There's a book coming out this summer that I can't wait to read: Chris Dumas's Un-American Psycho: Brian De Palma and the Political Invisible. I had the pleasure of editing a few essays by Dumas for an online magazine some years ago; he's a film scholar who makes film scholarship seem like the last bastion of gonzo political outrage and blistering wit. In a hilarious and provocative interview he offers a preview of the book along with some frank advice for young students of film:
If I had to stand up in front of students and justify the real-world utility of a Film Studies major, I'd say, "Okay, maybe if you want to be in the industry you can bust your ass and end up as an assistant in the marketing department for Pixar. Maybe you'll even get health insurance. But we're moving into a service economy, and most of you will end up working at Wal-Mart, and the way that Film Studies will be useful to you will be when you try to pick up someone in a bar, you'll have something to talk about, because everybody likes to talk about movies."
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