Tragedy

Thursday

Christopher Sandford

Karolyn Grimes looks back on her role as Zuzu in It’s a Wonderful Life

The title tells it all. It’s a Wonderful Life was first released back in December 1946, in the same week that President Truman was issuing Proclamation 2714, which officially ended hostilities in World War Two, and for that matter prefiguring Donald Trump by proposing that the US buy Greenland. The movie may be seventy-eight years old, but it’s one of those timeless classics, like Casablanca or The Searchers, that actually improve with familiarity. It’s also long since woven its essential message of good cheer into the fabric of our festive season. It’s an unusual plot for a film synonymous with feel-good family entertainment.

it's a wonderful life

Monday

Philip Womack

Why Shakespeare remains the great playwright

William Shakespeare’s tragedies stand apart. Their impact is profound and lasting, in cultural, artistic, emotional and psychological terms. Who could forget the ghost’s first appearance in Hamlet, or Lear bearing the dead Cordelia? No other dramatist has achieved what Shakespeare did: in subject matter, emotional heft, innovative usage of source material, character development and startling deployment of language Shakespeare is (and there is no other word for it) extraordinary. He surpasses both his predecessors (sorry, Thomas Kyd!) and those that came after him. He built on the foundations the classical playwrights established, and then, almost casually, bettered them, too.

Shakespeare

Thursday

Ben Domenech

Dumb risks are worth taking

The plight of the Titanic submariners has engulfed the media over the past week and demanded the attention of countless rubberneckers to catastrophe. Parts of that attention are due to morbid curiosity, or the ghoulish nature of social media's animosity toward the super rich; those who Ben Dreyfuss terms "the abnormal people" on his Substack: "They heard the news, read the stories, took in all of the information that made you sad, and their first reaction was: anyone who can afford a $250k tourist trip deserves to die." But another slice of attention is due, at least in part, to the audacious nature of their chosen craft.

titanic adventure