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coalescentQuestion from the audience: "His Dark Materials is a retelling of the Fall of Adam and Eve. Where does Jesus fit into your theology?"
Philip Pullman: "Ah, yes. I’ve been meaning to get around to Jesus…"
That’s one of the more entertaining quotes from Philip Pullman’s talk at the National Theatre on Friday evening. The occasion was, of course, to talk about the production of His Dark Materials that’s currently running there and all told it was an interesting session. He talked about the excision of Mary Malone from the story, arguing that it was essentially unstageable; I have some sympathy for that view. The danger of it, though, was pointed up by a question about what the story says about modes of thought: Should the fact that the workings of the Alethiometer and the subtle knife are both based in intuitive reasoning be seen as an attack on rational thought? With Mary Malone (and the invention of the amber spyglass) in the story, this criticism clearly does not stand. Without her, it's more problematic. Other of Pullman’s answers were illustrated with lovely anecdotes – answering a question about what he was like at Lyra’s age with a story about the first time he fell in love – demonstrating (as though the books were not evidence enough) that he is an excellent storyteller, and not merely an excellent writer. The whole event gave me a slight cognitive dissonance, though; it's become a little harder to imagine him in the surroundings of an Eastercon...
Afterwards, the geekstalt assembled and went to the Shaftesbury Avenue Odeon to see Sofia Coppola’s new film, Lost in Translation. I came out feeling slightly unsatisfied, and the feeling stayed with me through the weekend until a review in the Sunday Times nailed what it was that bothered. It’s this: Lost in Translation isn’t about anything. Given the source material, it really should be: Two americans meet in Japan…It should be about alienation, or culture shock, or something. But it’s not. The closest it comes is making a point about intimacy, and how rare and fleeting it is, but there’s still no real depth. The film exists as a mood piece. It’s there to make you laugh a couple of times, and feel slightly melancholy at the end, and it’s nicely done, but that’s about it. Still, Bill Murray was excellent.
Saturday morning: I found a postcard from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
applez in my letterbox, and added it to the slowly-growing postcard wall. Everyone send me postcards! I want to cover my hall in them. Then I finished off Forty Signs of Rain. There’s a full review rattling around somewhere in my brain, but for now suffice it to say that this is the new book I want to lend to many people for many reasons. It’s about ecocatastrophe, it’s about Big Science (and the practitioners thereof – scientist fiction?) and about high politics, and about (of course!) buddhism, and about change. The tipping point, a singularity, an epiphany, a quasi-Kuhnian scientific revolution, however you want to describe these events they are all, the novel suggests, fundamentally the same. One-way gates to the future. And as an added bonus, it’s not that long: Only 350 pages or so. There are also some brief comments (really not much more than the above) on the newly-established, highly experimental OUSFG reviews wiki.
I went into town at lunchtime to find that the bookshop is being redressed in Ottakar's colours. They haven't got all the way, yet, so it's currently a horrible melange of blue, green and orange. I still feel sad that Hammicks is gone; it's not just where I worked, it's the bookshop I grew up with.
Saturday afternoon: I read Lynne Truss’ christmas bestseller Eats, Shoots and Leaves. It didn’t tell me a vast amount I didn’t know, and I don’t agree with all her comments about the effect of the internet on language, but the book codified things I’ve never been taught formally, so that’s a good thing.
Sunday: Gary and I watched eight episodes ofThe Six Million Dollar Geek Jake 2.0. Utterly lightweight, utterly ludicrous, but every so often more charming than you might expect, largely because Jake Foley really is a geek, through and through. There’s even an episode which has him fighting evil geeks. All in all, I think there’s a place for this sort of lightweight espionage adventure, and that place is Saturday mornings on ITV.
Sunday evening: I went togagravarr’s place for dinner and yet another terrifying example that even the non-LJ world is desperately small: One of his housemates was for two terms of her PGCE placed in the same school as Rachel, my tutorial partner of four years. Definitely a good evening all around, I think; it’s all very well living on your own, but every so often you do want to feel more like part of a group. Thanks, Nick.
This week, I am mostly looking forward to new Angel, Paul (State of Play) Abbott’s new drama Shameless (Tuesday, C4, 10pm), and reading The Time Traveller’s Wife. I was nervous about this book, but the Ottakar's fiction newsletter reassured me:
Thank goodness, eh?
I'm also looking forward to getting rid of the sandpaper throat I seem to have woken up with; making me sound far more manly than usual is no compensation for the pain that runs through me every time I swallow.
Philip Pullman: "Ah, yes. I’ve been meaning to get around to Jesus…"
That’s one of the more entertaining quotes from Philip Pullman’s talk at the National Theatre on Friday evening. The occasion was, of course, to talk about the production of His Dark Materials that’s currently running there and all told it was an interesting session. He talked about the excision of Mary Malone from the story, arguing that it was essentially unstageable; I have some sympathy for that view. The danger of it, though, was pointed up by a question about what the story says about modes of thought: Should the fact that the workings of the Alethiometer and the subtle knife are both based in intuitive reasoning be seen as an attack on rational thought? With Mary Malone (and the invention of the amber spyglass) in the story, this criticism clearly does not stand. Without her, it's more problematic. Other of Pullman’s answers were illustrated with lovely anecdotes – answering a question about what he was like at Lyra’s age with a story about the first time he fell in love – demonstrating (as though the books were not evidence enough) that he is an excellent storyteller, and not merely an excellent writer. The whole event gave me a slight cognitive dissonance, though; it's become a little harder to imagine him in the surroundings of an Eastercon...
Afterwards, the geekstalt assembled and went to the Shaftesbury Avenue Odeon to see Sofia Coppola’s new film, Lost in Translation. I came out feeling slightly unsatisfied, and the feeling stayed with me through the weekend until a review in the Sunday Times nailed what it was that bothered. It’s this: Lost in Translation isn’t about anything. Given the source material, it really should be: Two americans meet in Japan…It should be about alienation, or culture shock, or something. But it’s not. The closest it comes is making a point about intimacy, and how rare and fleeting it is, but there’s still no real depth. The film exists as a mood piece. It’s there to make you laugh a couple of times, and feel slightly melancholy at the end, and it’s nicely done, but that’s about it. Still, Bill Murray was excellent.
Saturday morning: I found a postcard from
applez in my letterbox, and added it to the slowly-growing postcard wall. Everyone send me postcards! I want to cover my hall in them. Then I finished off Forty Signs of Rain. There’s a full review rattling around somewhere in my brain, but for now suffice it to say that this is the new book I want to lend to many people for many reasons. It’s about ecocatastrophe, it’s about Big Science (and the practitioners thereof – scientist fiction?) and about high politics, and about (of course!) buddhism, and about change. The tipping point, a singularity, an epiphany, a quasi-Kuhnian scientific revolution, however you want to describe these events they are all, the novel suggests, fundamentally the same. One-way gates to the future. And as an added bonus, it’s not that long: Only 350 pages or so. There are also some brief comments (really not much more than the above) on the newly-established, highly experimental OUSFG reviews wiki.I went into town at lunchtime to find that the bookshop is being redressed in Ottakar's colours. They haven't got all the way, yet, so it's currently a horrible melange of blue, green and orange. I still feel sad that Hammicks is gone; it's not just where I worked, it's the bookshop I grew up with.
Saturday afternoon: I read Lynne Truss’ christmas bestseller Eats, Shoots and Leaves. It didn’t tell me a vast amount I didn’t know, and I don’t agree with all her comments about the effect of the internet on language, but the book codified things I’ve never been taught formally, so that’s a good thing.
Sunday: Gary and I watched eight episodes of
Sunday evening: I went to
gagravarr’s place for dinner and yet another terrifying example that even the non-LJ world is desperately small: One of his housemates was for two terms of her PGCE placed in the same school as Rachel, my tutorial partner of four years. Definitely a good evening all around, I think; it’s all very well living on your own, but every so often you do want to feel more like part of a group. Thanks, Nick.This week, I am mostly looking forward to new Angel, Paul (State of Play) Abbott’s new drama Shameless (Tuesday, C4, 10pm), and reading The Time Traveller’s Wife. I was nervous about this book, but the Ottakar's fiction newsletter reassured me:
Foremost of these is one of those rare slush-pile success stories one hears about occasionally – Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife (RRP £12.99). Originally published by a small, independent American publisher, this high-concept and highly readable novel tells the story of two lovers who have to put up with the husband's uncontrollable time travelling. Charming, romantic and hugely original, don't be put off by the slightly Science-fiction-ish premise – this is a novel for everyone.
Thank goodness, eh?
I'm also looking forward to getting rid of the sandpaper throat I seem to have woken up with; making me sound far more manly than usual is no compensation for the pain that runs through me every time I swallow.
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 02:32 am (UTC)Was it the first time? I got the impression it was just one of many many times he fell head over heels in love at that age, in a series of fits of excessive romanticism. Either way, it was an endearing story, well told.
Lost in Translation isn’t about anything.
Curious. I've still not posted a review myself, partly out of general crapness, and partly because I'm still not sure what to make of the film. When I read this it hit me that I feel exactly the same way about Lost in Translation as I did about Sofia Coppolla's first film The Virgin Suicides. That film too felt like it should have been about something important; maybe the agony of being a teenager, the impossibility of truly knowing anyone else, the challenges of life, the challenges of death. But I'm not really sure. I came out of The Virgin Suicides wondering what it was trying to say, and never found out.
Sofia Coppolla is still pretty youing, and I think she's got a lot of talent. It feels to me like she has a lot of interesting ideas and observations on life. She can also direct very well indeed. But perhaps she's not yet quite clear in her head about why she's making these films, about what she's saying with them. I'm inclined to follow her career and see how she develops as a director as she matures.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 05:24 am (UTC)...
no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 05:26 am (UTC)...You bitch.
Lost In Translation...
As for LiT - too bad you didn't quite like it. Yes, it is mostly a mood piece, but I really like how it captured the various forms of communications difficulties, and the feeling I certainly had in some foreign situtations. :-)
Oh well, looked through October and couldn't find my old review...
Of interest: http://www.livejournal.com/users/applez/130467.html
Re: Lost In Translation...
Date: 2004-01-13 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-12 11:51 am (UTC)It's premise is more intriguing than the execution. It's okay. That's all. Don't believe the hype, baby!
no subject
Date: 2004-01-13 01:17 am (UTC)I gotta be me.