Description

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A deep—and darkly comic—dive into the nature of disasters, and the ways they shape how we think about ourselves in the world
 
“In this brilliant book, David Thomson tells the story of how we came to make disaster and catastrophe our best friends—how we let terror cocoon and take over our imaginations to avoid seeing the things that really frighten us. Riveting and totally original.”—Adam Curtis, BBC filmmaker and political journalist
 
“Erudite. . . . Engaging. . . . A cri de coeur about art’s struggle to keep up with reality.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
Audiences swell with the scale of disaster; humans have always been drawn to the rumors of our own demise. In this searching treatment, noted film historian David Thomson examines iconic disasters, both real and fictional, exposing the slippage between what occurs and what we observe. With reportage, film commentary, speculation, and a liberating sense of humor, Thomson shows how digital culture commodifies disaster and sates our desire to witness chaos while suffering none of its aftereffects.
 
Ranging from Laurel and Hardy and Battleship Potemkin to Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and from the epic San Andreas to the intimate Don’t Look Now, Thomson pulls back the curtain to reveal why we love watching disaster unfold—but only if it happens to others.

About the Author

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David Thomson is one of the great living authorities on movies. He has written more than twenty books, including The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, Murder and the Movies, and biographies of David O. Selznick and Orson Welles.

Praise For…

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“Erudite.”—Publishers Weekly

“Erudite. . . . Engaging. . . . A cri de coeur about art’s struggle to keep up with reality.”—Kirkus Reviews

“In this brilliant book, David Thomson tells the story of how we came to make disaster and catastrophe our best friends—how we let terror cocoon and take over our imaginations to avoid seeing the things that really frighten us. Riveting and totally original.”—Adam Curtis, BBC filmmaker and political journalist

“David Thomson is, I think, the best writer on film in our time. He is our most argumentative and trustworthy historian of the screen.”—Michael Ondaatje, author of The Cat’s Table

“With bracing prose and intensity of feeling, this book will rivet any serious reader concerned about the world—climate change, COVID, war, and other menaces. A grim but burnished book.”—Diane Johnson, author of Lorna Mott Comes Home

“David Thomson’s Disaster Mon Amour is a piñata of literary pleasures: acid thoughts, film lore, historical meditations, and astute observation, especially about the culture’s gourmandizing of despair. His high-stepping book is informed, alert, full of fury and fun.”—John Lahr, author of Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh

“Any book that takes Laurel and Hardy and Rachel Maddow as prophets of doom—and makes you want to see a Laurel and Hardy movie with Rachel Maddow as much as you want to see Laurel and Hardy as guests on her show—is going to be read at least twice.”—Greil Marcus, author of Mystery Train