Mad Men: the old wound of existential emptiness

All that we were told we had to be and all that we wanted to be is told in the ninety hours ofMad Men, a television series different from all others. And not only for its dazzling literary influence, which seals the excellence of theshort story in the manner of John Cheever —with the attached echo of Neddy Merrill, protagonist ofThe swimmer, and itsLast night I drank too much…—. The series, which so admirably uses the short story structure, has managed to transcend serialization with its episodes infused with the spirit of Salinger or Malamud, showing the drift of its characters, who watch as the great playful inflatable that seemed to be their life deflates into an existential void. It is, however,The Best of Everything, Rona Jaffe's novel—the inspiration for, among other gems,The apartment—, the thread from which it pullsMad Men and that describes to us the time when women began to unsheathe their rights with the same delicacy with which they removed their gloves. Triumph and ambition were still a man's thing in a sexist, addicted, and unfaithful society. The great theme of the series, its powerful sting, is theexistential void

El presidente de la República, Gabriel Boric, se refirió este lunes a la conmemoración de los 50 años del golpe de Estado, que se cumplirá el próximo 11 de septiembre, y a la polémica que se ha generado en torno a la fecha.

En ese contexto, el Mandatario hizo un llamado a “no empatar las responsabilidades” entre quienes “quebrantaron la democracia” y quienes “defendieron la Constitución”.

“No es aceptable, y lo digo con mucha claridad, que se relativice o se justifique el golpe de Estado. No es aceptable que se relativice o se justifique la violación a los derechos humanos”, dijo Boric en un punto de prensa.

Y agregó: “No es aceptable que se relativice o se justifique la dictadura. No es aceptable que se relativice o se justifique la tortura, la desaparición forzada, el exilio, la muerte”.

“Aquí hay una verdad histórica que es innegable, que es que en Chile hubo un golpe de Estado, que en Chile hubo una dictadura, que en Chile hubo violaciones a los derechos humanos”, enfatizó.

El jefe de Estado también se refirió a la propuesta de la oposición de firmar una declaración conjunta en la que se condene el golpe de Estado y se defienda la democracia.

Al respecto, Boric dijo que “estamos disponibles a conversar con todos los sectores políticos para buscar un acuerdo que nos permita mirar el futuro con esperanza, pero sin olvidar el pasado”.

“Pero ese acuerdo tiene que tener como base el respeto irrestricto a los derechos humanos, la condena al golpe de Estado y la defensa de la democracia”, sentenció.

El Mandatario también se refirió a la situación de los derechos humanos en el país, y dijo que “como Estado tenemos el deber de garantizar que nunca más se violen los derechos humanos en Chile”.

“Y eso implica que tenemos que seguir trabajando para que la justicia, la verdad y la reparación lleguen a todas las víctimas”, añadió.

Finalmente, Boric hizo un llamado a la unidad y a la reflexión en torno a la conmemoración de los 50 años del golpe de Estado.

“Invito a todos los chilenos y chilenas a que en este 11 de septiembre, más allá de las legítimas diferencias que podamos tener, nos unamos en torno a la defensa de la democracia, el respeto a los derechos humanos y la condena a la violencia”, concluyó.

the melancholic condition of the human beingwho, despite having it all, is not happy. Or if we prefer, of how the hedonist's morality ends up slipping down the drain of dissatisfaction. Its beacon is that of a journey from philosophical nihilism to aesthetic mannerism.Mad Men searches for the idyllic setting, be it a tropical beach or an apartment with large windows overlooking Park Avenue, beneath which a fundamental conflict beats: "There is no greater weariness than that of being oneself on a horizon where one can be anything," as his romantic hero, Don Draper, says. His characters search for themselves, as they feel that desire has turned into a great disappointment. They read Dante, Shakespeare, Emerson, Faulkner, Scott Fitzgerald, Roth, Pynchon, Le Carré... aware that books say a lot about who we want to be: "We are flawed because we always want more," his protagonist also reflects. Much has been written about its vibrant aestheticization of the world, but this is just one more element of why it is already considered one of the best series in television history. From among its furniture, its costumes, and its parties, what truly emerges is the staging, the nostalgia of postmodernity, and its cynicism. In the delightful bookMad Men or the fragile beauty of dreams on Madison Avenue (Errata Naturae), Fernando de Felipe and Iván Gómez rescue the scene in which Don claims that love was invented by people like him to sell stockings or anything else. And they conclude: "In the fifties and sixties, happiness is a washing machine in motion." An era in which everything was a brand. Nor does its resounding cinematographic component prevail in it—entrusted toNorth by Northwest, filmed in New York itself the year the series begins, and which Matthew Weiner, its creator, showed the team before shooting the pilot episode—, which, in contrast, gives it great visual solidity.

In the sixties and seventies everything seemed possible and capitalism had sold the values of the so-called modern society. They say this is the most sexy series on television, where white shirts, Eames chairs, Lucky Strike packs, or the first Ray Bans look best

It is an epidermal factor that most transcends about the social impact ofMad Men, because it evokes the world of our parents, a world that has been expiring in its aspirations. Don can even remind us of our own father, a seasoned man who splashed cologne on his face instead of massage lotion, who smoked three packs a day and poured himselfbrandy in a low glass, even though the dining room was full of children. In the sixties and seventies everything seemed possible and capitalism had sold the values of the so-calledmodern society. They say this is the most sexy of television, where white shirts, Eames chairs, Lucky Strike packs, or the first Ray Bans look best; what is certain is that it is the one that shows us the transition of those immaculate young ladies, with skirts puffed out in crinolines who read theLady's Journalto match the curtains with the Murano vases, to those other women in bell-bottoms, who live in communes and a first batch of conquered rights.

The chapter "The Summer Man" begins with Don's voice-over: "They say that when you have to stop drinking you have a drinking problem, my mind is confused, I can't organize my thoughts...". Alcohol is one of the great protagonists of the series, as is the "metaphysical hangover"—the ideal state to reach the truth—an interesting idea by Kingsley Amis analyzed by Enric Ros in the aforementioned essay on the series. Until the first bars ofSatisfactionof the Stones, and Draper goes out into the street, with his jacket carefully folded over his arm, slicked back hair, sunglasses, and smoking with such pleasure that the viewer, even if they don't smoke, would wish to. He sees the girls walk by with desire lit in their hair. "He perceived the smell of corn, which was impossible, there was the perfume again." The hedonistic man seems again capable of drinking the world in gulps, and his voice calms: "List of things I would like to do: 1) climb Kilimanjaro. 2) achieve minimal control over what I feel. I want to wake up one day being that man." Melancholy, that old wound.