Will Shetterly's Blog, page 142

Alan Moore on identitarianism, class, and the depiction of rape in art

Last Alan Moore Interview? | Pádraig Ó Méalóid AKA Slovobooks: "I understand that it may not be considered good form to suggest that class issues are as important as issues of race, gender or sexuality, despite the fact that from my own perspective they seem perhaps even more fundamental and crucially relevant. After all, while in the West after many years of arduous struggle we are now allowed to elect women, non-white people and even, surely at least in theory, people of openly alternative...

Adolph Reed on bell hooks, Cornell West, and other public black intellectuals

In "What Are the Drums Saying, Booker?: The Curious Role of the Black Public Intellectual" (pdf), Adolph Reed Jr. offers a critique of Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Gloria Watkins (bell hooks), Michael Dyson, and Robin Kelley, but much of what he says naturally applies to their heirs. The title refers to old jungle movies in which white adventurers would turn to their trusted native guides and ask, "What are the drums saying?" The "Booker" refers to Booker T. Washington.

A few snippets:

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A new year's greeting, and my resolutions

Apologies to people who've already seen these on my social media sites, but I thought I should record them on my blog, too.

A greeting:

Happy New Years! Also, if you're having a birthday next year, Happy Birthday! And that cool thing involving you? Congratulations!

And my resolutions:

Given my usual success with New Year's resolutions, I vow to:

1. Destroy the earth.
2. Slack off more.
3. Eat a lot of crap.

Not in that order, of course.

the Shetterly cuts of Tombstone and Wyatt Earp

Tombstone is one of my favorite movies, despite its many flaws. As a Christmas present for two people who love it as much as I do, I'm doing a simple edit of the director's cut. For anyone who wants to do something similar, here's what I advise:

1. Cut the opening scenes, the newsreel, the cowboys in Mexico, and the Earps getting off the train in Tucson, so the movie starts with the camera panning up to Doc. (Time deleted: a little over ten minutes.)

2. In the scene where Wyatt meets Josie in the ...

the Shetterly cut of Costner's Wyatt Earp

Kevin Costner's Wyatt Earp is one of our favorite examples of trying to put too much into a story. When we watched it in the theater, a fascinating thing happened: after each sequence, I thought, "That wasn't bad, but it should've been cut." The Shetterly cut starts with Wyatt meeting Doc in Fort Griffin and ends when the last of the Tombstone cowboys are killed. Running time: One hour and 41 minutes.

Tombstone: the Shetterly cut of the director's cut, aka the Doc cut

Tombstone is one of my favorite movies, despite its many flaws. As a Christmas present for two people who love it as much as I do, I'm doing a simple edit of the director's cut. For anyone who wants to do something similar, here's what I advise:

1. Cut the opening scenes, the newsreel, the cowboys in Mexico, and the Earps getting off the train in Tucson, so the movie starts with the camera panning up to Doc. (Time deleted: a little over ten minutes.)

2. In the scene where Wyatt meets Josie in t...

Ishmael Reed on Black Peter, Krampus and the Real Roots of St. Nick and Santa Claus

Black Peter, Krampus and the Real Roots of St. Nick and Santa Claus - Speakeasy - WSJ: "Black Peter is controversial because the Dutch smear themselves with black face when performing that role. Still, Black Peter is one of the handful of positive traditional images of blacks in Europe. In the popular media in the United States, blacks are sometime portrayed as takers. Black Peter is a giver."

about feminists who like men and their sexuality

In It’s a Man’s World, and It Always Will Be, Camille Paglia says, "A peevish, grudging rancor against men has been one of the most unpalatable and unjust features of second- and third-wave feminism."

She must be speaking of prominent writers rather than all feminists, because I've known a great many feminists who like men. But what strikes me when I think of them is that liking men has nothing to do with their sexuality. Some feminists who like men, including several of my favo...

G.K. Chesterton on rich people and bribes

"You will hear everlastingly, in all discussion about newspapers, companies, aristocracies, or party politics, this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is rich." —G.K. Chesterton

class quote of the day: Orestes Bronson

"The middle class is always a firm champion of equality when it concerns humbling a class above it, but it is its inveterate foe when it concerns elevating a class below it." —Orestes Brownson