A key to understanding the rigor of this show is how thoroughly it rejects the possibility, raised by Jane, that "violence is part of Ziggy's blood." That would imply that she's to blame for hypothetical acts of violence on his part, or indeed any fallout from her fateful encounter. When in fact she's a lovely person and a very good mother, and that's never in doubt to those reading between the lines.
Instead, the finger is pointed where it really belongs. When Ziggy finally reveals the kid who's been hurting Amabella, I exclaimed "Oh my god" out loud. I knew it, but his revelation closed the enormous circle this show had been drawing. Everything made sense and it was just as horrible as it needed to be.
There's an unusual inversion to the Greek chorus conceit in BIG LITTLE LIES. The onlookers are just ignorant commentators, and the main characters' problems can't be reduced to snide quips. Everyone's pain is deeply felt and expressed. Outsiders can't understand, nor do they want to.
(Crucially, none of the supporting characters play much of a role in what unfolds. Celeste, Jane, Renata, Bonnie, and Madeline are changed forever, while the community at large can only smirk from afar. To give any more weight to the glib outside perspective would be to deny the seriousness of what was really happening in Monterey.)
Friday, November 30, 2018
Monday, November 26, 2018
Week 10
East and Southeast Asia will soon become a major trading bloc all their own.
Here's something unexpected: for decades, indeed almost all of post-war US American history, it was the Democrats who benefitted most from gerrymandering. Recent Republican gerrymanders can therefore be seen as an overcorrection, though of course anything the Republicans do will have a more pernicious motivation.
No amount of alcohol use is safe, as all benefits of moderate drinking are outweighed by the risks. Bleak, honestly.
Kelley Dong on Twilight.
Here's something unexpected: for decades, indeed almost all of post-war US American history, it was the Democrats who benefitted most from gerrymandering. Recent Republican gerrymanders can therefore be seen as an overcorrection, though of course anything the Republicans do will have a more pernicious motivation.
No amount of alcohol use is safe, as all benefits of moderate drinking are outweighed by the risks. Bleak, honestly.
Kelley Dong on Twilight.
Thursday, November 15, 2018
Week 9
Before Ross Perot came Pat Buchanan, and before him: David Duke. Great epidemiology here, though I'm going to add that Buchanan's influence lives on quite literally through The American Conservative, a publication I monitor for trends in the conservative netherworld. More than just a symbolic forebear, Buchanan's influence persists to this very day.
Speaking of epidemiology. More proof that the scientific can't fully be understood without the social.
Really needed this argument that Abe is a lame duck with constraints facing him on every side.
I always thought my need to document disappearing places was something personal and melancholic, maybe shared with a few others at most. Turns out there are thousands upon thousands of others, and they've been digitally archiving the real world with obsessive intensity. I'm amazed at the connections Kate Wagner was able to draw from this phenomenon, many of which dovetail with my own perception of life under capitalism.
The economics of K-Pop. Hard not to feel like the best years are behind us, and that K-Pop is destined to become smaller and more niche. I've definitely been wondering how a group like Loona can expect to see any revenue with all the money lavished upon it by BlockBerry.
I was surprised how much this article describes my own experiences online. (And yes, let continental drift take Facebook away.)
Speaking of epidemiology. More proof that the scientific can't fully be understood without the social.
Really needed this argument that Abe is a lame duck with constraints facing him on every side.
I always thought my need to document disappearing places was something personal and melancholic, maybe shared with a few others at most. Turns out there are thousands upon thousands of others, and they've been digitally archiving the real world with obsessive intensity. I'm amazed at the connections Kate Wagner was able to draw from this phenomenon, many of which dovetail with my own perception of life under capitalism.
The economics of K-Pop. Hard not to feel like the best years are behind us, and that K-Pop is destined to become smaller and more niche. I've definitely been wondering how a group like Loona can expect to see any revenue with all the money lavished upon it by BlockBerry.
I was surprised how much this article describes my own experiences online. (And yes, let continental drift take Facebook away.)
Monday, October 29, 2018
Week 8
Another enticing Cinema Scope review, this time for MANTA RAY.
I hate the framing of articles like this. The title suggests that, because 'neither side' is happy with a minimum wage increase, this is just some unsolvable crisis with no known solution or root cause. But actually parsing out the situation reveals a well-known dilemma: the workers demand better pay, and the bosses don't want to pay them more! Could this story be more familiar? Whatever your opinion about the best approach, it helps nobody to make the problem into an abstraction when a straightforward description is both easier and clearer.
In other Hong Kong news.
I liked this essay on Bergman's FANNY AND ALEXANDER a lot. I admire the film plenty, but it's among the few I feel more distant towards. Reading at as the terminal point of Bergman's drift into the world of dreams, the fullest expression of his subjectivized cinema, makes me eager to rewatch it.
Although the Democrats did end up winning back the House, I can't argue with Richard Seymour's view from afar.
I hate the framing of articles like this. The title suggests that, because 'neither side' is happy with a minimum wage increase, this is just some unsolvable crisis with no known solution or root cause. But actually parsing out the situation reveals a well-known dilemma: the workers demand better pay, and the bosses don't want to pay them more! Could this story be more familiar? Whatever your opinion about the best approach, it helps nobody to make the problem into an abstraction when a straightforward description is both easier and clearer.
In other Hong Kong news.
I liked this essay on Bergman's FANNY AND ALEXANDER a lot. I admire the film plenty, but it's among the few I feel more distant towards. Reading at as the terminal point of Bergman's drift into the world of dreams, the fullest expression of his subjectivized cinema, makes me eager to rewatch it.
Although the Democrats did end up winning back the House, I can't argue with Richard Seymour's view from afar.
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Week 7
The fact that this crisis is "slow-moving" just means it isn't being treated like the genuine emergency it is.
My girlfriend recently finished reading Helen Oyeyemi's Boy, Snow, Bird. When she asked if I'd heard of it, I knew that I had, but my best guess was that it was something that'd passed through The New Inquiry's orbit a few years back. Anything more specific was beyond my recollection.
The guess was closer than I thought. Shortly after, my girlfriend sent me an essay written by none other than Hannah Black, a writer/artist I admire very much, and whose work I may even have encountered for the first time through this review of Oyeyemi's novel. Re-reading it now, her review is a work of art all to itself. The novel, still a structuring absence to me, opens up into a densely-layered creation through Black's reading. A lot of thought went into both written works.
(I often encounter film reviews which have that effect on me, but persuasive book reviews seem much rarer. Between this serendipity and the force of Black's writing, it feels like a celestial alignment has brought Boy, Snow, Bird back to my attention, and I'd be foolish to let it slip away in digital fog again.)
My girlfriend recently finished reading Helen Oyeyemi's Boy, Snow, Bird. When she asked if I'd heard of it, I knew that I had, but my best guess was that it was something that'd passed through The New Inquiry's orbit a few years back. Anything more specific was beyond my recollection.
The guess was closer than I thought. Shortly after, my girlfriend sent me an essay written by none other than Hannah Black, a writer/artist I admire very much, and whose work I may even have encountered for the first time through this review of Oyeyemi's novel. Re-reading it now, her review is a work of art all to itself. The novel, still a structuring absence to me, opens up into a densely-layered creation through Black's reading. A lot of thought went into both written works.
(I often encounter film reviews which have that effect on me, but persuasive book reviews seem much rarer. Between this serendipity and the force of Black's writing, it feels like a celestial alignment has brought Boy, Snow, Bird back to my attention, and I'd be foolish to let it slip away in digital fog again.)
Monday, October 15, 2018
Week 6
A few weeks ago, I wrote a little about Shinzo Abe, his bulletproof premiership, and what it could mean for Japan's pacifist Constitution. Today, I encountered this eerie analysis of a group called Nippon Kaigi, a religious right-wing group that has ascended to high levels of the LDP administration. With roots in the backlash to Japan's 1968 student movement, it is especially chilling that they've bided their time for so long, building power and influence all the while.
An important note: while US Americans might not find anything exceptional in the phrase "religious right-wing," in Japan the context is rather different. For one thing, Japan's history of fascism means that conservative movements tend toward revisionist history, as the above interview lays out. But even less obviously: in Japan, one of the world's least religious countries, an explicitly religious ideology carries an antagonism toward dominant society not present elsewhere. So while the authors are rightfully careful not to mis-label Nippon Kaigi a "cult," it is nevertheless unusual to see such an alliance between the right wing and Japan's marginal number of believers. Their political success is highly ominous, and something to watch closely as Abe embarks on his third term.
(While I found the early parts of that conversation to be a woolly thicket of names, citations, and contexts, the core issues and stakes are much clearer.)
An introduction to Walter Rodney, written by Angela Davis.
An important note: while US Americans might not find anything exceptional in the phrase "religious right-wing," in Japan the context is rather different. For one thing, Japan's history of fascism means that conservative movements tend toward revisionist history, as the above interview lays out. But even less obviously: in Japan, one of the world's least religious countries, an explicitly religious ideology carries an antagonism toward dominant society not present elsewhere. So while the authors are rightfully careful not to mis-label Nippon Kaigi a "cult," it is nevertheless unusual to see such an alliance between the right wing and Japan's marginal number of believers. Their political success is highly ominous, and something to watch closely as Abe embarks on his third term.
(While I found the early parts of that conversation to be a woolly thicket of names, citations, and contexts, the core issues and stakes are much clearer.)
An introduction to Walter Rodney, written by Angela Davis.
Friday, October 12, 2018
Week 5
What a striking way to read Mia Hansen-Love's new film. I hope to see it soon.
This week I began looking into a new issue at Viewpoint Magazine, entitled The Lost Revolution: Yugoslav Women’s Antifascist Front between Myth and Forgetting. Tijana Okić and Andreja Dugandžić give a helpful introduction here, and so far I've found a lot to savor in Chiara Bonfiglioli's intersectional meta-analysis of activist biographies.
This week I began looking into a new issue at Viewpoint Magazine, entitled The Lost Revolution: Yugoslav Women’s Antifascist Front between Myth and Forgetting. Tijana Okić and Andreja Dugandžić give a helpful introduction here, and so far I've found a lot to savor in Chiara Bonfiglioli's intersectional meta-analysis of activist biographies.
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