A.O. Scott
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Notable NYC: 2/4–2/10
Saturday 2/4: John Domini and Carole Firstman celebrate releases from Dzanc Books. KGB Bar, 7 p.m., free. Cecilia Corrigan and Wendy Trevino join the Segue Series. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., $5. Sunday 2/5: Chelsea Hodson, Gregory Zorko, Sarah Jean Grimm, Liz…
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Office Space, the Final Frontier
In A.O. Scott’s eyes, summer blockbusters and workplace sitcoms aren’t that different these days: Part of what makes work tolerable is the idea that it is heroic, the fantasy that repetitive and meaningless tasks are charged with risk and significance.…
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The Benefits of Criticism
Megha Majumdar interviews A. O. Scott for Electric Literature. In addition to discussing Scott’s debut book Better Living Through Criticism, the two explore why criticism matters in a time when American anti-intellectualism “is virtually our civic religion.”
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Eating at the Table of Another
The critic giveth and he taketh away. In his review of Better Living Through Criticism, Jonathon Sturgeon counters A.O. Scott’s aversion to the idea of the critic as parasite: Maybe the loneliness of the American critic stems from his obsession…
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Haters Gonna Hate
Some movies just aren’t all that good. A.O. Scott makes the case for film snobbery: You see the problem. “Snob” is a category in which nobody would willingly, or at least unironically, claim membership. Like the related (and similarly complicated)…
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Who Was Your First Kiss?
At the New York Times Magazine, A.O. Scott covers “A Brief History of Kissing in Movies.”
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Is Our Art Failing Us?
In his “Cross Cuts” column for the New York Times, A.O. Scott explains how, “in the midst of [our] hard times,” he feels as if “art is failing us.” Following his introductory essay, he asked a group of panelists some…
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Henry James & The Great YA Debate
Responding to the ongoing debate about whether or not American literature is saturated with young adult fiction (and if adults should read these novels), Christopher Beha, in the New Yorker, addresses A.O. Scott’s recent essay in the New York Times…
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Patriarchy’s Slow Unwinding
For the New York Times Magazine, A.O. Scott argues about the “slow unwinding” of patriarchy in American culture, drawing on modern television, history, and literature. In part responding to Ruth Graham’s essay at Slate, in which she urges against adults reading…
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Eating Your “Cultural Vegetables”
Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott evaluate what is boring and why, in the context of film. They discuss the films that are deemed boring because they don’t distract enough from the passing of time and the ones that incite a…
