From: eric@npri6.npri.com (Eric Williams)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: Re: Eraserhead
Summary: nonsense!
Date: 18 Aug 92 18:43:13 GMT
Organization: NPRI, Alexandria VA

[Much preliminary speculation deleted.]

In article <1992Aug17.230420.501@Princeton.EDU>, bmrosen@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian M. Rosen) writes:
> 	It seemed pretty obvious that it was indeed sperm that the radiator
> lady was destroying.  [blah blah blah]
Nonsense. Those are fishbaby fetuses. (I use the term "fishbaby" for
Henry's baby because... well... it just seems to fit the little monster.)

> The radiator woman was always a
> promise ("in heaven...everything is fine" etc.)  
> These promises were invariably hollow.  
Not necessarily. He winds up in heaven. (Note the final scene in the
movie.)

[putrid typographical matter deleted]

> 	As I recall, sperm show up throughout the movie: in the very
> beginning scenes, in one of the scenes in bed when huge spermatazoa were 
> pulled from under the sheets and thrown against the wall, 
Umbilical cords/aborted fetuses he pulls from his wife. I don't think
what you describe makes any sense at all (within the nightmare logic
of the film) given the material is coming from *her*. 
BTW, this scene was nowhere near the beginning of the film.

> and the baby itself grew 
> into an enourmous spermlike nightmare in it's last scenes.  
You seem to see sperm everywhere. Ever think of consulting a psychiatrist?
I saw not one tadpole-like creature in the entire work.
Lots of other mutated bodily excretions, tho'...

[deleted]
> 	I don't believe for a second that one should simply dismiss this
> movie as pointless.  
Neither would I.

>I believe it focuses on man's (and I do mean male) 
> inherent inability to parent.  It also depicts man as being victemized by
> women and betrayed by an unfeeling, unsupportive society.  
You're sorta right here. I saw it as the male conundrum: wanting to
love and be loved, but not wanting to take the inherent risks. The
marriage and the baby were all unexpected nasty twists to Henry's
lovemaking... In a way, he brought it on himself. The consequence
was that the baby took over his life, stifling his individuality,
his control & his identity-- thus he becomes an "eraser-head," a
body whose brains are of no more use than for the most ignominious of
tasks. MHO, of course.

> One more note on sperm...
Please, no.

>as I recall, in the first five minutes, sperm
> was set flying across the scene when the man with the levers (pronounced GOD)
You've got a whale of an imagination... How did you decide that was God?

> pushed one of them.  At the very end, when the baby that that sperm created 
> was... well...you know, GOD himself was unable to fix things (stuck lever).  
> The universe itself was without control or direction.  Seems like a point to 
> me.  
Yeah, right. (insert sarcasm) I have always been puzzled by this image:
the asteroid with the toiler inside.... Obviously Henry in some other
aspect, perhaps his soul. As for the fishbaby fetus emerging from the
asteroid, I will admit it does connote some spermlike properties (gasp!),
but I say it's the fetus that develops into the baby. And remember at 
the end, the baby's head turns into the asteroid which then crumbles... 
Some sort of liberation (after killing Mr. Baby) upon which Henry is 
united with the Radiator Lady in a pure white light, ostensibly heaven.

>Then again, what do I know.  I'm just an engineer.
A tempting overture for rejoinder, but I'll resist.   ;-)

> | Brian Rosen 
> | Princeton University         
> | Department of Pretty Pictures

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Eric C. Williams/ NPRI/ Alexandria, VA/ USA/ (703) 683-9090/ Usual disclaimers.