NYT OP-EDS » REALITYCHEX

Your Wednesday New York Times Op-Ed Entertainment Mini-Report

May 30, 2012   ·   4 Comments

Source: NYTX

By Marie Burns:

Today’s New York Times op-ed page is devoted to film reviews.

Maureen Dowd spends the first part of her column, titled “Andromeda is Coming,” to remembrances of scary sci-fi movies and TV shows which relied on the premise of an earth-shattering event – a planet or asteroid collision, solar flares, humungous earthquake. Dowd throws in a few prophecies about similar end-of-days scenarios – maybe to give the films verisimilitude. She goes on to sort of review “’The Age of Miracles,’ a debut novel by Karen Thompson Walker that [is] … a tender coming-of-age novel set at the toxic end of the world.” Don’t worry; this too shall be a movie. Dowd tells us the book “has already been optioned by Hollywood.” Shaken by all of these cosmic possibilities, Dowd consults an expert – David Morrison, the senior scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California – who reassures her “that the premises in Walker’s novel and ‘The Twilight Zone’ could not happen.” This would be a good place for Dowd to discuss the really bad things that will happen/are happening because of our rampant environmental carelessness. But such reality is an inconvenient truth that doesn’t make for entertaining op-ed trivia, so Dowd doesn’t go there.

In her commentary on Walker’s novel, Dowd notes that the book won’t be published till next month – a way of informing us that she received an advance copy. She also tells us about chatting via e-mail with the author. This special access the publisher Random House accorded Dowd reminds me of Tom Friedman’s frequent boasts about his many chats with very important people, some of whom are his close personal friends.

Sure enough, in his column today, Tom Friedman identifies iconic musician Paul Simon as “a friend of mine.” The occasion for this boast is Friedman’s “review” of “Joe Berlinger’s must-see documentary, ‘Under African Skies,’ about the making of Paul Simon’s classic ‘Graceland’ album in South Africa in 1985 – and his reunion with the same African artists 25 years later.” Unlike Dowd, Friedman devotes considerable space in his column to a legitimate subject for the op-ed page: the political ramifications of Simon’s collaboration with South African musicians in the time of apartheid. Though Friedman’s writing and “insights” are adolescent, his topic – even as it comes in the form of a movie review – is certainly worthy of revisiting. Maybe Frank Rich, formerly of the Times and now writing for New York magazine, will discuss the film and its subject matter in a manner worthy of the material.

I was disappointed to find that Mark Bittman, the food guy, who usually writes on Wednesdays, was off today. I was hoping he might suggest some appropriate munchies to snack on at the movies. The closest substitute is a post by Ross Douthat, whose lede mentions “pious baloney.” I was hoping “Pious Baloney” was the name Douthat had chosen to rechristen his New York Times blog, but apparently not. I’ll chew over Douthat’s post later.

Marie Burns blogs at RealityChex.com

By marieburns

Readers Comments (4)

1. wgowen says:

   As a veteran of nearly 50 years in academic science, I give Ms Dowd’s piece a little more credit as a clever, toungueincheek stab at the science-denial crowd. In spite of Richard Leakey’s optimistic claim, we will never, ever, back them down with evidence, so maybe a little derision can help.

   12:13 pm on May 30, 2012

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2. marieburns says:

   @wgowen: Thanks for your input. Yours is a generous reading, and you may be right. That was a direction I thought Dowd might be going when I began reading her column, but I don’t think she got there. Dowd is not much given to subtlety, so if her intent was to deride science deniers, I think her approach would have been more in-their-faces.

   You are quite right about not backing them down with evidence, and it certainly doesn’t help to do as Dowd did & rely on an actual expert to make her case. Every science-denier knows the value of a Harvard Ph.D.: it’s a ticket to membership in the Great Conspiracy-Cooking Club.

   Marie

   5:51 pm on May 30, 2012

    Reply
3. PD Pepe says:

   My daughter-in-law who is on the faculty of the New Caanan Country Day school here in Ct. has had Paul Simon’s children as her students and reports they are lovely as is Edie, their mother, but Paul, during all the parent conferences seemed removed, but polite. Perhaps his music collaborations takes it’s toll or maybe friends like Tom Friedman causes one to be cautious.

   As far as the “sky is falling” folks I’m afraid it is going to take many more earth shaking catastrophes to wake them up to the possibility that science might be the way to go here rather than believe the twilight zoners and their scary bed time stories. But then–––maybe not.

   6:46 pm on May 30, 2012

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4. alphonsegaston says:

   This is not surprising, as film seems to constitute the ruling body of collective wisdom these days. Whether the Arts section of the Times or Huff Po, movie news and reviews dominate the other arts. Roland Barthes, as last week’s Sunday Times Magazine reminds us, pointed out that popular culture is the mythology of our day.

   Just this week I was reminded how out of touch I am, when someone e-mailed me a group of “very important lost photos” which clearly showed various entertainment figures, of whom I could barely identify anyone. And I have always tried to monitor modern popular culture as part of being a citizen, but plainly I am behind the curve. When they began to re-write the history of the culture of rock (which I grew up in) as a significant political movement, and even try to remove the rock culture from the category of “popular music,” I saw the myth machine in action within the boundaries of my own life.

   Must be a seldom commented on sign of aging.

   7:21 pm on May 30, 2012

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