Culture Briefs

April wedding?

“Someone on [an anti-’Twilight’] forum brought up some good points regarding the factual errors and lack of common sense in Rosalie [Hale]’s back story. … ’I get irrationally annoyed by the fact that her brief story contains so damn many factual errors and common sense errors for such a short chunk of text. I lived in Rochester for a while. Rosalie was planning an outdoor wedding in April! Um … riiiight. … Does [author Stephanie] Meyer not have any idea what the climate of Western NY is?’ …

“Obviously, Meyer has zero to no research skills. If I were her, I would have double-checked on the historical data of weather and climate conditions in April for Rochester, New York. … It took me less than two minutes to pull up that information. …

“As for the historical discrepancy that Rosalie’s family survived the depression because her father was a banker, Meyer should have known better. If she did not have an inkling as to the circumstances surrounding the Great Depression, the least that Meyer could have done was do a quick search on Google or Wikipedia on the topic.”

— Julianne Day Ignacio, writing on “Precisely Why Any Writer Should Do Their Research” on Jan. 25 at her blog A Muse Sings

And nothing but …

“The issue of Banksy’s anonymity isn’t the only point of contention hanging over this coming Sunday’s Oscar festivities. The artist-turned-filmmaker’s picture, ’Exit Through the Gift Shop,’ is anticipated to take home the award for Best Documentary, but is it actually a documentary? … Where has Mr. Brainwash been throughout all of this? … What of the man whose image could have conceivably been tarnished by the film? Where does he stand regarding the film’s authenticity, and does he constitute a credible source? …

“For the first time since the film’s release in the spring of 2010, Thierry Guetta — the eccentric French videographer who went on to play a prominent role in the street art movement under the pseudonym Mr. Brainwash — openly discussed his involvement in the film. … Guetta got right to the point: ’This movie is 100% real. Banksy captured me becoming an artist. In the end, I became his biggest work of art.’

“One could interpret that last sentence in many different ways, but another comment Guetta made more or less confirms that Banksy was very deliberate in his effort to turn Mr. Brainwash into the latest cultural sensation. ’He gives me a brush and a can, and he took the camera. “Go make your own show and have people filming it.”’ So there you have it. The truth about ’Exit Through the Gift Shop’ unveiled.”

— Adam Quigley, writing on “Mr. Brainwash Discusses Banksy’s Role in Creating Mr. Brainwash,” on Feb. 22 at Slash/Film

Abortion lies

“The death of Dr. Bernard Nathanson has undoubtedly affected all of us who are dedicated to the pro-life cause. In the decades since his defection from the pro-abortion camp and his conversion to the Catholic faith, he was one of the nation’s most outspoken defenders of innocent human life. Among the many contributions to the cause for which we can thank Dr. Nathanson is his exposure of the deceptions and falsehoods employed by the pro-abortion movement — some of which he invented himself — in order to legitimize abortion in the eyes of the public and set the stage for its legalization in the 1960s and ’70s. …

“Nathanson admits that, as an abortionist and as a political propagandist for the abortion movement, he was responsible for the fabrication of facts and statistics that were designed to play upon the public’s heartstrings and get them to change their position on abortion. To take only one example of many: ’We aroused enough sympathy to sell our program of permissive abortion by fabricating the number of illegal abortions done annually in the U.S. The actual figure was approaching 100,000 but the figure we gave to the media repeatedly was 1,000,000. Repeating the big lie often enough convinces the public.’”

— Joe Hargrave, writing on “Dr. Bernard Nathanson: Lying for the Revolution,” on Feb. 21 at the American Catholic