In today's upside-down world Tiger Woods is kitsch and Ed Wood is scholarship
By Doug Gibson (Standard-Examiner editorial page editor)
Dec 27 2009 - 10:50pm
http://www.standard.net/topics/opinion/2009/12/27/todays-upside-down-world-tiger-woods-kitsch-and-ed-wood-scholarshipAlthough he never was a politician or a sports star, no one better embodied kitsch than Ed Wood. The ->-bleeped-<- filmmaker made some very interesting "bad" films, such as "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and "Glen Or Glenda." He also wrote more than 100 novels. An alcoholic, he eventually drifted into porn writing and filmmaking and died homeless. The kitsch of his films created a cult that at first was smarmy but gravitated to a respect for his imagination, if not his talents.
In 1993, Tim Burton made a romanticized version of Wood's life called "Ed Wood." The movie resulted in the re-publication of a few of Wood's long-gone novels. The eventual result of the film has been a very slow but solid shift in how Wood is perceived. The much-maligned man associated with such films as "Night of the Ghouls" is suddenly a subject of scholarship.
Granted, Wood's cult has decreased as his more smarmy fans aren't interested in literary criticism on the filmmaker, but the remaining fans are more apt to discuss Wood in the same breath with Luis Bunuel or "Waiting for Godot."
