Whimsy: December 2020 Archives

Betrayal: Jean Shepherd and "A Christmas Story" - Los Angeles Review of Books

The five Jean Shepherd stories that were woven together in A Christmas Story with softer edges. "Among other things, Shepherd's tales are about the role of mass communications and consumerism in American life. Critics warned then, in the 1950s and early '60s, much as they do now, that media is controlling us like a puppet master, leading us to think and desire things we do not intend. Nonsense, says Shepherd: Our most profound urges come from within."