“It’s really bad news when the industry essentially rejects a success, when a movie that should have spawned two dozen taste-based gambles on passion projects is instead greeted as an unanswerable anomaly. That kind of thinking is why Hollywood studio filmmaking, as 2010 came to its end, was at an all-time low.”
Tag: 02.11
What Explains Chopin
“The hallucinations of Frédéric Chopin is in the tradition of what some call neurotheology, the attempt to medically explain spiritual experiences. The not-always-subtle subtext is that unexplainable visions, or other divine madnesses, have no place in our enlightened, modern world.”
A Contrarian’s Dictionary, Seen From An Adjacent Century
“You don’t open a Dictionary of Modern English Usage to brush up on “sound linguistic principles” or to find out whether a phrase is common enough to be uncontroversial. You open it, rather, to consult the opinions of those whose understanding of the patterns of language is wider and deeper than your own, and who have a more sensitive ear for its rhythms and resonances.”
The Dead Chipmunk: An Interrogation Into the Mechanisms of Jokes
In one anecdote and 26 notes, professor and novelist Chris Bachelder dissects the ways in which a statement or story develops a comic punch. (Hint: it gets surprisy.)