Andrew O’Hehir looks at a spate of new releases wherein Hollywood cinema (by no means for the first time) becomes “the space where the angry and confrontational politics of class conflict – which are almost entirely absent in the realm of, y’know, actual politics – can play out as dream or wish fulfillment, with no real-world consequences.”
Tag: 06.01.13
Is This The Point Where M. Night Shyamalan Went Awry?
“Ten years ago, [he] was on top of the world, touted as ‘the next Spielberg’ by Newsweek.” These days audiences are known to boo when they see his name in a movie trailer. Kyle Buchanan suggests that the turning point can be found in a weird little 2004 cable TV “pseudo-documentary”.
Does Reading Great Literature Really Make Us Better People?
“Wouldn’t reading about Anna Karenina, the good folk of Middlemarch and Marcel and his friends expand our imaginations and refine our moral and social sensibilities? If someone now asks you for evidence for this view, I expect you will have one or both of the following reactions. First, why would anyone need evidence for something so obviously right? Second, what kind of evidence would he want?”
Why Don’t American Critics Write More Hatchet Jobs? (Asks A Brit)
Clive James: “Ripping somebody’s reputation is recognized blood sport [in Britain]. Shredding a new book is a kind of fox hunting that is still legal today. Such critical violence is far less frequent in America. Any even remotely derogatory article in an American journal is called ‘negative,’ and hardly any American publication wants to be negative.”
BookExpo Draws 20,000 – Book Business Stabilizing?
“After a turbulent few years in the book business, there was a feeling at BookExpo America, the publishing industry’s annual trade convention that convened in New York this week, that the disruption might have calmed.”
Wikipedia’s Most Controversial Topics
“Politics certainly stirs up edit wars much more often than mathematics, and articles related to current events are often locked while the events are ongoing, to prevent defacement. But can we quantify the topics that are most controversial on Wikipedia?”
British Artist Who Asks Audience To Beatbox Wins Venice’s Golden Lion
“Naming him as the best artist in the Encyclopedic Palace show in the central pavilion of the 55th international art biennale, the jury praised Sehgal ‘for the excellence and innovation that his practice has brought opening the field of artistic disciplines.'”
Art Detective: Auction Houses, Buyers Aren’t Really Trying Not To Deal In Stolen Work
“Marinello stopped short of suggesting that the buyers had not wanted to know about doubts over an artwork’s legality: ‘Perhaps it’s the excitement of getting a good deal.'”
Egyptian Lawmaker Calls Ballet Immoral, Infuriates Dancers
“Council member Gamal Hamed, of the ultraconservative Salafist Nour Party, said ballet dancing promotes ‘indecency’ in society. ‘[Ballet] is the art of nudity, spreading immorality and obscenity among people,’ Hamed said.”
Joss Whedon Was Addicted To Comics. See Where That Got Him?
“Whedon was only allowed to watch BBC shows, so he consumed a diet of Masterpiece Theatre and Monty Python. ‘To be honest,’ he says, ‘I was a little bit ashamed of American TV.'”