Nicholas Bruner's Blog, page 13

What I’m Reading: Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by former New York Times reporter and Chicago bureau chief Isabel Wilkerson, is a combination study and meditation on caste in the United States. Wilkerson posits that the United States is a caste society like India, and that racism is merely the form that caste takes. That is to say, the early settlers created a societal hierarchy at which black African slaves were at the bottom, but that was almost incidental. It could have been indentured servants at the...

Scary Movies: Cat People

This is a movie I’ve long wanted to see. Most horror movies from the 1930s and 1940s, at least the best-known ones, are from Universal. RKO had their own line of horror films in the 1940s, however, produced by auteur Val Lewton (unusual, as it’s usually the director who’s the auteur, but in this case, Lewton handled every detail of his movies). Lewton’s horror movies were far lower budget than Universal’s, but made up for it with more adult scripts and an emphasis on atmosphere rather than monst...

Scary Movies: Cat’s Eye

We’re back with the annual horror movie festival at my house, and the theme this year is cats! We started off with Cat’s Eye, a 1985 horror anthology that I remember well because it was filmed on location in my hometown: Wilmington, NC. In fact, my friend’s house was used in exterior shots for one of the story segments, and various locations around town are recognizable in the movie. Because of this, I think every kid at my school had seen this movie.

Like Creepshow, this movie is a horror an...

What I’m Reading: The World Without Us

I remember being interested in reading The World Without Us when it came in 2007, but never got around to reading it. I’m now in a book club at work and was happy to find out that the book, by Alan Weisman, was the club’s selection for September. It’s a non-fiction book, expanded from two articles Weisman had previously written, one for Harper‘s magazine about the recovery of nature around Chernobyl after humans deserted the area, and another for Discover magazine about what the Earth would look...

Ranking the Twilight Zone

I’m watching all the Twilight Zone episodes (that I have on disk) with my twelve year-old daughter and ranking them. We watched three episodes this time and, as ever, I’m running them through a rubric to give them a score from 0 to 7. The episodes are graded in three categories: Concept/Plot/Characters (4 points), Tone (1 point), and The Twist (2 points).

The episodes this time were from Volumes 7 and 21 of the DVDs.

Ninety Years Without Slumbering (Season Five, 1963)
Sam Forstmann is a ...

What I’m Reading: The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

I’ve actually reviewed Robert Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress before, but I read it again for a book club at my work, so I’ll give it a fresh review. I thought it might be interesting to write this new review without reading what I wrote before, and then go back and compare.

TMIAHM is narrated by Manny, an inhabitant of Luna City on the moon, in 2075. The moon was first settled as a penal colony, and Manny is descended from some of the original penal transportees. Even after decades, ...

Analyzing the Twilight Zone

I’m watching all the Twilight Zone episodes (that I have on disk) with my twelve year-old daughter and ranking them. To rank them, we run them through a rubric to give them a score from 0 to 7. The episodes are graded in three categories: Concept/Plot/Characters (4 points), Tone (1 point), and The Twist (2 points).

There are 156 Twilight Zone episodes in the original 1950s-60s series, and my daughter and I have watched 42 of them, or a little over one quarter (27% to be exact). Our rankings s...

Ranking the Twilight Zone

I’m watching all the Twilight Zone episodes (that I have on disk) with my twelve year-old daughter and ranking them. We watched three episodes this time and, as ever, I’m running them through a rubric to give them a score from 0 to 7. The episodes are graded in three categories: Concept/Plot/Characters (4 points), Tone (1 point), and The Twist (2 points).

The episodes this time were from Volumes 7 and 21 of the DVDs.

Mirror Image (Season One, 1960)
I think this is probably the Twilight Z...

What I’m Reading: The Tartar Steppe

It’s odd, I don’t know where this book came from. Just showed up in our house one day, so I started reading it. I’m glad I did. The Tartar Steppe, by Dini Buzzati, turns out to be quite an interesting book. Somewhat forgotten today, at least in the English-speaking countries, this was apparently considered an important literary work in Europe when it was published in 1938.

If follows Giovanni Drogo, a young officer who’s just received his commission and learned of his first assignment: Fort B...

Ranking The Twilight Zone

I’m watching all the Twilight Zone episodes (that I have on disk) with my twelve year-old daughter and ranking them. We watched three episodes this time and, as ever, I’m running them through a rubric to give them a score from 0 to 7. The episodes are graded in three categories: Concept/Plot/Characters (4 points), Tone (1 point), and The Twist (2 points).

It’s been a few weeks since we’ve done a new set of ratings, but now my daughter’s returned from camp and we’re back to rating! The episod...