bookshelf

THE AGE OF THE IMAGE

Name: THE AGE OF THE IMAGE
Author: Stephen Apkon
ISBN: 978-0-374-10243-2

REDEFINING LITERACY IN A WORLD OF SCREENS

by Stephen Apkon ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 16, 2013

Apkon goes to great lengths to assay the obvious. Only in passing does he grant that the image does not exist in isolation,...

bookshelf

Debut author Apkon, executive director of the Jacob Burns Film Center, makes a strong case for the moving image as today’s primary form of communication. Yet, like many true believers, he pays short shrift to the cultural downside.

With the new technologies has come the democratization of media, writes the author. Inexpensive access to the tools and techniques of video and filmmaking enables us to circumvent the “elitist” gatekeepers of production companies and TV networks. Now it is possible for anyone who is visually literate to conceive, shoot and disseminate his or her own videos, influencing the world overnight. Visual media may be redefining the sorts of literacy we need to comprehend the digital age. Visual literacy also might better engage and prepare students in our flailing school system. However, Apkon spends too much time considering how students will enter the global economy and not enough examining what they might do of value within it. What does it matter if 20 million viewers see a YouTube video if that video is vacuous? While the author cautions that we must be sophisticated consumers of visual media, he ignores a worrisome byproduct: When anyone can make “art,” everyone will. What about talent and professional standards? Apkon’s scholarly rigor and generally cogent analysis are offset by his preoccupation with trivial achievements, the occasional slippage into pop psychology and a dismissive tone. He drips scorn on anyone who resists this inexorable visual tide, but one need not be a Luddite to recognize that not every innovation is an advance. Though a devotee of independent cinema, the author’s cultural touchstones appear to be famous Hollywood storytellers whose work is dominated by technically impressive yet empty entertainments.

Apkon goes to great lengths to assay the obvious. Only in passing does he grant that the image does not exist in isolation, that word and image are inextricable. After all, he required this ancient technology—a book—to communicate his ideas.

Pub Date: April 16, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-374-10243-2

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: March 11, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

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

bookshelf

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

bookshelf

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

bookshelf

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.