Problems Picking at Pamela…Give me Baywatch
I will almost let my seminar contribution speak for itself, but I cannot shut up completely. I just do not have it in me. Quickly, there are just a few things that I want to know: why did Fielding deliberately delete the idea of Lady Davers? Did it make things too long and less focused, or was that attempt by Richardson to give a nod to the threatening implications of Pam to class structure not quite the same fodder for satire?
Oh, and I mentioned the misunderstanding between the sexes in my Pam blog and, of course that happens in these satires, because the women are deliberately deceitful. However, when I pictured those poor intended victims reading their letters I couldn’t help but think of the beginning of Moll Flanders, when she muses on the difference between her first seducer’s expectations of her versus her own sexual inhibitions – if only he had known! It was nice for these men to know…
Anyway, here is my contribution to the legacy of Pamela responses…
Pamela (played by none other than Pamela Anderson) is a struggling, buxom tattoo-artist looking to make her way in the world and most of all to begin her own wildly successful tattoo parlour. She is hired by rich, effeminate ‘playboy,’ Orlando Bloom (a perfect Mr. B. on all counts), to be a housekeeper. However, in reality, he is only trying to mollify his domineering, homophobic sister (Angelica Heuston) who has perceptively begun to understand the depth of his connection to the dashing ‘spiritual counsellor,’ Mr. Williams (Stephen Fry) and plans to use the top-heavy tramp as a cover for his sexual orientation.
Pamela, however, both acutely aware of her good looks and firmly set on independence, is not in on the plan, and looks to thwart the ‘ineveitable,’ unwanted advances of Mr. Bloom at every step.
As practice for her desired trade, Pam is constantly depicting all of her thoughts and moments of inner turmoil on her person as elaborate body art. In some sort of insipid ‘comedic’ scene, he stumbles upon her semi-clad being and so gains understanding of her fears and suspisions. He spends much of the rest of the film trying in vain, with much ridiculous innuendo and exploitation of Pam’s body that only Hollywood could justify, attempting to explain her real purpose there.
Pamela flatters herself the whole way through and so fails to understand the truth of her situation until the final moments when Mr. B and Williams come out of the closet (in fine brocade, no less…) and Pam, having earned a substantial sum, is able to open her own tattoo parlour.
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