For those postmodern conservatives (and even porchers) wondering what to give ME this year, the gift that will keep on giving is the meticulously enhanced Criterion DVD of the best film by America’s best filmmaker, THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO. Here’s a fine interview with Whit Stillman that properly talks up both this latest version and the many virtues of this most conversational and profound piece of social criticism with theological overtones.
You should also, of course, read the novel THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO WITH COCKTAILS AT PETROSSIAN, which lets you know both how the characters turned out down the road and a lot more about Jimmy Steinway’s theological views. It also provides more evidence in both directions for those who wonder whether Des is really gay, and it makes it more clear than ever that Alice’s mysterious and most beneficial gift of incurable herpes defies analysis. That disease, there’s no denying, cured her of her proud intolerance and led her to appreciate the virtues as well as the limitations of the man who was best for her. That gift causes us to remember that Calvinism and Christianity generally are not only about sin but about grace, about supernatural help in dealing with our foolish ways.
