"Books of the Times" in The New York Times (6 July 1981)
Context: The magaicians of the 19th century, enthralled by the science of optics, photography and electricity, opened the door to motion pictures and thereby rendered themselves obsolete. Any amateur with a pair of scissors can cut and edit a strip of film in order to make a woman vanish, sever a head, burn a body down to the skeleton and reverse time. Talent went out of style.… People either didn't believe Houdini when he said that his tricks on film were real, or they didn't care. Illusion became big bigness, and the magicians were out of work.
John Leonard: Quotes about people
John Leonard was American critic, writer, and commentator. Explore interesting quotes on people.
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“Military people have a heavy investment in rules against torture”
"The Ad Hoc Behavioral Laboratory" http://nymag.com/arts/tv/reviews/28108/, New York Magazine (8 February 2007)
Context: Military people have a heavy investment in rules against torture, not only because we want to protect our own POWs from reciprocal brutalities, as a former general counsel for the Department of the Navy explains here, but also because war is so terrible that it desperately requires any limits anyone can agree on, any gesture toward dignity, any mitigation suggesting civilized scruple. There isn’t even persuasive evidence that torture makes its victims tell their secrets, instead of saying whatever we want to hear. From an international leader in the cause of human rights and democratic values, the U. S. has turned into an unaccountable bully.
"An Extreme Danger to Society" http://nymag.com/arts/tv/reviews/31768/, New York Magazine (7 May 2007)