Really bad music
“[Adolf] Hitler’s very rise to power, his acquisition of the respectability which eased his accession, were eased by the musical culture he shared with the [composer Richard] Wagner clan, which supported him from the early 1920s on, and whose fads and tastes — vegetarianism, animal rights, dabbling in Eastern mysticism — he enthusiastically adopted.
“For [author Alex] Ross, the Nazi infatuation with music is the crux of his story. If 19th-century German politics and philosophy and musical endeavour made classical music unprecedentedly momentous, its implication in the near-annihilation of European civilization by the mid-century robbed it of moral authority, a collapse with which classical music still lives, 60 years on. As Ross points out, trivially but accurately, ’When any self-respecting Hollywood archcriminal sets out to enslave mankind, he listens to a little classical music to get in the mood.’ ”
— Ian Bostridge, writing on “Classical Music’s 20th-century Tragedy” in the April 30 issue of the Times Literary Supplement
Video morals
“The narrative of [Grand Theft Auto] IV is a variation on the rags-to-riches tales found in gangster movies dating back to the original ’Scarface’ and ’Little Caesar.’ …
“Our anti-hero is Niko Bellic, an immigrant from Eastern Europe who has done terrible things that he’d like to forget. Follow the game’s missions — he’ll do work for the Russian mob, Irish gangsters, the Mafia, biker gangs, Latino drug kingpins, Rastafarian arms dealers, and corrupt congressmen — and you’ll commit innumerable murders and thefts to get ahead.
“The plot of GTA IV doesn’t just rehash moments from ’The Sopranos’ — it’s full of surprise and laced with moral dilemmas. … The protagonist of GTA IV, by contrast, was a combatant in some Kosovo-like conflict, and it’s clear that he’s haunted by it. He occasionally shows flashes of conscience, and some missions are designed to make you feel uneasy. Bellic works in crime because it’s what he knows how to do, not because he has to satisfy his blood lust.”
— Chris Baker, writing on “The Surprising Narrative Richness of Grand Theft Auto IV” on April 29 at Slate.com
Drop out
“Economist Thomas Sowell has some difficult words for those who decry the rising cost of college. Rather than offer a blanket criticism of ’greedy’ colleges or issue a challenge for Congress to increase grants and funding for student loans, he suggests that maybe fewer people should be going to college. …
“Some may accuse Sowell of elitism, but I think he’s just anti-dilettantism; opposed to the frivolous waste of scarce resources on kids who spend four years partying, copulating, protesting and taking the equivalent of ’basket-weaving’ classes. I agree with him.
“Job application creep has pushed companies to require bachelor’s degrees for work that a skilled — as in properly educated — high school graduate could do. I’ve mentioned before that our local state college offers a degree in pool management. I’m not kidding. Somebody is getting soaked (pun intended) and among them are the students and their parents paying for this, as well as the Massachusetts taxpayers.”
— Domenico Bettinelli, writing on “Not Everyone Should Go to College” on April 28 at blog Bettnet
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