@jordanrbrower.bsky.social
With apologies to Max and Theodor…
New on Print Plus:
H. N. Lukes reviews Jordan Brower’s Classical Hollywood, American Modernism: A Literary History of the Studio System, tracing how literary modernism and Hollywood’s studio system shaped American cultural modernity.
Read it here: modernismmodernity.org/forums/posts...
H. N. Lukes reviews Jordan Brower’s Classical Hollywood, American Modernism: A Literary History of the Studio System, tracing how literary modernism and Hollywood’s studio system shaped American cultural modernity.
Read it here: modernismmodernity.org/forums/posts...
November 7, 2025 at 6:56 PM
With apologies to Max and Theodor…
Mastermind:5 Easy Pieces::Meek’s Cutoff:Stagecoach
October 29, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Mastermind:5 Easy Pieces::Meek’s Cutoff:Stagecoach
H. N. Lukes usefully frames "Classical Hollywood, American Modernism" as "a version of a villain’s 'origin story' that Marvel has recently made so much of by recycling its own IP" in the most recent issue of @mmodernity.bsky.social muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
Project MUSE - <i>Classical Hollywood, American Modernism: A Literary History of the Studio System</i> by Jordan Brower (review)
muse.jhu.edu
October 22, 2025 at 4:32 PM
H. N. Lukes usefully frames "Classical Hollywood, American Modernism" as "a version of a villain’s 'origin story' that Marvel has recently made so much of by recycling its own IP" in the most recent issue of @mmodernity.bsky.social muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
NYT piloting troll headlines www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/b...
‘One Battle After Another’ Ticket Sales Are Solid (With an Asterisk)
www.nytimes.com
September 29, 2025 at 3:34 PM
NYT piloting troll headlines www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/b...
Reposted
See below for a post-Emmys reading list, courtesy of the @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social! Featuring brilliant essays on THE PITT (by @charlotteerosen.bsky.social), WHITE LOTUS (by @cinementalist.bsky.social) & SEVERANCE (by @jordanrbrower.bsky.social) (plus something partly sorta on THE STUDIO by me)
Missed the Emmy Awards last night? Here are LARB's reviews of the nominees and winners to catch you up!
September 18, 2025 at 1:49 AM
See below for a post-Emmys reading list, courtesy of the @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social! Featuring brilliant essays on THE PITT (by @charlotteerosen.bsky.social), WHITE LOTUS (by @cinementalist.bsky.social) & SEVERANCE (by @jordanrbrower.bsky.social) (plus something partly sorta on THE STUDIO by me)
David Ellison:
Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak. I’ll go no further.
Ghost of Zukor:
Mark me.
Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak. I’ll go no further.
Ghost of Zukor:
Mark me.
September 11, 2025 at 7:15 PM
David Ellison:
Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak. I’ll go no further.
Ghost of Zukor:
Mark me.
Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak. I’ll go no further.
Ghost of Zukor:
Mark me.
Dear Dr. Swift,
I'm sorry to inform you that, due to historic financial pressures, your position has been eliminated. This is by no means a reflection on your talent in the classroom; I know that you have been very popular with students.
Best wishes,
Associate Dean
I'm sorry to inform you that, due to historic financial pressures, your position has been eliminated. This is by no means a reflection on your talent in the classroom; I know that you have been very popular with students.
Best wishes,
Associate Dean
“Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married 🧨”
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged.
📸 taylorswift and killatrav on Instagram
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged.
📸 taylorswift and killatrav on Instagram
August 26, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Dear Dr. Swift,
I'm sorry to inform you that, due to historic financial pressures, your position has been eliminated. This is by no means a reflection on your talent in the classroom; I know that you have been very popular with students.
Best wishes,
Associate Dean
I'm sorry to inform you that, due to historic financial pressures, your position has been eliminated. This is by no means a reflection on your talent in the classroom; I know that you have been very popular with students.
Best wishes,
Associate Dean
Severance earned an industry-leading 27 Emmy nominations. Why has it worked so well? In part because it sustained its put-on from the first episode to “Cold Harbor,” the justly-celebrated Season 2 finale
In time for the end of the fiscal year, I took account of Severance for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
The Put-On | Los Angeles Review of Books
Jordan Brower considers the abjuring of depth undertaken by the Apple TV+ series “Severance.”
lareviewofbooks.org
July 15, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Severance earned an industry-leading 27 Emmy nominations. Why has it worked so well? In part because it sustained its put-on from the first episode to “Cold Harbor,” the justly-celebrated Season 2 finale
"Severance’s most compelling excess is an excess of genre: the neo-noir conspiracy sits alongside a remarriage comedy that is itself internally divided and doomed to failure."
July 1, 2025 at 7:34 PM
"Severance’s most compelling excess is an excess of genre: the neo-noir conspiracy sits alongside a remarriage comedy that is itself internally divided and doomed to failure."
My alternate title was "The Offness," in homage to Teddy Blanks, who designed the show's typography: “The production design in Severance is highly indebted to that clean, modernist ’60s corporate look, but there’s something ‘off’ about it.... The type needed to be the same way.”
In his review of "Severance," @jordanrbrower.bsky.social considers the Apple TV+ show's aesthetic challenge: "How to put on viewers who have come to expect everything, and are ready to interpret anything?" https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-put-on/
June 30, 2025 at 6:25 PM
My alternate title was "The Offness," in homage to Teddy Blanks, who designed the show's typography: “The production design in Severance is highly indebted to that clean, modernist ’60s corporate look, but there’s something ‘off’ about it.... The type needed to be the same way.”
In time for the end of the fiscal year, I took account of Severance for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
The Put-On | Los Angeles Review of Books
Jordan Brower considers the abjuring of depth undertaken by the Apple TV+ series “Severance.”
lareviewofbooks.org
June 30, 2025 at 3:08 PM
In time for the end of the fiscal year, I took account of Severance for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
Looks like I was on to something in “A24’s Academic Style; or, Coming of Age in an Era of Student Debt” tinyurl.com/yrxxza6t
June 12, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Looks like I was on to something in “A24’s Academic Style; or, Coming of Age in an Era of Student Debt” tinyurl.com/yrxxza6t
My take on Michael Szalay’s impressive “Second Lives: Black-Market Melodramas and the Reinvention of Television,” is out today in the ALH Review academic.oup.com/alh/article/...
Michael Szalay, Second Lives: Black-Market Melodramas and the Reinvention of Television
Jordan Brower; Michael Szalay, Second Lives: Black-Market Melodramas and the Reinvention of Television, American Literary History, Volume 37, Issue 2, 1 Ma
academic.oup.com
June 12, 2025 at 5:57 PM
My take on Michael Szalay’s impressive “Second Lives: Black-Market Melodramas and the Reinvention of Television,” is out today in the ALH Review academic.oup.com/alh/article/...
At long last, “A24’s Academic Style; or, Coming of Age in an Era of Student Debt” is now out with @jcmsjournal.bsky.social
quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/i...
quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/i...
June 3, 2025 at 2:30 PM
At long last, “A24’s Academic Style; or, Coming of Age in an Era of Student Debt” is now out with @jcmsjournal.bsky.social
quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/i...
quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/i...
Coming soon in @jcmsjournal.bsky.social, "A24's Academic Style; or, Coming of Age in an Era of Student Debt."
May 13, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Coming soon in @jcmsjournal.bsky.social, "A24's Academic Style; or, Coming of Age in an Era of Student Debt."
Reposted
Speaking today at the University of Kentucky on anti-Trumpism. Starting with Carlos Manuel Álvarez's line, "To see half of the nation trying to annihilate Trump is like watching a body attempting to get rid of its shadow.” Grateful to my old friend @jordanrbrower.bsky.social for the invitation!
April 17, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Speaking today at the University of Kentucky on anti-Trumpism. Starting with Carlos Manuel Álvarez's line, "To see half of the nation trying to annihilate Trump is like watching a body attempting to get rid of its shadow.” Grateful to my old friend @jordanrbrower.bsky.social for the invitation!
Proud of my colleague Emily Shortslef, winner of
@universityofky.bsky.social's College of Arts and Sciences
Outstanding Teaching Award! Pleased, too, that I've received the prize for talking loudly in big rooms (Excellence in Teaching Large Courses Award).
@universityofky.bsky.social's College of Arts and Sciences
Outstanding Teaching Award! Pleased, too, that I've received the prize for talking loudly in big rooms (Excellence in Teaching Large Courses Award).
April 7, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Proud of my colleague Emily Shortslef, winner of
@universityofky.bsky.social's College of Arts and Sciences
Outstanding Teaching Award! Pleased, too, that I've received the prize for talking loudly in big rooms (Excellence in Teaching Large Courses Award).
@universityofky.bsky.social's College of Arts and Sciences
Outstanding Teaching Award! Pleased, too, that I've received the prize for talking loudly in big rooms (Excellence in Teaching Large Courses Award).
Who will write "The Idea of Order at Mar-a-Lago"?
February 3, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Who will write "The Idea of Order at Mar-a-Lago"?
First birthday card came in!
January 7, 2025 at 5:52 PM
First birthday card came in!
What a pleasure to be understood! Thanks @fuscowrites.bsky.social for the kind and careful reading scalar.usc.edu/works/the-sp...
The Space Between: Literature and Culture 1914-1945: Review | Classical Hollywood, American Modernism: A Literary History of the Studio System
Classical Hollywood, American Modernism: A Literary History of the Studio System. By Jordan Brower. Cambridge University Press, 2024. 246 pp. $110.00 (cloth); $110.00 (e-book).Reviewed by Katherine Fu...
scalar.usc.edu
December 17, 2024 at 10:12 PM
What a pleasure to be understood! Thanks @fuscowrites.bsky.social for the kind and careful reading scalar.usc.edu/works/the-sp...
Anticipating several panels along the lines of "How to get to Dunkies on the way To the Lighthouse"
The CFP for the MSA Conference in Boston (Oct. 9- 12) is now out! www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M... Please share widely!
The Modernist Studies Association is devoted to the study of the arts in their social, political, cultural, and intellectual contexts from the later nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century. The o...
www.moderniststudies.org
December 2, 2024 at 4:23 PM
Anticipating several panels along the lines of "How to get to Dunkies on the way To the Lighthouse"
Reposted
The CFP for the USC Cinema & Media Studies grad conference "Infrastructure and Abstraction" is now live. It is always great. Please circulate widely. The Alt Text is a mess, sorry.
June 3, 2024 at 5:10 PM
The CFP for the USC Cinema & Media Studies grad conference "Infrastructure and Abstraction" is now live. It is always great. Please circulate widely. The Alt Text is a mess, sorry.
Outstanding review-essay by Ellen Song about working-class Asian American life in contemporary film and television.
lareviewofbooks.org/article/they...
lareviewofbooks.org/article/they...
They Were Made to Choose Sides: On Eunice Lau’s “A-Town Boyz” | Los Angeles Review of Books
Ellen Song looks at Eunice Lau’s documentary “A-Town Boyz” in the context of contemporary Asian American representation....
lareviewofbooks.org
March 19, 2024 at 8:38 PM
Outstanding review-essay by Ellen Song about working-class Asian American life in contemporary film and television.
lareviewofbooks.org/article/they...
lareviewofbooks.org/article/they...
The book would have been unthinkable without the dozens of hours in J.D.'s seminars and scores more in his office. If nothing else, it's a testament to good mentorship.
I think @jordanrbrower.bsky.social’s book is just terrific. A game-changer for anyone working on Classical Hollywood. Teachable, for sure, with superb readings, but also thinkable in the ways it reshuffles transmedia history and the place of the literary.
February 10, 2024 at 3:39 PM
The book would have been unthinkable without the dozens of hours in J.D.'s seminars and scores more in his office. If nothing else, it's a testament to good mentorship.