For Us the Twits
Francis Muir
saxophonist, and a couple of snippets from his recent CD release
*Chasin' the Gypsy*. The gypsy being Django Reinhardt. Besides being
into Retro Jazz, Carter, a protoge of Marsalis, is something of an
expert on the sax and on this CD he can be heard playing both the Bass
Sax and the F Mezzo. The former is so humongeous thast it is almost
always wheeled out on to the concert floor and played on its stand, but
carter says if you can't hold it you shouln't play it! Very grumpy and,
curiouslt, the first sax designed and built, The F Mezzo is a delightful
thing somewhere between the Alto and Soprano. I'm getting this CD for
the Miata.
Travellin' News. I had my first train ride in America yesterday!! From
San Carlos to the downtown terminal. I had left the Miata at Svendsen's
Boatyard the previous day when we motored NUTMEG home.
Simon Weil
>Fresh Air yesterday included an interview with James Carter, the
>saxophonist, and a couple of snippets from his recent CD release
>*Chasin' the Gypsy*. The gypsy being Django Reinhardt. Besides being
>into Retro Jazz, Carter, a protoge of Marsalis, is something of an
>expert on the sax and on this CD he can be heard playing both the Bass
>Sax and the F Mezzo. The former is so humongeous thast it is almost
>always wheeled out on to the concert floor and played on its stand, but
>carter says if you can't hold it you shouln't play it! Very grumpy and,
>curiouslt, the first sax designed and built, The F Mezzo is a delightful
>thing somewhere between the Alto and Soprano. I'm getting this CD for
>the Miata.
Carter's also played avant-garde Jazz with the likes of Julius Hemphill. My
favourite record of his is _Jurassic Classics_ - but he can be patchy. The guy
is blessed with a sense of humour, which you can hear, for example on _Nuages_
off the Django record. I mean , a bass saxophone evoking clouds!!!???...Just in
case people are chafing at the bit for literary-type conversation, you could
check out _ The Bass Saxophone_ by Joseph Skvorecky - a rather wonderful
novella about life under the Nazis. Many of his books contain Jazz - and humour
e.g. _The Cowards_ which I also like a lot.
While I'm at it, do people agree with me that the libretto to Marsalis's _Blood
on The Fields_ is dreadful?
Simon Weil
Check out my Wagner and the Jews book at:
http://members.aol.com/wagnerbuch/intro.htm
Jorn Barger
> Retro Jazz
unfinished realaudio history of jazz:
http://www.robotwisdom.com/jorn/jazz.html
--
http://www.robotwisdom.com/ "Relentlessly intelligent
yet playful, polymathic in scope of interests, minimalist
but user-friendly design." --Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
OFurorHortensis
this CD he can be heard playing both the Bass Sax and the F Mezzo. The former
is so humongeous thast it is almost always wheeled out on to the concert floor
and played on its stand, but carter says if you can't hold it you shouln't play
it!>>
Sounds like an alp horn. All of which brings to mind that dude who played the
bass flute with Jethro Tull....a wonderful instrument what with all that elan
vitale or soma or whatever coursing through it.
FurorHortensis
Paul Ilechko
Simon Weil wrote:
> Just in
> case people are chafing at the bit for literary-type conversation, you could
> check out _ The Bass Saxophone_ by Joseph Skvorecky - a rather wonderful
> novella about life under the Nazis. Many of his books contain Jazz - and humour
> e.g. _The Cowards_ which I also like a lot.
Oh, I totally agree, Skvorecky is marvellous.
ted samsel
Paul Ilechko wrote:
I've only read his THE BRIDE OF TEXAS, a War of Northron Aggro nobbel with
Czechs on both sides. I'm also wanting to read his DVORAK IN LOVE.
I've often wondered aloud what would have happened had Dvorak gone to the Czech
communities in Texas, instead of Spillville, IWOA. Places like Granger, Fayetteville,
LaGrange & West. Wish I had a poppyseed kolache.
--
TBSa...@infi.net
http://home.infi.net/~tbsamsel/
'Do the boogie woogie in the South American way'
Hank Snow (1914-1999)
THE RHUMBA BOOGIE
jimC
fra...@stanford.edu wrote:
> Travellin' News. I had my first train ride in America yesterday!! From
> San Carlos to the downtown terminal. I had left the Miata at
> Svendsen's Boatyard the previous day when we motored NUTMEG home.
You say that you boarded CalTrain at San Carlos station and went up to
4th and Townsend, and this was your *first* time on an American
train?! Tsk, tsk. Francis, you have a pretty good rail system around
there. Who wants to pay two bucks per for gasoline and sit in the
Bayshore/US 101 Parking Lot?
I have rhapsodized on this popular commuter line in the past. My fave
view from a CalTrain car is coming into Redwood City from the south and
seeing that Edward Hopper view (okay, I'm a sucker for Edward Hopper)
of an old workshop with a big roll-down front where some guy is always
arc-welding in the late afternoon. I'd say the building was erected
about 1910, or maybe even before the earthquake. Dunno. Anyone from
the Peninsula recognize the imagery?
On the other hand, forget that I mentioned it. I don't want to
acknowledge this newsgroup has more Northern Californians than
Southlanders.
jimC
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Meg Worley
Jim writes:
>I have rhapsodized on this popular commuter line in the past. My fave
>view from a CalTrain car is coming into Redwood City from the south and
>seeing that Edward Hopper view (okay, I'm a sucker for Edward Hopper)
>of an old workshop with a big roll-down front where some guy is always
>arc-welding in the late afternoon. I'd say the building was erected
>about 1910, or maybe even before the earthquake. Dunno. Anyone from
>the Peninsula recognize the imagery?
Yup -- it's right before the Curia Insurance office (long
closed, but the new occupants never bothered to repaint the
rear of the building, facing the track). Just past that is
the Pizza 'n' Pipes, where they play the Wurlitzer as you
eat your (mediocre) pie. Very popular with eight-year-olds
for birthday parties.
>On the other hand, forget that I mentioned it. I don't want to
>acknowledge this newsgroup has more Northern Californians than
>Southlanders.
Hm, NoCal vs SoCal writers? I'll take West over Stegner nine
days out of ten.
Rage away,
meg
--
m...@steam.stanford.edu Comparatively Literate
John Thomas
Worley) wrote:
> Hm, NoCal vs SoCal writers? I'll take West over Stegner nine
> days out of ten.
Or Didion over Lamott.
--
Regards,
John Thomas
Meg Worley
I wrote:
>> Hm, NoCal vs SoCal writers? I'll take West over Stegner nine
>> days out of ten.
JT writes:
> Or Didion over Lamott.
Eh. Didion's essays are very much overrated, while Lamott's
essays (haven't read the novels or the preaching manual) are
rated about right.
Has LA got a big ugly cow with a glistening wit to send into
the ring against Gertrude Stein?
Francis Muir
Meg Worley wrote:
>
> I wrote:
> >> Hm, NoCal vs SoCal writers? I'll take West over Stegner nine
> >> days out of ten.
>
> JT writes:
> > Or Didion over Lamott.
>
> Eh. Didion's essays are very much overrated, while Lamott's
> essays (haven't read the novels or the preaching manual) are
> rated about right.
>
> Has LA got a big ugly cow with a glistening wit to send into
> the ring against Gertrude Stein?
For me, I'll take Fisher for *Boss Dog* and Ferlinghetti for his
translation of Prevert's *Paroles*. Oh yes, and Stevenson for
*Kidnapped*. But I think I'll throw back London -- under-sized.
Meg Worley
Fido writes:
>For me, I'll take Fisher for *Boss Dog* and Ferlinghetti for his
>translation of Prevert's *Paroles*. Oh yes, and Stevenson for
>*Kidnapped*. But I think I'll throw back London -- under-sized.
Ah, but can you think of an outdoors writer from The Place
Below who can outwrestle London?
ted samsel
jimC wrote:
> In article <39A6713A...@stanford.edu>,
> fra...@stanford.edu wrote:
>
> > Travellin' News. I had my first train ride in America yesterday!! From
> > San Carlos to the downtown terminal. I had left the Miata at
> > Svendsen's Boatyard the previous day when we motored NUTMEG home.
>
> You say that you boarded CalTrain at San Carlos station and went up to
> 4th and Townsend, and this was your *first* time on an American
> train?! Tsk, tsk. Francis, you have a pretty good rail system around
> there. Who wants to pay two bucks per for gasoline and sit in the
> Bayshore/US 101 Parking Lot?
>
> I have rhapsodized on this popular commuter line in the past. My fave
> view from a CalTrain car is coming into Redwood City from the south and
> seeing that Edward Hopper view (okay, I'm a sucker for Edward Hopper)
> of an old workshop with a big roll-down front where some guy is always
> arc-welding in the late afternoon. I'd say the building was erected
> about 1910, or maybe even before the earthquake. Dunno. Anyone from
> the Peninsula recognize the imagery?
>
> On the other hand, forget that I mentioned it. I don't want to
> acknowledge this newsgroup has more Northern Californians than
> Southlanders.
>
>
ObSong: THE RAILPAK DONE DONE IN THE DEL MONTE by Doug Sahm....
Arthur Wohlwill
>From: m...@steam.stanford.edu (Meg Worley)
>Subject: For California, the Twits
>Date: 26 Aug 2000 16:15:10 -0700
>>On the other hand, forget that I mentioned it. I don't want to
>>acknowledge this newsgroup has more Northern Californians than
>>Southlanders.
>Hm, NoCal vs SoCal writers? I'll take West over Stegner nine
>days out of ten.
How about novels? The Maltese Falcon over the Big Sleep? Cannery Row over ?
Francis Muir
Meg Worley wrote:
>
> Fido writes:
> >For me, I'll take Fisher for *Boss Dog* and Ferlinghetti for his
> >translation of Prevert's *Paroles*. Oh yes, and Stevenson for
> >*Kidnapped*. But I think I'll throw back London -- under-sized.
>
> Ah, but can you think of an outdoors writer from The Place
> Below who can outwrestle London?
Arnold?
The Lone Stranger
of California. My favorite writer is Steinbeck. He wrote about the poor
people. The farm workers. He gave those people dignity. If you live in
the agricultural areas of California, chances are one of your relatives
worked the fields at sometime. People who led a hard existence. I live
in the area "Grapes of Wrath" was set in. So you can understand why I
enjoy his writings.
Annette Bergmann
> Hm, NoCal vs SoCal writers? I'll take West over Stegner nine
> days out of ten.
Hmm. I don't know about West (that would be Nathaniel, right?), and I
haven't read all of Stegner's books -- by the time I started reading him, we
were in Munich, and the Munich Amerikahaus must have run out of book-buying
money by the mid-seventies, so they just had Stegner's early stuff which
didn't thrill me. Still, _Crossing to Safety_ is one of my all-time
favorites. Have you read it?
"Poor Mr. Hagler, he has only his salary."
Meg Worley
I wrote:
>> Hm, NoCal vs SoCal writers? I'll take West over Stegner nine
>> days out of ten.
Annette writes:
>Hmm. I don't know about West (that would be Nathaniel, right?)
Yup (Nathanael, to be exact). You should read him -- fine stuff.
>...and I
>haven't read all of Stegner's books -- by the time I started reading him, we
>were in Munich, and the Munich Amerikahaus must have run out of book-buying
>money by the mid-seventies, so they just had Stegner's early stuff which
>didn't thrill me. Still, _Crossing to Safety_ is one of my all-time
>favorites. Have you read it?
No -- maybe I shall, as soon as I finish slogging through
*Poisonwood Bible* (about which, I must say, I don't understand
either the great praise or the great execration). *Angle of
Repose* is lovely stuff, though. I think you have to be either
in or from the West to appreciate Stegner, whereas West's
*Day of the Locust* can be easily appreciated by anti-Angelenos.
I'm not sure whether that is praise or criticism, there. Stegner
writes from love for the West, but is the pre-req a sign of
failure of communication on his part? West is distanced and
satirical -- or is he nailing LA so perfectly that a Martian
could get it?
Meg Worley
Aaron wonders:
>What don't you like about Didion's (early) essays?
For a start, let the record show that I said they were
*overrated*. Namely, they aren't flat-out stinky bad,
but they aren't all that and a bag of chips. They are
workmanlike, about as good as top-end frosh write. The
structure isn't tight, or perfectly dovetailed, or any
of those other marvelous adjectives; the sentences often
lumber rather than glide (and she relies far too much on
a very few sentence structures); they show little
attention to the interaction of sound and stresses in
language.
I haven't read anything of Didion's since *STB*, unless
I read something random in the *New Yorker* -- perhaps
her writing has evolved past that.
John Timothy Hall
> Rage away,
>
> meg
>
>
> --
> m...@steam.stanford.edu Comparatively Literate
--
Joan Marie Shields
I saw part of an interview with Arlo Guthrie the other day. He said
that Steinbeck once told Woodie Guthrie that he managed to say in
twelve verses what it took him a whole book to say.
yiwf,
joan
--
Joan Shields jshi...@uci.edu http://www.ags.uci.edu/~jshields
University of California - Irvine School of Social Ecology
Department of Environmental Analysis and Design
I do not purchase services or products from unsolicited e-mail advertisements.
Don Tuite
Day of the Locust?
Don <g>
Meg Worley
Lone writes:
>The "favorite" or "best" book depends on the area or segment of society
>of California.
Well, I wasn't talking about best or favorite, merely North
vs. South (cue Teodito with a trenchant comment The War), but
I'll play along...
>My favorite writer is Steinbeck. He wrote about the poor
>people. The farm workers. He gave those people dignity. If you live in
>the agricultural areas of California, chances are one of your relatives
>worked the fields at sometime. People who led a hard existence. I live
>in the area "Grapes of Wrath" was set in. So you can understand why I
>enjoy his writings.
Dos Passos did it all better. Try reading the *U.S.A.* trilogy
(final volume published in 1936) back to back with *Grapes of
Wrath* (1939) and behold plagiarism. Severely dumbed-down
plagiarism, at that.
I have nothing special against Steinbeck -- he's your basic
middlebrow American writer, turning out some okay stuff and
some smarmy swill (*Red Pony*, anyone?) -- but I am not putting
him in the ring with SoCal's finest.
Meg Worley
In the Literary War of Northern Aggro, I asked Francis:
>> Ah, but can you think of an outdoors writer from The Place
>> Below who can outwrestle London?
> Have you read "The Secret Sharer" by Conran?
I haven't read a book by that title by a Californian Conran.
I have read one by the Anglopole Conrad, but I don't see how
it fits into the thread.
The Lone Stranger
I like Steinbeck for personal reasons. I don't know about "best". I am
not that "sophisticated" in literary matters. My other favorites are
Arthur C. Clark, James Michener, Jack London, Tom Clancy, and Stephen
Coonts. I have tried to read Hemingway. What is his appeal?
I enjoy this group. Am learning a lot from it.
Good day, Lone.
Anatoly Vorobey
>not that "sophisticated" in literary matters. My other favorites are
>Arthur C. Clark, James Michener, Jack London, Tom Clancy, and Stephen
>Coonts. I have tried to read Hemingway. What is his appeal?
Short sentences. Always liked short sentences.
And his mail never ebbed.
--
Anatoly Vorobey,
mel...@pobox.com http://pobox.com/~mellon/
"Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly" - G.K.Chesterton
jimC
But, I was... I was er, speechless when I read this because
I couldn't remember the name of her fantastic reportage from the
late 1960s and I kept thinking, Oh, it's in Yeats, it's
whatchamacallit, it's ** I EFFING CAN'T REMEMBER ** (What if this
happens when I'm on Regis Filbin's quiz show?) and in the middle of the
night the girl cat meowed downstairs and I sat up and the first thought
that came to me was SHUFFLING TOWARD BUFFALO, like streaming lights on
a giant marquee moving right to left. No, no, idiot! California, not
Broadway. (Shall I call my ex? What time is it up in L.A. if it's 3
am in Orange County and 6 am in Times Square?) It's, it's, it's... and
I sneezed ** GESUNDHEIT ** (this time there was no marquee, just a
splotch of stars and colors) and _Slouching Toward Bethlehem_ struck me
like a hurled book and I went back to sleep.
Buffalo, snarf.
jimC
>
> Thanks for the tip about Dos Passos. I've never read him.
>
> not that "sophisticated" in literary matters. My other favorites are
> Arthur C. Clark, James Michener, Jack London, Tom Clancy, and Stephen
> Coonts. I have tried to read Hemingway. What is his appeal?
He learned sparse writing early; he distrusted adjectives; his
prose reads like haikus. Some of it is predictable but no one's
perfect.
Among his better known novels, I like _For Whom the Bell Tolls_ and
_The Sun Also Rises_. Hemingway loved sprinkling Spanish dialog in
English with expressions like "cagar en la leche", surely mindful that
the small town English teacher back home was unlikely to know their
literal meanings. ("Cagar en la leche" means "to shit in the cream.")
Contrast this with Norman Mailer who can't let his battlefield soldiers
use four-letter words even in post-war writing. So they say "fuggin"
in every sentence, almost as realistically as any young man in the
same life-and-death situation.
jimC
Meg Worley
Lone writes:
>I have tried to read Hemingway. What is his appeal?
Well, my beamish boy says it is the one perfect detail that
sums everything up, like the burnt grasshopper in "Big-Hearted
River." Me, I think it's the cross-dressing themes in the
late and posthumous work.
Jean Clarke
just walkin' the walk with the good sounds!
Just a Jeanie
pet...@ms.com
ric...@webtv.net (The Lone Stranger) wrote:
> Thanks for the tip about Dos Passos. I've never read him.
>
> I like Steinbeck for personal reasons. I don't know about "best". I am
> not that "sophisticated" in literary matters. My other favorites are
> Arthur C. Clark, James Michener, Jack London, Tom Clancy, and Stephen
>
[I had this sitting around as an aswere to this other question
Why is Hemingway famous for his writting?]
In very, very general terms, for two reasons. But
first, why is Picasso famous for his painting? If you
look here you will see examples of his work, but
look especially at the Cubism period and the war
years...
http://www.tamu.edu/mocl/picasso/biog/tour.html
I think he is famous firstly for changing the way that
the artist approaches his subject. The ability of an
artist before Picasso was gauged by how exactly the
artist reproduced the subject in the painting. But not
only the subject, additionally the background and
the foreground and the clothing and incidental
objects surrounding the subject. To a great extent,
an artist was a good artist to the extent that a
photograph was produced. Picasso changed this by
trying to determine, and then paint, the essence of
the subject. He painted what he felt about the
subject not only what he saw. He painted feelings
and smells and emotions.
And this leads to the second reason Picasso is
great. He changed the way the viewer (us)
approaches the work of art. I think that viewing art
in the past was "easy" becasue it was simply a
reproduction of a person or a battle scene or the
Madonna and Child. There it is, on the canvas, no
question about it, that's Mary. Looky here at the
bottom... "Madonna with Child."
But after Picasso, viewing art became more difficult.
"What the &^$%# are all of those upside down
horses with the toothy mouths? "Sheesh! My cat
could do better than that." Viewing a painting
became more difficult because an anti-war painting
that had no bombs or explosions or blood and gore
is more difficult to understand. In a way, the more a
viewer "brought to " the painting, the more
expirience the viewer had with war and its results,
the more could be "taken away" from the work of
art. At least, there was more resposibility put upon
the viewer to understand the art, and perhaps even
what was in the mind of the artist. And one person's
valid response to a painting could be as valid as
another's, even if the responses were different.
So.. Why is Hemingway famous for his writting?
First he changed the way writers approached their
subjects. He maintained that it was not the writer's
responsibility to provide every detail about the
characters and setting of a story. Instead, he
provided hints and clues as to what was going on,
so that a reference to a small detail - a color for
example - was all that was needed to included any
and every reference that color brought to mind. And
secondly, as a result of the first reason, he
demanded more from the reader. A demand that the
reader bring as much knowledge and expirince to
the story as he, as the creator, brought to its
creation.
As far as I can tell, it is the essence of Modernism -
a break with the past. A break with the traditional
ways of representing things with words or oils or
stone.
hth Pjk
The Lone Stranger
dislike it when someone tries to be innovative. Stick to basic story
telling. Take care, Richard.
Annette Bergmann
> Annette writes:
> > [...] Still, _Crossing to Safety_ is one of my all-time
> >favorites. Have you read it?
>
> No -- maybe I shall, as soon as I finish slogging through
> *Poisonwood Bible* (about which, I must say, I don't understand
> either the great praise or the great execration). *Angle of
> Repose* is lovely stuff, though. I think you have to be either
> in or from the West to appreciate Stegner [...]
Two things. First, thanks for the _Angle of Repose_ recommendation -- that book
has been languishing on my shelves for more than seven years, and now that I'm
reading it again, I'm enjoying it much more. (There was something about the
narrator I found unbearably blustery the first time around -- doesn't bother me
this time.)
Second, _Crossing to Safety_ must be untypical Stegner in that it really is not
about the West at all. (Large portions of it are set in Madison, Wisconsin, and
at some East Coast resort somewhere within driving distance of Cambridge.) It's
about friendship, and marriage, and academia with all its discontents, and it too
deserves to be called lovely stuff, I think. (I'm somewhat hesitant since _The
Manticore_ is one Davies novel that, together with _What's Bred in the Bone_, I
was actually going to recommend to Silke. Oh well.)
Annette
Meg Worley
>> > [...] Still, _Crossing to Safety_ is one of my all-time
>> >favorites. Have you read it?
I wrote:
>> No -- maybe I shall, as soon as I finish slogging through
>> *Poisonwood Bible* [...] *Angle of Repose* is lovely stuff,
>> though. I think you have to be either
>> in or from the West to appreciate Stegner.
Annette writes:
>Two things. First, thanks for the _Angle of Repose_ recommendation -- that book
>has been languishing on my shelves for more than seven years, and now that I'm
>reading it again, I'm enjoying it much more. (There was something about the
>narrator I found unbearably blustery the first time around -- doesn't bother me
>this time.)
I didn't like it until I got to know California a bit (whence
my comment about Stegner and the West).
>Second, _Crossing to Safety_ must be untypical Stegner in that it really is not
>about the West at all. (Large portions of it are set in Madison, Wisconsin, and
>at some East Coast resort somewhere within driving distance of Cambridge.) It's
>about friendship, and marriage, and academia with all its discontents, and it
>too deserves to be called lovely stuff, I think. (I'm somewhat hesitant
>since _The Manticore_ is one Davies novel that, together with _What's Bred
>in the Bone_, I was actually going to recommend to Silke. Oh well.)
Well, recommend away, wrt *The Manticore*; it was the psychoanalysis
that made me twitch, as I said, and the Honourable Member from Ann
Arbor would hardly object to that, I suppose.
I'll give *Crossing to Safety* a try, although I'm categorically
leary of academic novels, since the authors can't help but try to
portray the departmental panoply of egomaniacs, with the inevitable
result that it ends up being a humorless ensemble comedy (ObExample:
Lodge, Lodge, Smiley, and Lodge).
Francis Muir
> I'll give *Crossing to Safety* a try, although I'm categorically
> leary of academic novels, since the authors can't help but try to
> portray the departmental panoply of egomaniacs, with the inevitable
> result that it ends up being a humorless ensemble comedy (ObExample:
> Lodge, Lodge, Smiley, and Lodge).
Boo hoo. Mal'heureusement you left out our local example of the genus.
OFurorHortensis
try to
portray the departmental panoply of egomaniacs, with the inevitable result
that it ends up being a humorless ensemble comedy>>
Not invariably. Tartt's "Secret History"
had its finer moments.
FurorHortensis
jimC
There is no place like homily.
jimC
kp...@us.ibm.com
>... Me, I think it's the cross-dressing themes in the
>late and posthumous work.
>
Not to mention the same theme in his childhood...
kpoc
Frank Lekens
jo...@mcs.com says...
>
> unfinished realaudio history of jazz:
>
> http://www.robotwisdom.com/jorn/jazz.html
>
Jazz? Talk about juvenile music...
--
Frank Lekens
operamail.com is where it's really @
Meg Worley
I wrote:
>> I'll give *Crossing to Safety* a try, although I'm categorically
>> leary of academic novels, since the authors can't help but try to
>> portray the departmental panoply of egomaniacs, with the inevitable
>> result that it ends up being a humorless ensemble comedy (ObExample:
>> Lodge, Lodge, Smiley, and Lodge).
Fido writes:
>Boo hoo. Mal'heureusement you left out our local example of the genus.
Oh, *Handmaid of Desire* was just too, too bad for words --
too bad, even, to be classed with the tiresome Lodge. Not
to mention that the main character is clearly the former chair
of our dept, on whom L'Heureux visits the vilest vengeance:
killing him off with a massive-but-slow heart attack upon
learning that his only child was fathered by his departmental
nemesis. Mean spirits like that are hard to come by in this
Judeo-Christian world, even so near the Hoover Institution.
Francis Muir
I visited the Lane Room this morning meaning to get out Michael Frayn's
*Headlong* but it had gone missing -- perhaps not yet filtered back
through the system from it's previous exeat. Not wanting to waste a
journey tho', I took out John L'Heureux' *Having Everything*, it'll gave
to waiting my finishing *England, England*. I also picked up some DVDs,
including the classic Kipling/Houston/Caine/Connery *The Man Who Would
Be King*. Very, very wide in Panavision. A glorious show, and contains
one glorious phrase "the bloody high and bleeding mighty". Caine should
have been Kerniggerted years ago.
Meg Worley
I wrote:
>>I'm categorically leary of academic novels, since the authors can't help but
>try to
>portray the departmental panoply of egomaniacs, with the inevitable result
>that it ends up being a humorless ensemble comedy>>
Furor writes:
>Not invariably. Tartt's "Secret History" had its finer moments.
If student-protagonists make novels part of the academic genre,
I get to rant about the puerility of *Catcher in the Rye*. But
I don't accept the protasis, so I'll spare you the apodosis.
Besides, *Secret History* was cheap trash.