Asymmetric Books and Literature

Blacklisting Myself: Memoir of a Hollywood Apostate in the Age of Terror by Roger L. Simon

People looking for Gulag Archipelago set in Hollywood, with real blacklists, ruined careers, brave principled stances, and other harrowing tales from a vibrant conservative underground will be disappointed by Blacklisting Myself.

In order to claim some kind of covert Hollywood blacklist, Simon would had to have pointed to a job that he lost after declaring that he voted for Bush or show that he was in-demand and on the "A-list" until he expressed ambivalence towards the Sandinista cause or something. In fact, the title is quite misleading in that Simon not only doesn't provide evidence for the thesis it impies but doesn't even make the claim. He admits that he wasn't exactly at the peak of his career when he became a conservative and has no idea whether his public conservatism hurt him in any way professionally (Simon does say that he lost some acquaintances and that his whiteness or, rather, his lack of blackness lost him a job with Richard Pryor) .

Or, shall I say, "public non-orthodox liberalism." Those expecting a Whitaker Chambers (Witness), David Horowitz (Radical Son), Michael Medved (Right Turns) lefty-turned-winger book will also be disappointed, for while Roger Simon was definitely a liberal, his politics never seems to have intruded on his quite normal life except for some youthful civil rights work- it was a latte liberalism, i.e., he'd have radical friends and brushes with lefty luminaries such as Abbie Hoffman and Warren Beatty, follow Timothy Leary on crack runs and New Agers to seances, but when the moment of true dedication arrived, Simon always pulled back.

And, although he voted for Bush, there's nothing "arch" about the contemporary Roger Simon's conservatism, for Simon is ideology-averse, a man equally repulsed by left and right excess, a conservative only because he's not a liberal.*

So, then we get how Simon power-brokered Hollywood deals, authored great art, and innovated Hollywood? Here, not so bad. Roger Simon received an Oscar nomination for Enemies, a Love Story and has screenwritten enough to make a good living. He created Moses Wine, a popular hippie detective, helped found a lunch group for writers that met in the Grove in Hollywood, and is somewhat of an internet pioneer with his Pajamas Media blog.

Is Blacklisting Myself a powerful intellectual achievement? No. Simon's insights are solid and difficult to disagree with: people who get things without earning them don't later appreciate them; some liberals are liberals to assuage guilt. His last chapter is a masterpiece of uncontroversial, moderate stoicism.

Salacious tell-all? Eh. Blacklisting Myself drops quite a few names, but Roger really only goes after people with whom he doesn't expect to work again. His brushes have a "One time I shook hands with..." quality to them as well, as if the people, except for Pryor perhaps, didn't consider him an equal. Simon barely misses a huge artistic achievement several times in the book: Simon almost writes the screenplay for Reds and Yentl.**

Special insights into the entertainment industry? I disagree with Simon that conservatives are inherently less creative. In this, Simon actually succumbs to a lack of imagination and historical perspective. He sees the liberal domination of Hollywood for the last forty years or so and can't fathom it any different (most people would consider sixties movies to be conservative). Conservatives have achieved great art over the centuries with a much more conservative outlook than anybody today except Rick Santorum. Think of Dante, Shakespeare, Bach, Cervantes, Flannery O'Connor, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, John Ford, Evelyn Waugh, Chesterton, Eliot, and the list can go on and on.

That is, unless Simon is equating conservatism with a bourgeois adherence to the status quo, in which case one can apply the term to anybody of any established belief system and Simon contradicts himself because he later says that “conservative is the new liberal” or that conservative ideas are the heretical, exciting ones; or a rigid religious dogma (although religious people have created more than their share) which again would contradict Simon's characterization of liberalism as a secular religion.

If Simon's just saying that it's hopeless to create an ideologically conservative movie, he's partially correct. It's much more romantic to have a protagonist open a homeless shelter with taxpayer money than to have him close one to save taxes. Something about the underdog, etc.

I’d reply that most of it has to do with how the issue is framed: Cutting government can help poor people and make for a stronger nation. Fighting an entrenched bureaucracy can be heroic and bureaucrats make excellent antagonists.

Or I can say that doctrinaire liberal movies are usually as rotten.

Simon attacks the Liberty Film Festival. I've attended two LFF events and enjoyed both of them. It’s only been around for a few years and may yet be a success if it doesn't claim to be "officially" conservative, as per my point above that ideological movies are rarely good.

Despite my criticisms, Blacklisting Myself is a good, interesting book, and I don't regret the afternoon I spent with it. It's eminently readable and quite interesting. Simon has a simple, un-dramatic writing style that neither taxes nor astonishes. Simon's lived an interesting life filled with travel, creative achievements, and some adversity.

Blacklisting Myself's greatest strength and the reason I'd recommend it to people is Simon's honesty. Simon could have fixed many of the potential disappointments above with some strategic exaggerations. Instead, Roger just tells us about his experiences and what he’s learned over that time. If it doesn’t exactly fit what you want it to be- if ideologues can’t quite wave it in front of their enemy’s faces- well, then that’s because you’re an inflexible ideologue who resents the world's complexity, isn’t it?

*I've never been impressed with people who're conservative because of one non-personal event like 9/11 and the O.J. Simpson trial, in Roger's case. One gets the feeling that Roger would chuck conservatism after seeing a 60 Minutes special on mean conservatives.

**As part of Pajamas Media, I had an opportunity to meet Roger Simon at the Blogworld convention in Las Vegas. I introduced myself. He shook my hand, but otherwise looked past me without expressing the slightest interest. I didn't take his indifference as a slight then and you needn't take it as a reflection of Mr. Simon's character now since that's the usual reaction when people meet me.

Roger Simon's movies and assorted items:

Follow up:

Director's Cut : A Moses Wine Novel by Roger L. Simon

California Roll by Roger L. Simon

Big Fix [VHS]

Scenes from a Mall

Enemies, A Love Story

My Man Adam [VHS] by Keith Adams

Bustin' Loose

Right Turns: Unconventional Lessons from a Controversial Life by Michael Medved

Witness by Whittaker Chambers

Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey by David Horowitz