Did you know that Donald Trump’s favorite movie is Citizen Kane? Did you know that the famed film director (and one-time Berkeley philosophy PhD candidate) Errol Morris interviewed him about it? And did you know that LitHub’s Anthony Audi interviewed Errol Morris about that? On Rosebud, Morris recalls: It’s fun to hear Trump talk about how Rosebud somehow works, the metaphor works, “I don’t know why it works, but it works. After all, Steven Spielberg paid a lot of money for it, so it must work. Paid a lot of money, maybe seven figures, six figures.” This comment is in reference to Spielberg’s having purchased the sled used in the film for $60,500 in 1982. (In fairness, that is six figures in 2008 dollars – about $135k.) Humor aside, Trump seems to be suggesting an aesthetic theory on which money is evidence of – or perhaps constitutive of – quality. (Surprising, … Continue reading →