Brian Williams has offended many with his invocation of the ‘beauty’ of the weapons fired into Syria on Thursday. But he is right: war and its weapons are beautiful, and we are surrounded by them; we succumb all to easily to their embrace, to the clarion call of war, precisely because we find them beautiful. AsContinue reading “Brian Williams Is Right: War Is Beautiful, And We Are Fascinated By It”
Tag Archives: public spectacles
Politics As Spectator Sport In A Nation That Would Call Its Dictator ‘Coach’
It had to come to this: a ‘presidential debate’ would become as television-friendly as sports, that shadow-boxing encounters replete with campaign trail inanities and evasions would be reckoned the political-show equivalent of a honest-to-goodness fifteen-round heavyweight championship bout (with figurative seconds and blood buckets close at hand.) These allusions and analogies which have retained theirContinue reading “Politics As Spectator Sport In A Nation That Would Call Its Dictator ‘Coach’”
Goin’ to the Movies
Last December, I found myself stumped by a simple enough question: When was the last time you went to see a movie in a theater? Some ten hours later, I remembered: Terence Maillick’s _Tree of Life_ at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (I cannot remember the exact date). A few days later, I returned toContinue reading “Goin’ to the Movies”
Samir Chopra 