Linky Linky!
More fun stuff for thedeadlyhook and anyone else who shares our preoccupations of the moment...
Beijing Olympics: Since Hookles and I live in San Francisco's Clement Street neighborhood, which is effectively the deputy backup Chinatown, we've picked up a dose of Olympic fever by osmosis. On this note, I've really been enjoying James Fallows's blogging from the scene. Since he's been hanging out in China for the last few years, Fallows actually has some idea what he's talking about, and I appreciate his ongoing takedown of the (hell, let's just say it) somewhat racist generalizations that pundits like David Brooks have been making about the zombie Chinese hordes. See here and here for starters, and I'll highlight this passage from the latter:
The problem is not just sweeping generalizations about the billion-plus highly diverse people who live in China. The further point is that if you were to generalize, you'd find that many outsiders who've lived in China consider it more individualist-minded than many other Asian countries, notably Japan. (For instance, southern China is full of tiny mom-and-pop factories, since people love being their own boss and aren't that keen on taking orders from others.) It's commonplace to hear Americans and Chinese say that they feel their cultures share many personality traits, despite the obvious huge differences. More another time.
-- James Fallows, "More on Chengdu and collectivism"
And Slate magazine, normally worth reading only for Dahlia Lithwick and Fred Kaplan, has also been serving up some nifty Olympics coverage which you'll find compiled over here. Here's a wonky analysis of the new gymnastics scoring system, and some interesting observations of the contrasting styles of the American and Chinese teams. From the latter piece:
We've heard a lot about the collective, hardworking ethos of Chinese culture-which David Brooks contrasted earlier this week with America's individualistic impulses-but the irony early on was that it was the Chinese who seemed to be joyfully and expressively performing while the American girls looked drawn and anxious. There was even a dour helicopter parent thrown into the mix, adding to the tension: Former Soviet champion Valeri Liukin, father of superstar Nastia Liukin, an elegant performer with all the diva potential of a Svetlana Khorkina. When she briefly wobbled on the beam, he put his head in his hands, as if he couldn't watch any more. Finally, an NBC commentator said, almost chidingly, "His daughter has done a good job."
-- Meghan O'Rourke, "The Silver Lining"
Marvel Versus DC: I have my own thoughts on this, mostly along the lines of DC characters existing in a fairly stable ground state while Marvel characters are always poised in some kind of eternally unresolved crisis situation - defined by their circumstances rather than their character, one might say - but here's what other folks are saying.
Over on his Blah Blah Blog, Marvel editor Tom Brevoort commemorates the 12th anniversary of Mark Gruenwald's death by reprinting Gruenwald's analyses of the five great archetypal characters of superhero comics, which for the record are Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel (an obvious choice in hindsight), and Captain America. I also liked Brevoort's homage to long-time Marvel secretary and proofreader Flo Steinberg.
Far less diplomatically, here's Robert Downey Jr. laying the smack down on The Dark Knight:
"My whole thing is that that I saw 'The Dark Knight'. I feel like I'm dumb because I feel like I don't get how many things that are so smart. It's like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and script writing and I'm like, 'That's not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.' I loved 'The Prestige' but didn't understand 'The Dark Knight'. Didn't get it, still can't tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character and in the end they need him to be a bad guy. I'm like, 'I get it. This is so high brow and so f--king smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.' You know what? F-ck DC comics. That's all I have to say and that's where I'm really coming from."
-- As quoted in Moviehole interview
Attention, Batman; Iron Man says to tell you it's on!
Beijing Olympics: Since Hookles and I live in San Francisco's Clement Street neighborhood, which is effectively the deputy backup Chinatown, we've picked up a dose of Olympic fever by osmosis. On this note, I've really been enjoying James Fallows's blogging from the scene. Since he's been hanging out in China for the last few years, Fallows actually has some idea what he's talking about, and I appreciate his ongoing takedown of the (hell, let's just say it) somewhat racist generalizations that pundits like David Brooks have been making about the zombie Chinese hordes. See here and here for starters, and I'll highlight this passage from the latter:
The problem is not just sweeping generalizations about the billion-plus highly diverse people who live in China. The further point is that if you were to generalize, you'd find that many outsiders who've lived in China consider it more individualist-minded than many other Asian countries, notably Japan. (For instance, southern China is full of tiny mom-and-pop factories, since people love being their own boss and aren't that keen on taking orders from others.) It's commonplace to hear Americans and Chinese say that they feel their cultures share many personality traits, despite the obvious huge differences. More another time.
-- James Fallows, "More on Chengdu and collectivism"
And Slate magazine, normally worth reading only for Dahlia Lithwick and Fred Kaplan, has also been serving up some nifty Olympics coverage which you'll find compiled over here. Here's a wonky analysis of the new gymnastics scoring system, and some interesting observations of the contrasting styles of the American and Chinese teams. From the latter piece:
We've heard a lot about the collective, hardworking ethos of Chinese culture-which David Brooks contrasted earlier this week with America's individualistic impulses-but the irony early on was that it was the Chinese who seemed to be joyfully and expressively performing while the American girls looked drawn and anxious. There was even a dour helicopter parent thrown into the mix, adding to the tension: Former Soviet champion Valeri Liukin, father of superstar Nastia Liukin, an elegant performer with all the diva potential of a Svetlana Khorkina. When she briefly wobbled on the beam, he put his head in his hands, as if he couldn't watch any more. Finally, an NBC commentator said, almost chidingly, "His daughter has done a good job."
-- Meghan O'Rourke, "The Silver Lining"
Marvel Versus DC: I have my own thoughts on this, mostly along the lines of DC characters existing in a fairly stable ground state while Marvel characters are always poised in some kind of eternally unresolved crisis situation - defined by their circumstances rather than their character, one might say - but here's what other folks are saying.
Over on his Blah Blah Blog, Marvel editor Tom Brevoort commemorates the 12th anniversary of Mark Gruenwald's death by reprinting Gruenwald's analyses of the five great archetypal characters of superhero comics, which for the record are Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel (an obvious choice in hindsight), and Captain America. I also liked Brevoort's homage to long-time Marvel secretary and proofreader Flo Steinberg.
Far less diplomatically, here's Robert Downey Jr. laying the smack down on The Dark Knight:
"My whole thing is that that I saw 'The Dark Knight'. I feel like I'm dumb because I feel like I don't get how many things that are so smart. It's like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and script writing and I'm like, 'That's not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.' I loved 'The Prestige' but didn't understand 'The Dark Knight'. Didn't get it, still can't tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character and in the end they need him to be a bad guy. I'm like, 'I get it. This is so high brow and so f--king smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.' You know what? F-ck DC comics. That's all I have to say and that's where I'm really coming from."
-- As quoted in Moviehole interview
Attention, Batman; Iron Man says to tell you it's on!