Movies in the Margins

The animated short of Burroughs’ Junky Christmas was entertaining and I appreciated Burroughs’ narration of the film as I am always interested in hearing an author reading their own work. Where they pause or what they emphasize can potentially help readers unpack meaning, but here the omissions from the original poem should be focused on.

An important section Burroughs omits in his narration is

“Don’t live here,” the boy said, his voice muffled. “They say I’m not entitled.”

“Yeah, I know how they are, the bureaucrat bastards. I had a friend once, died of snakebite right in the waiting room. They wouldn’t even listen when he tried to explain a snake bit him…”

 The paragraph is embarrassing to read; it is a fumbling attempt to connect with one even more marginalized than himself.  The boy is brown, one important detail the deletion of the previous paragraph undermines. Danny, though marginalized in society because of his addiction, still retains some privilege over other members. He was given drugs by a kindly doctor, something that the brown boy would never have experienced. He is presumably an immigrant because he does not “live here” and “not entitled” to receive medical services he cannot afford to pay even though he is legitimately ill. Conversely, Danny experiences saving grace from a physician though he is only in need of a fix. Privilege is invisible to those possessing it, and middle-class Burroughs’ omission of this important section underscores this. 

 In the opening scene the camera floats above a deserted table and chairs. I interpreted this as a nod to Neel’s declaration that the closest thing to a self-portrait she had ever created was a painting of an empty chair. I was disappointed in her role in the film. I was surprised to see such an important person in a marginal supportive role. Alice Neel, the woman who played the Bishop’s mother, was a painter in real life. Milo’s wife is too, though we never see her paint. Perhaps this movie is a tale of what could’ve been Neel’s life: domestic servitude under the whims of men. In any case, it is and was most women’s unfortunate reality. The narrator mockingly refers to the wife as the Queen of Sheba with a tub full of dishes. She battles her husband for domain over the kingdom, the household. As a homemaker, the house is all she possesses; it is her world. The women depicted in this film are given typical second-class treatment, serving only as shrieking banshees that get in the way of fun or are demure and shy. However, Neel’s character seems to have no opinion or reaction to any of the absurdities abounding.