September 26, 2023 | Rome, Italy
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Dead Heat

Friends ask what I think of the Iraq war. My answer: Put on the burgers first. Otherwise they’ll burn. Don’t ask where.

Adrienne Shelly, Trust, TV mistrust, Hal Hartley, Martin Donovan

Trust

The sad idealism of hurt. Too bad Hal Hartley ever had to grow up.

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The Rothmund Void

The United States is not an authoritarian state, but it's getting into the bad habit of expecting its people not to talk back.

J.M. Coetzee, South Africa, London, boyhood, youth

Boyhood; Youth

Coetzee's fictionalized autobiographies of infancy in South Africa and student life in London are self-critical and razor sharp.

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The Vibrator

"Others would feel up Betsy Caledonia, who was 13 but had the pellucid skin of an infant. She’d get a dollar for each boy."