A Card up my sleeve

Orson Scott Card is one of my favorite sf/fantasy authors, because he brings a strong moral voice to everything that he writes (Card is a Mormon), and because he's a jolly fine storyteller.

In a recent installment of Uncle Orson Reviews Everything, Card reviews two current films and finds them lacking. I haven't seen the two films, but I trust his opinion, and remain no more than mildly interested in either one. I'm linking to his review here, though, because I think that the critique that he makes of these two films applies to an overwhelming majority of recent cinematic fare.

After discussing ways in which the two respective filmmakers do damage to their stories by shattering any "illusion of reality," Card has this to offer:

"It's not that the sexual or gross-out "humor" makes these two movies offensive or evil -- it doesn't.

It just makes them stupid and dull."


I can't remember where he said it, but C.S. Lewis wrote somewhere that he didn't find most dirty jokes offensive, he just didn't find them funny.


The antidote to this insipid onslaught: Bust out the Buster Keaton.