The trailer for the film version of Michael Lewis’s Moneyball has arrived. (via Kottke, whose skepticism I share)
Moneyball Trailer
Medi Marijuana Reduces Fatalities
Okay, let's just admit that this is an interesting piece of cultural news: a new study has shown that legalizing medical marijuana sales in various states over the last two decades has led to a nearly 10 percent drop in traffic fatalities.
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E-Books Rise Up
Are e-books more than just a publishing platform? Could they be "a whole new literary form"?
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The Real-Life Inspiration behind Hugo’s Quasimodo
The Telegraph reports that a new discovery appears to reveal that Quasimodo, the seemingly mythical hero of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, may have been based on a real-life figure.
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Sanity Is a Construct
Recommended Perusing: This list from Electric Literature of six contemporary innovators of the short story. From Lorrie Moore to Alejandro Zambra, it is some seriously good company.
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St. Mark’s Cash Mob
New Yorkers! At 3:00 today, come join The St. Mark’s Cash Mob and help the iconic bookshop relocate to the East Village. High rollers can even get a prize from The Paris Review.
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Sendak’s Tales
Check out Maurice Sendak's illustrations of The Brothers Grimm fairy tales posted on Brain Pickings this April. The illustrations were published with Lore Segal’s translation of the stories in The Juniper Tree: And Other Tales from Grimm. Our own Emily Colette Wilkinson revisits Sendak’s stories as an adult.
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Brad Pitt provides skepticism? After Sevem 12 Monkeys, Fight Club, the Oceans movies, Assassination of Jesse James, Burn After Reading, Inglorious Basterds and Tree of Life? I think the man has proven himself by now.
Well, we really don’t know what they are skeptical about, do we? Is it Pitt, is it the content of the movie, is it skepticism about popular non-fiction books made into movies, or is it the ability of this movie to earn money?
Ok. Enough mystery. I am skeptical that this very interesting book, which is primarily about ideas and numbers, will translate well to the screen. The book doesn’t have a very cinematic plot – Oakland doesn’t win the World Series, there is no pivotal game. It’s more about the methodical triumph of numbers over “instinct” over a period of a few years. Maybe there’s room in there for a great movie, but the trailer makes it seem as though the book’s plot is being shoehorned into the typical “sports movie” plot. I mean, throw in Charlie Sheen and a few wisecracks and that could have been the trailer for Major League.
This book/movie has more than numbers going for it. It’s about characters. Billy Beane was exactly the kind of player the “old school” scouts adored. But he was a failure on the field. The story is a triumph of modern analytics over “rut” thinking and a pack mentality. It’s the rebel beating the system, David over Goliath, a classic story-telling structure. Think “The Social Network” in a baseball uniform. It has all the right people in it and behind it. Write it down: This will be a hit.