Steal These Lines
No television show loved language more than HBO’s Deadwood, but that statement comes with a caveat: It was not particularly quotable.
Tagged: Al Swearengen, David Milch, Deadwood, HBO, Language, Television
Language
Agonizing Anticipation
“He braced himself for this big fucking scream.” That’s the final sentence of James Ellroy’s American Tabloid, the first book in the “Underwold USA” trilogy that concluded with the release of Blood’s a Rover last week. It’s hard to believe that more than 14 years passed between these novels, because the memory of reading that line the first time feels a lot fresher than 1995. It’s nearly seared into my brain.
“Film Critics Seem to Have a Greater Sense of Community”
So it was written, and I agreed. On the other hand … .
Tagged: Critics, Language, Self-Involvement, Writers
The Private Language of Monkeys
We were in the play area of the department store – most likely building things with Legos – and two girls were taking great delight in excluding me. They were speaking a language I didn’t understand, and it wasn’t exactly a private conversation. They would glance my way during their exchange and occasionally laugh. I felt mocked, which was exactly what they wanted. They were speaking Pig Latin, I figured out later. Of course, Pig Latin is only effective as a private language through a certain age, but we update and upgrade our codes throughout our lives.
Tagged: David Mamet, Language, Self-Involvement
Condensed Culture Snob
To break away from The Dark Knight, here’s a Culture Snob essay that’s been distilled by Wordle.
Tagged: Jeff Bridges, Language, Self-Involvement, Tim Robbins, Wordle
Confusing Headline of the Week
Man Offered 11-Year-Old Tickets for Sex. If the tickets were 11 years old, who would want them?
Tagged: Language, Making a Mockery
Simple Is Not Easy
Singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer tells about a friend who leads a group of people who knit for the local food bank. They’ll set up somewhere and knit with a sign that reads, “Knitting for the Food Bank.” “People will come and talk to them,” Newcomer said in a phone interview last week. “Folks who might not maybe go up to someone on the corner and talk to somebody who has a sign will sit down with a group of women knitting and talk about the issue. ‘What’s happening with the food bank?'” The lesson is that directness often isn’t the best way to reach people. “Sometimes our most powerful activism, our most potent activism, comes out of what we love,” she said.
Tagged: Activism, Carrie Newcomer, Folk Music, Interviews, Language
An Early Contender for Sentence of the Year
Nominated for its brevity, its simplicity, its expressiveness, and its sonic shape: “They’d boo free pie.”
Tagged: Language
Movie Critics Suck: Exhibit A
In the magazine Cinema Scope, David Bordwell demonstrates how a lack of specific examples undermines a potentially intriguing argument.
Tagged: Critics, David Bordwell, Language
Inflammatory Acclamatories*
Jim Emerson twice recently has addressed our cultural tendency to be lazy with language, particularly in marketing movies.
Tagged: Jim Emerson, Language
