The Cronenberg approach
The idea of using literary texts to illuminate film is not new. But there remains a stubborn Leavisite tendency that implicitly values literary writings as superior on the grounds of being the more established art form. Mark Browning examines Canadian director David Cronenberg’s works in this context.
Continue reading The Cronenberg approach
‘Maoist rebels are mirrors of our own failings as a nation’
Sudeep Chakravarti, author of Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country, discusses the Maoist rebellion in India. “There is a crying need to mainstream it, tell the lay reader what is going on, shake ‘middle India’ out of its mall-stupor and diminish the delusions of grandeur of India’s lawmakers,” he tells Rohit Chopra. “The truth about this wrenching war has to be told.”
Continue reading ‘Maoist rebels are mirrors of our own failings as a nation’
‘Media must uphold human rights and social justice principles’
Professor Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, in conversation with Rohit Chopra. The author of Islam and the Secular State addresses the role of media in upholding the principles of rights and social justice and the problems with embedded journalism.
Continue reading ‘Media must uphold human rights and social justice principles’
The Church and Oprah
At the heart of a YouTube-led controversy stands Oprah Winfrey, one of the world’s most popular media figures, charged with threatening Christianity. In this article which first appeared in ReligionDispatches, Gary Laderman says there’s every reason to be concerned about the Church of Oprah. Because it’s part of a larger competing religious culture: celebrity worship.
Continue reading The Church and Oprah
