Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Resources for September 30, 2014




"Soldier’s Heart: Remembering Jacob George, Afghan War Vet Turned Peace Activist Who Took Own Life." Democracy Now (September 29, 2014)

Streitfeld, David. "Literary Lions Unite in Protest Over Amazon’s E-Book Tactics." The New York Times (September 29, 2014)

Bynes, Patricia. "Ferguson Unrest Continues as Police Accused of Incitement & Michael Brown’s Killer Remains Free." Democracy Now (September 29, 2014)


The concept of the common good is for [Noam] Chomsky is at the core of classical liberalism and of Enlightenment thinking, and one of its proponents (whose name is most often invoked to uphold contemporary capitalist practices—testament to our ignorance of his work) is Adam Smith. Like Aristotle, Smith understood that upholding the common good requires substantial intervention to assure lasting prosperity of the poor by distribution of public revenues. Common good also requires that we measure the effects of contemporary capitalist practices, including the division of labor, lest we fall prey to its nefarious effects; on this Smith said that the division of labor “will turn working people into objects as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to be.” The antidote was government action, which should be initiated to overcome devastating market forces (113-114). -- Barsky, Robert F. The Chomsky Effect: A Radical Works Beyond the Ivory Tower. Cambridge, MA: The MIT press, 2007


"Dig deeper into Sidney Lumet’s Serpico." Cinephilia and Beyond (2014)





Bernstein, Jake. "Inside the New York Fed: Secret Recordings and a Culture Clash." Pro Publica (September 26, 2014) ["A confidential report and a fired examiner’s hidden recorder penetrate the cloistered world of Wall Street’s top regulator — and its history of deference to banks."]





Dillard, Clayton. "Jaimey Fisher's Christian Petzold." (January 12, 2014)

Murphy, J.J. "Spring Breakers." J.J. Murphy on Independent Cinema (January 1, 2014)


The Art of Editing in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from Max Tohline on Vimeo.




Fisher, Max. "The protests in Hong Kong, explained in 2 minutes." Vox (September 29, 2014)

Murphy, J.J. "Frances Ha." J.J. Murphy on Independent Cinema (January 8, 2014)


Monday, September 29, 2014

Spring Breakers (USA: Harmony Korine, 2012)



Spring Breakers (USA: Harmony Korine, 2012: 94 mins)

Brody, Richard. "The Life Lessons of Spring Breakers." The New Yorker (ND)

Cooper, Julia. "Radical Intimacies: Harmony Korine’s Gummo and Spring Breakers." cléo 1.1 (April 1, 2013)

de Villiers, Jacques. "When Korine Filmed Culkin:(Dis)placing the Child Star in Sunday." Senses of Cinema #69 (December 2013)

Ellis, Marc. "The Life Lessons of Spring Breakers." The New Yorker (March 18, 2013)

Murphy, J.J. "Spring Breakers." J.J. Murphy on Independent Cinema (January 1, 2014)

Prickett, Sarah Nicolle. "Introduction: No Carries, no Samanthas, no Charlottes, no Mirandas." The New Inquiry (April 27, 2013) [at the site there are a series of "responses to the film"







Resources for September 29, 2014




Hussain, Murtaza. "How the U.S. Concocted a Terror Threat to Justify Syria Strikes, and the Corporate Media Went Along." Democracy Now (September 29, 2014)




Potter, Gary. "Militarized Police and Urban Colonies." Uprooting Criminology (January 20, 2014)

Hudson, David. Bardot @ 80: “‘Ban Bardot!’ advocated the morality leagues as if she were some kind of illegal drug.” Keyframe (September 28, 2014)

Kohn, Eric. "Was Richard Linklater's 12 Year Production 'Boyhood' Worth the Wait? In a Word, Yes." Indiewire (January 20, 2014)

Wertz, Peter. "Amarcord (1973)." Wertz of Wisdom (March 10, 2014)

Kizirian, Shari. "On the Street Where He Lives: Kleber Mendonça Filho films locally, stirs globally with Neighboring Sounds." Keyframe (January 13, 2014)

Bell, Anthea and George Prochnik. "The Cultural Redemption of Stefan Zweig." The Bat Segundo Show #550 (September 17, 2014)


rapier \RAY-pee-er\

adjective
: extremely sharp or keen
EXAMPLES

The wit and keen insight found in her blog are a testament to her rapier mind.

"Mr. Brady was a veteran Republican aide and a popular figure among Washington journalists. He was equipped with a rapier wit and a buoyant charm that tended to defuse controversy even before he began working for the White House in January 1981." — Jon Thurber, The Washington Post, August 5, 2014

A rapier is a straight, two-edged sword with a narrow pointed blade, designed especially for thrusting. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, "the long rapier was beautifully balanced, excellent in attack, and superb for keeping an opponent at a distance." The word itself, which we borrowed in the 16th century, is from Middle French rapiere. The first time that rapier was used as an adjective in its figurative "cutting" sense, it described a smile: "Who can bear a rapier smile? A kiss that dooms the soul to death?" ("The Lover's Lament" by Sumner Lincoln Fairfield, 1824). The adjective these days most commonly describes wit—an association that dates to the 1850s.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Resources for September 27, 2014

"The Purpose And The Pretence - Bombing Isis." Media Lens (September 24, 2014)

Saunders, Kevin and Stephen Torrence. "The Right to [Redacted]." Bad Philosophy #155 (September 5, 2014) ["Do we have a fundamental right to be forgotten on the Internet? Would the exercise of that right constitute censorship? How do these considerations intersect with our notions of privacy and security?"]


"Following the views of Paul Ricoeur and David Carr, I argue that our life is best understood as the product of our own narration: we account for the meaning of our lives in the terms of a story about what we have done and who we plan to be, selectively emphasizing and interpreting life's events into a unified whole, like the plot of a novel. If this view is correct, and I believe there is good reason to think it is, then the creation of a meaningful life and the imposition of meaning on the world around us is a creative process that is not dissimilar to the creation of a film. Films are realistic, I contend, not because they reflect the world the way it really is, but because they reflect the world the way we experience it - as a process of choosing among narratives we inherit from our cultural traditions and finding, or creating, our own reading of events. In short, films are realistic portrayals of how we encounter life in the one aspect that is crucial for this book: the way in which we establish meaning (5)." -- Pamerleau, William C. Existentialist Cinema. NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.


Ginsburg, Sarah. "Anatomy of the Filmmaker: Varda, the Maysles, Blank and Timoner." Keyframe (September 25, 2014) ["An infographical take on the philosophies, approaches and technological habits of a few key documentary heroes."]

Drucker, Johanna. "Pixel Dust: Illusions of Innovation in Scholarly Publishing." LA Review of Books (January 16, 2014)





Bordwell, David. "How to tell a movie story: Mr. Stahr will see you now." Observations on Film Art (January 5, 2014)





Tracz, Tamara. Beau Travail Senses of Cinema (February 2007)


Merriam-Webster Word-of-the-Day:

fainéant \fay-nay-AHN\

adjective: idle and ineffectual : indolent
EXAMPLES

Deanna's parents warned her not to become fainéant during the summer; even if she didn't want to work, she should travel or volunteer somewhere.

"We go on, Beckett-like, enacting the rituals that define existence, trapped in an existential spiral, too fainéant to change, ... doomed to repeat the same mistakes and fall into the same situations." — David Krasner, A History of Modern Drama, 2011

You've probably guessed that fainéant was borrowed from French; it derives from fait-nient, which literally means "does nothing," and ultimately traces back to the verb faindre, or feindre, meaning "to feign." (The English word feign is also descended from this verb, as are faint and feint.) Fainéant first appeared in print in the early 17th century as a noun meaning "an irresponsible idler," and by 1854 it was also being used as an adjective. As its foreignness suggests, fainéant tends to be used when the context calls for a fancier or more elegant word than inactive or sluggish.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Resources for September 25, 2014

Marsh, Calum. "Josh and Benny Safdie on Heaven Knows What: Speaking of drama, time, street life and strange attractions: ‘You’re constantly flirting with death.’" Keyframe (September 23, 2014)





Orr, Christopher. "Raising Arizona: Come for the infant abduction, stay for the yodeling." The Atlantic (September 9, 2014)

Nichols, John. "Barbara Lee Still Speaks: Arguing That Congress Must Declare Wars." The Nation (September 24, 2014)

Gomez-Peña, Guillermo. Dangerous Border Crossers: The Artist Talks Back. NY: Routledge, 2000.

Hudson, David. "Almodóvar @ 65: Assessments of the oeuvre and, of course, a lively supercut." Keyframe (September 24, 2014)

Orr, Christopher. "Miller's Crossing: An overdue love letter to the extraordinary meta gangster movie." The Atlantic (September 10, 2014)





Greenwald, Glenn. "Syria Becomes the 7th Predominantly Muslim Country Bombed by 2009 Nobel Peace Laureate." The Intercept (September 23, 2014)

Healy, Jack. "In Colorado, a Student Counterprotest to an Anti-Protest Curriculum." The New York Times (September 24, 2014)

Perl, Jed. "The Cult of Jeff Koons." The New York Review of Books (September 25, 2014)


Merriam-Webster Word-of-the-Day:

palaver \puh-LAV-er\

noun 1 : a long discussion or meeting usually between persons of different cultures or levels of sophistication; 2 a: idle talk, b: misleading or beguiling speech
EXAMPLES

"I don't know how you can stand to listen to that palaver," said Rachel, as she switched off the talk show her brother had been listening to on the radio.

"The violinist Geoff Nuttall now directs the series, with a more contemporary sensibility in both programming and in the often corny introductory palaver carried over from the Wadsworth era." — James R. Oestreich, The New York Times, June 4, 2014

During the 18th century, Portuguese and English sailors often met during trading trips along the West African coast. This contact prompted the English to borrow the Portuguese palavra, which usually means "speech" or "word" but was used by Portuguese traders with the specific meaning "discussions with natives." The Portuguese word traces back to the Late Latin parabola, a noun meaning "speech" or "parable," which in turn comes from the Greek parabolē, meaning "juxtaposition" or "comparison."

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Resources for September 24, 2014

"Members of Pussy Riot Launch Independent News Service in Russia." Voice Project (September 4, 2014)

Cronk, Jordan. "Mean Streets." Reverse Shot (September 19, 2014)







Orr, Christopher. "Burn After Reading: Sex farce masquerades as a spy flick in the brothers' blackest comedy." The Atlantic (September 30, 2014)





I disagree with everything you say, but I shall fight to the death for your right to say it -- Voltaire (1694-1778)


'As we are told endlessly, journalists do not express opinions; they simply report the facts. ... 'This is an obvious pretense, a conceit of the profession. The perceptions and pronouncements of human beings are inherently subjective. Every news article is the product of all sorts of highly subjective cultural, nationalistic, and political assumptions. And all journalism serves one faction's interests or another.' (Greenwald, Glenn. No Place To Hide, 2014, p.471)


Orr, Christopher. "Blood Simple: Revisiting the lethal cunning of the filmmakers’ debut." The Atlantic (September 8, 2014)


Merriam-Webster Word-of-the-Day

teleological \tel-ee-uh-LAH-jih-kul\

adjective: exhibiting or relating to design or purpose especially in nature

EXAMPLES:

At dinner, Sandra and Miguel debated whether or not the complex structure of the human eye implied a teleological origin.

"There is also something of a teleological aspect to all this urbanization hoopla, one that suggests that man was put on this planet to shop at Whole Foods." — Lionel Beehner, USA Today, February 25, 2014

Teleological (which comes to us by way of New Latin from the Greek root tele-, telos, meaning "end or purpose") and its close relative teleology both entered English in the 18th century, followed by teleologist in the 19th century. Teleology has the basic meaning of "the study of ends or purposes." A teleologist attempts to understand the purpose of something by looking at its results. A teleological philosopher might argue that we should judge whether an act is good or bad by seeing if it produces a good or bad result, and a teleological explanation of evolutionary changes claims that all such changes occur for a definite purpose.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Resources for September 23, 2014

Burke, Al. "Murdering Language In the Name of the Law: The Strange Case of Julian Assange and the Swedish Prosecutor." The Lexander Magazine (September 12, 2014)




Flaherty, Colleen. "A House Divided." Inside Higher Ed (September 22, 2014)





Greenwald, Glenn. "Australia’s Prime Minister gives a master class in exploiting terrorism fears to seize new powers." The Intercept (September 22, 2014)

"UN Panel Discussion on Use of Drones in Military Operations – Featuring CCR’s Pardiss Kebriaei." Center for Constitutional Rights (September 22, 2014)

"The Movies 50 Greatest Pop Music Moments." The Dissolve (2014)

Brody, Richard. "Hitchcock and the Holocaust." The New Yorker (January 9, 2014)

Appignanesi, Lisa. "The Assassination of Hilary Mantel." The Guardian ("The attacks on the Assassination of Margaret Thatcher author show how vital it is to keep the thought police at bay.")


Merriam Webster Word-of-the-Day

esurient \ih-SUR-ee-unt\

adjective: hungry, greedy

EXAMPLES

No one was surprised that the esurient media mogul planned to expand his empire into the social-media marketplace.

"She sat opposite him …, as plump and indifferent to his presence as an old tabby cat whose esurient eye was wholly focused on a particularly toothsome mouse." — Pamela Aidan, An Assembly Such as This: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman, 2006

If you’re hungry for a new way to express your hunger, you might find that esurient suits your palate. Be forewarned, however, that when used literally esurient has a humorous flavor. This somewhat obscure word first appeared in English in the second half of the 17th century, deriving from the present participle of the Latin verb esurire, meaning "to be hungry." It is also related to edere, the Latin verb for "eat," which has given us such scrumptious fare as edible and its synonyms esculent and comestible. Esurient can be used somewhat playfully to suggest an actual hunger for food, but it is more often applied to such things as wealth or power. In the latter contexts, it takes on the connotation of greedy.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Resources for September 21, 2014

Nacpil, Lidy, et al. "A People’s Climate Movement: Indigenous, Labor, Faith Groups Prepare for Historic March." Democracy Now (September 19, 2014)

"Livestream: People's Climate March." Democracy Now (September 21, 2014)

Foderaro, Lisa. "At Climate Change March in New York, a Clarion Call for Action." The New York Times (September 21, 2014)




Durodié, Bill, Sibel Edmonds, and Rebecca Gordon. "Social Destabilization Tactics Post 1989 (The Terrifying Business of the War On Terror)." Unwelcome Guests #694 (August 23, 2014)

Romney, Jonathan. "Film of the Week: God Help the Girl." Film Comment (January 17, 2014)

Newman, Kim. "Guardians of the Galaxy: Marvel calls up its reserve superheroes for a rambunctious outer-space caper." Sight and Sound (August 21, 2014)

Cheney, Matthew. "What is Composition?" Press Play (September 2, 2014)

Shaviro, Steven. "A Brief Remark on Zero Dark Thirty." The Pinocchio Theory (January 18, 2013)

Blueford, Jeralynn, et al. "No Justice, No Peace: Families of Police Brutality Victims Speak Out." We are Many (June 2014) ["Police brutality is a growing epidemic in the United States. Every day there is a story of beatings and killings perpetrated by cops, most often, but not exclusively, perpetrated against youth of color. This panel looks at not only some of the cases and what they tell us about the nature of policing in the US today, but also discusses the struggles of families, friends, and activists for the real justice that is so elusive in this country."]

Mandarino, Grant. "Photography and Marxism." We are Many (June 26, 2014) ["This talk provides an introductory overview of critical approaches to the subject of photography over the course of the 20th century, with particular attention paid to the question: How do photographs shape our experience of the world? The presentation focuses on how Marxists have dealt with this medium and its ability to harness or subvert ideological positions both in practice and theory."]


Thursday, September 18, 2014

Hearts and Minds (USA: Peter Davis, 1974)



Hearts and Minds (USA: Peter Davis, 1974: 112 mins)

Anderegg, Michael A. Inventing Vietnam: The War in Film and Television. Temple University Press, 1991.

Brigham, Robert K. "Hearts and Minds: The Human Connection." Current (June 24, 2014)

Canby, Vincent. "Hearts and Minds: A Film Study of Power." The New York Times (March 24, 1975)

Crist, Judith. "Hearts and Minds: The Right Side of History." Current (June 23, 2014)

Davis, Peter. "Hearts and Minds: Vietnam and Memory." Current (June 17, 2014)

---. "On Hearts and Minds." Documentary is Never Neutral (No Date)

---. "Remembering Bert Schneider." Current (June 30, 2014)

Dittmar, Linda and Michaud, Gene. From Hanoi to Hollywood: The Vietnam War in American Film. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1990.

Fonda, Jane. "Terror and Trauma." The Guardian (November 18, 2005)

Glennon, Michael J. "National Security and Double Government." Harvard National Security Journal 5.1 (2014)

Herring, George C. "Hearts and Minds: A Historical Context." Current (June 25, 2014)

Landau, Saul. "Hearts and Minds: An American Film Trial." Jump Cut #8 (1975)

Long, Ngo Vinh. "Hearts and Minds: Moving the Poeple." Current (June 27, 2014)

Ramirez, Jorge Luis. "The Depiction of Military Culture in Hearts and Minds." Trinity University (2006)

Schwartz, Larry. "Inside the Body of a War Zone." The Age (September 13, 2007)

Stetler, Karen. "Unused Footage from Hearts and Minds." Current (June 26, 2014)

Tallent, Charles. "Hearts and Minds: Analysis of War Propaganda and Dehumanization." Trinity University (2006)

Turse, Nick. "Kill Anything That Moves: New Book Exposes Hidden Crimes of the War Kerry, Hagel Fought in Vietnam." Democracy Now (January 15, 2013)





Resources for September 18, 2014




Kemp, Philip. "The Grand Budapest Hotel: Fanciful fabrication, fanatical detail and an undertone of rue combine in Wes Anderson’s most complete Sachertorte yet." Sight and Sound (March 7, 2014)

Byers, Christine. "Grand Jury Now Has Until January to Decide Whether to Charge a Ferguson Officer." St Louis Post Dispatch (September 15, 2014)





McDermot, Jim. "U.S. Ground Troops Back in Iraq? General Hints Broader Military Effort May Be Needed to Fight ISIS." Democracy Now (September 17, 2014)

Bragg, Billy and Sam Wetherell. "Debate: Should Scotland Vote for Independence?" Democracy Now (September 17, 2014)

Krzywinska, Tanya. "Transgression, transformation and titillation Jaromil Jireš's : Valerie a týden divů (Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, 1970)." Kino-Eye (September 15, 2003)

Lelyveld, Joseph. "Hillary." The New York Review of Books (September 25, 2014)

Brody, Richard. "Kiarostami's Like Someone in Love." The New Yorker (February 15, 2013)

Viola Critics Round Up (Ongoing Archive)

Sphinx Academy 2014/2015 Letterboxd Responses

Catherine H. (#1)

Morgan W. (#1)

Salma E. (#1)

Monday, September 15, 2014

Resources for September 15, 2014

Stranger by the Lake (France: Alain Guiraudie, 2013)

Ahmed, Nafeez. "How the West Created the Islamic State." TruthOut (September 14, 2014)


Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, Julian Assange, and more -- starts at 21:40



Shared by KV:









Knight, Nika. "Back to School: Interview of Diane Ravitch." Guernica (September 15, 2014) ["The former assistant secretary of education grapples with the school-reform movement and the systemic issues that plague American education."]

Fox, Brad. "There is No Real Life: Interview of Aleksandar Hemon." Guernica (March 15, 2013) ["The MacArthur "Genius" on willful delusions, the ego’s limit, and the stories we tell to make sense of experience."]

Kurtzleben, Danielle. "41 maps (and charts) that explain the Midwest." Vox (September 15, 2014)

Fang, Lee. "Who Pays the Pro-War Pundits? Conflicts of Interest Exposed for TV Guests Backing Military Action." Democracy Now (September 15, 2014)

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Stranger By the Lake (France: Alain Guiraudie, 2013)

Resources for September 14, 2014

Reed, Kayla. "Japan’s Guardians Of The Galaxy ads have way more raccoons and trees." AV Club (September 12, 2014)

Marsh, Calum. "The Color Wheel: Confronting the Modern Condition." Keyframe (January 17, 2014)

Pinkerton, Nick. "New York’s Alright If You Like Saxophones: Permanent Vacation." Reverse Shot (Summer 2005)

Axemaker, Sean. "Send in THE CLOWNS: Fellini’s documentary pageant of the great clowns of Italy, France, and Britain is also a wake for the end of the circus clown era." Keyframe (January 10, 2014)

Risselada, Brian, Josh Ryan and Max Slobodin. "Shane Carruth." Syndromes and a Cinema #6 (December 8, 2013) ["... the films of Shane Carruth, an American director who also wrote, produced, edited, composed the score for, and acted in both of his two films Primer (2004) and Upstream Color (2013)."]

Risselada, Brian and Josh Ryan. "Miklós Jancsó." Syndromes and a Century #7 (February 13, 2014) ["... the films of acclaimed Hungarian director Miklós Jancsó who passed away on January 31, 2014 at the age of 92. In particular we look at his films My Way Home (1964), The Round-Up (1965) and The Red and the White (1967)."]

Tupitsyn, Masha. "On Robert Bresson." Necessary Fiction (January 8, 2014)

Clark, Ashley. "An Oversimplification of Her Beauty: A dazzling, deliquescent, take-this-heart love movie." Sight and Sound (March 2014)

Cutler, Aaron. "Film Noir: An Interview with Imogen Sara Smith." The Moviegoer (December 20, 2013)

Walters, Ben. "Stranger By the Lake - Lakeside cruising and what lies beneath: a spellbinding erotic mystery from French writer-director Alain Guiraudie." Sight and Sound (March 2014)

Friday, September 12, 2014

Resources for September 12. 2014




Francke, Katherine and Kristofer Petersen-Overton. "University of Illinois Urged to Reinstate Professor Steven Salaita, Critic of Israeli War in Gaza." Democracy Now (September 8, 2014)





O'Hara, Jay, Sam Sutter, and Ken Ward, Jr. "Exclusive: DA Joins the 2 Climate Activists He Declined to Prosecute, Citing Climate Change Threat." Democracy Now (September 10, 2014)


Karr, Tim. "Internet Slowdown: Online Protest Warns Users of What’s to Come if Net Neutrality Rules Redrawn." Democracy Now (September 9, 2014)

Kazatchkine, Michel and Ethan Nadelmann. "As Pot Decriminalization Advances in U.S., Former World Leaders Call for End to Failed War on Drugs." Democracy Now (September 10, 2014)





Battle for the Net

Benton, Michael Dean. ""Be Me, for Awhile" -- Ideological Becoming and Future Objectivity in Let the Right One In." (2009) Dialogic Cinephilia (September 12, 2014)





Wexler, Haskell. "James Foley on the Dehumanization of War: Acclaimed Filmmaker Haskell Wexler Shares 2012 Interview." Democracy Now (September 12, 2014)

Efrati, Eran. "The Untold Story of the Shejaiya Massacre in Gaza: A Former Israel Soldier Speaks Out." Democracy Now (September 12, 2014)

Michael Dean Benton: "Be Me, for Awhile" -- Ideological Becoming and Future Objectivity in Let the Right One In

"Be Me, for Awhile": Ideological Becoming and Future Objectivity in Let the Right One In
by Michael Dean Benton (2009)

[As for the controversy of the altered English translation on the current Magnolia DVD consult Icons of Frights thorough analysis and Jeffrey Wells conclusion that it is a case of the continual dumbing-it-down for the American consumer. My inclination is that all Magnolia and Magnet film releases should be considered problematic.]



I'm working a lot with Bakhtin's conception of the dialogical process of ideological becoming, so I am always fascinated by how people learn new ways of "being-in-the-world". Last night I watched Let the Right One In (Sweden: Tomas Alfredson, 2008) and later while sleeping I awoke from a powerful dream in which the images of the film were circulating with the words of Bakhtin. Here is what I wrote down:

Film (or, if you prefer, art) can be a tool that allows us to step into the shoes of beings we do not know and for a time wonder how they may perceive the world. International film provides us with a plurality of voices (polylogical discourse) that can provide important counters to the dominant (possibly controlling) narratives of our own culture and/or perspectives. My critique of films, then, always involves a sense of the authenticity of the performative act. Does the film(makers) allow me to authentically experience a different/unique reality? That doesn't mean it has to be purely naturalistic/realism. What it does mean is that the film(makers) does not grossly manipulate the audience, that the film is open to interpretation, and, yet, the voices/actions of the characters are authentic within the world or reality in which they exist. You may reply to this statement, that these distinctions would rest on a subjective analysis and thus would be open to interpretation, and I would say yes, exactly, let the dialogue begin!

Last night I watched the Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In for the second time. The film is a good example of what I am thinking of when I talk about ideological becoming. So let me explore a few of the aspects that I think relates to my sense of Bakhtin's concept of "ideological becoming." These are beginning notes:


The monster is that uncertain cultural body in which is condensed an intriguing simultaneity or doubleness: like the ghost of Hamlet, it introjects the disturbing, repressed, but formative traumas or "pre-" into the sensory moment of "post-," binding the one irrevocably to the other. The monster commands, "Remember me": restore my fragmented body, piece me back together, allow the past its eternal return. The monster haunts; it does not simply bring past and present together, but destroys the boundary that demanded their twinned foreclosure. (Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. Preface: In a Time of Monsters. Monster Theory: Reading Culture, 1996:ix-x)


1) Oskar is constantly bullied by his peers and is unable to develop his own authentic voice. We see him struggling to say something to defend himself against the sadistic trio that make his life hell, but he is unable to give "voice" to his pain/anger. A particularly pitiful scene is when he goes out into the frozen courtyard with the fetishistic knife and, in a manner reminiscent of Travis Bickle, acts out his revenge fantasies on a frozen telephone pole. This is a familiar character in the many post-Columbine teen revenge stories, an inarticulate, geeky, passive kid overwhelmed with the desire for revenge against aggressively conformist social peers who ignore or degrade him (and it is generally boys enacting these violent fantasies?). In this sense we can understand the "aggressively conformist social peers" as the dominant monologic discourse that seeks to control the narrative of reality and the maladjusted kid struggling to "authentically" challenge this controlling narrative. Sadly, this can often takes the route of mindless, destructive violence, in which "innocents," perhaps other struggling kids seeking their own authentic voice, are struck down by the random violence of the frustrated victim.



2) Destructive power. The bullies insist that Oskar is a pathetic animal not worthy of their respect. This is repeatedly acted out by them upon Oskar's being on a daily basis. They taunt him with pig-like noises, command him physically in a degrading manner, and violently beat on him. Oskar begins to internalize the "controlling" narrative of his oppressors, and his violent fantasies are re-enactments of the only source of power he recognizes--the physical violence of his torturers/oppressors.



3) Authentic engagement. In essence this film is about the human need to authentically connect with other beings. Eli becomes the representation of a powerful alternative to the controlling narrative of Oskar's torturers. Eli, a vampire, is a wise observer of her surroundings and of other people. She is also much more empathetic than any human we see in the film. She feels deeply the pain of Oskar and demonstrates her awareness of it when she repeats his words from earlier in the film when he was acting out his revenge fantasies in the frozen courtyard:

Oskar: Who are you?
Eli: I'm like you.
Oskar: What do you mean?
Eli: [accusing tone] What are you staring at? Well?
Eli: Are you looking at me?
Eli: [points her finger at Oskar] So scream! Squeal!
Eli: Those were the first words I heard you say.
Oskar: I don't kill people.
Eli: No, but you'd like to. If you could... To get revenge. Right?
Oskar: Yes.
Eli: Oskar, I do it because I have to.
Eli: Be me, for a while.
[pause]
Eli: Please Oskar... Be me, for a little while.


Eli the vampire is much more sympathetic than any of the other characters in the film. The sadistic trio of kids torture Oskar for no apparent reason other than they get off on this false power of controlling a weaker being. The group of addled adults that increasingly become central to the narrative are all grotesquely alienated from each other while fearfully huddling together, or, as in the case of semi-responsible authority figures, completely oblivious to the cruelties of the children in their care. Most of the adults use intoxicants to escape from their stark reality rather than develop an authentic sense of another way of being. This is also glimpsed in the ruins of the fractured marriage of Oskar's parents when his father shuns Oskar in order to mindlessly get drunk with a creepy friend.

When Eli suggests to Oskar "Be me, for a while" she is asking him to ideologically "become" her for awhile, to step into her shoes and see what she sees. To authentically open himself up to seeing from another position.



4) So how do we begin to develop a method of being and observing that resists the ordering tendencies of controlling narratives? How could we ever accomplish anything practical without attempts to “master” the essence of beings? How can we open up a space within which new forms of knowledge can be observed and formulated? One starting point is the development of a new form of objectivity that recognizes the benefits of the development of a radical transperspectivity:

… to see differently in this way for once, to want to see differently, is no small discipline and preparation of the intellect for its future “objectivity”—the latter understood not as “contemplation without interest” (which is a nonsensical absurdity), but as the ability to control one’s Pro and Con and to dispose of them, so that one knows how to employ a variety of perspectives and affective interpretations in the service of knowledge.

… There is only a perspective seeing, only a perspective “knowing”; and the more affects we allow to speak about one thing, the more eyes, different eyes, we can use to observe one thing, the more complete will our “concept” of this thing, our “objectivity,” be” (Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals: 555).


This radical transperspectivity expresses a recognition of human sense of objectivity as “already” informed so that it can only authentically be developed through the attempt at developing many perspectives. In this way will one move closer toward an always out-of-reach objective sense. Of course this is a constantly evolving process in which we must continue to re-fresh our perspectives as our environments and our situations change. As Maurice Blanchot has argued, language and truth always simultaneously involves both a revealing and a reveiling. Exposure and masking are also the dual operation of all presentation and re-presentation. When we seek to understand the “essence” of a being we must clear a space through re-thinking our positions/situations. This openness allows for the “possibility” of unconcealment because we do not close up in our own solipsistic view, rather we desire to strive towards an entschlossen—a resolve to remain “un-closed” (Translator notes, “On The Essence of Truth”: 131). In order to remain “un-closed” we attempt to answer the Nietzschean call to resist the “Human, All Too Human” urge to “cling to what is readily available and controllable.” So, through the clearing away of supposedly objective traditions and the development of a transperspective we open up spaces that allow for the “essence of freedom to be thought” (“On the Essence of Truth”: 125). This is very important because only through the “freedom” to “be” will any “being” begin to reveal its “essence”. We are at a key point here because this freedom is produced through an engagement that “withdraws in the face of beings in order that they might reveal themselves with respect to what and how they are, and in order that presentative correspondence might take its standard from them.” This is the sublime moment that Bataille describes in The Impossible (1991): “As I was staring at the void in front of me, a touch – immediately violent and excessive – joined me to that void. I saw that void and saw nothing, but it, the void, was embracing me” (143). The void is the “clearing” space that will provide the freedom for unconcealment. This void terrifies many because it is the point when one must be secure with(in) themselves in order to “let beings be.” This openness to experience, this desire to rigorously interrogate one’s own beliefs, this desire for a “vision of excess”, leads to the moment in which we must be prepared for the “void” to look back at us. Through a radical “self-subversion” (Bataille) of subjectivity we can begin to prepare ourselves for this fateful experience when we stare into the void of our inner selves. By a new recognition of truth as involving concealment and errancy we enter a stage of “becoming” whereby it becomes possible to rethink our positions/conclusions. We gain another step in our becoming by examining what our own situated truth(s) cover or suppress. Hence, when we arrive at a truth we must have the courage and fortitude to uncover/expose what our truths conceal. In this we can begin to understand that as beings we are involved in a continual process of “becoming” and that our own sense of “becoming” rests upon our ability to clear a space for the “essence” of being to be revealed.

4) A final question: Why would the author of the source novel create this vampire in the manner he has (vaguely hinted at in one quick shot in the film) and why would it become so central to Eli's character? "Would you love me if I wasn't a girl?" This is a radical question that flies in the face of controlling narratives that seek to limit the way we interact with beings in our world. The question asks if Oskar is strong enough to reject the terroristic/monologic narrative that seeks to set limits upon our ability to love freely. Yes, love freely... You will only love what we tell you to love and you will only feel desire for what we say is proper for you to desire and you will only have sex within the limits we seek to impose on you. If you defy these controlling moral edicts, then your eternal soul will be damned forever, if you flaunt your defiance of this controlling narrative we may be forced to pre-empt God's future judgment and beat/kill you here-and-now.



5) "Be me, for awhile" ... a powerful plea to step into another's shoes and experience the world as they do.

“Perhaps the impossible is the only chance of something new, of some new philosophy of the new … Perhaps friendship, if there is such a thing, must honor [faire droit] what appears impossible here” (Derrida,1998: 36).

I have no doubt ran off the road in my response to the film, perhaps you might help me to get back on track :)

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Resources for September 10, 2014

Wade, Lisa. "10 Things Every College Professor Hates." Business Insider (August 26, 2014)


Murray, Noel. "All That Jazz." The Dissolve (September 8, 2014)

Ehrlich, David. "Director’s Cut: Hirokazu Kore-eda (Like Father, Like Son)." Film (January 15, 2014)

"FBI: No credible threats to US from Islamic State." Associated Press (August 22, 2014)

"Damascene Conversions - Isis, Assad And The Bombing Of Iraq." Media Lens (September 1, 2014)

Forster, Peter. "Fifty Shades of Ick: Gay Panic and Star Discourse/Star Panic and Gay Discourse." Bright Lights Film Journal (August 27, 2014)





Zirin, Dave. "It’s Not Just Ray Rice: The NFL’s History of Condoning Domestic Abuse." Democracy Now (September 9, 2014)

"Dave Zirin: Sportswriter." Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Peace and Conflict Studies Archive)


Merriam Webster Word-of-the-Day

repugn \rih-PYOON\

verb: to contend against : oppose

Over 450 students signed the petition repugning the school board's decision to fire the popular teacher.

"Still to come, bad blood between Bloom and Bieber. Will we ever know what happened when the movie star repugns the pop star?" — Lester Holt, NBC News Transcripts, August 2, 2014

Repugn is a word that was relatively common in English in the 16th and 17th centuries. These days, however, English speakers are more likely to be familiar with one of its close relatives, namely, the adjective repugnant, which formerly meant "hostile" but today most commonly means "exciting distaste or aversion." The Latin root for both of these words is pugnare, meaning "to fight." Other English derivatives from this root are pugnacious, meaning "belligerent," and impugn, meaning "to assail with words or arguments." Even pungent is a relative of pugnare. Therefore, don’t try to repugn, or impugn for that matter, the influence of pugnare on our language—lest you appear pugnacious!

Dave Zirin: Sportswriter (Ongoing Peace and Conflict Studies Archive)

Biographies/Archives/Social Media on Dave Zirin:

Edge of Sports (Zirin's weekly sports column)

Articles on The Nation

Twitter: @EdgeofSports

Wikipedia Page

Books featured on Haymarket Books

Appearances on Democracy Now

Articles on Common Dreams


Resources by/about Dave Zirin:


Altman, Alex. "A People's History of Sports." Time (September 22, 2008)

Blackhorse, Amanda and Dave Zirin. "Meet the Navajo Activist Who Got the Washington Redskins’ Trademark Revoked: Amanda Blackhorse." Democracy Now (June 19, 2014)

Tracy, Mark. "Field of Schemes—How Politics Infected Sports." The New Republic (June 23, 2013)

Zirin, Dave. "Are Teams Right to Refuse to Play Israel?" The Nation (June 6, 2010)

---. "Arizona: Boycott the Diamondbacks." The Guardian (April 27, 2010)

---. "Brazil’s World Cup Will Kick the Environment in the Teeth." The Nation (April 22, 2014)

---. "Dump the Redskins Slur." The Nation (October 30, 2013)

---. "Enough: An open letter to Dan Snyder." Grantland (June 13, 2013)

---. "ESPN Journalists Speak Out on Concussion Documentary." The Nation (August 26, 2013)

---. "Here Comes Los Suns: On Sports and Resistance." Making Contact (July 27, 2010)

---. "It’s Not Just Ray Rice: The NFL’s History of Condoning Domestic Abuse." Democracy Now (September 9, 2014)

---. "Jason Collins: the Substance of Change." The Nation (April 20, 2013)

---. " Jeremy Lin Inspires a Nation: The NBA point-guard phenom has sparked a national discussion about racism against Asian-Americans." The Nation (February 29, 2012)

---. " John Carlos, 1968 Olympian, Speaks Out on LGBT Rights: “You need to follow your conscience, follow your heart and follow your wisdom.”" The Nation (January 2, 2012)

---. "Jonathan Ferrell, Former Football Player, Killed by Police After Seeking Help Following Car Wreck." The Nation (September 16, 2013)

---. " The LGBT Movement Takes Aim at Sochi: The Russian government’s anti-gay scapegoating diverts attention from what appears to be the most corrupt Olympics in history." The Nation (January 22, 2014)

---. "The NCAA: Poster Boy for Corruption and Exploitation." The Nation (March 10, 2013)

---. ""A Neo-Liberal Trojan Horse": Dave Zirin on Brazil’s Mass Protests Against World Cup Displacement." Democracy Now (June 19, 2014)

---. Not Just a Game: Power, Politics and American Sports." Media Education Foundation (2010)

---. "On the Death and Life’s Work of the Unconquerable Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter." Common Dreams (April 21, 2014)

---. "On the Politics of Sports." Media Matters (August 25, 2010)

---. "Out for Executing the NBA Game Plan: The Atlanta Hawks and That Levenson E-mail." The Nation (September 8, 2014)

---. "The People Speak: When Television Makes History." Common Dreams (December 9, 2009)

---. "Prayers For the People in Boston, Baghdad and Mogadishu." Democracy Now (April 16, 2014)

---. "Ray Rice Is Not the First Domestic Abuser Tolerated by the NFL." The Nation (September 9, 2014)

---. "The Revictimizing of Janay Rice." The Nation (January 8, 2014)

---. "The Ring and the Rings: Vladimir Putin's Mafia Olympics." The Guardian (June 18, 2013)

---. "St. Louis Rams Players Tell the World That #BlackLivesMatter." Edge of Sports (December 1, 2014)

---. "The UConn Huskies Win ‘NCAA Hunger Games Bingo’." The Nation (April 8, 2014)

---. "The Unforgiven: Jack Johnson and Barry Bonds." Edge of Sports (June 19, 2007)

---. "Wisconsin: Solidarity Among Workers … And Football Players." Yes! (February 17, 2011)

---. "The World Cup You Won’t See on TV: Protests, Tear Gas, Displaced Favela Residents." Democracy Now (June 16, 2014)

---. "Yes, I ‘Question the NFL's Commitment’ to Being a Force Against Domestic Violence." Edge of Sports (September 1, 2014)


Here Comes Los Suns - Dave Zirin from RedReel on Vimeo.




Monday, September 8, 2014

Resources for September 8, 2014







There Will Be Blood / Through Numbers from Ali Shirazi on Vimeo.




The Passion Of Martin Scorsese_ A Tribute Video from Ali Shirazi on Vimeo.







Bowden, Charles. "Observations about the American psyche, essays on the natural world, and gritty stories about drug violence and other crimes." Radio West (September 5, 2014)





St. John, Allan. "How HBO's 'True Detective' Will Change The Way You Watch Television." Forbes (January 13, 2014)

Zirin, Dave. "Out for Executing the NBA Game Plan: The Atlanta Hawks and That Levenson E-mail." The Nation (September 8, 2014)


culprit \KUL-prit\

noun

1 : one accused of or charged with a crime

2 : one guilty of a crime or a fault

3 : the source or cause of a problem

After the empty warehouse burned down, an investigation determined faulty wiring to be the culprit.

"Police searched a parking structure in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles Saturday for one of two armed suspects who robbed a pedestrian but were unable to locate the culprit." — Los Angeles Daily News, August 2, 2014

We would be culpable if we didn't clearly explain the origins behind culprit. Yes, it is related to culpable, which itself derives from Latin culpare, meaning "to blame," via Middle English and Anglo-French. But the etymology of culprit is not so straightforward. In Anglo-French, culpable meant "guilty," and this was abbreviated "cul." in legal briefs and texts. Culprit was formed by combining this abbreviation with prest, prit, meaning "ready"—that is, ready to prove an accusation. Literally, then, a culprit was one who was ready to be proven guilty. English then borrowed the word for one accused of a wrongdoing.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Resources for September 6, 2014







M*A*S*H* (USA: Robert Altman, 1970)

Halper, Evan. "Local Communities Are Taking Control Of Their Power Supply." Popular Resistance (September 4, 2014)

Choma, Russ. "Two Grand Juries Continuing Probe Into 2012 Iowa Payola Scandal." Open Secrets (September 4, 2014)

Murphy, Jill. "Dark Fragments: Contrasting Corporealities in Pasolini’s La ricotta." Alphaville #7 (Summer 2014)

Krauss, Dan. "hrough the Lens: The Kill Team." Radio West (September 1, 2014)["We continue our Through the Lens series Tuesday with "The Kill Team." A U.S. Army platoon made headlines in 2010 after if was learned they'd murdered several innocent Afghan civilians. In his film, director Dan Krauss examines those events and their fallout through the story of Adam Winfield, one of the guilty soldiers. Winfield tried to alert the military of the atrocity he and his comrades committed. His warnings went unheeded and Winfield found himself the target of a massive war crimes investigation. Krauss joins us to discuss his film, which explores the intersection of morality, conflict, and violence.">

Sands, Julian. "A Celebration of Harold Pinter." Radio West (September 2, 2014) ["As the Nobel-winning playwright, Harold Pinter was known for his intense, uncomfortable, and dark works. But he was also a poet, and in 2005, he asked the actor Julian Sands to step-in for a reading Pinter was too sick to perform. Sands says what he found was the work of a sensitive man of immense love. After Pinter’s death, Sands created a one-man show from his prose and poetry."]

Teicholz, Nina. "The Big Fat Surprise." Radio West (September 3, 2014) ["Since the 1950s, a war has been waged in America against an accused dietary culprit: fat. Avoid fat, we were told, and you’ll live longer and healthier. However, as the investigative journalist Nina Teicholz discovered, there isn’t solid evidence of the benefits of a low-fat diet nor of the dangers of fat. In a new book, Teicholz reviews the science and history of the war on fat and she joins us Thursday to explain how America’s nutrition was derailed by personal ambition, bad science, and politics."]

Bordwell, David. "Three Dimensions of Film Narrative." Observations of Film Art (Excerpted chapter 3 from Poetics of Cinema. NY: Routledge, 2007.)

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

M*A*S*H (USA: Robert Altman, 1970)



M*A*S*H (USA: Robert Altman, 1970: 116 mins)

Ebert, Roger. "M*A*S*H Chicago-Sun Times (January 1, 1970)

Greco, John. "M*A*S*H (1970) Robert Altman." Twenty Four Frames (May 19, 2011)

Greenspun, Roger. "M*A*S*H (1970)" The New York Times (January 26, 1970

Kuersten, Erich. "Quilty Makes This World: 12 Tricksters (CinemArchetype #1)." Acidemic (January 23, 2012)

LaRue, John. "Deconstructing M*A*S*H (1970)." TDYLF (July 6, 2012)

Pendleton, David. "The Complete Robert Altman." Harvard Film Archive (June 2015)

Self, Robert. "Great Directors: Robert Altman." Senses of Cinema (2005)

Snider, Eric D. "What's the Big Deal?: M*A*S*H (1970)." Film (June 14, 2011)

Zuckoff, Michael. "The Making of M*A*S*H." The Daily Beast (October 24, 2009)


Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Resources for September 2, 2014




Bacevich, Andrew, Hugh Roberts and Melani McAlister. "America's War for the Greater Middle East." Open Source (August 7, 2014) ["How do you end an endless war? Thirty years ago Jimmy Carter declared the Persian Gulf a “vital” focus of American foreign policy. Since then, U.S. forces have invaded, occupied, garrisoned, bombed or raided 18 nations, absorbing thousands of casualties and getting little in return in terms of peace or goodwill. Andrew Bacevich, the military historian, veteran and professor of international relations at Boston University calls it America’s War for the Greater Middle East and says there’s no end in sight. This fall he’s teaching a twelve-week online course on the history of that long war: he begins it in the Iran hostage crisis during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, through stages of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the first Gulf War, then September 11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."]

"Andrew J. Bacevich: Political Science/Military History/International Relations." Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Peace and Conflict Studies Archive)

Tyree, J.M. "The Conflicted Comedies of Wes Anderson." Film Quarterly 66.4 (Summer 2013)

Moore, Lorrie. "Gazing at Love: Blue is the Warmest Color." The New York Review of Books (December 19, 2013)

Laine, Tarja. "Art as a Guaranty of Sanity: The Skin I Live In." Alphaville #7 (Summer 2014) [Warning - this essay contains major spoilers throughout and is therefore best read only after having seen the film.]





Choic, Candice. "Civil disobedience expected in fast-food pay fight." WTOC (September 2, 2014)

Dargis, Manohla. "As Indies Explode, an Appeal for Sanity: Flooding Theaters Isn’t Good for Filmmakers or Filmgoers." The New York Times (January 12, 2014)


fleer \FLEER\

noun: a word or look of derision or mockery

When Adam suggested that the firm's partners do the work pro bono he half-expected to be hit with a collective fleer, but the others readily agreed.

"He expressed himself, of course, with eccentric abandon—it would have been impossible for him to do otherwise; but he was content to indicate his deepest feelings with a fleer." — Lytton Strachey, Eminent Victorians, 1918

Fleer first appeared in English as a verb (fleryen in Middle English) meaning "to laugh, grin, or grimace in a coarse manner." The verb is of Scandinavian origin and is akin to the Norwegian flire, meaning "to giggle." The noun fleer first and most famously appeared in William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello, in which the evil Iago invites Othello to observe the signs of his wife's unfaithfulness in the visage of her supposed lover, Cassio: "And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns / That dwell in every region of his face…."

Monday, September 1, 2014

Andrew J. Bacevich: Political Science/Military History/International Relations (Ongoing Peace and Conflict Studies Archive)

Biographies/Archives:

Wikipedia page

Boston University webpage

American Conservative author archives

Moyers & Company guest profile

Tom Dispatch author archives

Common Dreams author archives


Resources by and about:

Bacevich, Andrew J. "Afghanistan - The Proxy War." The Boston Globe (October 11, 2009)

---. "Always and Everywhere : The New York Times and the Enduring 'Threat' of Isolationism." Tomdispatch (October 24, 2013)

---. "America's Path to Permanent War." Conversations with History (September 26, 2010)

---. "Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country." Democracy Now (September 16, 2013)

---. "Conservative Historian Andrew Bacevich Warns Against Obama’s Escalation of War in Afghanistan and Intensifying Use of Air Power in Region." Democracy Now (May 11, 2009)

---. "Dear War Hawks: There Is No ‘Isolationist’ Conspiracy to Destroy American Power." The Nation (October 24, 2013)

---. "‘Do Something’ Groupthink Took Fateful Toll: The Tonkin Gulf Resolution." The Boston Globe (August 3, 2014)

---. "The End of Exceptionalism." Open Source (October 10, 2008)

---. "Give Up On Democracy in Afghanistan." The Atlantic (July/August 2009)

---. "The Hill to the Rescue on Syria? Don’t Hold Your Breath." Tomdispatch (September 8, 2013)

---. "How War Without End Became the Rule." Open Source (September 17, 2010)

---. "Illusions of Victory: How the United States Did Not Reinvent War But Thought It Did." Tomdispatch (August 11, 2008)

---. "I Lost My Son to a War I Oppose. We Were Both Doing Our Duty." The Washington Post (May 25, 2007)

---. "Iraq Panel's Real Agenda: Damage Control." Christian Science Monitor (November 28, 2006)

---. "Is an Imperial Presidency Destroying What America Stands For?" Bill Moyers Journal (April 15, 2008)

---. "Is Perpetual War Our Future? Learning the Wrong Lessons from the Bush Era." Tomdispatch (August 14, 2008)

---. "La Follette's Lessons in Empire." American Conservative (April 2, 2014)

---. "Lessons Learned: The Iraq Invasion." World Affairs (May/June 2013)

---. "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism." Democracy Now (August 20, 2008)

---. "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism." Media Matters (December 28, 2008)

---. "Lost in the Desert." TomCast (October 5, 2010)

---. "The Military and US Foreign Policy." Conversations with History (September 8, 2010)

---. "The Misuse of American Might, and the Price It Pays: The United States no longer knows how to win wars, but it continues to start them." Common Dreams (January 13, 2014)

---. "Moral Obligations in the Global War on Terror: Who Owes What?" BUniverse (March 21, 2009)

---. "Naming Our Nameless War." Common Dreams (May 28, 2013)

---. "Non-Believer." The New Republic (July 7, 2010)

---. "The Normalization of War." Anti-War (April 21, 2005)

---. "One Percent Republic: Without citizen soldiers, plutocracy rises unchecked." The American Conservative (December 18, 2013)

---. "On Foreign Policy." Moyers & Company (August 15, 2008)

---. "On the Afghanistan War: The President Lacks the Guts to Get Out." Democracy Now (August 2, 2010)

---. "Prophets and Poseurs: Niebuhr and Our Times." World Affairs (Winter 2008)

---. "Rescinding the Bush Doctrine." The Boston Globe (March 1, 2007)

---. "The Right Choice? The conservative case for Barack Obama." The American Conservative (March 24, 2008)

---. "Sycophant Savior." The American Conservative." (October 8, 2007)

---. "The Tyranny of Defense Inc." The Atlantic (January/February 2011)

---. "Vietnam Vet, Scholar Andrew Bacevich on Obama War Plan: 'The President Has Drawn the Wrong Lessons from His Understanding of the History of War.'" Democracy Now (December 2, 2009)

---. "We’re Just Not That Special: What the crisis with Russia reveals about the USA’s age-old self-obsession." Politico (March 5, 2014)

---. "What America Should Do in the Middle East." Moyers & Company (June 20, 2014)

---. "What Poets Can Teach Us About the War in Afghanistan." The New Republic (December 20, 2010)

---. "What the U.S. should do in Iraq: Stop what is counterproductive." Los Angeles Times (August 9, 2014)

Bacevich, Andrew J. and Katrina Vanden Heuvel. "Could Russia-U.S. Deal on Syria Chemical Weapons Lead to a Non-Imperial, New Internationalism?" Democracy Now (September 16, 2013)

Bacevich, Andrew, Hugh Roberts and Melani McAlister. "America's War for the Greater Middle East." Open Source (August 7, 2014) ["How do you end an endless war? Thirty years ago Jimmy Carter declared the Persian Gulf a “vital” focus of American foreign policy. Since then, U.S. forces have invaded, occupied, garrisoned, bombed or raided 18 nations, absorbing thousands of casualties and getting little in return in terms of peace or goodwill. Andrew Bacevich, the military historian, veteran and professor of international relations at Boston University calls it America’s War for the Greater Middle East and says there’s no end in sight. This fall he’s teaching a twelve-week online course on the history of that long war: he begins it in the Iran hostage crisis during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, through stages of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the first Gulf War, then September 11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."]

Beauchamp, Scott. "The American Soldier at the End of History." The Baffler (November 11, 2014)

Bromwich, David. "Bromwich Channels Edmund Burke: 'America is out of itself.'” Open Source (June 23, 2010)

Lee, Jeong. "Book Review: Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country." Small Wars Journal (October 7, 2013)

Maddow, Rachel. "Overcommitted: Breach of Trust by Andrew J. Bacevich." The New York Times (September 8, 2013)

Rich, Frank. "Freedom's Just Another Word." The New York Times (September 5, 2010)

Whitney, Jake. "Blood Without Guts." Guernica (October 1, 2010) ["Why fight wars our president doesn’t believe in and we can’t pay for? asks retired colonel and military historian Andrew Bacevich."]