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submitted 8 months ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to c/news@lemmy.world

Stanley Kubrick, the relentless perfectionist who directed some of cinema’s greatest classics, was so sensitive to criticism that, in 1970, he threatened legal action to block publication of a book which dared to discuss flaws in his films.

The director of Spartacus and 2001: A Space Odyssey, warned the book’s author and publisher that he would fight “tooth and nail” and “use every legal means at his disposal” to prevent its publication – and he did.

Now, 25 years after his death, the book Kubrick did not want anyone to read is being published, more than half a century late.

The Magic Eye: The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick by Neil Hornick now has three prefaces reflecting its subject’s ruthlessness in trying to block publication and control his image.

Hornick, now 84, from London, said Kubrick’s legal threats had come as a shock: “I regard it as a painful episode.”

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[-] Stern@lemmy.world 122 points 8 months ago

A well regarded artistic mind being kind of a piece of shit? I am shocked! I'm just thankful personal favorites of mine like Orson Scott Card, J.K. Rowling, and H.P. Lovecraft are fine, upstanding individuals who've dodged controversy at every turn.

Wait hold on... He's a massive homophobe? She said what? He named his cat that?

Oh... well... umm... lovely weather we're having huh?

[-] ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zone 66 points 8 months ago

That's the nice thing about being a Terry Pratchett fan. The more I learn about him, the more I love him.

[-] NotAViciousCyborg@lemmy.world 44 points 8 months ago

And Tolkien. Fuck his estate though

[-] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 12 points 8 months ago

And L Ron Hubbard! Wait...

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 51 points 8 months ago

To be fair, the name of Lovecraft's cat was the tip of the iceberg when it came to him. I love the world building he did, but it's kind of hard to read a lot of his stories filled with big-lipped, dark savages. On the other hand, with Lovecraft, it seemed less a case of "white people are superior" and more a case of "all of humanity deserves to be thrown into the hellbeast pit, but white people should be thrown in last," which is... still racist, but I guess not supremacist exactly?

Apparently his Jewish wife occasionally had to remind him who he married when he would go off on an antisemitic tirade, which I find quite amusing.

[-] masquenox@lemmy.world 26 points 8 months ago

Nope. Lovecraft was about as white supremacist as it gets - he literally excused lynchings of black folks and the KKK's terrorism because, supposedly, white people had to resort to "extra-legal measures" to protect themselves from (supposed) "mongrelisation."

Ie, just your bog-standard white supremacism on a stick.

[-] IvanOverdrive@lemm.ee 6 points 8 months ago

What I really love about Lovecraft was how inclusionary the community around the Cthulhu mythos has become.

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[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 25 points 8 months ago

I remember reading a biography (autobiography maybe; forget who actually wrote it) on HP Lovecraft where it mentioned his cats name and I thought "well he was from the 1800's so product of the time..." and then find out the dude was so racist, the KKK kicked him out.

[-] Dkarma@lemmy.world 19 points 8 months ago

So glad someone is calling out card here.

Orson Scott card is a pile of shit.

[-] Furedadmins@lemmy.world 12 points 8 months ago

And his work is shit. I have no idea why so many adults think that young adult level writing and storytelling is the work of a master.

[-] borari@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 8 months ago

Yeah I thought Enders Game was the best book ever when I read it in like 4th or 5th grade. I read through the whole series of books over the next few years and enjoyed them at the time. I went back to read Enders Game as an adult and realized I just really enjoyed the wish fulfillment in reading about a bullied kid smashing the bullies face in then running shit. You’re right, it’s a pretty basic book and I have no idea why any adult would hold it or Card up as anything but basic. The only good thing I have to say about it as an adult is that it helped ignite my love of science fiction.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago

Tbf the first books of misunderstood child prodigy messiah in a sci fi setting were pretty good. The lack of much deviation for everything following sucked. Then there’s his politics…

[-] Furedadmins@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

Enders game is pretty simplistic outcast juvenile wish fulfillment. If you read it as a kid I am sure it seemed more than space Harry potter but meh. I don't know how it could be more pandering without a committee of child psychologists helping write it.

[-] braxy29@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

i don't particularly recall that it was intended for young adults at the time. it was just genre fiction.

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[-] BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 63 points 8 months ago

I love his movies and he was definitely a genius director, but man, was he a gigantic asshole...

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 63 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

A total monster. The way he treated Shelly Duvall on the set of The Shining was inexcusable. I absolutely love his films, but he was a very bad man.

[-] CitizenKong@lemmy.world 23 points 8 months ago

He also called Stephen King at 3 in the morning, asked him stupid questions about his book and then hung up on him without even saying goodbye.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 47 points 8 months ago

I'd say that's the least of his crimes when it came to The Shining. He gave Duvall a nervous breakdown and her hair started falling out.

[-] ours@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

And King was probably up on cocaine anyway.

[-] ArtVandelay@lemmy.world 18 points 8 months ago

Yep, I have to go watch Popeye so I can see her happy again

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 28 points 8 months ago

Stanley Kubrick is my favorite director of all time. I consider Barry Lyndon such high art that if you could frame it, it would belong in the Louvre. But he was entirely about managing everything about his films and his life to precise detail, so it doesn't surprise me that he canceled a book that had criticisms he didn't care for.

Really, most unvarnished truths about Kubrick were only ever going to come out after his death when his correspondence could be studied and people could be interviewed with proper hindsight.

[-] reagansrottencorpse@lemmy.ml 15 points 8 months ago
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[-] TheBat@lemmy.world 15 points 8 months ago

What a snowflake

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this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2024
255 points (98.9% liked)

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