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Wednesday, December 23, 2020

2020 Is The Year Of The Kind Movie — And It Couldn’t Have Come At A Better Time, by Caroline Siede, Polygon

Kindness is a separate paradigm from genre, tone, or even basic ideas of good and evil. For instance, Superman and Captain America are Kind Heroes (at least, outside of Zack Snyder movies), while Batman and Iron Man aren’t, even though they’re all good guys. And Kind Movies are also distinct from comfort food, escapism, or guilty pleasures. Romantic comedies are my go-to feel-good viewing, but they aren’t always Kind Movies. (The Wedding Singer is, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days isn’t.) Kind Movies can feature moments of violence or tragedy, and they don’t necessarily have happy endings. The most important thing is that they view the world through a gentle, empathetic lens and largely center on gentle, well-meaning characters.

What Do We Want From Poetry In Times Of Crisis?, by Clare Bucknell, New Yorker

People aren’t always practical or philosophical in a crisis; sometimes they can be trivial. Anthologies allow them to be all three. “There’s a pandemic and I think my arms are fat,” Catherine Cohen writes. Truth-telling comes in many forms.

The Sound Mirror By Heidi James Review – An Exceptional, Intimate Voice, by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, The Guardian

This might be called a hauntological novel, in the way James points powerfully to the spectres, ranging from childbirth to sexual violence, that have long haunted women and continue to echo through our experiences. This profoundly moving work with the propulsion of a thriller merits a wide readership.

Book Review: Tracing A Terminated Relationship’s Lingering, Intimate Moments, by Michelle Cyca, Vancouver Sun

Through his precise prose, he conjures the inarticulable emotions of longing and heartbreak. If you have ever been young and in love, this book will transport you there again.

Uncovering Lost Black History, Stone By Stone, by Jennifer Schuessler, New York Times

History can seem thick on the ground in this quaint, prosperous town of 2,000 in semirural central New Jersey, not far from where Washington crossed the Delaware. A cemetery on the main street holds a grand obelisk honoring John Hart, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Next to it stands a monument topped by a stone on which another patriot stood to give a fiery speech supporting the cause of liberty.

But one afternoon in late summer, a group from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia drove right past those landmarks, and followed a winding road up to a burial ground with a different story to tell.

Want The Good Life? This Philosopher Suggests Learning From Cats., by Jennifer Szalai, New York Times

An uncertain fate awaits the most bracing and contrarian writers: Will the insights they offer still come across as stingingly original if the disillusion they so often recommend becomes commonplace?

I was thinking about this while reading John Gray’s peculiar new book, “Feline Philosophy,” the latest in a provocative oeuvre that has spanned four decades and covered subjects including Al Qaeda, global capitalism and John Stuart Mill.

The Ten Categories Of Being Believed By Aristotle, by Ursula Whitcher, Liminality

1. You are complimenting Aristotle’s brilliance.
2. You are Alexander, and you are complimenting Aristotle’s brilliance.

Utopian, by Alicia Suskin Ostriker. Literary Hub

My neighbor’s daughter has created a city
you cannot see