Word: fictions
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...collection of short works that originally appeared on the Web (and still do, at http://www.lowbright.com/), they run a gamut of styles, from serious short fiction to satire to autobiography. While "Same Difference" has the quality of a young artist looking for his own voice by mimicking others, Kim adds enough smarts and talent to make it all seem fresh. One of the most important ingredients is a frisson of Asian American spice. Born in Korea and raised in the States from the age of eight - Korean Americans call such immigrants "1.5"s - Kim's comix stand virtually alone...
...better view of the situation, John Sparkman guns his flame-red truck up a massive pile of gravel. From the summit, a lifeless brown wasteland stretches to the horizon, like a scene from a science-fiction movie. Mountains of mine tailings, some as tall as 13-story buildings, others as wide as four football fields, loom over streets, homes, churches and schools. Dust, laced with lead, cadmium and other poisonous metals, blows off the man-made hills and 800 acres of dry settling ponds. "It gets in your teeth," says Sparkman, head of a local citizens' group. "It cakes...
...each character’s lips is sealed at the Two Pines Wedding Chapel, when Bill (pretending to be Beatrix’s father) kisses his feigning daughter in an eerie scene that dares to surpass the sexual tension which famously transpired between Thurman and John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, Tarantino’s most famous and still superior work. And in a stirring, if jilted, closing moment, Bill’s inevitable fate is confirmed by a trickle of blood from his starring body part...
...television. This view of Tarantino is perhaps his own fault, since in interviews he so often harps on the elements of pop culture in his films—on the cool. But Tarantino, the cool director, is not the man who concocted the stunning dialogue of Pulp Fiction, the pulsing narrative of Reservoir Dogs, or the lurching beauty of Kill Bill, Vol. 2. Those films will satiate a cool-deprived viewer, but their genius is the work of a far greater director. Tarantino deserves more credit than his most ardent fans will allow...
...digress. (My apologies.) Here’s the deal: there is no such thing as the “general public.” It’s a fiction, a fatuous farce, as much as the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But just because these things don’t exist doesn’t mean that they aren’t incredibly powerful rallying points. Santa Claus almost single-handedly incites massive consumerist frenzies during the holiday season. Likewise, polls and their “general public” do as much...