S J Atkinson retweeted
British noughties culture was the all-time worst. The fag-end of Britpop but with the irony, nuance and class politics removed, the cultural centre transferred to seedy light entertainment. It was late New Labour, the mode of a post-Iraq War establishment with zero morals left
THE DISMAL WORLD OF DAVID WALLIAMS
(This piece was first published in September 2023.)
Why does David Walliams retain such a grip on our children’s imaginations when his own is so impoverished? His 2008 debut, The Boy in the Dress, a story of a cross-dressing lad gaining acceptance from his divorcee father, was elevated by illustrations by Dahl’s former collaborator Quentin Blake. But Walliams’s subsequent output has offered diminishing returns, and the “World’s Worst” series is, well, the worst. Let’s put to one side the dubious stereotyping of Mr Raj the Asian news agent, the Chinese boy Brian Wong “who was never wrong” (but was later deemed to be “wrong” enough to be removed from publication) and the women who are constantly brandishing mops and “bog brushes”. After all, Dahl was a reliable source of unpleasant prejudices, as the row over “updated” editions earlier this year reminded us.
But Dahl’s work has a subversive linguistic energy that cannot be denied. Walliams’s only gifts are for repetition. Characters are scatologically formulaic: Windy Mindy and her lethal “bottom burps”, Terry Tetch, whose “chunder thunder” ends up on his own face. (In The World’s Worst Pets Walliams raises the stakes and introduces a goldfish that can “furp” – “when someone, or something, farts and burps at precisely the same time”.) Original scenarios are rare. When Posy Pooch’s two Tibetan mastiffs conceive, they have 99 puppies, leaving a household of “one hundred and one dogs”. Bertha the Blubberer is a Violet Elizabeth Bott-style screamer, so of course her nemesis is called William.
newstatesman.com/culture/boo…
S J Atkinson retweeted
With the popularity of Nathan Fielder, Nirvanna The Band The Show, and Blue Heron, I wonder if the movie of the moment is a new "Kiarostami wave" where filmmakers foreground the interplay of fiction vs. reality in our AI era. The Shrouds and Caught by the Tides are other examples
S J Atkinson retweeted
It’s wild how normalized transphobia is bc we would otherwise consider this to be indicative of state persecution to such a degree it’s genocidal or in the process of becoming so
Bethany wore a T-Shirt that said ‘Protect the Dolls’ during #Strictly rehearsals.
After posting a video, the BBC quietly replaced it with a new one that doesn’t show her from the front. During the show, they actually blurred out the T-Shirt completely. Absolutely despicable
S J Atkinson retweeted
Particularly true of Radio 4, which has completely and indeed doggedly refused to make any attempt whatsoever to evolve a frame of reference beyond boomer centrism over the last few years. Corpse of a radio station
S J Atkinson retweeted
tired of this phraseology. Cinema is not about articulating correct points or observations, its about how those "points" or "ideas" are filtered through narrative or form — this being the material basis for subjective analysis. As a result, the divisive quality can endure.
S J Atkinson retweeted
There are many secular critics who are writing admirably about AI. But it's been apparent to me for a while that religious—particularly catholic—critics are speaking to the public's moral disquiet in a way that secular thinkers, reliant on utilitarian claims about harm, are not.
In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity.
S J Atkinson retweeted
Only bad filmmakers have a visual approach and a thematic intent; the good ones have style and ideas, which are inseparable and as personal as a signature; the beauty of movies—and criticism—is that there's no proving the difference, but only experience and the expression of it.
S J Atkinson retweeted
In a sane and spiritually integrated America, every child would learn John Coltrane’s music in school and have great pride in it, just as German children learn about Beethoven
S J Atkinson retweeted
Es de una lucidez bestial esto de DFW. Antes de la llegada del smartphone y del scroll infinito.
S J Atkinson retweeted
worst party in britain
Sir Ed Davey has hinted that he would be open to a pact with the Conservatives after the next general election.
The Liberal Democrat leader explicitly ruled out a deal with the Tories before the last general election, with his party going on to gain dozens of their previously safe seats⤵️
telegraph.co.uk/politics/202…
S J Atkinson retweeted
The Beatles 'White Album' is ultimately about fatigue of every kind: physical, spiritual, political and cultural. A soundtrack to the tedious indulgences of the 60's yielding only false prophets and dark portents. You say you want a revolution. It's been a long, long, long, time.
S J Atkinson retweeted
‘Legal risk’ is always such a funny excuse in The UK because it’s a complete cop-out. Parliament is sovereign, if you pass the ‘Nationalise Thames Water Act’ no court could stop you.
Total American cultural victory that Brits think they have an all-powerful Supreme Court
🚨 NEW: Andy Burnham has paused plans to nationalise Thames Water due to the cost and legal risk involved
[@thetimes]
S J Atkinson retweeted
Bee escapes bonnet: there's a dismaying trend in criticism now—armchair sociology, favoring button-pushing how-"we"-live-now movies like The Drama and The Invite, and ignoring aesthetics; it reflects a writerly-editorial preference for culture, i.e., not art but the arts as news—
S J Atkinson retweeted
Still kinda wild to me that you have to immediately announce the race of any suspect now so people know whether to get racist on social media or not
Police treating Ann Widdecombe's death as murder and hunting for white male suspect after body found with serious injuries bbc.in/4gqWEnD
