A ldquo;fascinatingrdquo; psychological portrait of Charlie Chaplin and the painful childhood that shaped his comedic masterpieces (Booklist). After nearly a century; Charlie Chaplinrsquo;s ldquo;Little Tramprdquo; is still one of the most identifiable figures in the history of film. An actor; writer; director; producer; editor; and composer; he revolutionized cinema; and set a standard for both screen comedy and heart-crushing pathos. His masterpieces include City Lights; Modern Times; The Great Dictator; and The Gold Rush. But how did this young boy; born in London in dire poverty to an alcoholic father and syphilitic mother; who labored in workhouses when he was only eight years oldmdash;and who was eventually consigned to the Hanwell School for the Orphaned and Destitutemdash;become one of the most celebrated; pivotal; and beloved icons in the entire world? In this singular biography of Chaplin; Dr. Stephen M. Weissman adapts his professional understanding of the relationship between childhood experience and adult creativity to provide an in-depth look at the screen legendmdash;both his conscious and unconscious distortions of the past in the name of art; and the turbulent; seemingly inescapable grimness of the era that shaped him. ldquo;Psychiatrist Weissman offers a fascinating; analytic portrait of a most complex man; who from 1915 to the mid-1930s was the most famous person in the worldhellip;Besides being a captivating psychological study of a seminal figure in motion-picture history; the book is an engaging survey of early Hollywood filmmaking.rdquo;mdash;Booklist
#1642739 in eBooks 2009-11-06 2009-11-08File Name: B005T5O8AE
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. The Futures in the Air. I Can Feel It Everywhere. Blowing with the Wind of ChangeBy John WraithAn amazing little book. Its very intellectual and deals heavily in critical theory. so if you dont care for academic analysis. its not for you. But if you have the stomach for it. Clover offers a creative and astute analysis of 1989 both as a year and as an idea. He focuses on three then-emerging genres. First. he views gangsta rap. specifically on it as a replacement for the dominant style of the late 80s. black-nationalist rap. characterized mainly by Public Enemys second and third LPs. Clover makes a compelling case that this transition took the rage and righteousness of black nationalism and directed it internally rather than externally. primarily as a postmodern satirical response to the "black-on-black crime" rhetoric that was increasingly alienating white America from the social problems plaguing black America. The white establishment. needless to say. did not get the joke. but their children ate up gangsta rap as a hyperbolic. cartoonish medium that they could safely consumer because it did not challenge their white privilege with its internal orientation.Clover then focuses on acid house as a way for Brits. especially. to de-politicize utopian hippie impulses at a time that was being seen as one of de-politicization worldwide as American-style capitalist democracy "conquered" communism in Germany and China. Hindsights favorite reactionary dimwit. Francis Fukuyama. and his "end of history" rhetoric are two of Clovers most salient whipping-boys in this text. and rightfully so. As the Cold War receded. the adversarial nature of Western capitalist democracy had nowhere to turn but inward. It had to look for conflict elsewhere. which meant within its own cultures and societies. although of course rave culture rejected this idea and instead proposed a new. decentered utopia that ultimately collapsed on its own contradictions and success -- another of Clovers main claims is that pop music is all-consuming yet ruthlessly Darwinian economically. so acid houses ascent into the mainstream was also the moment of its co-opting by consumerism.The third genre Clover discusses is grunge. which took punks political fury and turned it inward. resulting in the "Negative Creep" self-loathing that Nirvana rode to highly-problematic success. Again. when this music hit the mainstream. it was effectively already over. had already been consumed by the pop beast.Along the way. Clover dissects how these genres and certain other "1989"-style songs -- Dee Lites "Groove is in the Heart" and Jesus Joness titular "Right Here Right Now" get some interesting treatment -- both reflect and affect Western pops gazing out at the end of history and the emerging Pax Americana. The latter songs inward orientation and the listlessness are both notable. Jesus Jones is merely "watching" what happens when "the world wake[s] up from history." and tellingly the songs video features a media-saturated lead singer watching clips of Tienanmen Square on his TV while lying on the couch. The indomitable "Groove is in the Heart." meanwhile. globalizes its good times in a sixties-derived pastiche that is notably free of confrontational politics. Pop flattens all critique into consumerist spectacle anyway. as is clear by 1989.The book is relatively thin. but its extremely thought-provoking. Really one of the very best books about music that I own. and I have a bookshelf full of them.1 of 24 people found the following review helpful. "I am not smashing together the high and the low just because I can"By ROROTOKO"1989" is on the ROROTOKO list of cutting-edge intellectual nonfiction. Professor Clovers book interview ran here as the cover feature on February 24. 2010.
