“How long should a biography be? Most modern readers seem to agree that the story of anyone other than a major world-historical figure or an artist of the highest significance can be adequately told in a single volume of roughly 400 pages. This is especially true of artists whose work is more interesting than their lives or personalities, as is typically the case with film actors. It is rare to encounter a movie star who, like James Stewart, also led a consequential life off-screen (he commanded a bomber squadron during World War II). Far more common are performers such as Fred Astaire or Humphrey Bogart whose ‘real’ lives are to be found in their films and whose private lives, though not without interest, do not lend themselves to memorable extended discussion…”
Archives for February 5, 2014
Snapshot: James Baldwin in 1963
A rare TV interview with James Baldwin, originally telecast in 1963 on Miami’s WCKT:
(This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday and Wednesday.)
TT: Snapshot
A rare TV interview with James Baldwin, originally telecast in 1963 on Miami’s WCKT:
(This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday and Wednesday.)
Almanac: James Baldwin on sentimentality
“Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel; the wet eyes of the sentimentalist betray his aversion to experience, his fear of life, his arid heart, and it is always, therefore, the signal of secret and violent inhumanity, the mask of cruelty.”
James Baldwin, “Everybody’s Protest Novel”
TT: Almanac
“Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel; the wet eyes of the sentimentalist betray his aversion to experience, his fear of life, his arid heart, and it is always, therefore, the signal of secret and violent inhumanity, the mask of cruelty.”
James Baldwin, “Everybody’s Protest Novel”