Matthew Surridge

Freelance writer and critic. He/his.

The Book of Days, a short fiction project about history, myth, empire, and other fictions:

[Matthew Surridge @Fell_Gard]

New from me! Essays about great fantasy books from 1960 through 2000!

https://t.co/7L3ZlsmOtp

[Russ Smith @MUGGER2023]

Via @Fell_Gard: There’s a latent power to the film, like a dream of noir images, with an intensity to the visuals beyond what the plot signifies. The film’s more irrational than most noirs. https://t.co/WppZiTYad3

[Matthew Surridge @Fell_Gard]

At Splice Today: my take on the 1951 Argentinian film of Native Son. It's a fascinating movie, and gripping noir. I'll be writing more about the Argentine Noir collection on the Criterion Channel, and this film's a good kickoff to a great set of movies.

https://t.co/pFlOt0vSs5

[Russ Smith @MUGGER2023]

Via @Fell_Gard: The Criterion Channel began streaming a collection of Argentine 1950s noir movies , and as a result I’ve learned that Argentinians in the 1950s were remarkably good at making film noir. Consider the anthology film Never Open That Door. https://t.co/WppZiTYad3

[Marianne @spiritedcretin]

@MUGGER2023 @Fell_Gard "We’re not told any more than we need to about the backgrounds of the characters. The sets and props and background details of their homes are what we know about them, and that’s enough to make them live."

[𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐠𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐢 @sjgiardini]

@MUGGER2023 @Fell_Gard "the conventions of the stories are pitched just far enough beyond the everyday that they’re feverish without being strained."

[Russ Smith @MUGGER2023]

New @Fell_Gard: Never Open That Door (1952) is a fascinating if flawed anthology noir from Argentina. https://t.co/WppZiTYad3

[adamjones @applemacbookpro]

@MUGGER2023 @Fell_Gard "When seen as a whole its virtues become prominent. This is a good movie, and a fascinating document."
🎥🎤🎧🎬🎞️📽️ @SpliceToday2022

[Russ Smith @MUGGER2023]

Via @Fell_Gard: Native Son was also a novel about race in America from a Black perspective with a Black man as the lead character, meaning the mainstream American movie industry in the 1940s couldn’t imagine adapting the book faithfully. https://t.co/Bwzuf4Wl4R

[𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐠𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐢 @sjgiardini]

@MUGGER2023 @Fell_Gard "but a lot of the film works, especially its visuals. the lighting and set design is strong, there’s an understated depth of field that makes the film feel bigger than it is, and some set-pieces and camera moves are lovely...."

[Marianne @spiritedcretin]

@MUGGER2023 @Fell_Gard "There’s a sense of honesty that’s unlike contemporary Hollywood. Characters use slurs in casual ways that even bad-guy racists in mainstream American films wouldn’t."

[Russ Smith @MUGGER2023]

New @Fell_Gard: Richard Wright and Pierre Chenal’s imperfect 1951 adaptation of Wright’s novel Native Son. https://t.co/Bwzuf4Wl4R

[Matthew Surridge @Fell_Gard]

At Splice Today I took a look at James Boyle's book The Line: AI & the Future Of Personhood. It's a good, thoughtful book with, I think, some things missing in it.

https://t.co/1IdQDBD0Xb

[Russ Smith @MUGGER2023]

Via @Fell_Gard: In an interrelated world, how other societies think about AI and other future persons will come to affect how America does. https://t.co/3EsFJ52lzO

[𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐠𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐢 @sjgiardini]

@MUGGER2023 @Fell_Gard "... one way to look at science fiction is as a series of thought experiments, if experiments worked through in a particularly dramatic vein."

[Marianne @spiritedcretin]

@MUGGER2023 @Fell_Gard "How other societies think about AI and other future persons will come to affect how America does. I specifically suspect his chapter on non-human animals might’ve benefitted from looking at the experience of other places."

[Russ Smith @MUGGER2023]

New @Fell_Gard: New book The Line: AI & the Future Of Personhood by James Boyle explores the future of AI. https://t.co/3EsFJ52lzO

[davrola @davrola]

@Fell_Gard Yep. First days on Shadows were a bit of a slog. And you're right about soap operas having to do a lot of plot recaps. Newspaper TV sections once helped out with day to day blurbs. As Shadows grew wilder and wilder so did the blurbs.

[Matthew Surridge @Fell_Gard]

Dark Shadows is a far cry from Twin Peaks in every other way, from writing to production values to general ambition. But, again just at the 90 episode mark, it sorta feels like something that might have fed into the later work. Something I'll be thinking about as I go forward.

[Matthew Surridge @Fell_Gard]

At Splice Today I write about a current TV viewing project, as I work my way through the 1200+ episode run of the original Dark Shadows, a supernatural daytime drama that first aired from 1966 to 1971. Why is a show this slow still so engaging to me?

https://t.co/27MOQP1d6g

[Matthew Surridge @Fell_Gard]

Consider: strange supernatural things start to happen in a small isolated coastal town in the northern United States, where a big house with many rooms sits on top of a hill, and the townsfolk drink lots of black coffee at the local diner.