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Hello Twitter friends. Today, February 14th 2021, is the 10th anniversary of the death of my life as the filmmaker known as Tony Comstock, and the 10th birthday of my life as a boatbuilder and mariner known as Captain David Ryan.
Giving up my life as a filmmaker, the pride I took in supporting my family with my idea of what Truth and Beauty is, the sort of admiration and attention the artists uniquely receive, all of it was hard to let go of...
And in fact, I didn’t let go. I clung to it desperately, far longer than I should have, as forces far greater than my will or genius ripped my life and my livelihood from my hands.
Thanks to @JamesFallows and @TheAtlantic I was offered the opportunity to publish an apologia — I was invited to stand on Jim’s soapbox, for a week.
I took that week to give my account: of my films, my reasons for devoting more than a decade making them, and my final recking of where my work sat in the history of sex, law, cinema, and culture.a
So on this tenth anniversary of my death and rebirth, here is that accounting:
Steve Jobs, Dick Cheney, and a Bullfrog Walk Into a Bar ... https://www.theatlantic.com/personal/archive/2011/02/steve-jobs-dick-cheney-and-a-bullfrog-walk-into-a-bar/70219/
Ways of Showing/Ways of Seeing https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/02/ways-of-showing-ways-of-seeing/70221/
Climax Ecology: Learning to See the Forest for the Trees https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/02/climax-ecology-learning-to-see-the-forest-for-the-trees/70607/
Sex, Law, and Cinema: 1934-1968 http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2011/02/sex-law-and-cinema-1934-68/70836/
1968-75: How ‘X-Rated’ became synonymous with’Porn’. http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2011/02/1968-75-how-x-rated-became-synonymous-with-porn/70655/
A Gift From a Father to a Son: Theo Jansen’s Kinetic Scuptures http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/02/a-gift-from-a-father-to-a-son-theo-jansens-kinetic-sculptures/70480/
NSFW (But Then Safety Is Overrated.) https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/02/nsfw-but-then-again-safety-is-overrated/71028/
The Price of Pleasure, Part 1 https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/02/why-americans-tolerate-gun-violence/70933/
Is That A Boiled Frog In Your Pocket? Or Are You Just Happy To See Me? https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/02/is-that-a-boiled-frog-in-your-pocket-or-are-you-just-happy-to-see-me/70638/
The Price of Pleasure, Part 2 https://www.theatlantic.com/personal/archive/2011/02/the-price-of-pleasure-part-2/70934/
Sex, Law, and Cinema in the Digital Age (1989-2011) http://www.theatlantic.com/personal/archive/2011/02/sex-law-and-cinema-in-the-digital-age-1989-2010/70842/
