Driving Blind: The Humanities Die and Superman Returns
Digby argues that MSNBC’s ratings aren’t down because of quality issues, but rather that a large part of its liberal base is currently alienated and indifferent.
Some are defending the humanities against digital aggression, or something, while others continue to tout the value of dreams, and falling them, and so on.
It’s still graduation season, so more commencement addresses are in the pipeline.
Some are defending the humanities against digital aggression, or something, while others continue to encourage another generation of unfettered solipsism.
Erik Loomis points to corporate capitalism as the humanities biggest threat.
Meanwhile, the MOOCs are at the gates, even if some think they aren’t a substitute for what’s on the other side.
What does the Crimson survey of Harvard grads say about the generation of elites who came of age under President Obama?
And what do those who just graduated do with their lives now? Jim Behrle explores the question—an entertaining exercise in futility.
Can some media be bad for the spirit? An essay on taking responsibility for the art and entertainment we consume.
Creativity sped up.
The marketing art for Scott Snyder and Jim Lee’s “Superman Unchained” is out. The limited series is meant to coincide with Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. By any measure it should also probably be called something different.
Kit MacFarlane argues for a version of Superman that doesn’t entirely eschew the character’s anachronistic origins and ideals.
Meanwhile an early creation of Grant Morrison is coming back to print with a new $100 compilation set to release this December.
Much more affordable are the 1941-1985 letters of Italo Calvino which Ian Thomson recently reviewed.
The cookbook as literature: a listicle of works that bridge the two genres.
Is there a relationship between top marginal rates and income inequality?
Google is messing with Gmail again.
The used video game market is a lot more complicated than it might at first appear.
But that hasn’t stopped some people from welcoming its possible extinction.
Also, video games are full of tropes and many of them are sexist.
MSNBC can’t pull an audience because it won’t get beyond the cheap-ass Roundtable Discussions with the Usual Suspects. What the hell are they thinking?
If I ever see ol’ Rev. Sharpton again, it will be too soon.
And Ed Schultz, everyone’s favourite loquacious dipsomaniac from down at that crappy bar where the old duffers wax maudlin about the days when the unions were cranking out cars that broke down so often every gas station needed a mechanic. At least Ed’s been shuffled off to the weekend.
Rachel Maddow’s schtick is gettin’ Kinda Old. Snark is a spice, not a main ingredient.
If MSNBC wanted to get Liberals to start watching again, they’d bring in some of the producers from PBS Frontline and do some serious reporting. Less filler, more substance. Liberals have moved out to the Internet for most of their substantive opinion. Do what TV does best: bear witness, not trot out opinions.Report
Right, because fact-filled documentaries always draw high ratings.Report
Last time Anita Sarkessian (sp?) came up on this blog, I noted that the idea of rescuing a damsal in distress is a very old and compelling one for men and women despites its problems. I think that a lot of the problematic tropes in popular culture, video games, comic books, movies, are because the media aims for a broad rather than elite audience. Its given the audience what they want and more than a few men have fantasies about rescuing a girl/woman and getting romance/sex for their efforts. Many women also have romantic and sexual fantasies that are somewhat anti-feminist as the romance novel industry or 50 Shades of Grey demonstrate.
There isn’t a good way to deal with this problem. Previous elites attempted to deal with the problem by censorship, by having the creators of culture conform to the proper ideology even if it went against the desires of the masses. Religious elites did this, Communists did this, and even we Americans did this with the Hayes Code and Comics Code. This hasn’t worked. The other solution, hoping that people will be responsible about their popular culture consumption is not going to happen.
I think we that we are going to have to live with the fact that a lot of people have some rather problematic fantasies.Report
Alienated/indifferent makes sense, kinda. I mean if you wanted to agitate against (insert illiberal Obama policy here), you’d find yourself with bedfellows strange enough to make you just want to stay home in the first place.Report