Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 115

December 4, 2016

Writer’s Desk: Don’t Stop Now

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The great Walter Benjamin once postulated the 13 rules necessary for the writer to make a go of it with their craft. It’s a smart, detail-fixated, and lengthy list, which you can review in full here.

They’re not all for everybody—”Avoid haphazard writing materials. A pedantic adherence to certain papers, pens, inks is beneficial” is a tad on the fussy side—but the following items seem relevant to just about any ink-stained wretch out there:

“Talk about what you have written, by all means, b...
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Published on December 04, 2016 05:00

December 2, 2016

Weekend Reading: December 2, 2016

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On the decadent Republicans of means: “What a price our country and the world will pay … because those Americans most richly blessed failed so completely in their duty as citizens.“ Since election day, over 700 incidents of “hateful harassment.” Trump as the oracular personification of the post-literate age. Did you know Lincoln wanted to “create a new American race”? He didn’t, but that’s what newspapers reported in 1864, almost ruining his re-election chances. Hate crimes are on th...
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Published on December 02, 2016 04:00

November 30, 2016

Screening Room: ‘Bobby Sands: 66 Days’

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Bobby Sands: 66 Days is a sharp new documentary about the IRA hero’s world-gripping 1981 hunger strike and how it encapsulated the feverish passions of the Protestant-Catholic “Troubles.”

It’s playing now in limited release. My review is atFilm Journal International:

Northern Ireland was still convulsing after years of strife. As Byrne’s dense weave of televisual archive footage shows, the form of battle ranged from peaceful marches to assassinations and running street skirmishes pitting gan...

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Published on November 30, 2016 17:53

Screening Room: ‘Things to Come’

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Isabelle Huppert plays a philosophy teacher whose life gets thrown for a loop in Mia Hansen-Love’s brilliant new drama.

Things to Comeis opening this weekin limited release. My review is atFilm Journal International:

After taking a detour into the vagabond world of dance-music DJs with the disappointingly blah Eden, Mia Hansen-Løve returns fantastically to form with Things to Come. It’s the kind of urbane, Éric Rohmer-inflected drama that the still-young writer-director has been turning out...

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Published on November 30, 2016 17:30

November 27, 2016

Writer’s Desk: Keeping the Demons at Bay

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Shirley Jackson considered herself an odd person. This hardly makes her unique among writers. But see what she had to say about its relationship to her writing:

The very nicest thing about being a writer is that you can afford to indulge yourself endlessly with oddness, and nobody can really do anything about it, as long as you keep writing and kind of using it up, as it were. I am, this morning, endeavoring to persuade you to join me in my deluded world; it is a happy, irrational, rich worl...

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Published on November 27, 2016 05:00

November 25, 2016

Weekend Reading: November 25, 2016

booksfortheholidays

The “new yellow journalists” chum the water all day and all night for white anger; facts not needed. Stop taking his bait, people. “If you’re voting for Trump, it’s time for the urn.“ Drink like a colonial American. Wildlife populations have been plummeting for about 120 years; it’ll get worse. So, are government workers worried? Medicaid, Medicare, public education, voter protection, and all the other hard-won rights now being threatened. Your mind on right-wing media. “All right, let’s se...
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Published on November 25, 2016 04:00

November 22, 2016

Screening Room: ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’

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A young boy with one eye and a magical way with his guitar. A monkey sage with a wicked sneer. A giant beetle samurai. Moon gods and legend and beautiful vistas. You can find all that and more in the magicalKubo and the Two Strings, one of the year’s great films, available this week onDVD.

My review is atEyes Wide Open:

Coming of age stories are a dime a dozen in the animated movie business. Or at least, they used to be. In 2016, it’s all about animals. From Finding Dory to The Secret Life...

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Published on November 22, 2016 04:00

November 21, 2016

Reader’s Corner: Michael Chabon’s ‘Moonglow’

moonglowMy review of Michael Chabon’s latest novel,Moonglow, which is hitting stores tomorrow, is atPopMatters:

Chabon starts Moonglow in a great, glowing gush of reminiscence and incident. The narrator character that he has created for himself adheres to the broad outlines of his biography, though one who keeps himself surprisingly small in the background; no Philip Roth-ian excavations of the self to be found here. Instead, Chabon places himself at the bedside of his grandfather who is near death i...

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Published on November 21, 2016 05:00

November 20, 2016

Screening Room: ‘Manchester by the Sea’

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For his followup to the brilliant, if barely releasedMargaret, Kenneth Lonergan delivers a fistful of melancholic comedy in the surprising, deftly writtenManchester by the Sea, which stars Casey Affleck as a man coming apart under the weight of multiple tragedies.

Manchester by the Seais playing now. You probably will not see a better written or acted film this year. My review is atPopMatters:

“It’s not a good disease.” Diagnosed with cancer at the start of Manchester by the Sea, Joe Chandle...

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Published on November 20, 2016 18:30

November 19, 2016

Writer’s Desk: Never Too Late

grass-sheri-tepperThe incredibly prolific, frequently short-listed, and well-loved science-fiction author Sheri S. Tepper (Grass) passed away on October 22 at the age of 87. Tepper had a full non-writing life which included being executive director of Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood in Colorado, yet still managed to publish dozens of novels late in life.

John Scalzi noted that Tepper came to writing late in life:

Aside from her considerable talents as an author, Tepper stands as a reminder that it’s never to...

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Published on November 19, 2016 05:00