{"id":133443,"date":"2017-11-26T09:04:22","date_gmt":"2017-11-26T14:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=133443"},"modified":"2017-11-26T15:09:32","modified_gmt":"2017-11-26T20:09:32","slug":"stuff-ive-been-reading-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=133443","title":{"rendered":"Stuff I’ve Been Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

— The great Wesley Morris with another slam-dunk, a piece I wish I had thought to write. But that’s why I love him so much: he writes stuff I’ve felt, in an inchoate unformed way, and he puts words to stuff that needs to be said: Who We Don\u2019t Talk About When We Talk About Weinstein<\/a>. An essay in celebration of the missed-opportunities of Annabella Sciorra’s career. He didn’t mention Reversal of Fortune<\/i>, but I love her in that too. I love his observation that she – unlike most young actresses today – clearly comes from somewhere specific. <\/p>\n

— My friend Dan Callahan’s extraordinary – and subtle and specific – analysis of Call Me By Your Name<\/i>: Redefining Masculinity: On Armie Hammer In \u2018Call Me By Your Name\u2019<\/a>. There’s a lot of really REALLY bad takes out there right now about this wonderful movie. You don’t have to like it but looping it into the Weinstein\/predator\/Roy Moore conversation is so dishonest and imbecilic and Victorian-era-tut-tutting that it shouldn’t be treated seriously. The “kid” in Call Me By Your Name<\/i> is of consenting age. My first relationship was with a guy in his early 20s when I was that age. My senior prom date was 21 years old. The relationship was a disaster but not because of the age difference. People are rightfully protective of young people who can’t consent. But this movie is not that story. Unfortunately, here we are. And telling people to calm the fuck down does not go over well. Hence, we need nuanced commentary like this. I’ve only seen the movie once, and Dan’s essay makes me want to see it again. He picked up on way more than I sensed, in particular with the kid’s mother. <\/p>\n

— Juggling five books at the moment. Reading in small spurts. Here are three of the books:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nThe Renoir biography in particular is phenomenal. One of the reading experiences of the year. <\/p>\n

— The War Against the Jews: 1933-1945<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by Lucy Davidowicz. Published in 1986, it is still one of the most exhaustive studies about the systematic and measured and premeditated persecution of the Jews once Hitler came to power, describing how THIS brand of anti-Semitism was quite a different thing from what had come the centuries before, where the Jews could get concessions, special status granted, all the rest. Her portrait of ghetto life is particularly strong. <\/p>\n

— Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, by Robert Kaplan. This is my commute read. I’ve written a lot<\/a> about Robert Kaplan’s impact on my life when I first discovered his Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History<\/a>\"\"<\/i> years ago. I can’t even express how much he’s opened up my perspective, how much I value him as a guide, even in those moments I think his take is clearly biased. (He makes no bones about it. He doesn’t pretend to be objective.) His travelogue\/reporting through basically every country on earth, reporting on life on the ground, interviewing government officials as well as authors, intellectuals, writers, teachers, NGO workers, cab drivers … gives a welcome perspective on places we in the US only hear about in news stories on page 5. I fell behind with my Kaplan reading for a bunch of years although I continued to buy his books. There is now a backlog on my shelves. In the last two years I read his two books about the different branches of the US military and what they are up to – how they operate – but since those books he’s come out with 5 more. I’m playing catchup now. Monsoon<\/i> is very good. Kaplan is hawkish in terms of American power, and senses the shift Eastward. Change is not to be fought against. It’s a losing battle. What does the future hold? How can we learn from the past? America has no past, not really, not compared to other Empires. He has the realism of a man who has been studying the rise and fall of Empires since he was a young man. Greece, Rome, Venice, Turkey, Oman, Persia … the storied histories of these ancient Empires informs how he understands the world now. He’s also a huge climate-change advocate and is extremely alarmed by what he sees as the catastrophic effects it will have on the Indian Ocean countries in particular. He has the perspective of millennia, not decades, not even centuries. He travels along all of the port cities on the shores of the Indian Ocean and all of the famous Bays and Canals, how crucial it is that the countries bordering these areas are stable, how will wars affect these passageway … It’s a Big Picture book, told in a small picture way, as he strolls along beaches, ports, talking to fishermen, dock workers, etc. I am loving it. I have a huge love for this writer. I am thankful for him. <\/p>\n

— Scott Eyman (whose biography of John Wayne was one of the most pleasurable things I’ve read in a good long while) reviews the first biography about director Michael Curtiz for the Wall Street Journal<\/a>. I can’t wait to read the book, but Eyman’s review is a knowledgeable and well-informed essay on Curtiz, and what made him unique. I notice, though, that there is no mention of King Creole<\/i>, starring Elvis. It’s a wonderful film. Elvis still don’t get no respect. Never fear: I am here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

— The great Wesley Morris with another slam-dunk, a piece I wish I had thought to write. But that’s why I love him so much: he writes stuff I’ve felt, in an inchoate unformed way, and he puts words to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,15,24,4],"tags":[2095,1492,2362,2099,422,2134],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133443"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133447,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133443\/revisions\/133447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=133443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=133443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}