Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Creature Storms

Magnolia was overrated: I'm coming to agree, tho' I enjoyed the film at the time. I'm getting a little sick of the way people flock to these sorts of mass-marketed "art" films and make a fuss about them -- Cassavetes scholar and film professor Ray Carney has a point when he talks (in these cool packages of writings he sent me) about them being kitsch, fake art, part of the Hollywood celebrity system, where everyone fawns over some new artsy film that seems meaningful, but is easy to digest, easy to unpack, and which offers us little we don't already know -- films that flatter us and cater to our prejudices, without challenging us in any real way. At the same time, regardless of anything Ray might say, I remain delighted that the film introduced a storm of frogs into the popular imagination; if nothing else, it afforded those of us in the know to explain about Charles Fort and the history of creature storms (you'd be shocked how many people just plum don't know about this stuff), and, well, as for me, I like to show these sorts of things off (just get me talkin' about the mating habits of the praying mantis sometime). It's probably the greatest good to come from the film. I don't dislike the movie, but I don't imagine I'll be able to sit through it again -- it was of no lasting interest; it's nothing more than an entertainment, however it might appear.

Anyhow, there's been a frog storm in Serbia. That was really all I wanted to point out.

Also, hey, see the following site for the complete text of various books by Fort, including creature storms and more!

Finally, from the Fortean Times site: some body parts rained on NY, but there's a pretty unexciting explanation, and it was only a couple of parts.

I am now going to go peruse some Fort myself.

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