I like the idea of discussing books and films and such here in blogland, and a while back I was massively flattered to be asked by Johnny the Horse to join his book club. But then of course 2 months went by before I got it together enough to participate, because I'm a bit scattered like that. Also, I ordered the wrong book from Amazon.com, so instead of the recommended O Henry short story, I got The O Henry Prize Stories, an understandable mistake (shut up). Ah well, I'm enjoying them anyway. I also just noticed today, again because I'm scattered like that, that Ray has a movies page, which is totally cool, but you can't comment on it!! What's with that, Ray? Anyway, if you're interested in joining such discussions, come on in! Below is my premiere post on the Book club site.
Michael Parker, in the O Henry Prize Stories, The Golden Era of Heartbreak.
This guy's got chops. I'll admit I tend to focus on the trees and miss the forest at times when I read, because I simply like to see a writer being meticulous in his word choice and phrasing and crafting beautiful prose. But as I was appreciating the sounds and pacing of his writing, I also found myself riveted by his storyline. But really, who can't relate? Regular guy sunk deep in misery over heartbreak. I sure can. Parker weaves in some nice images along the way--to narrator, the world has contracted, is flat. literally it seems, as this guy spends all his time running down long flat dusty roads. I also got a kick out of how this writer uses conceits (if that's the right word) instead of straighforward statements--"when the bottle lightens" stands in for, when his current tormenters get drunk. Cool. I was also impressed by how details tended to emerge sort of unexpectedly, eg, narrator's guilt over his capacity for betraying his lost love. And quite unexpectedly, it ended on an upbeat note--here he is, lashed to a piling at the end of a pier in nowheresville, tide coming in, water creeping up his shoulders and neck to his chin, and the guy finds salvation, recovery. "I remembered hearing how they'd discovered that the earth was round: A boat had sailed out to the horizon, kept on moving, out of sight, over the earth's curve. Inching my way up the barnacled piling, I saw how they could get behind such an idea." Beautiful.
Sin City--Whoa what a ripsnorting good movie! Based on the illustrated novels of a writer named Frank Nelson (I think that's his name), count on Q Tarrentino to bust out with a full-octane parody. Sooo very violent, in a comic book way. In one scene, the Mickey Rourke character, Marv (who looks like a cross between and lion and a Satyr, btw), gets repeeeeetedly run over by an angry gorgeous babe in a sports car, and I mean sent flying with each impact. The sound effects were what got me tho--bone on steel--CLANK!! yet up he bounced--"Goldie!! why you gotta go and do that??!!" Color scheme of the film was cool too--mostly B+W, but always with a snatch of color somewhere. Excellent Hollywood entertainment!!
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