Last month I mentioned that Scott Stein of When Falls the Coliseum has been kind enough to let me write a series for WFTC about exaggeration, hyperbole and other unsung accomplishments in the field of human folly. WFTC is a lot edgier in tone than ducksanddrakes, so the series is zestier than the stuff I [...]
Early one Saturday morning, when Frank Wilson was just a boy, he found a dead man outside of his home. The stranger had suffocated himself in his car. “The only thing I remember feeling was curiosity. It inspired no nightmares…” Want to read a book about the history of the Polonez, Dacia, Wartburg or Volga? [...]
So the reason we’re supposed to dislike Avatar is that it seems like a rip-off. Observe: and Is does this type of accusation have justice? When we dismiss a film because it seems to pirate material, what are we really saying? It’s true that Avatar has echoes of Fern Gully and Pocahontas. It also reminisces [...]
“‘Why are they doing that?’ my companion whispered. ‘It’s a scrum,’ I said, divesting myself of one of the two things I know about rugby. ‘Yes, but why are they doing that?’ she persisted.” While visiting South Africa, Claire Potter goes to see Invictus. “Book burning seems terribly wrong but we have to get rid [...]
The Times has something by Jonathan Galassi, president of the publishing house Farrar, Straus & Giroux: Are e-books a new frontier in publishing, a fresh version of the author’s work? Or are they simply the latest editions of the books produced by publishers like Random House? See, the estate of novelist William Styron has recently [...]
If you can get past the paywall, check out my article in the Journal of American Studies at Cambridge University Press. It’s about some of the zany sound effects in Lucille Fletcher’s radio play “The Hitch-hiker.”
© ducksanddrakes. Say something clever here. Or not. You decide.
