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CENSORSHIP NOW!!

Name: CENSORSHIP NOW!!
Author: Ian F. Svenonius
ISBN: 978-1-61775-409-8

by Ian F. Svenonius ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 3, 2015

For the author’s fans and disaffected teenagers of vaguely leftist impulses.

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Rant ’n’ roll from D.C. musician/writer/broadcaster Svenonius (Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group, 2013, etc.), who’s not at all happy with the world as it is.

The author might (or might not) balk at the term, but there’s a certain Leninist streak in this screed: if the right-wing media is going to blast out its bilge, if Hollywood is going to churn out “imperialist apologia,” and artists continue with their head-in-the-sand escapism, well, then it’s time to start censoring them—and to hell with the First Amendment and its guarantees of self-expression, which “is a parlor trick, designed by the lords of capital, with extraordinary, insidious implications.” Svenonius doesn’t seem to be saying that it’s not cool to shout fire in a crowded Haymarket Square but instead that anything that doesn’t accommodate his idea of resistance is suspect—unless it can be explained by anomie, in which case the sort of bilious trolling seen in Facebook comments is OK, since it’s simply misguided resistance of a false-consciousness ilk. Sans-culotte fervor is all to the good, though this collection of scattered observations might come with a trigger warning for fans of the Grateful Dead and similar rock bands, responsible for the banishment of dancing from concerts by musicians “who insisted that their audiences sit obediently and consume drugs en masse whilst trapped in enormous arenas, raceways, pastures, and superdomes.” Throughout the book, the author delivers a healthy dose of NPR–is-a-cultural-imperialist and Wikipedia-is-the-antichrist sort of stuff. In advancing such theories, Svenonius gets off a lot of nice slogans and apothegms (“For the Beatles, perhaps sex and death are intertwined, as in so many of the world’s religions”), but it doesn’t go much further than that on the logical-development, sustained-argument front.

For the author’s fans and disaffected teenagers of vaguely leftist impulses.

Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-61775-409-8

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Akashic

Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2015

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.