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David Schwartz recommended Videodrome (1983) in Movies (curated)

 
Videodrome (1983)
Videodrome (1983)
1983 | Horror, Sci-Fi

"David Cronenberg’s reflexive masterpiece of modern horror, with James Woods as a seedy purveyor of soft-core exploitation for cable TV, and Debbie Harry as his siren, brought the media-as-message theories of fellow Torontonian Marshall McLuhan to visceral life. This was one of the first movies I rented on VHS, and Videodrome is partly an exploration of the strange, clunky physical sensation attached to the idea of a feature film being available on a paperback-size plastic-and-tape cassette that is inserted into a machine . . . and our brains. A quarter century later, Cronenberg’s dazzling vision of a world where image and flesh are one—“long live the new flesh”—Videodrome’s futuristic vision is timelier than ever. And above all that, the movie is sexy, smart, funny, and fascinating, moving adeptly between its layers of reality, imagination, and that vast territory in between."

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The Midnight Library
The Midnight Library
Matt Haig | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry
6
7.9 (12 Ratings)
Book Rating
Clever concept (3 more)
Interesting
Philosophy
Good characters
Obvious storyline (2 more)
Lots of philosophy
Descriptions lacking/over done
Obvious but ok
I saw a lot of reviews rating this book quite highly so perhaps that is why I feel it was lacking. The main character is believable and I do love all the various storylines. I like the description of the library, I felt like th cover on my copy left less to the imagination though.

Perhaps this was the point but the story was very obvious. I'm not a philosophy fan so maybe it was supposed to shadow a philosopher?!

Some parts I felt were over described and frankly quite boring. Whereas other parts were lacking in description. Plus I don't think the final couple of chapters were neccessary, certainly the penultimate one.

The copy I have was the perfect hard back with good sized text and spacing.
  
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
1989 | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi

"Amazingly fun movie. My brother always argued this had the weakest storyline because Marty McFly is selfish and greedy and it’s about a sports almanac. It became a very destructive element. But I think it has really exciting visuals. The imagination. The props. The hoverboard, the fashion. Those shoes. That jacket that shrank and blow-dried. And then his cool hat. It’s just another one of those rad movies. That’s another one I can easily watch over and over and over again.I thoroughly enjoy the visual elements [of movies]. Between Terminator 2 and Back to the Future II, like, the logic they create, like, time travel…it makes no f—ing sense! You know, John Connor sends his father back into the past to f— his mom, what the f— is going on? But, then, it makes perfect sense. You just buy into it."

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Patrisse Cullors recommended Fledgling in Books (curated)

 
Fledgling
Fledgling
Octavia E. Butler | 2005 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"Octavia Butler is one of my top favorite authors, and my favorite sci-fi writer of all time. Her writing is always at the intersection of race, class — and in this instance, vampires. I love fantastical things, and because this focuses on vampires and not humans it adds another element of imagination. In the book, she’s having a conversation about racism, but through vampires, and you just never know where that’s going to go. You’re reading it, reading it, reading it, and then it takes a hard left, and you’re like Oh shit, I didn’t realize we were going to go into these deep political topics. Even though she always does that in her books. I’ve read pretty much all of them, but this was my favorite. She died pretty soon after she wrote it, so it has a lot of sentimental value for me."

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