The Horror!

The Jane Fonda autobiography rukas has been going on for a bit over a week now and it seems to be petering out except for the fact that a Vietnam veteran gave her a verbal slanging at a book signing at a Costco store in Washington (state, that is -- not that awful creation called D.C.).

Your faithful correspondent, being about a half mile behind the curve as usual, has given a bit of thought to Miss Fonda and her memoirs.

It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing in two ways. The first is that Miss Fonda has really done nothing to merit the effort of writing an autobiography. She's really done nothing special with her life. Being an actress is not an achievement. Thousands of women have done it. Some have done it in the legitimate theater, some have done it in the film industry, and some have done it in the pornographic film industry. Nell Gwynne's (Charles II Protestant whore) would have been able to write a more historically interesting autobiography than Miss Fonda. At least Gwynne was close to the seat of power instead of being the consort of two media businessmen and one failed radical politician. In her choice of husbands Miss Fonda has shown herself to be template of the aspiring petit bourgeoise cheer leader than a woman who has really done much more than mouth the words of screen writers. Autobiographies are better left to people who have done something. Titles such as My Twenty years at Scotland Yard or Grant's memoirs or even Life Among the Machinists (a specialty title) make more sense. Actors are, for the most part, boring. There are exceptions such as Errol Flynn, but Flynn was a scoundrel and a drunk, and one could get the same stories from any sot at the local public house.

The second reason that Miss Fonda's memoirs are embarrassing is that they are an exercise in humiliation, and not of the religious sort. Her father was a cold man toward her, her first husband made her go out and find whores so they could engage in menage a trios, her second husband cheated on her, her third husband cheated on her, the North Vietnamese tricked her into sitting in the seat of the anti-aircraft gun, she was bulimic and anorexic. What does that tell us? Maybe she's a sucker or just not too smart or is a liar. It's the same old late 60s refrain of I'm a Victim So Love Me. It was insufferable then and is even more insufferable now.

Miss Fonda should have taken the example of the almost divine Brigitte Bardot (the first of Vadim's actress/victims and one of two blonde actresses worth a second look) and gotten on with her life after the first insult. Madame Bardot decided to make her own life and not rely on others to define herself. La Bardot has grown. Miss Fonda is stuck at the age of twenty and tries to make excuses for it.

In a sense, Miss Fonda is an unwelcome ghost from a time in American history that should be remembered only for its complete silliness. If she and her sort had come to power the US would have experienced a reign not unlike that of Robespierre during the French Revolution.

Miss Fonda now says that she is a Christian. I don't doubt her. I can only go by her word. Christians can disagree on political matters and still be Christians. Instead of spending time and ink and making the buck seling books and promoting her movie, perhaps she might have considered showing herself a Christian by confessing herself a sinner as we all are.