Matt Hanson | The Smart Set

1984 in 2024

Matt Hanson — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 11:30:00 +0000

Like existentialism, surreal, and (sorry, Alanis Morisette) ironic, the term “Orwellian” is ubiquitous and often misused. It’s typically applied to government surveillance or totalitarianism in general. This is understandable, given that British author Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name, George Orwell, is likely best known for his novel 1984, which generations of […]

The post 1984 in 2024 first appeared on The Smart Set.

Reimagining Excess

Matt Hanson — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 15:22:02 +0000

“All Things Are Too Small” declares the title, borrowed from a 13th-century Dutch mystic, of the new collection of essays by Becca Rothfeld, one of the most prolific and versatile critics working today. The claim initially confused me. Too small? Casting a weary glance at the way we live now — visual excess blaring from […]

The post Reimagining Excess first appeared on The Smart Set.

The Successful Gesture

Matt Hanson — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 11:30:00 +0000

There’s a line in The Great Gatsby that took me by surprise when I first read it in high school, and I’ve been puzzling over it ever since. Early on, the fictional narrator Nick Carraway is thinking about what makes Gatsby special. He wonders “if personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures” which seemed […]

The post The Successful Gesture first appeared on The Smart Set.

Rock ‘n’ Roll by Any Other Name

Matt Hanson — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 11:30:00 +0000

John Lennon once said that if you wanted to give rock ’n’ roll another name you might call it Chuck Berry. Far be it from me to disagree with him, but that’s not quite true: There are a few different founding fathers and mothers in the mix. Consider the incendiary flamboyance of Little Richard or […]

The post Rock ‘n’ Roll by Any Other Name first appeared on The Smart Set.

A Century of Hank Williams

Matt Hanson — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 11:30:00 +0000

In his wry, self-deprecating “Tower of Song” Leonard Cohen reflects on his legacy and his place within the grand tradition of songwriters. “I asked Hank Williams how lonely does it get/ Hank Williams hasn’t answered yet/ but I hear him coughing/ all night long/ a hundred floors above me in the tower of song.” It’s […]

The post A Century of Hank Williams first appeared on The Smart Set.

The Flipside of a Dream

Matt Hanson — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 11:30:00 +0000

Alfred Hitchcock was born 124 years ago and has been dead for just over four decades, and we still can’t stop talking about him. He’s a household name with an instantly recognizable profile, and his films are required viewing for both movie nerds and newbies alike. Vertigo was recently voted the greatest film of all […]

The post The Flipside of a Dream first appeared on The Smart Set.

Print the Legend

Matt Hanson — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 10:57:06 +0000

A few years ago, I had to assemble a syllabus for a writing class. I added John Ford’s 1962 black and white western The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. I don’t quite remember why, and I was worried how it would go over. Thankfully the first class discussion went much better than expected and the […]

The post Print the Legend first appeared on The Smart Set.

Tom Verlaine

Matt Hanson — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 19:36:34 +0000

To my rue, I wasn’t very adventurous in High School. My rebellions and transgressions tended to be mostly internal, generally taking the form of skipping gym class to go to the library. It felt a little extra wicked to discard my homework and dive into back copies of Rolling Stone and anthologies of rock criticism. […]

The post Tom Verlaine first appeared on The Smart Set.

Acts of God/Ard

Matt Hanson — Sat, 03 Dec 2022 12:22:00 +0000

We cinephiles tend to be a persnickety bunch. Of course, there’s always the risk of seeming elitist and snobby whenever one enthuses about a film perhaps less known to the general public than, say, an Avengers flick. The venerable Martin Scorsese probably didn’t expect the ensuing hullabaloo when he casually dissed the franchise as “not […]

The post Acts of God/Ard first appeared on The Smart Set.

100 Years of Charles Mingus

Matt Hanson — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 11:30:00 +0000

At the beginning of his unruly autobiography Beneath the Underdog, Charles Mingus explains himself to an unnamed psychiatrist: “In other words, I am three. One man stands forever in the middle, unconcerned, unmoved, watching, waiting to be allowed to express what he sees to the other two. The second man is like a frightened animal that […]

The post 100 Years of Charles Mingus first appeared on The Smart Set.