Man, what happened to intellectual discourse in our country?

Why is being an intellectual considered a crime?

What happened to the days when Sontag, Chomsky, Vidal, Mailer, Germaine Greer, Kate Millet, Joan Didion, and Hannah Arendt would be on the late night chat shows?

What the flip happened?

************

I was just watching HBO's latest doc triumph, The 50 Year Argument, directed by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi, which is about the history of the New York Review of Books.

(I do not read the New York Review of Books nearly enough.  I generally only buy it when I am in superb indie bookstores -- which is nearly never now.  The last one I bought was at Shakespeare & Company in Paris! In April!)

Anyhoo, the very fine documentary just made me pine for the 60s and 70s when so many of this nation's greatest thinkers would not only appear in print, but were eager to do television, as well.

The 50 Year Argument then led me to the above full length feature film, Town Bloody Hall.  That film is bloody brilliant.  It is Norman Mailer versus a half dozen leading feminists (and Susan Sontag, in the crowd), and a thousand or so other women in the crowd with Sontag.

You can watch The 50 Year Argument on HBO or HBOGo, and Town Bloody Hall on YouTube.  Great stuff.

Still, what the fuck happened, man? Why is it all FoxNews and Housewives of Wherever now that rule our media world?

From Andy Warhol's "Screen Test" for Susan Sontag

--Ardent (mds)

Even one of my heroes, Susan Sontag, eventually,

In her later years, came around to the belief that content could be as important as style.

Susan Sontag (1933 - 2004)

I have not reached that point yet.  The sensuousness and erotic power of art still hold more sway for me than form or content.

But, I wonder.  Is Ms Sontag's progression and 'conversion' one that generally happens to most people? Is it akin to 'finding religion' or becoming more conservative politically in your later years?

Will this happen to me?

More Women Michael Loves AND A Crucial Book

I am currently working on another massive movie roundup that would include my thoughts on the two latest Godard films that I treasure, Weekend and Vivre sa vie.

And, I can not tell you how tempting it is to get my copy of Against Interpretation off the book shelf, and read Ms Sontag's very famous words on Godard and Vivre sa vie.

But, I will not.  At least, until I publish my review, as such.

Actually, I have read Ms Sontag's essay probably a number of times before, but, as I had never seen the film until recently, none of the words or thoughts have been in even the slightest way retained by me.

************

Anyhoo, that is all I have for today.  Hopefully will see Amour sometime soon with the Wife.  I love you all, and everyone have a fantabulous (wow! they did not indicate a spelling issue w/ fantabulous!? It is a real word?) Saturday and Weekend.  (Ha ha.)

Here is Ms Sontag, a Woman Michael Truly Loves.

And here is the book she wrote that changed my life.

Mwah, ... 

I am working on an epic

Post, mostly aboot Peter Sellers and Roger Lewis.  That post is still nowhere near for publication, frustratingly.

In the meantime, I would strongly urge you to read two articles in the most recent Atlantic magazine.  One is by Caitlin Flanagan (normally not a big fave of mine), entitled, The Hazards of Duke (splendid title! Give that intern/copy writer/editor a raise!)  The article, actually a review of a frickin' PowerPoint that Duke student, Karen Owen, "shared" w/ three of her friends, and has thusly become a lightning-rod for feminists; the execrable, Megyn Kelly at Fox News; and others is essential reading.


But so is the article/review right after it.  That is called Hard Core and it is by Natasha Vargas-Cooper.  This article/review is about how pornography is stripping bare the notion that men and women are the same, that a heterosexual "contract" for sex is ultimately a bust.  My ears were buzzing as I read because not just a week ago I gleefully listened to Fran Lebowitz talk about how facts are facts, much as we would not like to admit it, women are different than men, especially when it comes to sex.  The article is crucial but was the tiniest bit creepy to me personally.  Ms Vargas-Cooper in her article, quotes Martin Amis (from Yellow Dog!), Susan Sontag, & Pauline Kael.  


Uh, those are three of my all-time favorite authors and I still believe that I am one of the dozen or so on the planet that thinks Yellow Dog is a good novel.  


The Atlantic is still good.  Not as good as it was even a few years ago but it is like Spy in the sense, that for me, I always go to the back pages first, looking for Sandra Tsing Loh or reviews like these two I have mentioned here.  In Spy, I always went straight to Review of Reviewers.  

Karen Owen, part of her infamous PowerPoint.

Plus, maybe that means I will get a Tsing Loh review/article next month.

Here it frickin' is:  The PowerPoint.