Considering Alan Ball: Essays on Sexuality, Death and America in the Television and Film WritingsThomas Richard Fahy Academy Award-winning screenwriter of the film American Beauty and creator of the HBO series Six Feet Under, Alan Ball has consistently probed the cultural forces shaping gender, sexuality, and death in the United States. Through gritty dialogue and edgy humor, Ball centers much of his social critique on the illusory promises of the American Dream. For many of his characters, a belief in the American Dream--including idealized notions of the family, heterosexual norms, and the acceptance of prescribed gender roles--proves stifling and self-destructive. This is the first book to explore Ball's writings for theater, television and film, with an emphasis on his best-known work. These essays offer insight into both the captivating and problematic dimensions of Ball's work, while drawing connections among his diverse writings. An interview with Ball is included. |
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... story already formed and finished and a story not yet begun . With these opening lines , and with the movie's subsequent unfurling , we see privileged the idea of the self as mutable , as a site of possibilities . And yet , though perme ...
... story already formed and finished and a story not yet begun . With these opening lines , and with the movie's subsequent unfurling , we see privileged the idea of the self as mutable , as a site of possibilities . And yet , though perme ...
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... story , even though it is fully “ expected " by the viewer , often plays out in surprising ways . The deaths are ... stories . Some of us approach stories with an attitude that might be described as " para- noid , " insofar as we are ...
... story , even though it is fully “ expected " by the viewer , often plays out in surprising ways . The deaths are ... stories . Some of us approach stories with an attitude that might be described as " para- noid , " insofar as we are ...
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... story . " But no sooner than he resolves to do so does he begin to doubt the rela- tionship between the story he is about to tell himself and his own mor- tality : " Or is it possible that in this story I have come back to life , after ...
... story . " But no sooner than he resolves to do so does he begin to doubt the rela- tionship between the story he is about to tell himself and his own mor- tality : " Or is it possible that in this story I have come back to life , after ...
Contents
Sexuality Death and the American Dream in the Works | 1 |
An Interview with Alan Ball | 17 |
Alan Balls American Beauty | 23 |
Copyright | |
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Other editions - View all
Considering Alan Ball: Essays on Sexuality, Death and America in the ... Thomas Fahy Limited preview - 2006 |
Considering Alan Ball: Essays on Sexuality, Death and America in the ... Thomas Fahy Limited preview - 2014 |
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