Category: Essay
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What makes great heroes?
What makes great heroes? Jack Bauer doesn’t wear a cape. He can’t fly. He’s not a superhero or an antihero, but what I’ve called a naturalistic hero, someone uniquely capable to defeat enemies through wit and strength, a perfect match for gruesome realities.
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The Semantic Incongruity of Calling Machines “Human”
Computers may resemble us in spirit, and may sometime soon make “intentional” judgments, but conferring on them a higher distinction, “human,” perpetuates semantic absurdity.
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Indie Gone Mainstream
Relying primarily on trade press articles and popular literature, I attempt to open a window into indie subculture, an outsider movement historically defined in opposition to Hollywood. Yet within independent cinema a civil war rages.
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With Hindsight: Paris
A jumbled collection of sights, sounds, smells and flavors flood my memory from nine days abroad in Paris.
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The Early Origins of a Popular Press
From penny papers to 24-hour broadcast news, journalism has long mapped onto market interests. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with that.
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Discovering Identity Through Film
Four film-going adventures reveal four different backstories and four unique insights into my character: Steve Jobs, Room, Inside Out, and Spotlight.
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Rebellion as a Necessary Medicine
Rebellion stirs conflicting ideas in mind — those courageous revolutionaries who fought Britain in the name of liberty versus scary men bearing bald heads and hateful tattoos. What would Plato and MLK think?
Matt Schwartz 