(The MYRA project is on hold while I still try to find the right angle for it)

(I’m feeling really excited now to dig into some small-town books from the 1960s and 70s)

It’s a good book! I like it a lot. And, luckily, I talk about all of these (and more): mcfarlandbooks.com/product/amer...

A quick search inside the book finds no reference to Toshio Mori, PEYTON PLACE, or KINGS ROW. Considering there’s a long chapter on the afterlife of SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY, this strikes me as an oversight.

My book covers a 20-year span, analyzing the different ways that small towns were used in (mostly) popular literature of the time. It was a dynamic time, not one of settled agreement on what the small town symbolizes.

And KINGS ROW fits very comfortably in the trajectory from the Revolt from the Village (so-called). It’s hardly a comforting story.

Small-town fiction, and the debate over the small town, was pretty lively in WWII! KINGS ROW came out in 1940, CALAMITY TOWN in 1942, and Styron’s HUMAN COMEDY in 1943. The KINGS ROW movie was released in 1942.

I’ll say this: if the Byler shippers are right (and I don’t think they are), it may upgrade the whole show in my estimation.

I’m holding off a final judgment until I see the rest of the season. There’s a lot to like here, but I’m still struggling to find any of the characters interesting (outside of Max, who is perfect).

Well, it’s not *totally* horrible. But it’s pretty damn bad.

Look at Scorsese jetting around and rummaging for ever-more-obscure movies. He has the money to indulge and indulge he does. Meanwhile, the wealthy Mr. King of the Video Store can’t manage to find a single foreign film from the last 25 years to make his Best of the 21st Century list

Goldman and Kasdan behind this thing, so I don’t expect it to be totally horrible.

That was my memory, too, but the book is long and the time since I read it is also long. I just pulled out my copy again, so I’ll keep an eye out.

I saw one of The Second Story’s videos a while back about fantasy that seemed to have a mean, uncharitable streak, so I’m not surprised to see that she’s another right-wing Grundy.

And of course most of the stuff she says is either wrong or weirdly mis-aimed.

Not to give one of Those Replies, but this is actually a question they seem to be addressing in the TV show. (I don’t remember the book well enough to say anything more interesting than that)