Marginal Revolution

Why do vampires attract so many readers and viewers?

Here is a WaPo piece which suggests it has to do with the transition from adolescence.  I recall another piece suggesting it had to do with the female fascination with gay men (is there one?).

Vampires are hardly "my thing," but I do like early Anne Rice, The Night Stalker, Herzog's Nosferatu, and I thought Coppola's Dracula movie was better than its reviews.  On the other hand, I couldn't get five pages into Twilight.  (Should I try True Blood?)

I believe vampire books and movies offer a few attractions:

1. You know from the beginning that the plot twists will have to be extreme.  Few movie makers offer up vampires who think pensively, talk inordinately, and live out ambiguous endings, sitting around in coffee shops.  A real vampire story is going to deal with death.

2. We are fascinated with the idea that people may be something other than what they appear to be.  You will notice that discovery and detection of vampires often plays a key role in the plot lines, sometimes commanding an inordinate amount of attention.

3. Vampire stories offer a platform for exploring the theme of pure, limitless, and eternal desire, yet without encountering the absurdities that might result from planting that theme in a realistic, real world setting, such as a man who loves cheese studded with raisins above all else.

4. Vampires play "hard to get" with women and they (for a while) embody Old World ideals of chivalry, in a plausible [sic] fashion.  Yet since they are fundamentally different beings, we can enjoy watching their strategies while simultaneously distancing ourselves from them.

5. Men may like vampire movies for date movies, for uh...priming reasons.  The movies prompt dramatic, emotional reactions in their companions.  Women may feel that such movies "test" how their men respond to highly fraught stories, with a potential for demonstrating protectiveness.  Or vice versa.  

6. Vampires do not seem to mind social disapproval, and in this sense many teens look to them as role models.

7. Some of the popularity is arbitrary with respect to the vampire theme itself.  There is a clustering of production in any successful cultural meme, once that meme gets underway.  You might as well ask why there is so much heavy metal music today.

8. Viewers and readers, who know vampire lore and thus vampire vulnerabilities, feel better informed than the high-status people who, in the drama, are fighting the vampires.

9. There are few successful songs or paintings about vampires, so the story-based aspects of the topic appear to be important in setting their popularity.

Here is an unorthodox answer to the question.

NASA FAQ 2012

NASA scientists are frequently being asked questions concerning 2012 and for this reason they have created a web page to answer these questions and reassure the public. e.g.

Q: Is there a planet or brown dwarf called Nibiru or Planet X or Eris that is approaching the Earth and threatening our planet with widespread destruction?

A: Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the outer solar system; the closest it can come to Earth is about 4 billion miles.

Sigh.... I too fear for our planet.

Measuring the movie critics

If you want to get a sense of the zeitgeist but can only read one review, you might prefer Rene Rodriguez, whose low standard deviation from the mean review score makes him very nearly a living critical average. If you are interested in an alternative perspective, Mick LaSalle's high standard deviation places him further from the critical pack than any of these peers. Reviews from both Michael Wilmington and Marc Savlov are so regularly and respectively positive and negative that they should perhaps be taken with a grain of salt.

The source article, which contains much more information, is here.  You'll find a visual representation of the critics's stances here.  Hat tip goes to Eric Barker.

If you're wondering, I don't have a "favorite movie critic."  I judge movies by the preview, the director, and by mentally aggregating the first five reviews I happen to read.  This works well for me.  If I had to go by a single source, by far it would be Variety magazine, which offers separate assessments of a movie's goodness and of its popularity with various demographics, a luxury which non-insider publications do not always have.  

African Film Library

It is now on-line and offers access to many of the very best African cinema.  You can pay for and download African movies, with 24-hour access; here is a brief summary.  This is a landmark cultural achievement.  Even for many cultural omnivores, African cinema remains a largely untilled pasture.  Even Wikipedia does not have a good article on African cinema.  I've seen about thirty African films in my life and loved roughly twenty of them.  My advice is to select randomly or to pursue their recommended and "most popular" features.

Where the Wild Things Are

There are moments of great beauty and wonder in Where the Wild Things Are and also moments of fear and anger.  It's not a kid's movie but the 11-year old liked it and the 8-year old thought it pretty good.  I thought it was great but unlike my sons I have lived all the roles.  The movie has a libertarian sub-theme that I don't recall from any of the 10 sentences in the book. 

*The Invention of Lying*

I didn't think it was possible to make a movie this Hansonian and no they never waver.  The basic premise is "a comedy set in a world where no one has ever lied."  People speak the truth to each other in unbiased fashion and every channel on TV is some version of The History Channel.  You then see, step by step, why this is not a Nash equilibrium and you observe, as the title indicates, "the invention of lying," including under conditions of altruism.  Along the way, you see a theory of the origins of religion, a portrait of how the world would look if no one signaled, a redo of Geoffrey Miller on The Mating Mind, and hints at the idea of ESS.  It's a "remarkably radical comedy" (Ebert) and the gushy parts have hidden venom. 

Cartels and The Informant!

In the new Steven Soderbergh movie, The Informant!, Matt Damon plays Mark Whitacre, the Archers Daniel Midland executive who blew the whistle on the international lysine cartel. The movie is getting good early reviews but if you are strapped for time, Marginal Revolution has the key scene courtesy of a hidden camera.  I love the opening and the section beginning around 2:05 as the conspirators discuss who is coming to the meeting is priceless.

Tyler and I feature this case in our chapter on cartels in Modern Principles: Microeconomics.

Enjoy the movie!

Unacceptable thoughts about Quentin Tarantino

I'll put this under the fold, as it may contain spoilers from some of the people who have not yet seen Inglourious Basterds...

Tarantino made his Hong Kong movie, his martial arts movie, and his Blaxpoitation flick but I never expected him to dip into Nazi cinema.  He sure loves hearing those Germans talk -- boy are they eloquent -- and fascist chattering takes up most of the movie.  There is a veneer of a Jewish revenge plot against the Germans, but most of the movie strikes me as a re-aestheticization of various Nazi ideals, cinematic, linguistic, and otherwise.  I'm not suggesting Tarantino literally favors the rule of Hitler, rather he probably got a kick out of getting away with such a swindle, right under the noses of Hollywood and with commercial success to boot.  The Jewish assassin squad members hardly seem virtuous (in some ways they're portrayed to fit Nazi stereotypes), whereas the German characters light up the screen and show extreme cleverness.  (Hitler by the way is a "crummy Austrian," not up to the more rigorous German ideal.)  The sniper "movie within a movie" -- which has Tarantino constructing a Nazi movie for a screening scene -- is a stand-in for the broader enterprise.  Throughout one wonders what are the implied references to Israel, such as when the Jewish suicide bombers strap explosives to themselves.  There is homage to Riefenstahl, Pabst, Emil Jannings, Nazi "mountain movies" and other unsavory bits.  I found viewing this movie a disturbing and negative experience.  I've done a lot of work on the history of the state and the arts; if you don't believe me, go away and research Nazi cinema and watch the film again.

I disagree with Steve Sailer on fundamental issues but I thought on this movie he was right; if anything he didn't go far enough.

At first I thought Brüno would be the most politically incorrect movie of the year, then I thought District 9, but no it is this one and I doubt that claim will be dislodged between now and January 1.

Julie & Julia

Julia is great.  Julie drags a bit even though the blogger turned book author angle resonated with me (note to self, talk with brother about MR movie possibilities).  Oddly, the food is not presented nearly as well as on Top Chef.

Markets in everything, the culture that is India

Kaushik writes to me:

I'm a loyal MR reader and recently saw a new website that allows recession struck and impoverished Indian celebrities to sell their personal items (from `mobile phones to cars').

Currently I see four "celebrities" on the website.  The article about the website is here; you may need to scroll down a bit.