Criticism
Here's an interesting comment by John Podhoretz, one of the great neocon lights, who has decided to offer us his great wisdom about film criticism:
"Film criticism requires nothing but an interesting sensibility. The more self-consciously educated one is in the field--by which I mean the more obscure the storehouse of cinematic knowledge a critic has--the less likely it is that one will have anything interesting to say..."
I was led to this idiocy by a post by Roy Edroso, who failed to mention what I think is the salient fact about Podhoretz's remark. The key thing about this ludicrous assertion is that it is the exact same attitude that conservatives have toward everything. Global warming? Evolution? Torture? The economy? Katrina? Who the hell cares what the experts say. Let's ask Joe the Plumber. President of the United States? Who could be better than an ignoramus frat-boy failure from Texas? Or a know-nothing trailer trash cracker from Alaska?
Who can say why these people are so afraid of competence that they would rather slit their own throats than have qualified people running the government. Nevertheless, that's the way it is.
God help us if they ever manage to slime their way back into power again.
"Film criticism requires nothing but an interesting sensibility. The more self-consciously educated one is in the field--by which I mean the more obscure the storehouse of cinematic knowledge a critic has--the less likely it is that one will have anything interesting to say..."
I was led to this idiocy by a post by Roy Edroso, who failed to mention what I think is the salient fact about Podhoretz's remark. The key thing about this ludicrous assertion is that it is the exact same attitude that conservatives have toward everything. Global warming? Evolution? Torture? The economy? Katrina? Who the hell cares what the experts say. Let's ask Joe the Plumber. President of the United States? Who could be better than an ignoramus frat-boy failure from Texas? Or a know-nothing trailer trash cracker from Alaska?
Who can say why these people are so afraid of competence that they would rather slit their own throats than have qualified people running the government. Nevertheless, that's the way it is.
God help us if they ever manage to slime their way back into power again.
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