Billytea, can I tag?
Hee. Of course.
Willow: Happy hunting. Buffy: Wish me monsters.
'Beneath You'
We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
billytea - Jul 08, 2004 8:52:35 am PDT #4806 of 10002
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.
juliana - Jul 08, 2004 9:48:19 am PDT #4807 of 10002
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I miss them all tonight…
Shit. Sorry, didn't mean to kill the thread and sound all didactic and know-it-all.
Strega - Jul 08, 2004 9:52:54 am PDT #4808 of 10002
Watch Your Mouth, which has a review on the back that calls it an "incest-parody gothic Jewish porn opera" or something similarly over-the-top, and I can't help thinking it can't ever live up to that.
If it helps, that sounds like a pretty accurate description, although "black comedy" probably belongs in there somewhere. It's a very strange book. A blurb that referred to the plot in more detail would sound even more ridiculous, which is probably why they left it vague. I enjoyed it, but I like gratuitous weirdness. I think The Basic Eight is better, but Watch Your Mouth was more interesting to reread since it's much more complicated.
(Oh, and Handler's Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography is also hilarious. Particularly if you're good at anagrams.)
JZ - Jul 08, 2004 9:57:02 am PDT #4809 of 10002
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.
Random plays-in-translation thoughts:
- IIRC,
- David Mamet did translations of some Chekhov plays that utterly kick ass (I think someone else did the literal translation from Russian, and then he took that and "theatrified" it, but damn they're good). Sadly, as juliana notes, despite the kick-assness of them, even these have to fight like mad for any audiences.
- I've seen a couple of Vaclav Havel's plays, and he seems to translate very well (though, again, seen; I have no idea what I'd think if I'd read them first).
Kate P. - Jul 08, 2004 9:58:36 am PDT #4810 of 10002
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love
I enjoyed it, but I like gratuitous weirdness.
Oh, I do too, and I'm glad to hear that it's actually an accurate description. I'm looking forward to it.
Susan W. - Jul 08, 2004 9:59:04 am PDT #4811 of 10002
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights
Reading on decline in America.
A 2002 Census Bureau study shows that only 56.6 of all American adults surveyed read a book of any kind in the previous year, and only 46.7 read literature, defined for the purpose of this study as a novel, short story, or play read without the impetus of a school or work assignment. Decline was most precipitous among the younger demographic groups.
Now that's depressing.
Connie Neil - Jul 08, 2004 10:01:32 am PDT #4812 of 10002
brillig
only 46.7 read literature, defined for the purpose of this study as a novel, short story, or play read without the impetus of a school or work assignment.
And to think that includes the Harry Potter folks. Gosh.
joe boucher - Jul 08, 2004 10:02:14 am PDT #4813 of 10002
I knew that topless lady had something up her sleeve. - John Prine
David Mamet did translations of some Chekhov plays that utterly kick ass
Vanya on 42nd Street for instance.
juliana - Jul 08, 2004 10:02:16 am PDT #4814 of 10002
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I miss them all tonight…
David Mamet did translations of some Chekhov plays that utterly kick ass (I think someone else did the literal translation from Russian, and then he took that and "theatrified" it, but damn they're good). Sadly, as juliana notes, despite the kick-assness of them, even these have to fight like mad for any audiences.
Both Mamet's and Landford Wilson's adaptation/translation of Three Sisters are absolutely, utterly gorgeous and are like night and day in terms of the language. And I would kill to direct any Chekov, but only the Guthrie can do it here and make any money off it.
Tam - Jul 08, 2004 10:03:52 am PDT #4815 of 10002
"...Singing their heads off, protected by the holy ghosts, flying in from the ocean, driving with their eyes closed." - Patty Griffin "Florida"
A 2002 Census Bureau study shows that only 56.6 of all American adults surveyed read a book of any kind in the previous year, and only 46.7 read literature, defined for the purpose of this study as a novel, short story, or play read without the impetus of a school or work assignment.
Yikes! How can you do that? I can't even get to sleep without reading.