Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 91
March 18, 2018
Writer’s Desk: Put on the Clown Suit
Dave Eggers—who turned 48 last week—once gave a fantastic description of writing fiction: It feels like driving a car in a clown suit. You’re going somewhere, but you’re in costume, and you’re not really fooling anybody. You’re the guy in costume, and everybody’s supposed to forget that and go along with you. The best advice …
March 17, 2018
Reader’s Corner: National Book Critics Circle Awards
The fine group of folks known as the National Book Critics Circle—who graciously suffer my inclusion among their ranks—have just announced their 2017 winners. Minnesota press Graywolf snagged awards in two categories, an impressive feat. See here: Poetry — Layli Long Soldier, Whereas (Graywolf) Criticism — Carina Chocano, You Play The Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Trainwrecks, & Other Mixed Messages (HMH/Mariner) …
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March 16, 2018
Note Bene: An ‘Imposter’ in Academia
In Aeon, professor philosophy Amy Olberding writes about being an academic from a working-class rural background: I was once congratulated on my ‘bravery’ for not training out my ‘rustic accent’ – never mind that I didn’t know, until then, that I had one. More recently, I was asked to develop a seminar on class bias. I …
March 14, 2018
Screening Room: ‘7 Days in Entebbe’
The latest movie from Brazilian director Jose Padilha (Elite Squad, Narcos) is a thriller based on the famous 1976 airliner hijacking that ended up with a standoff in Uganda. 7 Days in Entebbe opens this week in limited release. My review is at Film Journal International: The headline story feels tailor-made for Padilha’s brand of documentary-based …
March 11, 2018
Writer’s Desk: Read in Cafes
You would think that the likes of Gabriel Garcia Marquez (born March 6, 1927) was one of those people fated to be a writer. How else to explain his golden pen? But no, as a young man in the 1940s, he was just another Columbian law student. Fortunately for the rest of us, though, he …
March 7, 2018
Screening Room: Submission
An adaptation of Francise Prose’s great 2000 novel Blue Angel, Submission is a satirical comedy about a writing professor (Stanley Tucci) who becomes more enamored than he should with the writing of one of his students (Addison Timlin). Submission is playing now in limited release. My review is at Film Journal International: The scenery that greets viewers at the …
March 4, 2018
Writer’s Desk: Solitary but Productive
Philip Roth spent about a half of a century writing. In the process, he produced one of the greatest and weirdest bodies of work in American letters. How did he do it? Sitting down and plugging away, for one: The day-by-day repertoire of oscillating dualities that any talent withstands — and tremendous solitude, too. And …
February 25, 2018
Writer’s Desk: First, Make Yourself Happy
Let’s face it: Sitting at a desk and putting words on paper or a screen and then (hopefully) printing them out in a big block of pages that will (again, hopefully) not immediately end up in the remainder stacks, can be drudgery. So find some joy in it. Per Michael Holroyd: The only happiness one …
February 23, 2018
Screening Room: ‘Mute’
The new sci-fi movie from Duncan Jones (Source Code, Moon) is called Mute and it premieres on Netflix today. My review is at Film Journal International: What might happen if M*A*S*H’s Trapper John and Hawkeye Pierce jumped about a century ahead in time, went AWOL and worked as black-market sawbones for gangsters in a post-EU Berlin? If you …
February 21, 2018
Screening Room: ‘The Party’
The new movie from Sally Potter (Orlando) is a quick-witted chamber piece starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Patricia Clarkson, and Timothy Spall, among others. It’s playing now in limited release and absolutely worth seeking out. My review of The Party is at PopMatters: …from the first flash-forward appearance of a frazzled Kristin Scott Thomas brandishing a pistol through …
