Two "huh, maybe" media lenses

[brainwane]

John Rogers, Alexandra Erin, and Alexandra Petri all write varieties of genre fiction that reward both systems thinking (worldbuilding) and an understanding of human psychology (character), including the monstrous. This aids them in understanding and commenting on modern US politics; they don't get stuck looking at only one of those levels.

Bollywood-style Indian film reminds me how much I would love if more US films had song-and-dance sequences in them .... the musical is a medium that can cross a lot more genres than I usually get to see it in. (I haven't caught the new episodes of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend yet, alas! Maybe next month.) The upcoming release of Thackeray, a biopic about politician Bal Thackeray, reminds me that I need to check whether there's a film that turns Nehru's midnight 15 August 1947 independence speech ("while the world sleeps, India awakes") into a song and dance.

Comments

[skygiants]

I am of the firm opinion that as many things should be musicals as there are things.

[jesse_the_k]

Musicals are highly dense communication media! Sight! Song! Costumes! Dancing!

[ndrosen]

Gesamtkunstwerk, as the Germans described opera; that was a term of Wagner’s in particular. But you probably prefer lighter musicals.

I do -- How did you know?

[jesse_the_k]

I've loved musical theater since I was a little kid, and I've bounced off opera every time I've tried. The closest I've reached is Gilbert & Sullivan. The tendency to melismatic vocals just strokes my fur backwards.

[wohali]

Have you thought about watching older US films that had a lot of song-and-dance sequences in them? I always assumed that Bollywood-style Indian film picked up that tradition from the earlier US tradition, at least in part.