Category: Uncategorized

Last Monday evening, with the Oscars already fading from memory, one of the best films of the year was released. Spike Jonze’s four-minute movie is beautifully smooth and full of captivating color. Featuring FKA Twigs dancing to the new single “Till It’s Over” by Anderson .Paak, the video’s kinetic energy is endless. It is impossible to ignore, impossible to watch only once. Every image speaks to a careful attention to detail, down to the impression of an umbrella handle that stretches into eternity. Too bad it’s an ad. Too bad it’s just another commercial urging us to buy and buy. All this artistry, wasted, by devoting it to selling the newest Apple HomePod. At least that is what some believe. But I’m not sure that this is entirely true.

Art has always had a commercial aspect and it is impossible to separate art from the practical necessities that motivates artists to make it. Mozart and Beethoven were commissioned to compose, paid to produce beauty. Yet, their concertos and sonatas are still regarded as classics. Money doesn’t invalidate the works being created. Instead, by making the creating of art valuable, money contributes to the continuous creation of new and imaginative work. Without the massive coffers of Apple, Jonze might not have been able to invest in a massive practical set or attract the talents of two brilliant artists.  Does it matter, then, that its entire premise is convincing you to buy one plastic, cylindrical speaker over another? Perhaps the video’s aesthetic beauty is enough to cover for the shallowness of its purpose. It is enough that Jonze creates imaginative visuals of an apartment stretching and lighting up in perfect tandem with the flowing music. It is enough that I have discovered the charming abilities of FKA Twigs and Anderson .Paak. It is enough that one of my favorite filmmakers, the director of Her and Being John Malkovich, has created another masterpiece that I will watch again and again until his next movie appears in theaters. Perhaps this capitalist society of ours, it is necessary to accept art however it comes.

In the end, the commercial has done its job. I have shown it to all my friends. I have found my eyes drawn to it whenever it appears: before my YouTube videos, after my favorite television shows, at the Buffalo Wild Wings.  Now, I have devoted a blog post to it, joining the numerous others singing its praises. In fact, I am complicit in spreading its touch, like a careless, flu-addled cougher. I can’t help myself. Perhaps I will never buy a HomePod. But I certainly have the product’s name ringing in my ears. Even worse I will forever associate “Till it’s Over”, Anderson .Paak, and FKA Twigs with the product. These are problems that simply arise when art is so closely associated with a clear monetary purpose. Although, I have enjoyed the video, I will always be reminded by Apple’s classic sleek white lettering that this masterpiece is for the HomePod. Mozart and Beethoven, nowadays, would have been commissioned to write the new jingle for Amazon’s Alexa. It is a dilemma that does not invalidate art, but certainly complicates our understanding of it.

We live in a culture and a world in which English is seen as the tentpole to the entire universe. It dominates spheres of social media, film, and internet interactions– if you don’t know at least a little bit of English, a whole world of knowledge and privilege are completely inaccessible to you. This Western leverage has manifested itself not in more diverse education, but the ugly opposite: A kind of linguistic elitism and exclusionism.

I recently watched an Indian film called English Vinglish where this idea plays out. The main character Shashi is a homemaker in India and runs a small sweet-making home business. She is constantly backhandedly belittled for not understanding English by her white-collar husband and academically accomplished high school daughter. She cycles between emotions of inferiority and inadequacy. Shashi gets the chance to visit New York City when her niece, who grew up in the US, is getting married here; and, in a fit of exasperation and impulse, Shashi secretly enrolls in an English class in the city before the wedding. She gains confidence and pride in herself, not just by learning English, but by defining herself apart from as well as with her family. This is a woman’s self-discovery of her worth, independence, and intelligence– but it is also a profound social commentary on the toxic way linguistic elitism has negatively affected non-Western countries.

There is a heartbreaking scene in which Shashi is trying to order some food when she first arrives at New York City. She is tripping over her words, unable to understand the pace of the words, and made to feel worthless and stupid. The impatience and maltreatment of the store clerk is explosively unjust– and why, because she cannot speak a language that is not her own? A language that she truly has no need to know? It would be an outrage to any American to even think of being disrespected in that way if we were in a foreign country.

(You can watch the clip of the scene below from YouTube)

Imagine a white man visiting a rural village in India, trying to order a coffee without speaking the local language. I’d assure you that it is highly unlikely that the store clerk would even think to treat him the way Shashi had been treated for being an influent foreigner in the movie.

It is important to realize the privilege with which we stand in this country, and to strip it down when we see ourselves misconstruing our undeserved advantages. Knowing English is not a mark of intelligence. Speaking English fluently is not a mark of education. Living in an English-speaking country does not make us better. And if we want to make all people feel welcome and included in our nation– people like Shashi, who have so much wisdom, culture, and art to offer us– then we must eradicate any notion of linguistic elitism.

If anything, I’m sure we can spare a few seconds while punching in someone’s order for coffee.