Posted by:
donbagley
(
)
Date: April 18, 2020 05:32PM
The absence of talent is a slow killer in TV land. Many have had long television careers without much, if any, talent. Donny and Marie were trained for stage and able to carry a tune, vocally. Note that there is no artistic period for them in their careers. I don't think Marie even tried. Donny did try. The Osmond brothers attempted to function as a rock and roll band with hilarious results. See their youtube video, "Crazy Horses." The brothers admitted that this was their "Led Zeppelin" attempt. They were trying to be relevant, which is poison for art. Not being artists in any sense, they were unaware how ridiculous they looked.
This is what I like to call the "Milktober Effect." Despite my protestations to the contrary, Mormons are sensitive to their own oddness. They try to overcome it through imitation. It's the Mormon way. A major roadblock to their attempts at relevancy is the self-censorship.
One of the reasons I think my father failed in his attempt to write a fictional novel, is that he was looking over his shoulder the whole time to make sure he didn't sin or do anything to jeopardize his salvation. Can you imagine the crushing pressure? It's no surprise the project collapsed due to his mental exhaustion. Worse, he fashioned the protagonist after himself. This is common for writers, but bad character will out. Dad's hero performed illegal medical experiments on children, lied to their parents to conceal it, and even switched out nurses until he had one who agreed with his schemes. He also stole medical materials, and lied to government in order to get funding.
Think about it. My father wrote under pressure to avoid swear words, drinking, sex,.etc But his beloved protagonist manipulated, stole, and cheated his way through life. The man injected children with an unknown substance, because the substance made the children obedient and quiet. It would be fair to say, I think, that Dad's protagonist was obsessed with controlling children.
That was a weird tangent, but I just want to say that a devout Mormon was never an innovator in the arts. My Dad, and Donny and Marie, for that matter, would be better off staying with their strengths, which are the strengths of followers. Donnie and Marie, at the end of the day, are simulacra, copies of things that never existed, like a party where people get drunk on milk.