The Illusion of Depth

  Okay, folks, this really is it. The time has come. The moment is now.  We have been running these film nights for over eight years, and in that time, it's safe to say that I have shown many different kinds of films. Some have been iconic classics, and some have been incredibly obscure. Some of them were silent films. A few were in 3D. In fact, we've shown pretty much every type of film by now: old films, new films and films from in between. French films, German films, even films for Halloween. In all these years, however, there is something that I have consistently resisted, but have always wanted to show. I have just been waiting for the right moment. This is the moment. The moment we've been waiting for. (...and if you get the reference, you will know what I'm about to say.) That's right, ladies and gents. On Thursday, the 30th of March, and for the very first time, I'm going to show an opera. Down With... Lady Parts So far, in our exploration of Cancel Cult...

  In July of 1972, Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Pitman Hughes co-founded Ms. Magazine, intended as a platform for the then-current Second-wave Feminism movement. For the cover of their very first issue, Gloria Steinem chose, as the public face of the modern feminist movement, the character of Wonder Woman. As journalist Joanne Edgar wrote in that issue, "Breaking the fetters of evil with her strength; parrying bullets with her steel bracelets; sweeping through dimensions of time and space in her invisible plane, Wonder Woman, the Amazonian princess from Paradise Isle, brought enemies to their knees and to her command with her golden magic lasso." Who could resist a role model like that? In America she lived as Diana Prince — secretary, nurse, army intelligence officer — but she could change into Wonder Woman costume and appear from nowhere to do battle with the forces of evil. Later in her article, she discusses the original creator of Wonder Woman: Wonder Woman herself first ...

I don't like geniuses. They're dangerous. A man abler than his brothers insults them by implication. He must not aspire to any virtue which cannot be shared. -Ellsworth Toohey in The Fountainhead *** Dash: You always say 'Do your best', but you don't really mean it. Why can't I do the best that I can do? Helen: Right now, honey, the world just wants us to fit in, and to fit in, we gotta be like everyone else. Dash: But Dad always said our powers were nothing to be ashamed of, our powers made us special. Helen: Everyone's special, Dash. Dash: [muttering] Which is another way of saying no one is. -Dashiel and Helen Parr in The Incredibles *** The 1950s was a period when the Comic Book industry found itself under attack. A psychiatrist named Frederic Wertham had published a highly influential book entitled Seduction of the Innocent in which he claimed (in great detail) that comic books were directly responsible for the perceived rise in juvenile delinquen...

  Okay, folks, this one is just plain bonkers. We've had a month or so of fairly heavy films that tackle some difficult topics (Evolution; Witch-burning; Segregation; Rape.. nice, uncontentious subjects) so it's about time we pause for some refreshment. The rest of March is going to be fun, fun, fun. Say hello to Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand was born in Russia to a well-educated, upper-middle class Jewish family. The October Revolution of 1917 brought her comfortable childhood to a very sudden and violent end (she was twelve at the time) and her family lost absolutely everything. By the time she was able to travel to the United States in 1926, she had cultivated what was to become a life-long visceral hatred for Communism, or indeed for any remotely collectivist philosophy. She wasn't merely opposed to the Soviet Union (which you can sort of understand, given what happened to her family); she was violently opposed to any obligations that might be imposed upon the individual for the b...