Overview

Katharine Coldiron sees her life through a film projector. She watches The Sound of Music and observes that time is peculiarly preserved in a narrative film; she watches Singin' in the Rain and finds truth and falsehood layered in it like dental veneers; she watches Apocalypse Now and thinks about her father, and a certain Pulitzer-winning photograph of an American POW. Out There in the Dark is a dynamic collection of essays that blends film criticism with memoir and fiction, as well as lists, visual diagrams, and Wikipedia collaging. It plumbs deeply some of our most knotted, abstract concepts: truth, kindness, the West, the female body, war, and-inevitably-Hollywood.

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9781957392370

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Reviews

""Katharine Coldiron's iconoclastic critical gaze and decadent prose alchemize cinema and autobiography into a book as vivid and resonant as the classic films within. Out There in the Dark is a hybrid wonder, a must."" -Henry Hoke, author of Open Throat ""Out There in the Dark is jargon-free, provocative, persuasive, and insightful. The critical intelligence in the imaginative position: this is what Katharine Colidron deploys to a remarkable degree and across an impressively wide range of material."" -David Shields, author of Reality Hunger ""A luminous object lesson in how we create our selves out of our experience of art, in the meaning that making meaning out of art can make out of our lives, Katharine Coldiron's Out There in the Dark is surprising and moving whether it's taking on Apocalypse Now or Alien from L.A. Sometimes mournful, sometimes ecstatic, always insightful and personal, Coldiron's hybrid essays are a joy to read and think through."" -Gabriel Blackwell, author of Madeleine E. and Doom Town ""Katharine Coldiron's essays are a marvelous combination of personal and pop cultural reflections, seen through the lens of the films she's loved. Out There in the Dark threads its way somewhere between Roland Barthes and Emily Nussbaum, resulting in a collection that is thoughtful, trenchant, and keenly observed."" -Elizabeth Gonzalez James, author of The Bullet Swallower

Author Information

Katharine Coldiron is the author of Ceremonials, Junk Film, and Wire Mothers. Her work as a book critic has appeared in the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement, and many other places; as an an essayist, in Conjunctions, Ms., Booth, and elsewhere. She and her books have been profiled in three countries on radio and television. Find her at kcoldiron.com.

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