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Which cut have you seen, Stevie? I remember experiencing Redux as a kind of fever dream one afternoon, although I was quite young at the time. I might respond to the film quite differently today.

It’s a very conservative list. Great for people who are new to cinema, but otherwise doesn’t really offer anything for those who are deep into movies. Following discussions in cinephile circles, there wasn’t anything surprising about Jeanne Dielman topping the list, though it’s still amazing...

I’d rather have sex, eat chocolate, and read some Ernaux. It’s too pleasant a Sunday to provide some grist for the mill.

Manga has quite a handful of examples of this. There’s a charming one called Gon about a dinosaur and his adventures and misadventures: https://vocal.media/geeks/gon-a-manga-without-boundaries

It’s a criticism of a particular area of politics, not the entire process. Politics isn’t only polarization, division, tribalism, left vs right, woke vs anti-woke. Now that’s overly simplistic. But yes, let’s transfer the political discussion elsewhere.

You tell me. When I was referring to structures of power, that’s what I meant. I even clearly said “might be.”I don’t inhabit those other countries. I can’t claim to speak for them. If you somehow interpreted my post as a “bog-standard castigation of the evils of politics,” then it’s strange...

And that might be because we live under very different political systems, because this nebulous “they” clearly exists here: the entire system of government itself, the elite and wealthy class in charge of banks, corporations, public institutions, the cult of celebrity and the media powered by...

I find that quite a lot of political labels, as they are used today, are oversimplified and dehumanizing. I guess that’s the point. It’s easier to cultivate polarization and divide people and let people divide themselves voluntarily in order to ultimately manipulate them, whether it’s done...

Well, honestly, it’s not just the “right” that’s annoyed by or tired of whatever it is that “woke” claims or is claimed to be… But then again, it’s a political language that I personally do not respond to.

And Cannes is all the poorer for it. It’s quite unbelievable that Almodovar has yet to win the highest accolade in any of the three major European film festivals.

I much prefer Duras as a filmmaker. Yourcenar is an immeasurable lacuna in the history of the Nobel. To think that it took this long to honor a French woman of letters… Well, they bypassed Frost until they got to Gluck.

I think I posted this before, but the man himself acknowledges this: “I’m not entirely like English people because I’ve been brought up by Japanese parents in a Japanese-speaking home. My parents didn’t realize that we were going to stay in this country for so long, they felt responsible for...

Indeed, but a ubiquity that one can perhaps protest against, disengage from, or simply ignore. Interestingly enough, younger people here are less captivated by America than the older generation, thanks to social media.

Not to be adversarial, but I have noticed that quite a handful of Brits know more about what’s happening in America than they do the rest of the world, and that sometimes includes the rest of Europe. Of course, I’m no expert on the British.

Unfortunately, it’s not just Americans. A considerable part of the world still continues to make American culture and politics or their relationship to American culture and politics the lens through which their own culture and politics are seen. In the Philippines, for example, a significant...

Since Yoko Tawada has been mentioned here quite a bit, and having mostly read non-English literature in its original language the past year, I wonder how often a writer’s friskiness with his or her language makes it a bit more difficult for him or her to be seriously considered for the prize...

Since Southeast Asian writers are seldom mentioned whenever it’s this time of year, I can think of three Philippine writers who deserve serious consideration. Unfortunately, nearly all of the great writers of the country write in the vernacular and are untranslated. 1. Lualhati Bautista She is...

All too true. It’s a style of especially American humor that, like Friends, peaked (?) in the nineties. And should stay there. There’s a reason this kind of feigned smugness and insult humor Alex Shepard indulges in no longer plays well with the younger generation. It’s so dated. Just sort of...

We are talking exclusively about literary writers, right? Because quite a handful of celebrities would make the claim that they are “writers” with a very generous understanding of the word… I agree about Mieko Kawakami. I also love her sense of style. She is so chic.

The strongest genre literature in Japan is without a doubt the mystery genre. Older English-language authors remain popular (Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ellery Queen, John Dickson Carr), but for the most part the market is dominated by Japanese writers. For those interested in lists...