>>I could have done with a lot less gay references but since one of the main points is that McCarthy’s right hand man was gay and died of AIDS while persecuting his own kind (meaning gays and Jews) then they gay angle was a key part of it.
Justify? I don’t think the whole play was justified - I suffered through it and then watched the Al Pacino version after it won more awards than roots and still found it not worthwhile. In return my wife cried when I tried to teach her calculus so I was really the loser on that marital exchange...
But strictly from a literature sense, it makes the point that this guy was deep in gay culture and yet working with McCarthy - and its immersive in gay culture the same way Lord of the Rings is immersive in Hobbit culture. So the plays point is probably made more effectively..
I just watched “Keeping up with the Steins” about the competition for extravagant Bar Mitzvahs and a boy who breaks out of that pattern and gets back to the core of his family, culture and religion. It used a similar technique of a thousand small Jewish touches. Now I liked “Keep Up” and I didn’t like Angels but I see both as teachable and neither as censorable.
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GondramB, if your children were attending a private school, matters such as “Angels in America” would be privately decided between parents, principals, teachers, and board of directors.
The same would be true if metmom and MHGinTN had children attending private schools. Their private schools’ teachers, principals, parents, and boards of directors would work out and acceptable reading list agreeable to all.
The problem here is NOT one of censorship!
The problem is one of freedom of conscience, deeply held religious worldviews, and the complete inability of **any** government school of treating all competing community philosophies fairly. The government school must make a decision and one side WILL lose!
The losing side will have its most cherished religious traditions trashed, while the winner will have his religious, cultural, and political worldview established by the government and taxpayer money. ( violation of the establishment of religion clause of the First Amendment.)
The losing side will not be able to have access to the AP course and still maintain its religious, philosophic, and cultural integrety. These parents and students will be penalized financially by the government since they can not take advantage of a taxpayer paid for college course.
The winner gets reduced tuition in college and perhaps the opportunity to graduate sooner and begin a career sooner.
The losing side's children will be forced into the company of the children who are in the course and who will then discuss this book with among all the children. ( violation of free exercise of religion and free assembly )
The winning side will bask in the warm glow of the government imprimatur. Even if it is subliminal the winners know that armed police, courts, and foster care workers are on their side. ( Real bullets in those guns on the hip!)
The winner will win the hearts and minds of the next generation of voters and gets to control far more than who chooses a book or two. The losers get to politically suck it up!
Is it any wonder these curriculum wars are so fierce?
Solution: Complete privatization of universal K-12 education.
Government schools are a freedom of conscience and First Amendment abomination!
By the way the taxpayer **always** loses. He gets to pay for these **continual** and never ending government school cat fights!