Tuesday, April 23, 2013

TRIPPING.

Just looked in on Ed Driscoll's latest, yet another sprawling stream-of-semiconsciousness about how America was destroyed by the beatniks of the Frankfurt School and whatnot, and it's all too convoluted to pull apart but let me at least share with you this wonderful passage:
1968 contrasted the two American space programs: real-life NASA had to compete for attention with the Cinerama visions of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, the top-grossing film of 1968, which smuggled its Nietzschian philosophy into movie theaters via space stations and talking computers, and was a magnificently photographed and scored exercise in liberal fascism.
Perfect as it seems, it's the next line that really makes it:
I don’t use the phrase lightly.
Please don't ever show him Forbidden Planet. They'll have to scrape him off the ceiling with a broom.

UPDATE. Big_Bad_Bald_Bastard wins comments: "The black monolith represents the 90% Democratic African-American voting bloc." But the game ain't over! e.g. GregMc: "My god! It's full of shit!"; Spaghetti Lee: "'Lower the top marginal income tax rate, HAL.' 'I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.'"

UPDATE 2. This reminds me of the great Mad parody "201 Minutes of Space Idiocy," which reminds me of a lovely Film Comment article on Mad movie parodies you should read.

93 comments:

  1. GregMc1:12 AM

    My god! It's full of shit!

    ReplyDelete
  2. hells littlest angel1:26 AM

    Little known fact that that fascist liberal movie skipped over with its clever "jump-cut": after bashing in the other guy's head with a bone, the ape-man sat down and wrote the Second Amendment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. DocAmazing1:46 AM

    Nietzchean philosophy? Did this guy just finish reading Man and Spider-Man or something?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ok, color me stupid, but can someone explain what Susan Sontag means here?
    Such art is hardly confined to works labeled as fascist or produced under fascist governments. (To cite films only: Walt Disney's Fantasia, Busby Berkeley's The Gang's All Here, and Kubrick's 2001 also strikingly exemplify certain formal structures and themes of fascist art.)
    http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/33dTexts/SontagFascinFascism75.htm

    ReplyDelete
  5. As long as we're cataloguing fail, in no particular order:

    Sirhan Sirhan was not Muslim, he was an Arab Christian. So his crime was not an indictment on Islam and certainly not the first "religion of peace-style protest" on our shores. That actually happened back in 1609 when John Smith brought his venerable middle eastern value system to bear and slaughtered the Powhatan Indians for their food.

    When making the unlikely argument that liberals are fascists it's probably best to remember that if we're metering Nietzschean influence on culture, it was most renowned as being a driver for German nationalism, militarism, and right-wing fascism - otherwise known as "fascism."

    Whitewashing the failure of the once-grand railroad business by making a cutesy joke about it being just like those failed left-wingers is a nakedly transparent way of saying that you're too chickenshit to admit that capitalism is fallible. "Hey! Look over there! Isn't that a hippie crapping on America?" is not an argument in favor of laissez-faire capitalism.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Also, Mr. Bell Curve (and wife) wrote a book about the Apollo program? Huh. I guess it's a good story about Stuff White People Like.

    ReplyDelete
  7. How could the railroad business have anything to do with laissez-faire capitalism? Those right-of-ways weren't exactly purchased on the free market, IIRC, and the competing interstate highway system was funded by tax dollars.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks. What scares me is that the essay smells like shit, but I don't have a firm enough grasp of history to refudiate it. I mean, the central points seem to be that the Democrats were disorganized and divided, and something about Nietzsche and fascism and railroads and astronauts reading Genesis therefore... something. I'll shut up now.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Don't let him see The Day the Earth Stood Still, either. Peacknik fascism! (And don't let him read the source story!)

    Thank you, Roy, for finding this little gem. Our cups runneth over.

    ReplyDelete
  10. MikeJ3:25 AM

    (And don't let him read the source story!)

    The other one about carpenter who who said to love each other or the earthlings would get their asses whooped? Then he gets killed at the end and comes back to life and flies away?

    ReplyDelete
  11. I think the paragraph preceding that quote explains what she labels fascist themes and formal structures. I'm not sure I agree with her about 2001, at least, I'd have to watch it again with an eye towards her contention, but you can for sure see it in Fantasia.

    ReplyDelete
  12. montag23:43 AM

    Y'know, I have to wonder if Driscoll even considered "2010," wherein the Soviets and the Americans have to overcome their ingrained suspicions of each other, find scientific solutions to their problems so that they all can return to an Earth that, for a significant part of their journey, is on the verge of political suicide for ultimately stupid and venal reasons, while at the same time the Americans must puzzle out how their own paranoia contributed to the destruction of their first mission, and yet, they all return home to a solar system that's changed in ways they do not fully understand but are forced by a higher power to acknowledge and accept.



    In the abbreviated, Conservative Classic Comics version of the tale, cooperation with the enemy is capitulation. Shit, that's liberal fascism fer sure.

    ReplyDelete
  13. montag23:45 AM

    Wasn't that Tom Wolfe that wrote The Right White Stuff?

    ReplyDelete
  14. montag24:01 AM

    Muthafuckah. That's... uh, um, crystalline. That's what it is.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Ok, I get that the multitude of broomsticks in the Sorcerer's Apprentice cartoon might actually be a literal representation of fasces, but I didn't sense that they were being portrayed in a particularly positive light.

    ReplyDelete
  16. "Please don't ever show him Forbidden Planet."

    I'd kind of like to hear what he'd make of Fantastic Planet!

    ReplyDelete
  17. My English Lit tutor during my first year at university once said, "the monolith is a fascist symbol," during a discussion about "2001". He got pissed when I started giggling. I had a t-shirt made up with that line printed on it and wore it to every one of his tutorials that year.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Spaghetti Lee serves up the best sauce in the world.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Provider_UNE5:50 AM

    Holy CrapTackyLarity, with a dollop of Hyperbole. It is early and I am inclined to delve, as the original moon landing was one of my earliest memories and 2001 one of the first movies I saw in the theatre, the first I remember seeing, in any event, I had many questions for the old man during intermission. I am pretty sure that the seeds of my desire to matriculate from MIT were sown within that 10 month window (/shakes fist at Math!) Over the next several years I would regularly receive packets from NASA with pamphlets full of information regarding any number of projects.


    Floodgates of cherished memories (without even a hint of partisan jaberwocky) have been opened...Oh and to bring this home (complete the circle, as it were) I have dropped, and dropped plenty...


    Now off with my Mango Spork™
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  20. Provider_UNE6:11 AM

    First take: I have never been to PJmedia before (thank you very much Roy) and while I have kenned that Conservatives inhabit a parallel Universe of their own construction, I am occasionally surprised by their "creative 'chuts-paw'" to wit: "Voices from a Free America" ( Is there a Vichy state with a light on some hill that I have been hitherto unaware?) The next, Driscoll's avatar, which looks vaguely like a character out of a Hopper painting (upon review, shamelessly stolen from "Nighthawks"), and the third, the headline of the piece in question

    "Off the Rails: Mad Men and American Liberalism in 1968".


    I have yet to read word one of what will be an entertaining stroll through wingnut wonderland, but sense that without going any further that a Masters level thesis could be derived from a simple glance of the front page.


    It has been a while since I donned the wetsuits...I might have to take the ball gag and dildo along to, you know, protect my vital openings...
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  21. Provider_UNE6:23 AM

    While the two-hour sixth season debut of Mad Men earlier this month played oddly coy about which year the series was set in, we now know that we’re witnessing Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce versus 1968.


    I think I finally understand the winger fascination with the show now and their disappointment that it has failed to rewrite history in a fashion in which they would prefer...(just a guess, as my familiarity with the show goes back to a few episodes seen during the first season.)



    Not even past the first sentence and I believe on could base at least part of a Doctoral thesis on the Authoritarian/Paranoid mind on this essay/column/wankfest...


    You might be advised to set your Phasers on Scroll, as I feel like I might indulge myself in tl:dr fashion.
    ...


































    While the two-hour sixth season debut of Mad Men earlier this month played oddly coy about which year the series was set in, we now know that we’re witnessing Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce versus 1968.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Chris Anderson6:27 AM

    I am sincerely curious what he'd think of Barbarella.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Provider_UNE6:38 AM

    Or perhaps it’s the other way around, given how the year of 1968 came close to tearing the country apart.


    Second sentence. Really?!?!?!?. (Disclaimer: I was only two and three years old during the year in question, so what the fuck do I know), but really? "...tearing the country apart...?


    I think he means that Urban riots (YKWIM) caused quite a bit of bedshitting in Suburban Mercia.



    "...close to tearing..." is almost like a dry hump that might leave both parties with a post erotic desire to change their underoos, while leaving both innocent of any accusations of fornication.
    ....


    I really think it might not be a good idea to continue down this rabbit hole...
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  24. Provider_UNE6:42 AM

    You know those old maps, wherein the uncharted territories were signified with some sort of variation on "and here be Monsters"...You probably really don't want to know, though I suspect as far as Barbarella is concerned, the column would never likely to be written suspecting as I do that Driscoll is not a one hand typist.
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  25. Provider_UNE7:00 AM

    In many ways, the events of that year shaped our current world in ways
    that are still playing themselves out
    (One hand typing, so maybe this dude could review Barbarella, except Fonda, Jane), so it’s worth exploring just how
    badly the nation imploded. Apologies for the length of this post, but
    it’s merely a partial list of 1968′s horror stories.

    Thanks for the too long will not finish reading warning in only the fourth sentence. For that i will grudgingly tip my cap (as I am certain that I more entertaining things to do, after I close that tab, that is.)

    It has been awhile since I strapped on the wetsuits and got off the boat. but Jesus, Roy, I don't know how you do it now. I think I did once, but a break from the 'trons and not working with idiots seems to have weakened my Mango hunting resolve. maybe I am just too tired to launch into a Jeremiad.


    ...

    ReplyDelete
  26. smut clyde7:18 AM

    I reckon that going on about "Nietzschian philosophy" because the little fecker can't spell 'Nietzschean' probably belongs on the FAILlist.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Derelict7:30 AM

    Nietzschian philosophy and liberal fascism, all in one movie! Don't forget to stop by the lobby for a cool glass of dry water!

    ReplyDelete
  28. BigHank538:00 AM

    Oh, screw Forbidden Planet. I want to know how Driscoll has managed to avoid Star Trek for forty-odd fuckin' years. One-world government! No money! Instant free transportation! Mixed-gender multiracial crews! Misceganation! A semi-militarized space force intent on peaceful exploration! A prime directive of non-interference!

    Gene Rodenberry was a sexist hack, but the stuff he did manage to slide into Star Trek was hundreds of times more subversive than 2001. Maybe Driscoll's just managed to block it out of his mind.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Big_Bad_Bald_Bastard8:03 AM

    Don't forget the badass shirtless gay d00d.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Kordo8:04 AM

    If Driscoll has ever read anything more intellectually challenging than Bazooka Joe comics, I'll eat my socks.


    Fun book loan ideas for your Conservative friends: give them a copy of Heinlein's "Starship Troopers", endure two weeks of "Service before Citizenship! Great Idea!", then give them "Stranger in a Strange Land". The thought of holding two opposing ideas in your brain at the same time really blows the Conservative mind.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Of course the sixties were terrible - for instance, a band of inconvertibly racist assclowns realized they could cobble together a political coalition out of their KKK brethren, the local gawd-botherers, and some stray libertarian lunatics: and best of all, they could get a bunch of sociopathic RICH assholes to pay for the whole thing.


    Oh wait, that's NOT Driscoll's point, is it? :)

    ReplyDelete
  32. BigHank539:30 AM

    No, in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the brooms not only represent but are literal chaos. Mickey attempts to arrogate the power of his Master. His failure (and the cutesy resolution of only-a-dream) is a clear moral instruction to the lower classes: don't try anything clever. That's the fascist theme.

    ReplyDelete
  33. glennisw9:30 AM

    I just had dinner last night with Mr. Spock and his wife. Really.

    ReplyDelete
  34. tigrismus9:32 AM

    And the giant white baby signifies our response to loss of privilege.

    ReplyDelete
  35. glennisw9:33 AM

    Dancing hippos?

    ReplyDelete
  36. BigHank539:33 AM

    New Spock or Classic Spock?


    Either way, I trust you had a lovely evening.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Cargo9:41 AM

    I dunno about that. I'd say the ability to hold two opposing ideas in your brain at the same time is a core element of the Conservative mind. For example: "The US government is completely incompetent at everything it does" and "The US military is completely perfect at everything it does, but is an agency of the US government"

    ReplyDelete
  38. tigrismus9:43 AM

    I'd like to dance with this comment's giant statue.

    ReplyDelete
  39. tigrismus9:50 AM

    I'm guessing he didn't hate the cracking of leftist heads, either.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Please don't ever show him Forbidden Planet.

    Monsters from the idiot.

    ReplyDelete
  41. The_Kenosha_Kid10:02 AM

    "Barbarella's indictment of liberal fascism becomes clear when the Angel saves Barbarella from the evil lesbian..."

    ReplyDelete
  42. Provider_UNE10:05 AM

    The thought of holding two opposing ideas in your brain at the same time really blows the Conservative mind.

    Would this were truly so, the streets in towns all across this great land of ours would be painted in a fine red mist with bits of grey chunks scattered about.



    The Conservative mind is a veritable Cirque du Soleil when it comes to juggling conflicting ideas to suit whatever its id is demanding in any given moment.
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  43. Provider_UNE10:06 AM

    Nicely played sir, now where should I deliver your bed of Roses?
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  44. "stream-of-semiconsciousness" -- pretty good one, Roy.

    ReplyDelete
  45. I've always found the "love one another or I'll torture you for eternity" line really inspiring.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Sir Charles11:04 AM

    As I recall, having watched 2001 for the first time (perfectly enough) at the Harvard Square Cinema in 1978 stoned to the gills (one could light up in the Men's Room without fear of spending life in jail) and giving it the cogent critique "oh wow!" -- I totally missed the liberal fascism at the time.
    Mad movie parodies -- a staple of a misspent youth. I fondly remember "The Milking of the Planet that Went Ape," not to mention "Dirty Larry" which I think would have appealed to Mr. Driscoll:
    Scorpio: Haven't you heard of the Fourth Amendment?
    Larry: If it's anywhere near the third vertabrae I think I just kicked it in.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Ah, but please note the qualifier "at the same time". Having one Unshakeable Principle today, and it's complete opposite tomorrow, is one thing. Simply switching them out as needed and forgetting what you said the day before? That's good old-fashioned CrimeStop (for the Orwell fans).

    It's like an entire political party has been turned over to freshmen philosophy majors: every new idea to come down the pike is The Answer.

    Or, as Provider_UNE put it: "The Conservative mind is a veritable Cirque du Soleil when it comes to
    juggling conflicting ideas to suit whatever its id is demanding in any
    given moment."

    Our civilization is doomed.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Mr. Wonderful11:06 AM

    "real-life NASA had to compete for attention with the Cinerama visions of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey"

    There you go again... That "had to" comes from the same whiny-wingnut lexicon as their "because of political correctness, we're not allowed to..." For a movement of rugged individualists, they're sure a bunch of big babies.

    ReplyDelete
  49. JennOfArk11:16 AM

    My personal fave Mad parody was "The Ecchorcist."
    "Cut to front lawn of house in Washington, D.C. where something evil has been taking place (frame shows figure silhouetted on front lawn of White House, with a reel-to-reel tape lying in the foreground) Whoops! Wrong house in Washington, D.C. where something evil has been taking place!"

    ReplyDelete
  50. Jay Schiavone11:20 AM

    New Spock does not have a wife. Really.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Oh, you mean the line you just made up?

    ReplyDelete
  52. sharculese12:13 PM

    Except for the fact that last season ended in late winter of '67 and we come back to Christmas decorations in the first scene at SCDP, and people referencing events from the end of the season as happening about 10 months ago, yeah, absolutely no evidence what year it was.


    Or all the talk leading up to the premier about how this season was going to be about 1968.


    Ed Driscoll probably thinks all the praise for "The Suitcase" was because it spoonfed you an easy chronological clue.

    ReplyDelete
  53. KatWillow12:22 PM

    Ummm... hippos are the 1%, minding their own business, just living their lives wild and free, then along come the ALLIGATORS (obviously the 99%). Or something.

    ReplyDelete
  54. KatWillow12:23 PM

    We have (another) winner! I'd buy a whole set of Fantasia movie memorabilia for this comment.

    ReplyDelete
  55. KatWillow12:26 PM

    Don't feel bad, your comments started a really interesting thread!

    ReplyDelete
  56. KatWillow12:28 PM

    Then give them "The Seven-Day Disappearer" by RA Lafferty. Ha!

    ReplyDelete
  57. KatWillow12:31 PM

    What I got fromt the appearance of The Monolith: It appears before proto-humans and they start killing each other. It appears before "modern" humans and Hal starts killing them.

    ReplyDelete
  58. KatWillow12:38 PM

    "God, I miss that show" (from the movie "Serial")

    ReplyDelete
  59. BigHank5312:54 PM

    I was pretty sure Mr. Quinto was unattached, but jeez: do you expect to jump all over my own joke? And yes, I have now checked his bio and am suitably embarrassed. My apologies to Mr. Quinto.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Not only that, 2001 wasn't competing with NASA but rather marketing its value and promoting its vision for space exploration.

    ReplyDelete
  61. redoubt1:16 PM

    I think he means that Urban riots (YKWIM) caused quite a bit of bedshitting in Suburban Mercia.

    Left unmentioned is the role that James Earl Ray had in creating said bedshitting.

    I'm not going to be charitable. Driscoll makes it sound like it was MLK's own fault for getting shot, for "drifting further to the radical left" as though opposing racism and the Vietnam War was something limited to a bunch of pinko comsymps.

    ReplyDelete
  62. Maybe the word should be "spouse"?

    ReplyDelete
  63. reallyaimai2:12 PM

    Well, its phallic, that's for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  64. zencomix2:13 PM

    There's no need to fear, SMITH is here!

    ReplyDelete
  65. reallyaimai2:13 PM

    I'd also like to give a huge shout out to the parody 2001 scene in Zoolander http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze3hthGRbRo

    ReplyDelete
  66. reallyaimai2:14 PM

    I had the original Barbarella graphic novel when I was a little girl in france. Quite an amazing thing. Wish I still owned it.

    ReplyDelete
  67. reallyaimai2:16 PM

    Really? So cool.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Cut Me, Mick2:17 PM

    Night on Big Bad Bald Bastard Mountain!

    ReplyDelete
  69. I read 201 Minutes of Space Idiocy when I was about 8, long before I'd ever even heard of the movie it was based on. I still thought it was funny.

    ReplyDelete
  70. smut clyde4:39 PM

    its Nietzschian philosophy

    If 2001 is Nietzschean because Kubrick used a musical piece inspired by Zarathustra, I guess his use elsewhere of the Blue Danube Waltz means that it is also a homage to the values of Beidermeier domesticity.

    ReplyDelete
  71. TomParmenter4:54 PM

    That 'Film Comment' article is the best damn piece ever written on MAD, ties together the comic book and the magazine, lays out the history, understands the institutionalization, and brings back many movie (parody) memories.

    ReplyDelete
  72. parsec10:10 PM

    I can feel the electorate draining away, Dave ... I can feel it ... I can feel it, Dave ....

    ReplyDelete
  73. What caused the American mood to crumble between William DeVane’s statement and E. B. White’s? The civil rights struggle couldn’t be the
    answer; for one thing, it united rather than divided the country, except
    for the segregationist Old South.

    ...the fuck?

    ...the FUCK??

    That right there is a pretty goddamn big "except for", goober. 'Yes, but except for that, Mrs. Evers, how was your evening?'

    Also, Republican politicians being forced to publically feign great admiration for Dr. King one day a year is not the same thing as being 'united by the civil rights struggle'.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Spaghetti Lee: "'Lower the top marginal income tax rate, HAL.' 'I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.'"


    3 points, nothing but net....

    ReplyDelete
  75. See, you can't think at all about wingnut bloviatings or they'll just go POOF!

    ReplyDelete
  76. glennisw11:49 PM

    Yeah, really, He talked about his memories of growing up in Boston.

    ReplyDelete
  77. I'll have to look that one up now (Hello, I'm Kordo, and I'm a SciFi junky)

    ReplyDelete
  78. Provider_UNE3:43 AM

    It would not surprise me if in WingnutWonderland™, that James Earl Jones shot MLK, ergo "own goal" no backsies...
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  79. Provider_UNE3:46 AM

    Holy crap, brevity is truly the soul of wit!
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  80. Mine must be shaped wrong. This explains much.

    ReplyDelete
  81. The Creator5:31 AM

    I think you'll find it was the Pope made that up.

    ReplyDelete
  82. satch7:10 AM

    Easy... to wingers, the Military is a completely separate entity from "Teh Gummint", whose only legitimate function is to funnel money to the Military and the contractors who supply it, and then shut up and get out of the way.

    ReplyDelete
  83. satch7:19 AM

    Did you pass?

    ReplyDelete
  84. Halloween_Jack7:33 AM

    And, even for a sexist hack, his original pilot had a woman as executive officer. (It's one of the things that the network shot down when they ordered a reboot.)

    ReplyDelete
  85. Halloween_Jack7:36 AM

    Monolith, you say?

    http://www.topatoco.com/graphics/00000001/goat-monolith.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  86. Halloween_Jack7:39 AM

    Hell, follow up Starship Troopers with The Forever War, and then ask them to guess which author actually saw combat. (It also works if you swap out David Drake for Heinlein, but that's just cruel.)

    ReplyDelete
  87. Waffle_Man12:21 PM

    I didn't know Matthew 25:46 was written by the Pope.

    ReplyDelete
  88. BigHank5312:31 PM

    Half the women in 2001 are stewardesses. No joke.

    ReplyDelete
  89. AGoodQuestion5:23 PM

    The lie about Sirhan Sirhan being a Muslim has been repeated so often. I mean, did the man even have any Muslim friends?

    ReplyDelete
  90. AGoodQuestion5:24 PM

    To be fair, it's a hard word for English speakers to spell. To be less fair, this is the kind of error that five seconds of Googling can catch.

    ReplyDelete
  91. AGoodQuestion5:33 PM

    Do you mean "The Seven Day Terror"? Lafferty is a great source of delight for me.

    ReplyDelete
  92. Michael Hall10:58 PM

    While Roddenberry was certainly sexist by the standards of our time (not his), I don't think the word "hack" in this context means what you think it means. No, he wasn't a great writer (the best TOS segments were mostly written by other people, though he was notorious for his heavy-handed rewrites). I think he came to understand this himself as time went on, exchanging his writer/producer credentials for those of a Futurist Visionary and all-around guru. Still, the man did manage to win the Writer's Guild and Hugo awards for scripts that he personally wrote--not bad for a "hack."

    (And yes, Driscoll is clinically insane. I don't use that term lightly.)

    ReplyDelete
  93. BigHank5311:21 PM

    "Hack" may well be too strong a word. I refer to his predilection for scantily-clad women, gleeful neglect of continuity, and cheerful storyline contradiction--all in the name of better ratings, of course. The late sixties were not the modern day, and he had a TV show to pump out on a weekly basis. If he had to cut corners, then...hello, transporter!


    The problem is coming up with a better description. B-minus auteur? Ed Wood with talent? Something was going on there, because even with the borrowed sets and cheesy effects and Shatner pawing this week's eye-candy, there's a real optimism that shines through. Roddenberry thought the future could be a better place. A lot better, even if there will still a whole lot of problems left to either shoot your phasers at or outsmart or sometimes just be confused by.

    ReplyDelete