to rape

[Jonathan Lighter]

Not in OED:

2007 Michael Haneke in _N.Y. Times_ (Sept. 23) [
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/magazine/23haneke-t.html?ref=magazine&pagewanted=all
]:

"I’ve been accused of ‘raping’ the audience in my films, and I admit to
that freely — all movies assault the viewer in one way or another. What’s
different about my films is this: I’m trying to rape the viewer into
independence.”

I suppose he means, "To shock, as by means of an artistic work."

PS: I never felt much "assaulted" by Doris Day movies, for example, or _The
Lord of the Rings_ or even _Citizen Kane_.  (OK, _Eraserhead_.) But I was
probably too aesthetically obtuse to notice.


JL
-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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