the victims shows that he was still being emotionally manipulative and abusive during this time too. He knew he was hurting people and that he was wrong but didn't do anything. Fuck him.

 

Yea, I've been trying to drown it out with artist I feel I can trust (Julien Baker has been key here) and branching out with stuff I've never listened to before.

 

You can make a subreddit private. They should have done this last week.

 

Just screaming thrice lyrics in my house, I’ve lost my voice and I don’t care.

 

If you make the subreddit private another’s ones just going to pop up and it will be worse. Reddit is what it is, you are going to get bad peole when there is no filter. That’s why we all hang here. I guess I need to change my Reddit name

 

Good point, those lunatics are nuts