Nov 23, 2008 0
Against the Day
At first I thought it was the best book I had ever read. By the time I decided to finish it, I thought that it might be the worst.
drink deep
Nov 21, 2008 0
Sí Se Puede in Politics, Faith, Sports, Love
Rallying supporters to a political cause, rallying supporters of a team, rallying the adherents of a faith, and rallying oneself to make a romantic commitment all take this form: pretending that we know something (usually about the future [i.e., "We will beat Cal"], but often about the past [i.e., "Christ died for our sins"] or the present [i.e., "The American people want change"]) that we do not and cannot empirically know. In the romantic sphere, as in political sphere, the distinction between lying and failing applies: a divorce due to marital issues does not mean that the parties lied when they said “Till death do us part”; it means that they decided, gradually or suddenly, that fidelity to the truth of their everlasting love has proved unfounded.
Nov 19, 2008 0
A Male Sex and the City?
The question itself holds a wealth of implicit gender assumptions. Is Sex and the City really a women’s show? People talk dirty and make jokes about things you aren’t supposed to make jokes about. There are copious female nudity and at least two or three sex scenes per episode. In fact, all that anyone seems able to talk about is sex; or, more to the point, about fucking. Charlotte: “Don’t you ever want to be just pounded hard? Like when the bed is moving all around, and it’s all sweaty, your head is knocking the headboard and you feel it might blow off? Dammit, I just really want to be fucked. Just really fucked!”
How is this not a schoolboy fantasy come to life?
Nov 17, 2008 0
Hanging Out On Rodeo Drive, Talking About The Hills (As It Happens!)
I’m really not that good at The Hills Backchannel game, “where fans gather to talk about The Hills as it happens.” The game takes place in what is essentially a souped up version of what we ’90s-era children know as online chat rooms, only everyone in the room is simultaneously watching The Hills on TV. I confess I hadn’t watched the show before I played, so there’s a good chance I made more than a few moves that were totally off, but it turns out this doesn’t matter much. One of the only comments I made for which I earned points was about some kind of wonderbra featured on a Victoria’s Secret commercial. (Yes, you get to comment on the commercials too!) My comment was simply “Stan needs one of those!” People chose my comment as the most popular, and I was, for a moment, the highest-ranked commenter in the room. Surprisingly, though, there is nobody named “Stan” on the show.