| |
11,949 / 60,000 (19.9%) |
« August 2003 | Main | October 2003 »
... so I could be misquoting, but I've been told that on 'My Year of Hell', John Leslie was asked if he was into "rough sex". And he replied, 'I haven't had any complaints.'
So that's apart from the complaints made to the police, is it?
Just been e-mailed a link to Stephen Fry's new film Bright Young Things. Check out the 'splendidiser' which will translate any web page into jolly 1920s-speak. I tried it with this page. And part of the last post became:
But then I can kind of see Anne Fine's point about it demeaning women. It's so damned unfair! I dare say, the female characters, apart from Deborah, are unbearably mostly unbalanced. How boring! Dash me twice, and Deborah's fat so none of the simply splendid boys fancies the spiffing gal (although the spiffing gal does say that plenty of boys outside the dratted school do). Fine declared that the splendid filly wouldn't want girls to read this about themselves. Golly! Darling, but this is blasting well how a shriekworthy lot of men are dreadfully. Twaddle! Utterly on the simply bogus contrary, it's sad, but it's true. How shaming! Good God old chap, and I think (although I'm not sure) that I'd rather know. Twaddle! Darling, then again, I hate to think of teenage boys reading this and thinking it's cool .
Fantastic.
Just read Melvyn Burgess's 'Doing it'. I've read two of his previous books: 'Junk' about teenage heroin addiction; and 'Lady: My Life as a Bitch' about a girl who gets ... turned into a dog. I loved them both and thought they were both brave and brilliantly written. After reading the Children's Laureate, Anne Fine's, disgusted review of 'Doing it' in the Guardian, I had to read the book. (Read The Guardian's own review here.) The bits she quotes are pretty disgusting. But they are also the worst bits of the book. And, what she doesn't know or doesn't believe, is that this is how teenage boys (and not just teenage boys, I've heard grown men come out with much worse) talk. In fact, Burgess flatters them:
'Jon leaned across to Ben.
"The rustling of nipples stiffening against the poly-cotton pads of a thousand Wonderbras. The gentle hiss of a roomful of drenching gussets," he said.'
Don't think 17 year old boys are that articulate, but I'm sure they'd appreciate the sentiment.
But then I can kind of see Anne Fine's point about it demeaning women. The female characters, apart from Deborah, are mostly unbalanced. And Deborah's fat so none of the boys fancies her (although she does say that plenty of boys outside the school do). Fine said that she wouldn't want girls to read this about themselves. But this is how a lot of men are. It's sad, but it's true. And I think (although I'm not sure) that I'd rather know. Then again, I hate to think of teenage boys reading this and thinking it's cool.
I'm not at all comfortable with the suggestion that the book should be pulped, though. If we go down that route, who decides? But then, when I read 'American Psycho' for university, I had the same thought. There is stuff in 'American Psycho' far worse than anything in 'Doing It', and the get-out clause is that it's probably fantasy. As is 'Doing It' (proven by the student's affair with the teacher - what 17 year old boy hasn't thought of that?).
Basically ... I don't know. I don't think it's a good book. I don't think it's particularly well-written. Once you've read the dirty bits, it's a bit boring. Unlike Anne Fine, I don't think it will damage the fabric of our society. But ... if this is the way things are going, if this is what books for boys are going to be like, I wouldn't be happy. And it could, eventually, make a difference.
... The Onion horoscope can always cheer me up:
Sagittarius: (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
You like to think of every day as a fresh new challenge, which would be inspiring if you didn't fail each challenge.
Ah, it's funny because it's true. Or it would be funny if it wasn't true.
Friday night we watched Adaptation. I know Chris Cooper won the Oscar, but was Nicholas Cage nominated? I can't remember. If he wasn't, he should have been. And it's made me want to read The Orchid Thief. One weird thing though - a number of the characters were real people. Susan Orlean, the author of The Orchid Thief, was played by Meryl Streep. Robert McKee, the author of the screenwriting manual Story was played by Brian Cox. Now, I can't say what cos I don't want to spoil it for you, but things happened to and were done by these people that I don't think happened or were done in real life. Major things. So how does that work? I can't imagine that Susan Orlean gave her permission, but can they take such liberties without her permission? I don't know. I'll have to look into it. But watch the film anyway. Like Spike Jonze's previous film Being John Malkovich, it's weird and original and great.
Saturday night we went to a free preview of Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Robert Rodriguez's sequel to Desperado. I didn't like it. I liked Desperado, but this one just wasn't fun. It started well and Johnny Depp was in it, so I had high hopes, but there was about half an hour of set up and then shooting shooting shooting. There were some good points, but mostly it just left me cold. (Literally, bloody air conditioning in cinemas.)
Sunday I watched Chicago. Why didn't I go and see this at the cinema? Why? Why? It was amazing, but it would have been soooo much better on a big screen. The first number All That Jazz took my breath away and the whole film was fantastic and brilliantly staged. Don't know why Catherine Zeta Jones got the Oscar though. Maybe there were subtleties to her performance that I missed. Or maybe she's got a powerful husband. I don't know.
I know, I know, I'm hopeless. But I'm really busy at work and I'm just not getting time to do this in the mornings. (Didn't help that yesterday I'd unset the alarm and forgot to reset it. Woke up at 6.50 this morning. We usually leave about then.)
So a link-free quick overview is all I can manage. I'm having one of those 'not grabbed by books' times. I've a bunch of half-read novels around the place. And usually I try and read the Booker shortlist, but this time none of them really grabs me. (I've read Brick Lane - good, particularly the characterisation, but not great.) The best book I've read recently was Princess Diaries - Gimme Five. Tried After Ever After by Rowan Coleman, Standing in the Rainbow - Fannie Flagg, Second Summer of the Sisterhood and been disappointed by all of them.
Sadly, the best thing in my life at the moment is the telly. Loving Sex and the City, Will & Grace, Scrubs (the bit where JD pretended to throw a ball for the orderly was brilliant), Six Feet Under, The West Wing, and Teachers. Note that Teachers is the only one that's not American. It's so great though. Oh and I taped Queer As Folk last night because I inexplicably missed it first time round, so I'm looking forward to that.
So. I'll try and post every morning next week, but I'm not promising anything.
Just got this from my Barry Manilow alert service thingy:
"To all of you conventioneers, start thinking about who you want to sit with at the Barry Q&A (tables of 8) and your teams for the Scavenger Hunt (teams of 10). You will be able to sign up for these in the Arts & Crafts Room at the convention. We are less than 50 days away! Remember, log onto
www.bmifcconvention.com for the latest updates."
Scavenger Hunt? Arts & Crafts? They're just tormenting me now.
So. Ben & Jen. Is it off or is it just postponed? I'd have been more likely to believe it was just a postponement had they given a better reason than 'press intrusion'. Do they think we don't know they live for the press? (It always reminds me of that bit in In Bed With Madonna where the doctor asks her 'don't you want to do this off camera?' and Warren Beatty says 'she doesn't want to live off camera'. Or something like that.)
I know it's weird but I like Ben Affleck. I love the new L'Oreal advert - 'We're worth it too.' Gets me every time. But I mainly love him because of the Kevin Smith films (particularly Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back). He can really take the piss out of himself and I like that in a man. I like Matt Damon for the same reason and despite what he did to Minnie. (Or was it Winona? Doesn't matter.)
But then, that made me wonder ... how come I like Ben and Matt - strippers, dumping girlfriends on TV, general misbehavior and idiocy (oh, and bad films) - and I don't like JLo or Minnie? I don't like them because they seem like bitches (as does Catherine Zeta Jones and, more and more, Nicole Kidman). But are they bitches or are they just strong successful women? And are Ben and Matt funny and cute and whatever, or are they just a pair or irresponsible overgrown kids who get away with it because they're funny and cute?
And I'm supposed to be a feminist. Tch.
I'm sorry. I haven't forgotten my blog responsibilities. I had a few days off last week and now that I'm back I am failing miserably to get out of bed early enough to get in here early enough to get my blog done before I start work. I am sorry. I'll get right on it.
And Autumn is my second-favourite season: bright sunshine, bracing cold, fallen leaves to skip merrily through (avoiding the dog dirt, of course), but what is it with this rain? I don't do rain! Feels like back-to-school weather to me.
