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Schadenfreude

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Magazine Last Stand

This week, the books Jonah didn't write, an ode to our friends to the north, The New Republic, Rolling Stone, the spending bill aka the Cromnibus, the Sony hack, and the GLoP picks for the best movies and TV of 2014. Happy Hanukkah to all, and to all a good night.

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Stop the presses, EJHill.

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Hosts:
John PodhoretzJonah GoldbergRob Long

Discussion (26)

  • user_1030767@TheQuestion

    I'm really into Conan right now.

    Correction on Robert E. Howard: he killed himself in 1936, not in the 1920s.

    Jonah is exactly correct. Thulsa Doom was a Kull villain. That character didn't actually appear in a published story (called Delcardes' Cat) until the 1960s. Thulsa Doom was a skull headed, apparently undead, sorcerer.

    James Earl Jones character had more in common with Thoth-Amon, a priest of Set (the snake god) that was Conan's enemy in the pulp stories. My understanding is they cast a black actor with blue eye contacts and a straight hair because Thulsa Doom was supposed to be one of the last survivors of an extinct race. Howard was really big into ancient races with glorious histories that are now a shadow of their former selves.

    I think the film makers made a good decision mixing up the elements from the stories to get the villain they wanted. That's what Howard would have done it, I think.

  • EJHill@EJHill
    There's no way to write or talk about rape without it being awkward. The half hour that the guys spent on the Rolling Stone situation was as difficult to listen to as it was for them to plow through it. What has always amazed me though is the cultural phenomenon known as General Hospital. LukeLauraClose to cancellation in 1977, ABC brought in Gloria Monty as Executive Producer. Along with head writer Doug Marland, Monty engineered a turnaround in General's fortunes and took it to unheard of heights in the ratings and as a presence in the culture - and they did it on the back of a rape related storyline. But it wasn't just a rape. They turned it into a romance. The song that played during the rape scene, Rise by trumpeter Herb Alpert, was pushed to #1 on the Billboard chart due to the exposure on the show. The rape of Laura Webber by Luke Spencer created a three-year story arc that culminated in their wedding - an event that was watched by 30 million viewers and saw the participation of one Elizabeth Taylor. It's been been over 30 years and I still can not fathom it. How could that many people find rape so romantic? And no one can tell me that it was America's misogynistic men that were watching. This was America's women that swallowed that thing hook, line and sinker. After leaving to play another character on The Young and the Restless, Genie Francis keeps returning to the role. Anthony Geary is still playing America's favorite rapist and is closing in on 900 episodes. It boggles the mind.
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