If you haven’t seen Pink Flamingos, please do yourself a favor and take care of that now. Fair warning: It’s by far the most disgusting film ever made, so as long as you aren’t alone and you aren’t sober, you’ll love it.
At Hopkins, we should all engage with our city’s culture by watching this Baltimorean classic made by local filmmaker John Waters, who proudly wears the title of “The People’s Pervert.”
John Waters has made a career on irreverent movies that challenge cultural norms in our society. He’s kind of an anti-Milo Yiannopoulos, using his outrageously gay persona to be progressive and advocate for positive social change rather than stirring up disturbing nationalist fury and actively rooting against himself and other minorities.
He is known for cult films like Pink Flamingos, Cecil B. DeMented and Hairspray, all of which were shot in Baltimore. In addition to his filmmaking, he is a writer and visual artist and is soon to release a new book entitled Make Trouble.
Though not his first book, it is perhaps his most reductive, spanning just a few dozen pages and taking all of 20 minutes to read.
However, I was undeniably drawn in by the power of Waters’ sentiment and found myself reading it again and again, relishing each artistically distinct page and taking the time to consider Waters’ unique role as an artist; He is a product of the ‘60s who has maintained relevance in every subsequent decade.
This project is taken from a commencement speech he delivered at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2015. It is an excellently balanced blend of words and images that form a poetic smoothie of humor, cynicism and inspiration.
Waters jokes relentlessly about his qualifications to address the students, saying that he built a career out of negative reviews and has never had a real job in his life. However, his words are less concerned with career moves than they are with the importance of keeping an open mind and fighting for what you’re passionate about.
Addressing society, Waters writes that he considers himself an “insider” (rather than an outsider) because he believes that understanding his enemies better allows him to shake them up.
He writes that Pink Flamingos, with all its disgusting portrayals of grotesquery in many forms, was made for those who are already converted, while his 1998 mainstream film Hairspray was a Trojan horse that allowed him to preach a message of acceptance to those in Middle America who aren’t typically as receptive.
He urges students to pursue their artistic passions in new ways to challenge critics, writing that contemporary art should destroy what comes before it and make people nervous. At one point, he openly encourages students to “go out in the world and fuck it up beautifully.”
John Waters is the master of screwing things up beautifully, and these words coming from him are inspiring, particularly alongside introspective doodles by Eric Hanson that accompany most of the book’s pages.
Make Trouble feels like a journey into Waters’ mind, which proves that he is not constantly preoccupied by his perverted persuasions, despite his frequent allusions to them throughout the text. It’s thoughtfully considered, yet maintains some of Waters’ signature well-intentioned belligerence.
Some of the pages are shocking or thought-provoking in their layout; Some of the accompanying images are contemplative while others are hilarious.
Ultimately, Make Trouble leaves me wondering what to expect next from Waters. He is the modern day Oscar Wilde, but this book is by no means his De Profundis. It’s more of a reminder that he’s still out there, still thinking and creating, ready to — as he calls it — prepare a sneak attack on society.
In a lot of ways, the book feels like his most intensely personal work yet. It’s nice to think that these words are aimed at students graduating college, but really they reflect Waters’ manifesto.
The speech is timeless and could be taken from any point in his career, but it’s a reminder that he’s not done with us. With the massive social changes going on today, his words are poignant now more than ever.
Correction: This article originally attributed the illustrations in John Waters' book, Make Trouble, to the author himself. However, the illustrations were actually created by Eric Hanson. The News-Letter regrets this error.
