"Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking soundbites to support it. “Wouldn’t you say,” she asked, ‘that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?” No, I said, I wouldn’t say that. “But what about ‘The Basketball Diaries’?” she asked. “Doesn’t that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machinegun?”
The obscure 1995 Leonardo DiCaprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office and it’s unlikely the Columbine killers saw it.
The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. “Events like this,” I said, “if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. Kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn’t have messed with me. I’ll go out in a blaze of glory.”
In short, I said, events like Columbine are influenced far less by violent movies than by CNN, “The NBC Nightly News” and other news media, who glorify the killers in the guise of “explaining” them.
The reporter thanked me and turned off the camera. Of course the interview was never used. They found plenty of talking heads to condemn violent movies, and everybody was happy.
"
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A Roger Ebert quote that sticks out in my mind
From his review of Gus Van Sant’s Elephant
(via yeezytaughtme)
Roger Ebert was a very smart man.
(via jragonfly)
(via jragonfly)
Trying to learn German right now… and wondering HOW was it decided that certain words are masculine or feminine? Like Fish. Oh fish are definitely masculine.
But Newspapers? Oh those are obviously feminine, just like soup. Mhmm. But of course the word “Madchen” is neutral not feminine even though it means girl. Duh.
Charles Bukowski, The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship
except nO ONE GAVE ME MY FREAKING LINES
(via quillish)
§ We’re human, you know. Just like you. We eat, we sleep, we breathe. We dream and feel pain too.
§ “You have restored peace and justice to the galaxy. You have done well, Lord Vader.”
Star wars screencap spam ahead for the next couple days. Tagging as “starspam.”
You’ve been warned.
