CELEB IN SLAMMER
Shockwaves ran through the American middle classes this week, causing net curtains to twitch violently as the darling of the aspirational classes, Barfa Whoreit, was found guilty of dealing in insider flares. Despite an outwardly staid appearance which would make a Laura Ashley girl proud, Barfa Whoreit was secretly dressing up in 60s and 70s fashions and slumming it in retro discos. One piece of evidence the Fashion Police displayed in the court case were a pair of flares measuring a staggering 23 inches in diameter. Lurid purple was often matched up with fluorescent orange clothing. Barfa Whoreit, the upright symbol of middle-class America was found guilty of hypocrisy, extreme poor taste, exposing middle class aspirations for the hollow sham they really are (a state secret since this dream helps keep the population in line) and for dealing in insider flares. It also emerged that Ms. Whoreit covertly ran another magazine, funded by profits from her mainstream journal Superduperliving. This magazine, called BadassUnliving dealt exclusively with dark S&M bondage and neck biting fetishisms. It seems the mistress of clean living had more than one dark side to her squeaky clean life: florid disco dancing one weekend, whipping amd biting the next then back to chintz curtains. I know which of those I consider most evil.
Sunday, March 7, 2004
Fact on film
Just watched an interesting episode of Fact on Film on National Geographic discussing Lord of the Rings. For the most part it took themes and characters from the films and compared them with historical events and persons. Some comparisons worked, others, I felt, didn’t - for instance comparing Gandalf to Ben Franklin. While it’s true both were very wise and often planned for the greater good and not for personal gain it was stretching it a bit.
Most of the other comparisons were ones which I’ve commented on before myself and I’m sure other have too, such as Helm’s Deep recalling other desperate battles against the odds such as the Battle of Britain or Agincourt.
One which I had not considered drew on the greatest mytho-historical (for he is both now) characters from the history of my own land: William Wallace. The programme discussed comparisons between Aragon and Wallace - both men fighting a desperate battle, attempting to rally and inspire their men to win their freedom while neither was seeking personal power or reward. Aragon shuns the kingship although he knows he must ultimately embrace it, while Wallace, knighted and made Guardian of the realm fights in the name of the exiled king, with no intention of using his abilities to take power for himself. Of course, it’s not an entirely successful analogy since Wallace’s war ends, regrettably, in betrayal and a torturous death, while Aragon’s is rather more successful. Although since Wallace’s battles would lay the ground for the Bruce - who like Aragon spent time exiled in the wilds - who would displace the disgraced king Balliol (known as Toom Tabard or empty coat after his insignia was ripped off by Edward I) who died in exile and claim the throne for himself you could argue that he indirectly does provide for the return of the king, after a fashion.
Just watched an interesting episode of Fact on Film on National Geographic discussing Lord of the Rings. For the most part it took themes and characters from the films and compared them with historical events and persons. Some comparisons worked, others, I felt, didn’t - for instance comparing Gandalf to Ben Franklin. While it’s true both were very wise and often planned for the greater good and not for personal gain it was stretching it a bit.
Most of the other comparisons were ones which I’ve commented on before myself and I’m sure other have too, such as Helm’s Deep recalling other desperate battles against the odds such as the Battle of Britain or Agincourt.
One which I had not considered drew on the greatest mytho-historical (for he is both now) characters from the history of my own land: William Wallace. The programme discussed comparisons between Aragon and Wallace - both men fighting a desperate battle, attempting to rally and inspire their men to win their freedom while neither was seeking personal power or reward. Aragon shuns the kingship although he knows he must ultimately embrace it, while Wallace, knighted and made Guardian of the realm fights in the name of the exiled king, with no intention of using his abilities to take power for himself. Of course, it’s not an entirely successful analogy since Wallace’s war ends, regrettably, in betrayal and a torturous death, while Aragon’s is rather more successful. Although since Wallace’s battles would lay the ground for the Bruce - who like Aragon spent time exiled in the wilds - who would displace the disgraced king Balliol (known as Toom Tabard or empty coat after his insignia was ripped off by Edward I) who died in exile and claim the throne for himself you could argue that he indirectly does provide for the return of the king, after a fashion.
Thursday, March 4, 2004
Books with Bite
Sticking with the literary theme, I've been feeling pretty vampish recently and somewhat more gothic than even usual. Probably a reaction to too many crap things in my life right now bringing me down - the vamp stuff is comforting. Okay,candelit neck biting and hanging out in crumbling boneyards may not work for you lot of normals, but it works for me! Anyway, just started reading the Dead Until Dark, the first of the Sookie Stackhouse vampire novels which has been pretty enjoyable and quirky so far. I like the idea of a vampire returning to his small town after a century and a half and giving the genteel elderly ladies in the history society a lecture on what the Civil War was really like, lol. Another publisher has promised me a copy of a new factual book on the real Vlad Dracul, which should be a light and enjoyable read (for me anyway; dear old Uncle Vlad). Nothing like reading a few pages of mass torment and impalings before turning off the lights and going to sleep.
On a related topic, as I was digging in the darker recesses of the web wear mortals fear to tread (probably because of people like me with big teeth lurking there) I found this page from the University of Virginia which has the entire text of Rymer's marathon penny-dreadful shocker from the mid-1800s, Varney the Vampyre (also known as the Feast of Blood - which gives you an idea of what to expect really) so you can read the entire thing.
Sticking with the literary theme, I've been feeling pretty vampish recently and somewhat more gothic than even usual. Probably a reaction to too many crap things in my life right now bringing me down - the vamp stuff is comforting. Okay,candelit neck biting and hanging out in crumbling boneyards may not work for you lot of normals, but it works for me! Anyway, just started reading the Dead Until Dark, the first of the Sookie Stackhouse vampire novels which has been pretty enjoyable and quirky so far. I like the idea of a vampire returning to his small town after a century and a half and giving the genteel elderly ladies in the history society a lecture on what the Civil War was really like, lol. Another publisher has promised me a copy of a new factual book on the real Vlad Dracul, which should be a light and enjoyable read (for me anyway; dear old Uncle Vlad). Nothing like reading a few pages of mass torment and impalings before turning off the lights and going to sleep.
On a related topic, as I was digging in the darker recesses of the web wear mortals fear to tread (probably because of people like me with big teeth lurking there) I found this page from the University of Virginia which has the entire text of Rymer's marathon penny-dreadful shocker from the mid-1800s, Varney the Vampyre (also known as the Feast of Blood - which gives you an idea of what to expect really) so you can read the entire thing.
The latest artwork from the always thought-provoking display outside the Saint John's Church in Edinburgh's West End. Gee, I wonder what they could be getting at? ......
Book event
a couple of pictures from the double-author event Alex and I hosted at the bookstore this week with two bloody great writers, Peter F Hamilton (Peter, I forgive you for ruining my wrists with those enormous tomes of yours) and our own local Ken MacLeod. As is customary we all decamped to the pub after a very good evening's readings and a Q&A and some signing (naturally got my hardbacks fo both books signed for the collection) where an excited Charlie Stross insisted on showing me a few paragraphs of something he was working on (let's just say it had to do with marital relations and robots) to see if it was working, which was fun. Our ocmpany has become very much a dreadful chain bookstore and not the unique place it once was, but every now and then we get to host a good book event and go drinking with some of our favourite authors and to push good new writers through our support. Reviews of both author's latest already on the mighty Alien for your perusal (Ken's by your humble Woolamaloo editor, Peter's by George Walkley)
a couple of pictures from the double-author event Alex and I hosted at the bookstore this week with two bloody great writers, Peter F Hamilton (Peter, I forgive you for ruining my wrists with those enormous tomes of yours) and our own local Ken MacLeod. As is customary we all decamped to the pub after a very good evening's readings and a Q&A and some signing (naturally got my hardbacks fo both books signed for the collection) where an excited Charlie Stross insisted on showing me a few paragraphs of something he was working on (let's just say it had to do with marital relations and robots) to see if it was working, which was fun. Our ocmpany has become very much a dreadful chain bookstore and not the unique place it once was, but every now and then we get to host a good book event and go drinking with some of our favourite authors and to push good new writers through our support. Reviews of both author's latest already on the mighty Alien for your perusal (Ken's by your humble Woolamaloo editor, Peter's by George Walkley)
World Book Day
Yes, once more it is World Book Day. Being a professional bookseller and a lifelong reader (I demanded entry to the big people’s part of the library at the age of five after exhausting the children’s books, precocious little tyke that I was) pretty much every day is book day for me. There is almost literally no day where I will not read at least a few pages of one of the several books I have on the go at any one time. Too many worlds to explore to stick to just one!
Books, of course, are not a new idea and have been around in one form or another for millennia. They really came of age when Gutenberg perfected moveable typefaces however. For the first time in human history books could be reproduced perfectly an almost infinite number of times. What had been rare objects accessible to only a few became commonplace. Literacy grew, so did the number of books. With the growth of both came more and more ideas, taking a candle and stoking it into the bonfire of the Enlightenment as people geographically removed - and temporally too as books cross time as well as space - could exchange ideas and build on them (would we have our advanced science without this ability? No). The web page you are reading wouldn’t exist without this idea.
Humans are hardwired for language; it’s in the very structure of our brains. Deaf children denied being taught sign language have often invented their own, it’s a genetic impulse. Who knows how many millennia of human pre-history passed before writing evolved from earlier systems of simple record keeping? Writing gave to humanity a form of exo-somatic memory; that is the ability to store knowledge and experience outside of the mind. Thus when the elders of the society died their knowledge was not necessarily lost with them. This is how the giants of the Classical period have been preserved for us and passed down through thousands of years. Mass printing and finally the information age made this system of knowledge preservation and access open to most people. It literally - do excuse the pun - changed the world. Think about it next time you hold a book; we’re so used to them we don’t often spare a thought for how marvellous an invention they truly are. Indeed just how wonderfully remarkable the gift of writing and language are.
So much for the big worldview. What have books done for me on a personal note, if I may so indulge myself for a moment? There are things I have never done and places I have never been and yet I have done them all and a great deal more through the written word. I have walked the stone halls of the great library of Alexandria, past rows of scrolls lit by flickering oil lamps. I have sat on the sun-warmed steps of the Academy listening to Plato and Socrates discourse on a warm Athenian afternoon. I walked beside Gilgamesh and sailed with Captain Cook. I’ve watched the earliest humans struggle to master writing. Before humans I ran alongside a Tyrannosaur and patted the head of a friendly stegosaurus. Before that I played bowls with newly formed planets by the light of a newborn sun.
I was watching when the Wright Brothers made their first spluttering flight at Kittyhawk. I trudged through the mud and blood of the Somme and watched Custer at Little Big Horn. I’ve flown on bat wings from the parapets of Transylvanian castles and on supersonic wings on an X-craft, faster than a speeding bullet. The oceans have given up their mysteries to me as Nemo guide me beneath the waves. I’ve walked beneath alien suns and turned up the collar of my raincoat against the grim, city rain as I followed Sam Spade. The howl of the hound of the Baskervilles has sent thrills down my nerves; I‘ve heard the Call of the Wild.
I have been both Jekyll and Hyde, a samurai and a knight, a cop and a robber a cowboy and an indian, god and the devil. I’ve thrown apples at Newton and slid down the helter-skelter of the double helix. I dared the gods and created life. I charged the field of Bannockburn and sat in the first audiences in Paris as the Lumieres showed their films. I’ve examined the artwork on cave walls and in Egyptian tombs. I’ve crossed the burning sands of the desert by day and haunted the dark mists of old graveyards by night. I’ve defended virtuous maidens from dragons and bitten other maidens on their necks by the light of the moon. I’ve flowed in prose and rhythmic rhyme, sailing across thousands of years; time, history, culture, life and love and death are no barrier. I was there when Adam woke in the Garden. I saw Lucifer fall. I've seen empires rise and universes end.
Sometimes through my life silly people have asked me why I read so much. I feel sorry for them, small beings with weak vision, lost in the dark without a lamp and they don’t even know it. Enjoy a few paragraphs before sleeping tonight. And think on me running through the lines and slinking around your verbs, dancing with the nouns and joking with the adjectives. Happy book day.
Yes, once more it is World Book Day. Being a professional bookseller and a lifelong reader (I demanded entry to the big people’s part of the library at the age of five after exhausting the children’s books, precocious little tyke that I was) pretty much every day is book day for me. There is almost literally no day where I will not read at least a few pages of one of the several books I have on the go at any one time. Too many worlds to explore to stick to just one!
Books, of course, are not a new idea and have been around in one form or another for millennia. They really came of age when Gutenberg perfected moveable typefaces however. For the first time in human history books could be reproduced perfectly an almost infinite number of times. What had been rare objects accessible to only a few became commonplace. Literacy grew, so did the number of books. With the growth of both came more and more ideas, taking a candle and stoking it into the bonfire of the Enlightenment as people geographically removed - and temporally too as books cross time as well as space - could exchange ideas and build on them (would we have our advanced science without this ability? No). The web page you are reading wouldn’t exist without this idea.
Humans are hardwired for language; it’s in the very structure of our brains. Deaf children denied being taught sign language have often invented their own, it’s a genetic impulse. Who knows how many millennia of human pre-history passed before writing evolved from earlier systems of simple record keeping? Writing gave to humanity a form of exo-somatic memory; that is the ability to store knowledge and experience outside of the mind. Thus when the elders of the society died their knowledge was not necessarily lost with them. This is how the giants of the Classical period have been preserved for us and passed down through thousands of years. Mass printing and finally the information age made this system of knowledge preservation and access open to most people. It literally - do excuse the pun - changed the world. Think about it next time you hold a book; we’re so used to them we don’t often spare a thought for how marvellous an invention they truly are. Indeed just how wonderfully remarkable the gift of writing and language are.
So much for the big worldview. What have books done for me on a personal note, if I may so indulge myself for a moment? There are things I have never done and places I have never been and yet I have done them all and a great deal more through the written word. I have walked the stone halls of the great library of Alexandria, past rows of scrolls lit by flickering oil lamps. I have sat on the sun-warmed steps of the Academy listening to Plato and Socrates discourse on a warm Athenian afternoon. I walked beside Gilgamesh and sailed with Captain Cook. I’ve watched the earliest humans struggle to master writing. Before humans I ran alongside a Tyrannosaur and patted the head of a friendly stegosaurus. Before that I played bowls with newly formed planets by the light of a newborn sun.
I was watching when the Wright Brothers made their first spluttering flight at Kittyhawk. I trudged through the mud and blood of the Somme and watched Custer at Little Big Horn. I’ve flown on bat wings from the parapets of Transylvanian castles and on supersonic wings on an X-craft, faster than a speeding bullet. The oceans have given up their mysteries to me as Nemo guide me beneath the waves. I’ve walked beneath alien suns and turned up the collar of my raincoat against the grim, city rain as I followed Sam Spade. The howl of the hound of the Baskervilles has sent thrills down my nerves; I‘ve heard the Call of the Wild.
I have been both Jekyll and Hyde, a samurai and a knight, a cop and a robber a cowboy and an indian, god and the devil. I’ve thrown apples at Newton and slid down the helter-skelter of the double helix. I dared the gods and created life. I charged the field of Bannockburn and sat in the first audiences in Paris as the Lumieres showed their films. I’ve examined the artwork on cave walls and in Egyptian tombs. I’ve crossed the burning sands of the desert by day and haunted the dark mists of old graveyards by night. I’ve defended virtuous maidens from dragons and bitten other maidens on their necks by the light of the moon. I’ve flowed in prose and rhythmic rhyme, sailing across thousands of years; time, history, culture, life and love and death are no barrier. I was there when Adam woke in the Garden. I saw Lucifer fall. I've seen empires rise and universes end.
Sometimes through my life silly people have asked me why I read so much. I feel sorry for them, small beings with weak vision, lost in the dark without a lamp and they don’t even know it. Enjoy a few paragraphs before sleeping tonight. And think on me running through the lines and slinking around your verbs, dancing with the nouns and joking with the adjectives. Happy book day.
Monday, March 1, 2004
Oscar
At last the Academy has agreed with the rest of the planet that the Lord of the Rings was a remarkable filmic event. Most pundits tipped the Return of the King to take several major awards this year and not just the usual technical ones (not to belittle the massive amount of work and dedication put in by the folks who won those awards for the film). But in the event the movie (or let's be frank, this was really for the entire trilogy) took no less than eleven Oscars, making it equal with Ben Hur, a stunning achievement. Just had to dash off a quick news item for the Alien once I finished work tonight to celebrate.
Coming so soon after the BBC's Big Read polled the Lord of the Rings as the nation's favourite novel this has been a good time for those of us who love fantasy. To those literati who bemoan it I say, take notice; these films and books win awards constantly because there is something good there which speaks to people time after time, so stop being so dismissive of it. As a professional bookseller, a book reviewer, a cinephile and a person with an honours degree in film and media I think I can say with at least as much authority as those revered - by themselves anyway - literati and art critics and I say these are damned good and we should enjoy them. Even for thsoe who didn't find it their cup of tea can surely acknowledge the enormous effort and love and dedication poured into the making of this astonishing series.
The awards taken home to Hobbiton were:
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Costume Design
Best Make Up
Best Film Editing
Best Art Direction
Best Visual Effects
Best Sound
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Score
Best Song (for Into the West, sung by Annie Lennox)
At last the Academy has agreed with the rest of the planet that the Lord of the Rings was a remarkable filmic event. Most pundits tipped the Return of the King to take several major awards this year and not just the usual technical ones (not to belittle the massive amount of work and dedication put in by the folks who won those awards for the film). But in the event the movie (or let's be frank, this was really for the entire trilogy) took no less than eleven Oscars, making it equal with Ben Hur, a stunning achievement. Just had to dash off a quick news item for the Alien once I finished work tonight to celebrate.
Coming so soon after the BBC's Big Read polled the Lord of the Rings as the nation's favourite novel this has been a good time for those of us who love fantasy. To those literati who bemoan it I say, take notice; these films and books win awards constantly because there is something good there which speaks to people time after time, so stop being so dismissive of it. As a professional bookseller, a book reviewer, a cinephile and a person with an honours degree in film and media I think I can say with at least as much authority as those revered - by themselves anyway - literati and art critics and I say these are damned good and we should enjoy them. Even for thsoe who didn't find it their cup of tea can surely acknowledge the enormous effort and love and dedication poured into the making of this astonishing series.
The awards taken home to Hobbiton were:
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Costume Design
Best Make Up
Best Film Editing
Best Art Direction
Best Visual Effects
Best Sound
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Score
Best Song (for Into the West, sung by Annie Lennox)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)