I used to love movies, but the last ten years or so, I've stopped paying attention to what's coming out. When you hire based on anything besides skill (writing skill, reading-the-room skill, skill at actually knowing how people live), and you hire people who only got there because of a set of grievances (grievances they have every motiva…
I used to love movies, but the last ten years or so, I've stopped paying attention to what's coming out. When you hire based on anything besides skill (writing skill, reading-the-room skill, skill at actually knowing how people live), and you hire people who only got there because of a set of grievances (grievances they have every motivation to keep going, even if they have been addressed and are being addressed), you end up with either (1) preachy propagandistic films or (2) regurgitated reboots (or they might as well be reboots, because you can play the "what classic movie did they steal that from" game while you're watching). No one seems to know how to tell a story anymore, because the story is not really the point.
Now I read. Books are not free of the above, but they're freer.
Me too; trying to ween myself off Fox news clips and conservative commentators on Youtube and spend more time reading. I have like 10 books in my Alibris shopping cart right now, waiting for the next coupon to hit :)
I find the same thing in some books. So what I do is find the authors contact info and brace them on it usually with something like why would you dismiss half your audience so you can virtue signal and feel good. Honestly, it’s like they’ve never thought about that before. And what do you know, some have even written back and acknowledged what they did was stupid.
You know who doesn’t give you the time of day when called on their bias? Wall St Journal reporters, the same 280 ones that sent the letter to the Ed board shrieking about their bias.
I never thought about writing to the authors. I just don't buy more of their books. There are so many good authors to pick from, ones that really just want to tell a good story or reveal something *real* about the human condition. And, yes, I've noticed there are self-labelled conservatives that blend in quite well with the virtue-signalers.
I used to love movies, but the last ten years or so, I've stopped paying attention to what's coming out. When you hire based on anything besides skill (writing skill, reading-the-room skill, skill at actually knowing how people live), and you hire people who only got there because of a set of grievances (grievances they have every motivation to keep going, even if they have been addressed and are being addressed), you end up with either (1) preachy propagandistic films or (2) regurgitated reboots (or they might as well be reboots, because you can play the "what classic movie did they steal that from" game while you're watching). No one seems to know how to tell a story anymore, because the story is not really the point.
Now I read. Books are not free of the above, but they're freer.
Me too; trying to ween myself off Fox news clips and conservative commentators on Youtube and spend more time reading. I have like 10 books in my Alibris shopping cart right now, waiting for the next coupon to hit :)
Yep. I pay no attention to Hollywood or movies anymore. Hollywood needs a
“Substack”
I find the same thing in some books. So what I do is find the authors contact info and brace them on it usually with something like why would you dismiss half your audience so you can virtue signal and feel good. Honestly, it’s like they’ve never thought about that before. And what do you know, some have even written back and acknowledged what they did was stupid.
You know who doesn’t give you the time of day when called on their bias? Wall St Journal reporters, the same 280 ones that sent the letter to the Ed board shrieking about their bias.
I suspect today's authors have to be extremely careful to have their books pass the purity test, or they will be smeared and canceled.
Yes, I have read about that. Apparently you may only write about people who match your own "lived" experience.
I never thought about writing to the authors. I just don't buy more of their books. There are so many good authors to pick from, ones that really just want to tell a good story or reveal something *real* about the human condition. And, yes, I've noticed there are self-labelled conservatives that blend in quite well with the virtue-signalers.
Oh I don’t buy the books. I use the library. That’s the only service I get for paying my property taxes.
kids' schools? or are they in private school