Gatsbymania: Baz Lurhmann’s Wild Ride

ap_great_gatsby_wm_dm_130509_wblogLet me just say right off the bat that it takes guts to take a sacrosanct American novel, let’s say, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and turn it into a film.  And that is exactly what Baz Lurhmann has done.  Art begets art, and so I would never be the kind of person who would refuse to see this film because “the movie is never better than the book,” or “I can’t stand Tobey Maguire,” or, “Jay-Z is not the Jazz Age,” although I know people that I profoundly respect who do not wish to sully the novel that is in their heads with Baz Lurhmann’s outsized pop-opera cinematic style.

Fair enough.

Continue reading

Why American Kids Have ADHD and French Kids Don’t

English: A child not paying attention in class.

G. K. Chesterton wrote, “Science in the modern world has many uses; its chief use, however, is to provide long words to cover the errors of the rich.” A rich man cannot be a thief. He must be a kleptomaniac. America, the richest society in the history of the world, applies this use of science with diligence.

We apply it most diligently on behalf of our children. No red-blooded American child would misbehave. Our children have disorders.

Continue reading

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 672 other followers