“Lots of people who are professionally writing about books are also snobs, and snobs to the point that they won’t even consider what the specific alchemy and magic is that makes something like 50 Shades of Grey save the book industry for a year.”
Author: ArtsJournal2
When TV Shows End, Things Can Go Wildly Wrong – This Is Why
“Ending a television show is not like ending a movie. The creator hasn’t asked the audience to join in on their world for two or three hours, they have brought that audience along with them to the finishing line for years.”
Have We Entered The World Of Vampire Boomers And Preyed-Upon Millennials?
“No matter how much a culture congratulates itself on being science-minded, we wrestle with a deep-seated tendency towards magical thinking – in this case, sympathetic magic, the idea that one can exert magical influence through contact or kinship.”
TV’s Golden Age Makes The Emmys That Much Shinier
“HBO, which racked up 99 nominations this year, the most of any network, will face off against a lineup of broadcasters, cable networks and the subscription streaming service Netflix during the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards.”
Chautauqua Symphony Mourns Murdered Violinist
“For eight weeks every summer, Mary Whitaker, 61, would come to the Chautauqua Institute to play violin with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Whitaker was a regular for the past 36 years.”
So What’s Actually The Plot Of The Number One Movie In The Land – And Does It Matter?
“It’s post-plot cinema — built to be consumed without any holistic understanding of what’s happening or why, without any sense that one should want a clear understanding of what’s happening or why.”
Warning: Watching Reality TV Makes People More Aggressive, For Real
“Those who had watched Jersey Shore or Real Housewives actually gave louder, longer blasts after watching those shows than those who watched the more violent crime dramas.”
John Hughes, Icon, And The Real-Life Town He Reinvented On Screen
“The only thing that kept me from giving up and turning myself over to Child Protective Services was thinking that if Kevin McAllister could spend one Christmas alone at the age of 8, then I could certainly finish out high school uneventfully on a friend’s futon. After that, I just wanted to get out.”
How To Learn (Yes, Including Taking A Walk)
“When you get stuck, you’ve run out of ideas, distraction is really your best friend. You need to stand up, let it go — walk around the block, go to the cafe, drink a beer, whatever it is — and that is really your best shot at loosening the gears a little bit.”
British Readers Devour Mysteries (And A Few Other Genres) In Translation
“Surging interest in foreign literature in recent years has been sparked partly by the success of Scandinavian fiction – notably Stieg Larsson, whose Millennium books have sold more than 75 million copies in 50 countries, and popular television dramas such as The Killing.”