The U.S. Used To Make Great Action Movies. Not Anymore.

“Action films meant something. As surely as the film noir communicated anxiety over postwar urban upheaval or as alien-invasion films helped us work out our cold-war agita, the action films of the golden age were a post-’70s, poststagflation collective national fantasy: one in which America was strong, independent, unstoppable and perpetually kicking much butt.” That’s over.

Marianne Faithfull, Art Curator – And Fabulous Beast

The singer, who will play in Brecht’s The Seven Deadly Sins this autumn and who curated a show that just opened at Tate Liverpool, says she’s trying to find some sort of peace. “What has happened in the past 10 years or so, and what has been my goal for as long as I can remember, is to bring me and Marianne Faithfull into some semblance of harmony. It was her doing drugs and drinking, her inside my head, so it has been tough. The Fabulous Beast, that’s what I call her.”

Where’s The Gender Revolution? Not In Literary Fiction

Meg Wolitzer: “I don’t need to remember anything about signifiers to understand that just like the jumbo, block-lettered masculine typeface, feminine cover illustrations are code. Certain images, whether they summon a kind of Walker Evans poverty nostalgia or offer a glimpse into quilted domesticity, are geared toward women as strongly as an ad for ‘calcium plus D.’ These covers might as well have a hex sign slapped on them, along with the words: ‘Stay away, men! Go read Cormac ­McCarthy instead!'”