Harry and Sally And An Earlier Generation

 

Harry and Sally And An Earlier Generation

Peter Schultz

 

.”When Harry Met Sally”, they met love and didn’t know what to do. An earlier generation knew what to do, and did it, “for better or worse.” 

 

12 years and 3 months later, Harry and Sally knew what to do, “for better or worse.” 

 

Question: why didn’t Harry and Sally know what to do? The answer involves “Casablanca,” the White House, or America’s politics (and the U. of Chicago). We are erotically as we are politically. If we think and act as if the political world is a battlefield, then we’ll think and act like the erotic world is a battlefield (a world where women fake orgasms with unavailable men who equate passion with having great sex. Some, ala’ Helen and Joe, try to fake love, unsuccessfully, because love, unlike great sex, can’t be faked). 

 

(Think of Still Life with Woodpecker, where a bomber, Woodpecker, finds love and embraces it and “the still life,” a peaceful life. Think of Pyle and his “erotic project” in The Quiet American, which reflects his political project for Vietnam. Think of Good Morning Vietnam, where Adrian K’s erotic project cannot succeed, just as America’s political project cannot succeed.)