Issue of June 9 & 16, 2008

June 9 & 16, 2008



Q. Bucky Fuller, genius or failure? Why? How does he compare to Edison or Ford? to Ray Bradbury or Arthur C. Clarke?

THE CRITICS
THE CURRENT CINEMA
“Sex and the City.”
Anthony Lane
Q. How does Lane know the plot before seeing the movie? Is his review viciously wicked or wickedly vicious? Does he "get" what the SatC urban myth is all about?

BOOKS
God and the problem of suffering.
James Wood
Q. What are JW's strongest points arguing that God is dead? Weakest? Should logic and rationality be applied to religion and belief?

Q. Is Auto-Tune a distortion of sound or is it just another color in a musician's palette? (to badly mix a metaphor) When was the last time you saw "ain't" in a NYer article?

ON TELEVISION
“Swingtown.”
Nancy Franklin

Q. Does NF consider "Swingtown" merely bad TV or is it "Craptastic!"? Or were the 70's just a bad time to be alive? Is she nostalgic? How does her review compare to Anthony Lane?