Arts & Letters

No Comments

Shirley Jackson Strikes Back 

If you are a Boomer, you probably remember Shirley Jackson. She was the author of six novels and hundreds of short stories, including “The Lottery,” the fictional tale of an annual ritual that takes place in an American town.

The story was published by The New Yorker in 1948. It became an instant classic, anthologized widely, including in many high school texts. According to Letters of Note, “It generated more hate mail and controversy than anything ever printed in the magazine.”

Five years later, Jackson published her memoir, Life Among the Savages, a comical account of family life. It was generally warmly received. But not by all. One reader, a Mrs. White from North Bennington, VT, sent Jackson a long critique, complaining that she had wasted her time and money on the book. Jackson’s reply was short and to the point:

Dear Mrs. White,

If you don’t like my peaches, don’t shake my tree.

Sincerely,
Shirley Jackson

Continue Reading

A Word to the Wise

No Comments

Social science, according to Merriam-Webster, is “a branch of science that deals with the institutions and functioning of human society and with the interpersonal relationships of individuals as members of society.”

Or, according to Michael Kinsley, social science is an oxymoron: “Science means hypotheses you can test, and prove or disprove. Social science is little more than observation putting on airs.”

Continue Reading

Postscript

No Comments

Russell Brand is a very interesting person. Highly intelligent. Super skillful in conversation – particularly when he is being criticized. And, when the opportunity is there, maniacally funny!

;

Continue Reading

Worth Watching

No Comments

Margin Call 

Release date (US): Oct. 21, 2011

Written and directed by J.C. Chandor

Starring Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, and Stanley Tucci

Available to rent or buy on various streaming services, including Netflix and Amazon Prime

Margin Call is a tightly scripted, dramatic movie about the 2008 financial meltdown. The story takes place over a 24-hour period at a big Wall Street investment firm in the early stages of the crisis.

What I Liked About It 

* The ambition of the concept – showing a massive and complex worldwide crisis in the context of a single place during a single day. (This is actually a thing the Ancient Greek dramatists did, if I’m not mistaken.)

* The script: I’ve been around brokers and bankers tangentially for many years. Often, I find the Hollywood characterization of them to be artificial at best. (Think Gordon Gecko.) That includes the way they speak. That wasn’t the case with Margin Call. On the contrary, both the characters and the script felt authentic. (There is an understandable reason for this: The writer/director’s family was immersed in this world.) Because of that authenticity and because of the way the plot developed, I had the sense that I was being given a sophisticated inside look at investment banking.

* Kevin Spacey – always one of my favorite actors – and the rest of the ensemble cast.

* The plot was strong: tense and dramatic throughout.

What I Didn’t Like So Much 

Despite the authenticity of the characters and the dialog, the classical dramatic framework – one day in one place – made Margin Call feel more like a play than a movie. This isn’t meant to be a major criticism. It’s a limitation purposely imposed by the film’s creators to enhance the theatrical aspects of the story. But that meant forgoing the kind of emotional intensity that movies can provide by moving quickly through time and space. (You can see what I mean by comparingMargin Call to another movie on the same topic: The Big Short.)

Critical Reception 

* “Easily the best Wall Street movie ever made.” (David Denby, The New Yorker)

* “Margin Call employs an excellent cast who can make financial talk into compelling dialogue.” (RogerEbert.com)

* “It is hard to believe that Margin Call is Mr. Chandor’s first feature. His formal command – his ability to imply far more than he shows or says and to orchestrate a large, complex drama out of whispers, glances, and snippets of jargon – is downright awe inspiring.” (A.O. Scott, The New York Times)

Interesting: 

* The title of the film is a financial term. A margin call occurs when the value of securities in a brokerage account falls below a certain level (the maintenance margin), requiring the account holder to deposit additional cash or securities to meet the margin requirements.

* Although the film does not depict any real Wall Street firm, and the fictional firm is never named, my ex-wall Street friends tell me it’s based on two companies: Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers.

About J.C. Chandor

Jeffrey McDonald Chandor, better known as J.C. Chandor, was born and raised in New Jersey. His father was/is an investment banker. And Chandor himself was partially involved in NYC real estate before the financial crash. Margin Call (2011) was his first feature-length film. Prior to that, he directed commercials. In addition to Margin Call, he has written/directed All Is Lost (2013), A Most Violent Year (2014), and Triple Frontier (2019).

Continue Reading

Worth Reading

No Comments

Black Conservative Intellectuals in Modern America 

By Michael L. Ondaatje

232 pages

Published Dec. 3, 2009 by Univ. of Pennsylvania Press

A few years ago, I saw a videoclip of Candace Owens in a debate. I was smitten. Her intelligence, conviction, and articulation of certain conservative principles impressed me. So did her good looks. And, yes, she is Black.

Two years ago, I became a fan of Larry Elder, the conservative talk show host and recent candidate for governor of California. Elder, too, is intelligent and articulate. And he’s also Black. He’s not as good looking as Candace Owens. But he has a sense of humor that is very endearing.

Through Owens and Elder, I heard about Thomas Sowell, the economist, historian, and social theorist from Stanford University. Heavy duty public intellectual. And conservative. And Black.

And that got me thinking about Black conservativism in America. Is it a new thing? A growing thing? An important thing?

And those questions led me to Michael L. Ondaatje and Black Conservative Intellectuals in Modern America.

In this scholarly but readable book, Ondaatje chronicles the development of Black conservatism in the United States from the early 1980s to the present. He does so through the lens of three policy issues: affirmative action, welfare, and education. And by focusing on nine influential Black conservatives, including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, and cultural theorist John McWhorter, as well as Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell.

What I Liked About Black Conservative Intellectuals in Modern America 

* The book demonstrates that Black conservatism is hardly a new thing. That it has long roots and a distinguished cast of characters.

* Ondaatje does a careful, analytical job of identifying the commonalities and differences of his subjects. He refutes the popular myth that all Black conservatives subscribe to the same thinking.

Critical Reception 

* “A splendid narrative of the rise of Black conservative intellectuals who emerged into the public sphere with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980…. A first-rate, evenhanded account of Black conservatism that will likely be a pivotal work on the topic for years to come.” (Journal of American History)

* “Thoughtful, well written…. Ondaatje has written a useful assessment of the late 20th century iteration of an important but understudied historical and contemporary intellectual tradition.” (Rhetoric and Public Affairs)

* “Michael Ondaatje has taken on a subject that few have written about so thoroughly and extensively, and his book makes a notable contribution to modern American intellectual history and race relations…. Applying rigorous critical analysis, he also documents their logical failures, intellectual inconsistencies, and suspect arguments.” (Raymond A. Mohl, coeditor of The New African American Urban History)

* “A well-written and important piece of scholarship that aids considerably in historical understanding of Black conservatism in particular and modern American conservatism in general.” (Edward J. Blum, author of W.E.B. Du Bois, American Prophet)

Continue Reading

Worth Quoting

No Comments

“The next time some academics tell you how important diversity is, ask how many conservatives there are in their sociology department.” – Thomas Sowell

Continue Reading

A Word to the Wise

No Comments

Piaculative (pie-AK-yuh-luh-tiv) was coined by T.S. Eliot for his poem “Mr. Eliot’s Sunday Morning Service.” Derived from the Latin for “appease, purify, expiate,” it refers to atonement or reparation – e.g., for a sin or crime.

From the poem:

The sable presbyters approach

The avenue of penitence;

The young are red and pustular

Clutching piaculative pence.

Continue Reading

Postscript

No Comments

Sacha Baron Cohen is a brilliant and brave comedian. (As a comedian, you need to be brave to be brilliant.) I discovered him years ago when he was doing the Ali G show – a TV series that would not be aired today. Here is a sampling:

 

Continue Reading

Notes From My Journal

No Comments

How I Fell Into Real Estate Hell 

In the late 1970s, I made my first investment in real estate. It was a tidy little one-bedroom in a recently refurbished building on Massachusetts Ave. in Washington, DC. The woman that sold it to us happened to be the owner of a townhouse we were renting about half a mile away. She persuaded me to buy the apartment by explaining how prices had been escalating in the area and by offering me a loan that required me to put nothing down. Not a cent.

Nice apartment. Recently remodeled building. Up-and-coming neighborhood. And zero out-of-pocket? It seemed like a no-brainer to me.

The no-brainer, it turned out, was me.

She was right in telling me that property values in that part of DC had been going up. And she did manage to get me a deed and the keys without taking a nickel from my wallet. But what she didn’t tell me was that the value of the property that was indicated on the mortgage was considerably higher than it was actually worth. Nor did she explain that the loan I had agreed to had a three-year term, and at a negatively amortizing rate.

What that meant was that my mortgage payments were not sufficient to cover the interest payments – or the principal. So, at the end of the three-year term, I had to refinance, which required me to shell out thousands. Plus, the amount I owed on the principal was more at the end of the term than it was when I first signed.

To make matters worse, I rented the place to a nice young woman that presented herself as a college student. As it turned out, she was earning her tuition by entertaining men in her apartment at night. This led to constant complaints from the neighbors and fines from the HOA. To add insult to injury, after the second month, she stopped paying rent.

I inquired as to the procedures for kicking her out and found that DC had such strong tenant “protection” regulations that it would take at least a year and probably two or three to get rid of her. I considered changing the locks when she was away, but was told that if I did that, I’d be arrested. I’d be in jail – still paying the mortgage, still losing money every month on the negatively amortizing loan, still paying fines to the HOA. And she’d be comfortably entertaining “clients” until the eviction procedure finally took hold.

I considered refinancing again. But alas, the mortgage I had signed was not backed by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae. That meant that at the end of those three-year terms, I could be forced to pay out the entire balance of the mortgage. (Which was growing by about a thousand bucks a month.) I didn’t have that much money. So, I had to accept whatever predatory terms the shitty bank that held the mortgage offered me. I had fallen into real estate hell with no prospect of getting out.

It wasn’t until nearly four years later that I managed to pay off the mortgage and sell the damn place. Instead of the big profit my landlady had promised, I took a hit for nearly $40,000 – which was about $40,000 more than my net worth.

Continue Reading