Authors on Authors

Originally found posted at http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/books/35-author-on-author-put-downs : TRUMAN CAPOTE ON JACK KEROUAC: “That’s not writing, that’s typing.” JOHN IRVING ON TOM WOLFE: “It’s like reading a bad newspaper or a bad piece in a magazine.” NOEL COWARD ON OSCAR WILDE: “Am reading more of Oscar Wilde. What a tiresome, affected sod.” GORE VIDAL ON TRUMAN CAPOTE: “Capote I truly loathed. The way you might loathe an animal. A filthy animal that has found its way into the house.

Documentary, Polemic, and Propaganda

Film Classification and the Public Missive about the Planned Parenthood Videos

Reposted from https://www.facebook.com/groups/indyfilms/permalink/10153527265498688/ with the author’s permission - JB Let me start with a deliberately provocative statement. Michael Moore doesn’t make documentaries. He produces polemics. And there’s nothing essentially wrong with that, except that a failure to know the difference is dangerous and leads to things like the current videos being used to attack Planned Parenthood. Let me explain how I see the difference. A “documentary” carries with it a suggestion of a reasonable degree of impartiality.

On Rationalia

Reposted from https://www.facebook.com/notes/adam-buchbinder/on-rationalia/10154142966136131. Adam’s Original Post Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted this last week. It received a pretty negative reaction. Outright loathing and comparisons to the French Revolution from the Right; sneering disdain and comparisons to the Third Reich from the Left; patronizing annoyance from science journalists. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts. –Daniel Patrick Moynihan (maybe) My politics are pretty much milquetoast pacifist liberalism meets autistic rationalism.

Required Watching

A random auto-didactic film school education through moderately accessible films. I have broken this down into my own arbitrary categories – if you aren’t a fan, make your own list. :) Comedy / Pastiche Annie Hall (1977). Director: Woody Allen. The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension (1986). Director: W.D. Richter. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944). Director: Frank Capra. Bananas (1971). Director: Woody Allen. The Big Lebowski (1998). Director: Joel Coen.