Short Takes
June 26, 2013
Harry Parker (1925-2013): “I had no idea what my potential could be until he taught me how to find it.”
Harry Parker has died. He was a legend — a real legend, not one cobbled together by press agents and trickery — and coaching Harvard crews to five decades of victories was the least of his greatness. Start with Craig Lambert’s evocative appreciation. Then go on to Craig’s lovely book, Mind Over Water.
June 22, 2013
What Would Patricia Say? Highsmith on today’s issues
What would the meanest, toughest novelist have to say about social media, gay bankers, memoirs and more? Joan Schenkar, author of The Talented Miss Highsmith, serves up some probable responses.
June 16, 2013
An O.Henry Story
In 1989, my stepchildren gave me an Eddie Bauer watch for Christmas. A few months ago, I accidentally wore it when I went swimming in the Caribbean. Once it was waterproof. No longer. It stopped. I took it to the cheapo watch repair in the 86th Street subway. The Eddie Bauer watch, new, cost no more than $75. The guy said it would be $50 to fix.
I gave it to the cheapo repair guy — no charge — so he could repair it and resell it. I bought a $27 Timex. Great watch. (How do I know? The child hates it.)
The other day the strap on the Timex broke. I took it to 86th Street to be replaced. There in the case was the Eddie Bauer watch. Fixed. On sale. For $27.
So I bought it.
June 15, 2013
James Joyce: Celebrate ‘Bloomsday’ on Sunday, June 16
Frank Delaney is one of those Joyceans who can recite ”Ulysses” from memory. Share the knowledge? Try and stop him. Every week he invites listeners to join him as he deconstructs the book line by line. And they do, by the thousands — his podcast is about to hit a million downloads. What’s the attraction? Maybe that he grew up in Ireland and lived in Dublin, reads Greek, Latin, old Irish, new Gaelic, colloquial and expressive phrases in both English and Irish, and created “Word of Mouth,” the BBC’s award-winning program on language. Tenacity? Frank has just finished Chapter 3; at this rate, he’ll finish in 27 years. Even if you loathe James Joyce, there’s magic in his voice. To experience Delaney on Joyce, click here.
June 14, 2013
Lorraine Kreahling: ‘Herman massacres 35 high school students. And yet you feel for him.’
You don’t expect to like Herman of the newly released film “Hello Herman,” starring the devilishly cute Garrett Backstrom and the subtly dynamic and roughly handsome Norman Reedus (of AMC’s “Walking Dead”). We meet sixteen-year-old Herman on his way to massacre 35 fellow high school students.
Reedus is the online journalist Lax Morales, whom Herman emails from inside the chained doors of his high school gym where he stands knee deep in bodies. Herman wants to tell Morales his story. Morales doesn’t expect to like Herman either. The dialog between the two takes place after Herman’s incarceration. With lots of help from flashbacks, we are drawn deeply into the worlds of both characters.
The intent of this surprisingly touching film, with a screenplay by John Buffalo Mailer, is not to excuse Herman’s horrific act. Rather, under Michelle Danner’s sensitive direction, a veil is lifted on how evil gets layered into character over time. We witness a once innocent boy become isolated, alienated, and brutally bullied by his peers. We see how what the poet W.H. Auden wrote, is true: “Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return.”
Wisely, the blood in the movie is limited to video games. The shots fired by Herman — and captured on the head-mounted camera he wears that fateful day — end in freeze frames that show only his victim’s terror. And there is something wonderful about the filmmaker’s decision to eliminate scenes that mirror today’s action movies, where a gun-wielding hero stands godlike over the carnage he’s wrought. It also keeps this disquieting and deeply moving film appropriate for younger audiences.
Mailer originally wrote "Hello Herman" as a play in response to the Columbine shootings, and it spawned the Hello Herman Project, which uses this drama in schools to inspire conversation on bullying between adults and kids. The film promises to be a new asset in this effort.
In one theory of early trauma, the traumatized child encapsulates his injured soul in a safe place in his imagination, a place where violence — and human feeling — can never again reach him. That’s where Herman seems to live. But in his final interview with Morales before his execution, something breaks through to Herman’s long ago broken heart — and he weeps violently, saying that he is sorry.
Love does not save the day in this disturbing film; but you certainly can feel how it might have. And you may not like Herman, but in the end, this viewer anyway wanted to embrace him. [To rent the film now or see where it’s playing, click here.]