Sunday, April 27, 2008

Howard Zinn, take 2

Thursday night, E and I saw Howard Zinn speak, as I promised here. Zinn and Mike Konopacki discussed their new graphic adaptation, A People's History of American Empire and included a screening of a short film (narrated by Viggo Mortensen) with images from the book. You can watch it here:



Of my many ideas for blogs far more entertaining and informative than this one, one of my favorites is a blog that reviews book readings either in the style of a rock concert or in the style of the author in question. I asked E to write a short one for Zinn, but I don't think he's going to do it. The rock concert style is easy, because look at the folks lined up to see this legend (round the block!).


Parodying Zinn's writing style is a bit more challenging, but I'm sure I could create some narrative around the class tensions of the audience. Of course, in reality, the entire audience consisted of wealthy, well-educated Cantabridgians. The Q&A, usually the time when self-aggrandizing audience members plug their latest venture or their own intelligence was surprisingly good.

New York friends, you should see Zinn on May 3rd at Cooper Union Great Hall at 1pm.

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