And 37-year-old Shirley Henderson played (the ghost of) a schoolgirl in the second Harry Potter film and subsequent ones.

I think the article points out the essential problem with that definition, which is who has the authority to decide when the importance is "unwarranted"? I.e. the young Bowie example. To label someone "pretentious" pretty much requires at least a bit a bit of arrogance on the part of the person who's applying the…

I don't know. Imagine if this were the case with stars signed to a label. They have kids. The record label comes to them to make a deal for the next album, and the band says, "Hey, we've got more expenses now, if you want us, it'll cost you double." Then the record execs have to decide if the market will bear that.…

@avclub-d7f43e1fb2d4977c86163d9b0cb07814:disqus The investment side of patronage may have been true for the visual arts, but music and poetry also operated under the same system, and the only benefit the patrons could really expect was to have something named after them or to have their beneficence praised in a proem.…

That YouTube clip is rather unfortunately edited, since it skips the whole slow build-up to Lithgow raising the blind on the window, which is a major factor in selling the effect of the freakout.

Eh, I liked the earlier version where they used to give Kyle a situation and he had to perform a Punky for it. The quiz format they've latched onto now is okay for Kyle's parody of game show patter, but it's a set-up with diminishing returns. I can't exactly explain why the "attempt to stump Kyle with a Punky…

D'oh, I was just filling a post highlighting that exact same, fantastic quote, and luckily I decided to scroll down to make sure no one else had mentioned it first. And here you are!

One response to the good case/bad case idea would be that identifying what makes for a "good interpretation" really just tells us about ourselves and what's current in interpretive fashion. That is, there's never objective (a loaded word, I know) for good or bad evidence. There's only consensus for what counts, and…

As a creative writer finishing a PhD with scholarly/critical component, I've found myself deeply conflicted about interpretive criticism. I don't want to succumb to either brute anti-intellectualism or natural science snobbery, but I've increasingly found it harder and harder to take seriously a good chunk of academic…

Indeed. Actually, the concept of suspense is a relatively modern phenomenon (or, at least, the amount of emphasis put on it is), depending on how you define suspense. If it's the kind of suspense that can be "spoiled" (i.e., curiosity about what will happen next), then that's much less valued in pre-Enlightenment…

So, the "real-world" image of the Simpson children highlights a bit of a genetic question. Homer's a brunette (as are both his parents). Marge is blue-haired (though we learn she's dyeing prematurely grey hair). Three blond, blue-eyed children seems an improbable outcome (though do we ever hear what eye-color Homer or…

Alright, let's test the unfairness of the comparison. What musical would you propose deserves more artistic respect than Lear?

I'm a real fan of the Rankin/Bass version of "Beyond the Misty Mountains Cold" — in fact, the version in the Jackson movie is almost irritating in how it feels like a bad soundalike version. Not different enough carve out its own aesthetic space, and decidedly inferior to the version in the cartoon.

You might also check out "Ms. Hempel Chronicles" by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, which is also linked stories about a teacher and was a National Book Award finalist. I haven't read "Olive Kitteridge," but based on the description, I'd say that "Ms. Hempel" has a narrower scope and a more concentrated cast, which I think is…

@avclub-fec1b8d3fbc08f27a84e5a334d45bb5a:disqus Perhaps in some cases. But here are two examples of Excess Ellipsis Syndrome that I just grabbed from comments on an NBC news story, and I don't think the nudge-nudge-wink-wink element is really at play:

Needs more ellipses as well.

As someone who studies medieval literature, it's fun to see that the grand tradition of mangled etymological explanations for things is still alive and well.

Change Akerman's character from "cryptologist" to "cryptozoologist" and NOW you've got yourself a movie!

Huh, I've found Pandora to be quite good, but only you if you populate a station with a significant seed-crowd of artists (I don't see why it should be surprising that it's results aren't great when you're building from one artist) and if you're fairly good about thumbs-upping and thumbs-downing selections. I've…

I was in a meeting on Wednesday where one of the important attendees didn't show up (well, came in very late) because he was "glued to the TV" watching the news. This was on Wednesday, when not much was happening, and we're in a college town in the Midwest (so no real likelihood of local developments). That kind of…