Week in Review
The Public Enemy is a Woman
‘The conflict between scientist and politician at the heart of Ibsen’s¬†An Enemy of the People is replete with allegorical suggestion. The play is, for this reason, easy to oversimplify as a tale of pristine scientific truth versus grubby government coverups. The conflict is better characterised according to competing reactions to a truth already out in the open. In the age of the endless news cycle, Anne-Louise Sarks observes in her Director‚Äôs Note, “the question is not so much will the truth come out ‚Äì as what will we do about the truth that is already out in the open and known?”‘
Hot Links: Hypertext and George P. Landow
‘It was probably late and we had certainly been drinking. The conversation turned to ‚Äì guest stars from M.A.S.H.? One-hit wonders of the 80s? The fictional biography of the Fonz? The actual biography of Henry Winkler? Something. This was the mid 1990s, and we could, in theory, have dialled up and posted a question on the Usenet, maybe even consulted the Internet Movie Database, a resource that came into being just a little before the first web browser was launched, but none of us even thought of that. ‘
Smite the Soapies
‚ÄòBinge on the best,‚Äô says a current advertising slogan for streaming service Stan. Binge: to lose control of one‚Äôs appetites; to be a glutton; to hide from reality behind a mountain of consumption. Fair enough. But ‚Äòthe best‚Äô? No. Not yet. Not while we have forgotten the stark lessons of the Lord and instead let our storytelling slip back into the mould of interminable bloody soap operas.’¬†