Oliver Craner

[...]

Ronald Reagan and the Apocalyptic Imagination

I: 1983 Nuclear war is unthinkable but not impossible, and therefore we must think about it. Bernard Brodie Herman Kahn died, alone, in his home, on July 7, 1983, at the age if 61, after suffering …

olivercraner.com

 

[sufi]

Ronald Reagan and the Apocalyptic Imagination

I: 1983 Nuclear war is unthinkable but not impossible, and therefore we must think about it. Bernard Brodie Herman Kahn died, alone, in his home, on July 7, 1983, at the age if 61, after suffering …

olivercraner.com

oh wow

 

[Leo]

start a poll listing dissensus members who won't read this one either. we know corpsey will win but interested to seem who will land in second place.

 

[sufi]

start a poll listing people dissensus members who won't read this one either. we know corpsey win but interested to seem who will land in second place.

It's really good everyone should read it

 

[Benny Bunter]

I read the one about Ezra Pound the other day and it was brilliant. Very, very impressed.

 

[luka]

for a long time i used to dutifully read them but i gave up recently and ive never been happier

 

[Leo]

I'm gonna read it.

 

[sufi]

I'm gonna read it.

👍 i would ike to hear what you reckon about how reagan's fantasies shaped our destinies

 

[Mr. Tea]

Ronald Reagan and the Apocalyptic Imagination

I: 1983 Nuclear war is unthinkable but not impossible, and therefore we must think about it. Bernard Brodie Herman Kahn died, alone, in his home, on July 7, 1983, at the age if 61, after suffering …

olivercraner.com

Excellent stuff! Certainly overturned what I thought I knew about Reagan and the Cold War.

Regarding Dr. Strangelove - I thought the character was based on John von Neumann and Edward Teller? Probably depends who you ask.

 

[...]

Time Wars: Hollywood and Nostalgia

Something I learned watching Ghostbusters: Afterlife: Egon Spengler is a big fan of the Ghostbusters. He may even be a fan of Ghostbusters, judging by his fixation with Revelations 6:12, a verse th…

olivercraner.com

 

[line b]

back to back!

 

[luka]

i did actually read both of them of course. he forgot to mention it but they are both inspired by my eighties archeology project of last year.

 

[luka]

and also my marvel project. and the ghostbusters one is inspired by my trainspotting 2 dissensus review. very touched by this. surprised he forgot to mention the source of his inspiration, but very touched.

 

[...]

I owe you everthing.

 

[...]

To be fair, the Marvel thread did challenge me to stop being so dismissive of these films and think about them as artistic vehicles for myths and themes that move and influence the masses, instead of getting stuck on the ugly CGI.

 

[luka]

i was thinking of starting a cold war thread he day you posted the regan essay too as it goes. theres a tie-in with sufies memory thread too.

 

[sufi]

I owe you everthing.

typo

 

[...]

typo

Of course

 

[...]

Time Wars: Hollywood and Nostalgia

Something I learned watching Ghostbusters: Afterlife: Egon Spengler is a big fan of the Ghostbusters. He may even be a fan of Ghostbusters, judging by his fixation with Revelations 6:12, a verse th…

olivercraner.com

I actually did this one in a probably futile attempt to write something @Corpsey would enjoy. It's for him.

 

[IdleRich]

To be fair, the Marvel thread did challenge me to stop being so dismissive of these films and think about them as artistic vehicles for myths and themes that move and influence the masses, instead of getting stuck on the ugly CGI.

I hate it though when some film takes the name of a mythical being and then inserts a horribly simplified version of it clumsily into their film and has it beating people up using kung-fu.

I dunno whether Marvel does that, I'm just saying it happens a lot in modern Hollywood. Like in Pirates of the Caribbean they use a bastardised version of Davey Jones (the guy with the locker, not the little one from The Monkees) as a character or they try and crowbar in a huge monster called The Kraken, when we all know that in fact The Kraken actually means some incredibly small and laughably pathetic damp squib that takes months and months to be released and, when it finally is, no-one can actually tell cos it's soooo tiny and riddled with spelling mistakes and basic legal errors.

But maybe you're talking about something different here anyway. Are you saying that the ideas behind the myths live on but in different forms now, with Iron-man or whatever as the carrier rather than Ares & Odysseus (or Mars and Ulysses if you like)? Which is obviously more interesting. But the thing to me is that if Marvel does fill that role it can potentially make the phenomenon interesting without making the films themselves worth watching.