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“Are There Any Groups Here I Haven't Offended Yet?”: Liberal Satire Takes a Stand

in Revel with a Cause: Liberal Satire in Postwar America

The fact that liberal satire found much of its support from Upper Bohemians and exurbanites—those Americans who became “flaming liberals,” as critic Vance Packard caustically observed, “in the safety ... More

The fact that liberal satire found much of its support from Upper Bohemians and exurbanites—those Americans who became “flaming liberals,” as critic Vance Packard caustically observed, “in the safety of their patios and favorite bars”—was not lost on the more politically astute, critically inclined satirists. This chapter demonstrates how Monocle and the Outsider's Newsletter, Jules Feiffer, and comedian Mort Sahl began to realize the critical potential of liberal satire during the early 1960s.Less

1911–1918

Patrick McGilligan

in Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast

This chapter details events in Fritz Lang’s life from 1911 to 1918. Lang left home either late in 1910 or early 1911 and began visiting galleries and museums in Nuremberg, Munich, and Frankfurt, ... More

This chapter details events in Fritz Lang’s life from 1911 to 1918. Lang left home either late in 1910 or early 1911 and began visiting galleries and museums in Nuremberg, Munich, and Frankfurt, before journeying down the Rhine to Belgium and landing at his destination of Brussels. Arriving with twenty-five francs in his pocket, Lang began to sketch postcards, caricatures, watercolors, and easel art, selling them to tourists for coffee and bread. By April 1913, Lang was living in Paris, nurturing a dream of becoming a painter. He enlisted in the Austrian military on January 12, 1915 and was wounded in battle in June 1916. The records are vague on this point, but injury could be the eye wound that necessitated his famous—some might say notorious—monocle. It was at this juncture that the temporarily blinded Lang, lying in bed in a Vienna hospital, began envisioning a future and profession for himself in motion pictures.Less

The Monocle

Stephen R. Wilk

in Sandbows and Black Lights: Reflections on Optics

A monocle is a single lens contained within a decorated rim and held in place between the brow ridge and the cheekbone or suspended with one hand. They became very popular, starting in the eighteenth ... More

A monocle is a single lens contained within a decorated rim and held in place between the brow ridge and the cheekbone or suspended with one hand. They became very popular, starting in the eighteenth century as “quizzing glasses”. A monocle, being only a single lens, can at most correct the vision in one eye at a time. Yet virtually all monocle users require optical correction in both eyes. What good does it do to only correct one side and ignore the other? Wouldn’t this make one’s vision “unequal”? And why was this device so popular with the wealthy and powerful?Less