HU News
Joe McCulloch (aka Jog) is going to be joining HU with a monthly column on first-run Bollywood films. Don’t have a bio for him yet (send me a bio, Jog, damn it!) but you can read his past posts for us here.
On HU
Featured Archive Post: Domingos Isabelinho on Otto Dix.
Me on nice guys and rape in Audition and Clint Eastwood’s Tightrope.
Me on how Lee and Ditko tilted Spider-Man against pacifism.
Me on why Axe Cop and Johnny Ryan are alike (hint: poop.)
Alex Buchet presents the cartoons of Enrico Caruso.
Voices from the Archive: kinukitty on politics and statistics.
Jog on how nobody likes Bollywood and a closeful of candyfloss.
Me on why there is no first comic, and what is a comic anyway?
Andreas Stoehr on the pain and pleasure of slasher movie sequels.
Utilitarians Everywhere
At the Atlantic, I talk about Phillip Pullman’s Grimm Fairy Tales and pandering to huamnity’s worst desires since 1812.
At Splice today I talk about:
Stefan Goldmann’s delightful electronica for robotic children.
Sneering at sneering at Romney voters.
Why liberals can still be depressed about an Obama election.
Other Links
Tim Callahan belatedly replies to the HU 10 best comics poll.
Mette Ivie Harrison has some thoughtful questions about Twilight (scroll down a bit to see them on her home page.)
This Week’s Reading
I read John Rieder’s excellent book Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction, and read a preview for review of Justin Hart’s book about public diplomacy Empire of Ideas. Also reread some Axe Cop and Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit #3, and started Junji Ito’s Museum of Terror volume 1.
___________
Harry Clarke illustration for Cinderella.
——————-
Noah Berlatsky says (at http://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/four-more-years-of-drone-strikes ):
But when Republicans are declaring a Heritage Foundation initiative to be a sign of tyrannical apocalypse, it makes you worry about how demented they’ll really get before that promised realignment comes along.
——————
The reaction to their loss was predictable: http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2012/11/07/tea-party-slams-mitt-romney-as-weak-moderate-candidate-hand-picked-by-mushy-middle-gop?s_cid=related-links:TOP
——————
Just as it took a Bill Clinton to shred welfare and financial service regulation, so has it taken a Barack Obama to codify assassination, paranoid civil liberties violations, and a permanent “war on terror” beyond the reach of partisan objection—or even really partisan discussion.
——————-
Yes; all we can do is continue to vote for the “lesser evil”…
“and I barely know how to spell her name, much less what her specific policy positions are.”
Free university education for everyone. Or so she said in one of the debates. I’m sure that would be an easy one to fund. [insert eye roll]
Yeah, Museum of Terror is great.
————————
Noah Berlatsky says (at http://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/the-smug-vs-the-stupid ):
The nutty woman who thinks Obama is a Muslim and an atheist at least knew who Jeremiah Wright was—and she also, for that matter, knew which candidate is pro-life and homophobic. That probably makes her better informed than the majority of her peers, whether Democrat or Republican.
————————–
Better informed about those specific items, because Fox News and the rest of the well-financed right-wing propaganda machine hammered that stuff overandoverandover into their minds. (BTW, she would not know “which candidate is…homophobic,” but “in favor of Christian Morality and against perversion.”)
I’ve not gotten the idea that you’re exactly a cheerleader for the American system of education. Yet here you are, praising the end results of its massive emphasis on rote memorization, leaving out of teaching critical thinking.
That Romney supporter knows who Jeremiah Wright was, where candidates stand on abortion and gay rights. Yet she also “knows” that Obama is a Muslim and an atheist, and has not the minimal speck of intelligence or awareness to perceive the gigantic contradiction there; as when the Right also asserts that “Obama and those feminists are going to force Sharia law on America.”
————————–
Republicans more knowledgeable, better educated than Democrats
Democrats = Progressives = Socialists = Commies = Stupid
According to the latest survey data of the Pew Research Center, contrary to the Left’s malicious caricature of the Right as uneducated, stupid, dopey rednecks, it turns out Republicans are more knowledgeable than Democrats!
In a scientific survey of 1,168 adults conducted during September and October of 2011, respondents were asked not only multiple-choice questions, but also queries using maps, photographs and symbols. Among other subjects, participants identified international leaders, cabinet members, Supreme Court justices, nations on a world map, the current unemployment and poverty rates and war casualty totals.
In a 2010 Pew survey, Republicans outperformed Democrats on 10 of 12 questions, with one tie and Democrats outperforming Republicans on just 1 of the 12. In the latest survey, however, Republicans outperformed Democrats on every single one of 19 questions.
————————–
http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/republicans-more-knowledgeable-better-educated-than-democrats/
Yet, for all their “knowledge” and “education,” this is the same group of people — overwhelmingly white, hence far more likely to have the financial wherewithal to go to college and get “better educated” than overwhelmingly Democratic blacks — that insists global warming doesn’t exist, the world is but 10,000 years old, gays are slavering perverts who “chose” to be that way, Obama is a far-leftist Muuslim atheist from Kenya, and countless other gigantic idiocies.
To summarize; yeah, it’s good to be “better informed”; but when one uncritically swallows lies and propaganda hook-line-and-sinker along with actual facts, has not the IQ of a turnip, refuses to pay attention to (or automatically dismisses as “biased liberals”) other sources of info besides the lying and distorting Fox News and Rush, what good does that do?
Since I’ve begun the habit of talking about movies I’ve watched, here’s what I saw last week:
Goon: A rather enjoyable hockey comedy, starring Seann William Scott in the role of his career, in which he gets away from the “obnoxious asshole” type that he’s been doing since at least the first American Pie movie and plays a sweet, gentle, loyal knucklehead who happens to be a great fighter, which gets him recruited to a minor-league hockey team as an enforcer, the guy whose sole role is just to beat the hell out of people. It’s a nice, low-stakes sports movie, with some romance and family drama thrown in, but it’s mostly just a good character piece, with good acting and some lovely shots of blood splattering on the ice. Recommended.
A Serbian Film: This is one of the more disturbing movies I’ve seen, although maybe “disturbing” should be in quotes, since it’s so determined to shock and appall that it loses some of its impact. It’s about a retired Serbian porn actor who gets recruited to film some sort of semi-improvisational film that starts out weird and off-putting, and eventually [Spoilers, if anybody plans to see it] segues into full-on rape and murder, with the guy being dosed with cattle aphrodisiacs and turned into a fucking machine, forced into horrible situations that eventually involve his wife and young son. I think there are some cultural aspects that don’t really translate to American audiences, as the director of the titular film gives a speech about how he’s reflecting Serbian life, and the “plot” of the film initially seems to involve the family of a dead war hero whose wife is a whore that deserves to be punished for not respecting him. If I knew more about the history of the country and the various internal and external conflicts, this might be more resonant, but it mostly comes off as a parade of awfulness, with a possible implication of the viewer as someone who demands to see more and more atrocities. I wouldn’t really recommend this, unless you’re into nastiness, but I’d love to read an essay that digs into some of the stuff that’s going on here.
The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate: This Tsui Hark/Jet Li martial arts movie was briefly released in theaters in Imax 3-D, and I really wish I had seen it that way, but it’s pretty enjoyable on its own. It’s hard as hell to follow though, with a plot that just wanders all over the place, tons of characters that are introduced kind of at random, and a complex plot that sees lots of shifting allegiances, mistaken identities, and betrayals. This is probably because this is at least the second remake of a classic film, so the intended audience is probably already pretty familiar with what’s going on and only needs the details sketched in before Hark can riff on them. And it’s not all fully necessary anyway; you can just sit back and enjoy the crazy visuals (which must have been amazing in 3-D) and wacky fights. My favorite part was a fight between Jet Li and the bad guy in which they kept batting pieces of a broken sword back and forth, WHILE FLYING THROUGH THE AIR IN THE MIDDLE OF A TORNADO. It’s pretty awesome; if you can put up with fantastical nonsense in your kung fu, you should definitely check it out.