Richard Howard was an American poet, literary critic, essayist and teacher. As translator, he was known for translations such as The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre (1970).
RIP Richard Howard (1929 – 2022)
Tag Archives: 1929
RIP Marvin J. Chomsky (1929 – 2022)
Marvin J. Chomsky was an American director and producer.
He is known for products such as Roots (1977) and Holocaust (1978).
RIP George Crumb (1929 – 2022)
George Crumb was an American composer known for such compositions as Black Angels (1971). Black Angels is featured in “Confessions of a Vinyl Junkie” (2003), a list of records by David Bowie published in Vanity Fair.
RIP Mariano Laurenti (1929 – 2022)
Mariano Laurenti was an Italian film director known for his work in the commedia sexy all’italiana genre.
In that genre he directed several films in the ‘decamerotico’ subgenre, like the one above.
Ubalda, All Naked and Warm (1972) is nothing more than one big excuse to show the naked breasts of Edwige Fenech and Karin Schubert.
RIP E. O. Wilson (1929 – 2021)
E. O. Wilson was an American writer, biologist and naturalist best-known for his book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975).
This book met with great criticism from the political left. In Not in Our Genes (1984) these opponents rejected sociobiology and expressed their desire for a socialist society.
There is a film Sociobiology: The Human Animal (1977) by the BBC. I show it supra. It features interviews with Wilson and his main opponent, Lewontin, co-author of Not in Our Genes.
RIP Richard Lewontin (1929 – 2021)
Richard Lewontin was an American evolutionary biologist noted for many things, but also for opposing Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975) by E. O. Wilson, co-writing Not in Our Genes (1984), in the preface of which is stated:
“We [Richard Lewontin, Steven Rose, and Leon Kamin] share a commitment to the prospect of the creation of a more socially just—a socialist—society. And we recognize that a critical science is an integral part of the struggle to create that society, just as we also believe that the social function of much of today’s science is to hinder the creation of that society by acting to preserve the interests of the dominant class, gender, and race.”
RIP Eric Carle (1929 – 2021)
Eric Carle was an American artist, illustrator, and writer of children’s books.
Carle’s picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar has been translated into more than 66 languages and sold more than 50 million copies.
RIP Monte Hellman (1929 – 2021)
Monte Hellman was an American film director known for his cult films.
I remember seeing Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) on the Moviedrome cult movies programme.
I’m fond of road movies and suddenly I am reminded of C’était un rendez-vous (1976) by Claude Lelouch, the short film that plays in Paris and where the race ends at the Sacré-Cœur.
Another road movie of particular interest is Vanishing Point (1971) with the unforgettable part of DJ Super Soul.
RIP Earl Kemp (1929 – 2020)
Earl Kemp was an American publisher, science fiction editor and critic.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Earl Kemp was involved in publishing erotic paperbacks through a company, Greenleaf Publishing, where he was employed by William Hamling. In an example of détournement, in 1970 Kemp published an Illustrated edition of the Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. According to Pornography and Sexual Representation: A Reference Guide, the book was “replete with the sort of photographs the commission examined.” Kemp eventually was sentenced to a one-year prison sentence for distributing the book (as was Hamling). However, both served only the federal minimum of three months and one day. The story of their arrest and prison time was covered in Gay Talese’s Thy Neighbor’s Wife (1981).
RIP Christopher Plummer (1929 – 2021)
Christopher Plummer was a Canadian actor best-known for his part in The Sound of Music.
In my universe, Plummer played parts in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The Man Who Would Be King and Harrison Bergeron, an admirable adaptation of the wonderful short story by Vonnegut.
In Harrison Bergeron, Plummer is John Klaxon. Klaxon is the benevolent tyrant of the intelligent elite that gives the masses the illusion that they rule.
There seem to be quite a lot of differences with the short story, but I have not had time to check them out.
Update: I re-read the short story, which is only 6 to 7 pages long so there is barely opportunity to compare. In the short story the parents of Harrison are watching television, their son having been arrested some time before. The parents are watching television. All of a sudden the son is seen on television interrupting a ballet performance. The son speaks to the people, imploring them to free themselves from their handicaps. He ‘marries’ a ballerina and is subsequently and tragically shot.
The 2009 short film 2081 follows the short story faithfully.
The film version, with Harrison becoming part of the elite, is reminiscent of V for Vendetta, one of the best films of the 21st century.