On Two McNally Jackson Booksellers Argue About Jonathan Franzen's 'Freedom'
"At least for well-fed bastards like you and I."
Just wanted to point out that this sentence is wrong. (Hint.)
Too granular?
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On 'Eat Pray Love' and 'I Am Love': Class Warfare
N.B.: First sentence in my reply makes no sense.
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On 'Eat Pray Love' and 'I Am Love': Class Warfare
But if one is in fact concerned with actually making the world a fairer, more just place, is directing one's ire and calling out mainstream movie critics really the most useful direction in which to point one's ire? Sidestepping "actual structural critique" may be, as you say, "dangerous." I would suggest that getting bogged down trying to work out why mainstream critics are not fully committed to the lingo they may appropriate -- even if that appropriation is annoying -- may itself be "dangerous" to the project of actually making the world a fairer place. It may in fact be an example of conspicuous consumption, conspicuous leisure, conspicuous education -- idling like the engine on a Porsche in a driveway in Orange County, etc. Even if the analysis is accompanied by the requisite self-flagellation.
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On 'Eat Pray Love' and 'I Am Love': Class Warfare
I understand. But, what should we expect of the mainstream movie critics you cite? Should we expect less lassitude in their critiques of mainstream films? Should we demand that if they begin to make movements toward the actual "hard work" of building a critique that "interrogates social privilege" that they do so with more vigor and with full commitment? Are we shooting fish in a barrel? We are upset with mainstream critics for being insufficiently rigorous and committed to a progressive program whose terminology these critics sometimes wield?
I guess I'm just not sure I see the point here. Yes, mainstream critics are glib, superficial, annoying. It's true. Still, that these moronic critics happen to also say these things about EPL does not make the criticisms any less true.
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On 'Eat Pray Love' and 'I Am Love': Class Warfare
"fails here" --> *fail* here
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On 'Eat Pray Love' and 'I Am Love': Class Warfare
Um, seems to me that the attempts in the article to dismiss the "first-year intro to sociology terminology" used by mainstream critics in hating EPL fails here, given that the author herself relies on tried-and-true empty "intro to whatever at random liberal arts college terminology" like "interrogating" and "structural critique." These are the terms of the third-year at Vassar, trying to wrap relatively bland thoughts in some expensive finery. It's hard to think of words that are more overblown and unnecessary. What would "interrogating actual social privilege" actually look like? (The article here doesn't say, just alludes.) How is "interrogating" any different than "analyzing" -- do the words actually have different meanings? Or does the author choose "interrogating" because that's the word that was thrown around in her second-year poli sci class on the history of sexuality? Etc.
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On Flicked Off: In Which Two Ladies Do Yoga Then See 'Eat Pray Love'
Nit: The whole India *bit* brought to mind ....
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On Flicked Off: In Which Two Ladies Do Yoga Then See 'Eat Pray Love'
It was bad faith on the part of the movie to leave out Gilbert pitching her spiritual voyage as a great opportunity for a book deal. How would viewers have felt if we had had a scene where GIlbert pitches her trip not as one of self-discovery, but as one that will sell because it'll be so compelling to vaguely dissatisfied rich people with no real problems in their lives? "It'll be great! It'll be a classic trade-in loser guy for Prince Charming story with some food porn, some vapid spiritual cliches, glossed with a patina of unearned and unjustified privileged gender indignation. Why shouldn't we eat that pizza, sisters!?"
Also, Gilbert's spiritual tourism in India seemed just stupid. What does she know about the ashram, the guru, etc.? Did she have any faith, any agnostic struggles, etc., before? Are we supposed to find her decision to swoop into some random ashram that she apparently knows nothing about for a high-concept version of a colonic cleanse admirable? The whole India brought to mind those rich people who go to third-world countries to offer manual labor for Habitat for Humanity or whatever; those places need financial help, expert assistance, etc., not bankers and consultants from the first world swooping in to do a few days of manual labor placing some bricks and taking self-congratulatory pictures of each other that they immediately post on Facebook with their iPhones.
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On Cooking the Books: How to Make Spicy Tuna Salad Sushi, with Malena Watrous
That's not what wabi sabi means.
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On Sharp Fiction by Young Women: If You Have Only One Week in L.A., by Sarah Malone
Shouldn't the title be "If You Have Only One Week in L.A."? Just saying.