The Ice Storm

Just finished The Ice Storm by Rick Moody for my whiteness class. Can't say that I recommend it. While it's fairly well written, the content itself is a little . . . explicit for what I'd really choose to read on my own. Overall thumbs down.

Now it's on to Lolita. Apparently this is the sexually explicit portion of the semester. Next week, however, will be 60s cinema for my American Culture 1945-1975 class: Dr. Strangelove, North by Northwest, and The Manchurian Candidate. That I'm looking forward to.

I think I should talk to the MA advisor and see whether I could take some classes in the Communications/Film Studies department. I still really enjoy film and analyzing film (particularly in the context of film and adaptation).

In fact, I think my final paper for my whiteness class is going to examine portrayals of black athletes (or lack thereof) in films that celebrate 30s and 40s era baseball. My thought is that romanticizing this era, before black athletes were allowed to play, places an unspoken value on white athleticism. I think I might continue that into films set in the present as well, where blackness is accepted as athletic but whiteness still retains the more powerful positions (owners and managers). I'm thinking of looking at Field of Dreams, one of my favorite movies, and the only black character was an addition from the novel. I've also thought at looking at The Natural and Eight Men Out to see how the absence of blackness empowers whiteness. I'm not sure what movies from the present I'd look at: Major League comes to mind, with the voodoo black player and the rich white female owner. I think I'll have to do more research. Anyone recommend any movies?