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Yore accent sucks, y'all hea-ah

post from Detectives Beyond Borders: A Forum for International Crime Fiction on 06 October 2008 11:58:00 PM. © Detectives Beyond Borders: A Forum for International Crime Fiction

I've just given up on The Drowning Pool, the second of two movies that starred Paul Newman as Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer but with his name changed to Lew Harper. I just couldn't take those crappy Southern accents. Or maybe the accents were too good ? too studied, that is, to be anything but a distraction.

In any case, the movie is safely back in the store. Now I think I'll sample Macdonald firsthand, through The Moving Target, the first Archer novel and the basis of Harper, the first Newman/Macdonald movie.

Have you ever given up on a movie because an accent drove you nuts? If not, what similarly little things will put you off a movie or a book?

© Peter Rozovsky 2008

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http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/2008/10/yore-accent-sucks-yall-hea-ah
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Frankenstein Day at the Bodleian Library

post from Brit Lit Blogs on 06 October 2008 11:50:50 PM. © Brit Lit Blogs

Short notice, I know (this is happening, erm, today):

A special one-day event will celebrate the launch of The Original Frankenstein, the latest Bodleian Library publication. Frankenstein Day at the Bodleian Library will take place on 7 October 2008. Events include: a special display of Mary Shelley's original manuscripts; a lecture by Charles E. Robinson, the author of the new edition and a book launch with Brian Aldiss as guest speaker (more...)

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http://www.readysteadybook.com/Blog.aspx?permalink=20081007105050

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Walter Scotts Waverley, the intrusive narrator,
and showing, not telling

post from The Story's Story on 06 October 2008 11:06:16 PM. © The Story's Story

In Walter Scott’s Waverley, a representative passage states:Now I protest to thee, gentle reader [?] and hold it the most useful quality of my pen, that it can speedily change from grave to gay, and from description and dialogue to narrative and character. So that, if my quill display no other properties of its mother-goose [...]

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http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/walter-scotts-waverley-the-intrusive-nar
rator-and-showing-not-telling/

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Rowan Williams on Dostoyevsky

post from Brit Lit Blogs on 06 October 2008 10:54:26 PM. © Brit Lit Blogs

I quite like Rowan Williams. Although I do wish he'd get his Church to stop obsessing about where consenting adults put their willies. Did Jesus ever even mention sexuality? I don't think he did. And maybe Paul mentioned it, like, once. As Chumbawamba once sang, "Homophobia ... The worst disease."

Anyway, the Archbishop has recently published a book entitled Dostoyevsky: Language, Faith and Fiction which looks decent enough. Via archbishopofcanterbury.org you can listen to the Archbishop talking to Susan Hitch nattering about the "conflicting ideas about spiritual regeneration and existentialism as embodied in the characters of his literary hero, the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky."

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http://www.readysteadybook.com/Blog.aspx?permalink=20081007095426

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Impossible Literature

post from Brit Lit Blogs on 06 October 2008 10:20:22 PM. © Brit Lit Blogs

Stephen Barber reads from his new book Artaud: Terminal Curses (Solar Books) at the Metaphysical Library of the Theosophical Society, 50 Gloucester Place, London W1, with David Ellis, Richard Crow, Alaknanda Samarth, Louis Benassi and Angelo Madonna. Friday, 17 October, 7pm. Admission: £6.

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http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/impossible-literature/

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Eric Kimmel & Greek myths

post from Chasing Ray on 06 October 2008 09:59:45 PM. © Chasing Ray

I reviewed The McElderry Book of Greek Myths a couple of months ago along with Charles R. Smith's The Mighty Twelve and Lynn Curlee's Mythological Creatures. At the time I was quite pleased to have three gorgeous books on myths and mythological creatures land in my lap and saw this as a renaissance for one of the standard subjects in children's and teen publishing.

Basically I was thinking that as the myths never go out of style and every kid in the world ends up learning them at some point, it was awesome to see publishers revising the rather dry standards we've all grown up with. (We all love D'Aulaire's but if you're looking for attitude in those retellings you won't find it.) Also, very young children (kindergarten age) are often ready for the myths, but colorful illustrations are pretty much mandatory for that crowd. While I enjoyed all three of the books I reviewed (and my son did as well), it was Eric Kimmel's retelling in the McElderry book, along with Pep Montserrat's outstanding illustrations, that really stood out. I naively thought that Kimmel was likely on his way to a whole series of books on the subject and happily settled back to wait for the next entry (hopefully on the Norse myths).

Unfortunately, my literary optimism this time was dead wrong.

I can't begin to express, as a reader and parent, how disappointed I am in Simon & Schuster for not continuing this series. Kimmel did a great job of including not only the "standards" (Persephone & Hades, Theseus & the Minotaur, Daedelus & Icarus) but also some lesser known myths such as Prometheus and Pygmalion & Galatea. He also retold them all in a manner that injected a lot of fresh blood into the tales. As I wrote last summer: Kimmel is not writing adoring tales but shows both the nobility and pettiness of everyone involved and will likely cause readers to identify quite a bit with his subjects. Midas truly is a ninny here, Medea is crazy, and Ariadne gets her due for providing her critical assistance against the Minotaur.

These are plainly 21st century versions of old stories - the tales have not changed dramatically but Kimmel allows himself to consider just why some of the characters behaved in a certain way. Theseus is a bit of a cad and Icarus not merely thoughtless for flying so close to the sun, but more wistful at the chance to attain great heights after years of imprisonment. Orpheus and Eurydice have a love that knows no bounds and this second meeting with Hades and Persephone merely solidifies what careful readers will have already gathered from their tale: that sometimes opposites do attract and Hell's ruler is a lot more complicated then you might think. (How this tale ended up with a happy ending I'll never know, but it did and is one of my favorites.)

Montserrat's deeply emotional and richly colored illustrations perfectly match the depth that Kimmel attains with his words. Altogether, The McElderry Book of Greek Myths was the sort of gift package that I could see as perfect reading aloud to young children (as I have done, more than once) while also working well for older reluctant readers or those just starting to learn about the myths and looking to get their feet wet slowly before diving into Edith Hamilton. This is a timeless book and I don't say that lightly. I could see Kimmel and Montserrat's work appealing to children over a period of decades just as those have come before them have managed to do. That is why I was so surprised to hear that the book is not going to have a sequel, a decision that seems remarkably short-sighted to me.

But then again maybe I shouldn't be surprised since no one seems to look beyond six months when planning anything in this blasted country anymore. (And I say with all the love of a true American.)

So here's the deal. The book has apparently not sold enough copies to justify another. Why anyone would look at sales figures in only one year for a book on myths and use that to predict future earnings I will never understand as it is a subject that everyone and their third cousin knows will never go out of style. I managed to pick up an out-of-print picture book on Norse myths while I was at Powells for the conference but although my son is happy to hear them, he has already mentioned that it is not as good as his favorite. You want to know the biggest irony? Powells had more than a dozen copies of The McElderry Book of Greek Myths facing out in the children's folklore section. Clearly they can see the book has a lot of appeal for their customers. Maybe someone should make a phone call to the powers-that-be at Simon and Schuster and suggest they reconsider their decision.

In the meantime we will return to Persephone, Hades and crew again in my house and wish that Eric Kimmel and Pep Montserrat were able to entertain us with other titles as well. When two talents fit together so well you would think a publisher would celebrate their synergy and reward them - and the reading public - with more chances to shine. An opportunity is being wasted here and I can't believe I'm the only parent to see it go by.

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ChasingRay/~3/412405621/eric_kimmel_greek_myths.ht
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Economic orthodoxy as superstition

post from Brit Lit Blogs on 06 October 2008 09:45:49 PM. © Brit Lit Blogs

Madeleine Bunting on Faith. Belief. Trust.

Economists talk of trust, belief, faith; we now understand that all along neoliberal capitalism was a form of mythology. That's why the triumphalism was necessary - you could not afford to have anyone challenge the system or we might all realise we were gawping at the emperor's nakedness. Rowan Williams was right to quote Marx, that "unbridled capitalism becomes a kind of mythology, ascribing reality, power and agency to things that have no life in themselves". Richard Dawkins should be critiquing this superstitious belief system (more...)

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http://www.readysteadybook.com/Blog.aspx?permalink=20081007084549

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Federal Election: Who Hates the Arts in Canada

Image from the National Post.I haven’t really looked too hard into the allegations hurled by opposition party leaders Stephane Dion, Jack Layton et al, at Stephen Harper’s cutting 50 million from Canada’s arts funding budget. What I have seen however is documentation that shows funding for the Arts in the last year of [...]

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nigelbeale/yxOu/~3/416005772/

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Warrior Of Light - The fourth cardinal virtue:
Wisdom

According to the dictionary: deep knowledge of things, natural or acquired; erudition; rectitude.According to the New Testament: For God?s folly is beyond the wisdom of men, and God?s weakness is beyond their strength. For consider, brothers, what happened when God called you. Not many of you were what men call wise, not many of you [...]

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http://publicliterature.org/2008/10/06/warrior-of-light-the-fourth-cardinal-virtu
e-wisdom/

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Robert Birnbaum interviews Howard Zinn

Over at identity theory, Robert Birnbaum interviews radical historian Howard Zinn (author of A People's History of the United States):

This whole issue of optimism and pessimism, cynicism and utopianism?these issues will always be with us. Always you can draw up this double list. Always. You can draw up this double list you started to draw up, which is a terrifying list which shows we are still going to stupid wars and still violating people?s liberties and all of that is true. You can?t deny it. On the other hand, you can also draw up a list which says there is a greater consciousness today in this country about the rights of women than there was twenty years ago. There is a greater consciousness of people to sexual privacy. A greater consciousness about that. And the problem is?and there is a greater consciousness of the futility of war?it?s a consciousness which can be set aside when [there?s] a fusillade of propaganda from the government and it?s echoed by the press, and that?s what happened in the Iraq war (more...)