Author Topic: News Coverage 2013  (Read 4956 times)

Offline jackster

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News Coverage 2013
« on: Jul 01, 2013, 07:23 AM »


Please don't ask me to interpret this!

A recent cover of The Economist.

Interesting that SEVEN years later this is still such an iconic image that everyone is expected to recognize it.

Don't miss Michelle standing over at the far left!

As Ennis would profoundly say: Huh?

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Offline chowhound

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Re: News Coverage 2013
« Reply #1 on: Jul 08, 2013, 03:02 PM »


Please don't ask me to interpret this!

A recent cover of The Economist.

Interesting that SEVEN years later this is still such an iconic image that everyone is expected to recognize it.

Don't miss Michelle standing over at the far left!

As Ennis would profoundly say: Huh?

Hi Jackster,
   I only noticed your post today else I might well have responded earlier.

   Like you, I am both surprised and impressed that the editors of The Economist would expect their readers to connect this shot with Brokeback Mountain and with Jack and Ennis in particular. I mean, The Economist! It's a magazine I read very irregularly- usually on long plane trips - and I assume its general readership would not be particularly interested in a movie like Brokeback except maybe for its box office returns though maybe I'm wrong about that.

   However, I'm far from clear what exactly they're up to with this cover. It's a highly modified version of the "I ain't queer" scene where Jack and Ennis aren't being entirely honest with each other so the suggestion maybe is this this is also true of Obama and Xi Jinping. I'm not sure how Xi Jinping has stolen Obama's heart but there is plenty of evidence that China has been merrily stealing America's intellectual property through network spying. The description of Xi Jinping as Kung Fu Panda may be to suggest that on the outside he is as  loveable and cuddly as a panda but on the inside is more like a Kung Fu fighter. Michelle may be included in the picture to complete the idea of "Team America".

  Enigmatic, to be sure, but intriguing. Thanks, Jackster, for posting it.


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Offline jackster

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Re: News Coverage 2013
« Reply #2 on: Jul 09, 2013, 03:52 PM »
Howdy CH:

Hope you're doin' well. I think maybe you're ascribing too much background knowledge to the editors at The Economist. They're smart enough no doubt, but like you, I'd be surprised if we found many of them here at EJ. I'm inclined to think they didn't really put much thought into what Ennis and Jack were actually doing or saying in this particular scene. I'm thinking they were using this image only as a culturally recognizable icon of a tempestuous male-male relationship where the protagonists couldn't live with each other and couldn't live without each other. That sort of sums up the Sino-US relationship these days, at least IMHO. I wish I knew how to quit you would be a good tagline for either party it seems. I am nonetheless completely clueless about Michelle in the corner so your "Team America" sounds OK. Maybe I should go on-line and see if there was any feedback from their subscribers regarding this cover.

But what is impressive to me is that they felt this BBM image in itself would be not only recognizable, but understandable. Like so many other famous movie elements - "Play it again Sam" - "Go ahead make my day", etc., etc.
« Last Edit: Jul 09, 2013, 11:04 PM by jackster »
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Offline chowhound

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Re: News Coverage 2013
« Reply #3 on: Jul 10, 2013, 04:01 PM »
Hi Jackster,
   One small thing I found out when looking at The Economist site(s) was that the Brokeback cover only appeared on the American issue for that week, not the European issue which has a picture of the Turkish prime minister. So it looks as though the editors calculated that their American readers would somehow make sense of it but that their European (and Canadian?) readers might just find it puzzling.