Popular Culture

“I talk with the authority of failure.’’ When thinking about the popular culture of the 1930s, that icon of Jazz Age decadence, F. Scott Fitzgerald, rarely comes to mind. And yet it is Fitzgerald’s words that haunt Morris Dickstein’s judiciously researched, persuasively argued, elegant analysis of Depression culture, “Dancing in the Dark.’’ Failure was in the air - the country itself had failed, in a way - and the weightless fantasies of a prior decade had lost their savor.

Before Hermann Rorschach published his series of cards stained with suggestive blobs of pigment in 1921, most people simply regarded ink blots as pesky spills that ought to be cleaned up. Because of the Swiss psychiatrist's now-famous test, toppled ink became a way to enhance our understanding of the brain. But as an ongoing exhibit at Harvard University's Science Center shows, the history of the Rorschach test is itself a glimpse into the soul of the profession that made it famous.

Caitlin Flanagan has scores of enemies. With each piece she pens, the college counselor-turned-social critic incites waves of online ire. Her essays on marriage, family, and modern women have earned her nicknames across the blogosphere. Salon.com calls her "our favorite antihero. " On Slate's Double X blog, she's referred to as a "working mother scourge. " A Jezebel post describes one of Flanagan's essays in the Atlantic - in which she argues that a Duke University graduate's ratings of her sexual exploits with athletes constitutes a kind of cautionary tale - as "so breathtakingly offensive and...

‘CASABLANCA," WHICH celebrates its 70th birthday today with a screening at the Fenway 13 and theaters across the country, needs no introduction. Movie fans already know how it set the standard for big-star acting (by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman) and character acting (by Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, and many others). How its iconic scenes, including its airport finale, have become embedded in popular culture, featured on greeting cards and film montages. How its screenplay, voted the best-ever by the Writers Guild of America, spawned a drinking game's worth of catchphrases.

TOLEDO, Ohio - Ray Browne, an Ohio university professor credited with coining the phrase “popular culture’’ and pioneering the study of things such as bumper stickers and cartoons, has died. He was 87. Mr. Browne died at his home Thursday, according to his family and officials at Bowling Green State University. He developed the first academic department devoted to studying what he called the “people’s culture’’ at Bowling Green in 1973. Mr. Browne wrote and edited more than 70 books on popular culture, including “The Guide to United States Popular...

Before Hermann Rorschach published his series of cards stained with suggestive blobs of pigment in 1921, most people simply regarded ink blots as pesky spills that ought to be cleaned up. Because of the Swiss psychiatrist's now-famous test, toppled ink became a way to enhance our understanding of the brain. But as an ongoing exhibit at Harvard University's Science Center shows, the history of the Rorschach test is itself a glimpse into the soul of the profession that made it famous.

Alas, the gloriously succinct title of "F--," Steve Anderson's documentary about the history of obscenity is unfit for publication in a family newspaper. And one of the unanswered questions in this entertaining and well-researched cultural-linguistic profile is why, exactly. No one knows the word's precise etymology or how it has held on to its vulgar charm for all these centuries, but the term has definitely been dirty since its first appearance in the late 15th century. The film considers its titular four-letter word's ancient and modern histories and its appearance in various branches...

THE WORDY SHIPMATES By Sarah VowellRiverhead, 254 pp., $25.95When John Kennedy was preparing to leave Massachusetts as president-elect, he addressed the Legislature, building his speech around the words crafted by John Winthrop as he left England 331 years before to establish the new colony. Those were the "city upon a hill" words. And, Kennedy continued, "the eyes of all people are truly upon us. " "I fall for those words every time I hear them," writes Sarah Vowell, "even though they're dangerous, even though they're arrogant, even though they're rude.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Sometimes it's hard to tell whether Google Inc. is operating an online search engine or a moneymaking machine. The seven-year-old company keeps winning new fans, creating a franchise that investors briefly valued at more than $100 billion yesterday when Google's shares reached a new high of $346.43 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Even after a slight retreat, Google's market value at the end of trading was $98 billion, or nearly $20 billion more than Hewlett Packard Co. -- a Silicon Valley pioneer founded 20 years ago. "More and more people who haven't 'Googled'...

In the book and souvenir shops at the National Park Service's Civil War battlefield sites, there are for sale metal figures of soldiers, both Union and Confederate. They are similar to the classic British-made figures, but are labeled "Made in China" and not as finely cast. Amid the flag-bearers, drummers, riflemen, even a red-pantalooned Zouave, there is, on the Union side, a historical figure made famous by a film. That would not be Grant, or Sherman - or even Custer. But as a reader of historian Gary W. Gallagher's highly entertaining analysis of how the...

TORONTO - The time-space wormhole opens, and out steps Whit Stillman. The filmmaker has changed alarmingly little since his last film, 1998's "The Last Days of Disco. " The hair is a donnish gray now, but it still flops across his brow with preppie ease. He's dressed soberly, classily, but nervousness peeks out between the buttonholes. It has been 13 years since Stillman's very precise gifts have been visited upon movie theaters: characters who are young, ardent, and WASPy; dialogue that glitters and turns upon itself; a fascination with social gestures and dilemmas that...

Caitlin Flanagan has scores of enemies. With each piece she pens, the college counselor-turned-social critic incites waves of online ire. Her essays on marriage, family, and modern women have earned her nicknames across the blogosphere. Salon.com calls her "our favorite antihero. " On Slate's Double X blog, she's referred to as a "working mother scourge. " A Jezebel post describes one of Flanagan's essays in the Atlantic - in which she argues that a Duke University graduate's ratings of her sexual exploits with athletes constitutes a kind of cautionary tale - as "so breathtakingly offensive...

"Get Back Art"" Images of popular culture First Parish Church hall, 842 Tremont St., Duxbury Saturday, 11 a.m. Admission free; images for sale www.getbackart.com Some of the images in a rare exhibit this weekend in Duxbury record the icons of pop music history when rock was young. Some also tell little-known stories. One of the pieces is proof artwork for the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" album and accompanying book. The piece transforms Paul McCartney's head and "Beatles haircut" into a giant walrus, a reference to the group's song "I Am the...

TOLEDO, Ohio - Ray Browne, an Ohio university professor credited with coining the phrase “popular culture’’ and pioneering the study of things such as bumper stickers and cartoons, has died. He was 87. Mr. Browne died at his home Thursday, according to his family and officials at Bowling Green State University. He developed the first academic department devoted to studying what he called the “people’s culture’’ at Bowling Green in 1973. Mr. Browne wrote and edited more than 70 books on popular culture, including “The Guide...

“I talk with the authority of failure.’’ When thinking about the popular culture of the 1930s, that icon of Jazz Age decadence, F. Scott Fitzgerald, rarely comes to mind. And yet it is Fitzgerald’s words that haunt Morris Dickstein’s judiciously researched, persuasively argued, elegant analysis of Depression culture, “Dancing in the Dark.’’ Failure was in the air - the country itself had failed, in a way - and the weightless fantasies of a prior decade had lost their savor.

THE WORDY SHIPMATES By Sarah VowellRiverhead, 254 pp., $25.95When John Kennedy was preparing to leave Massachusetts as president-elect, he addressed the Legislature, building his speech around the words crafted by John Winthrop as he left England 331 years before to establish the new colony. Those were the "city upon a hill" words. And, Kennedy continued, "the eyes of all people are truly upon us. " "I fall for those words every time I hear them," writes Sarah Vowell, "even though they're dangerous, even though they're arrogant, even though they're rude.

"Get Back Art"" Images of popular culture First Parish Church hall, 842 Tremont St., Duxbury Saturday, 11 a.m. Admission free; images for sale www.getbackart.com Some of the images in a rare exhibit this weekend in Duxbury record the icons of pop music history when rock was young. Some also tell little-known stories. One of the pieces is proof artwork for the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" album and accompanying book. The piece transforms Paul McCartney's head and "Beatles haircut" into a giant walrus, a reference to the group's song "I Am the Walrus.

In the book and souvenir shops at the National Park Service's Civil War battlefield sites, there are for sale metal figures of soldiers, both Union and Confederate. They are similar to the classic British-made figures, but are labeled "Made in China" and not as finely cast. Amid the flag-bearers, drummers, riflemen, even a red-pantalooned Zouave, there is, on the Union side, a historical figure made famous by a film. That would not be Grant, or Sherman - or even Custer. But as a reader of historian Gary W. Gallagher's highly entertaining analysis of how the Civil War has...