Chavrusa: January 2, 2022

The days readings

The Intercept’s revelation that Russia and China codified a secret agreement in 2021 to coordinate international propaganda and disinformation may not provoke surprise: but it does raise the question: in what other ways is China providing surreptitious support to Russia’s war in Ukraine?

In “Bring Back the Mugwumps,” David Frum solidified my conviction that it was time to look beyond the GOP for a 21st Century conservative movement. And this was written in January 2010, six years before Donald Trump won his first primary.

As the development of direct streaming video services reaches its apogee, it is worth stepping back ten years and into the words of critic A.O. Scott as he offers his perspective on the future of film. It was too early to sing dirges for cinema, but it may still be too early to understand the long-term impacts of streaming services and COVID-19. My bet: upgrades to in-theater services and seating will put bottoms in seats for decades to come.

I have volumes of Norman Mailer’s writings among the shelves of my unread books, and I wonder if I should dive in. Algis Valiunas might suggest not to bother. In this essay in Commentary, written two years after Mailer’s death, Valiunas castigates Mailer for helping to “create the moral confusion amid which he was glorified.”

Nothing of the late Hunter S. Thompson’s oeuvre spends much time on the unread shelf at my house: it would always get snapped up and read as soon as it arrived. Rescuing the good doctor from literary obscurity seems to be a part-time occupation for many writers, and J.M. Tyree makes an excellent case for Dr. Gonzo’s lasting impact on criticism, political analysis, and the non-fiction novel. One example of his legacy: no political analyst worth the title should eschew HST’s Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, 1972.