I saw the 1960s movie of Billy Budd, and am reliably informed that the book version can't possibly compete with Terence Stamp's girlish loveliness.
Sadly, this is true.
Mal: Well said. Wasn't that well said, Zoe? Zoe: Had a kind poetry to it, sir.
'Out Of Gas'
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."
P.M. Marc - Jun 17, 2005 11:07:57 am PDT #7941 of 10002
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
Ginger - Jun 17, 2005 12:08:55 pm PDT #7942 of 10002
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
I've read a good chunk of Melville, and Billy Budd is the one thing I really disliked. Typee and the other Polynesian novels are fun, but nothing like Moby Dick, which is why his audience was more than a little miffed by Moby Dick. They were expecting more fun with native girls and got a grand, overwhelming, psychedelic mass of words carried on a sea of whale blubber.
("My Kinsman, Major Molineux" is by Melville's very good friend, Nathanial Hawthorne. They'd both be flattered by the confusion.)
Amy - Jun 17, 2005 12:14:27 pm PDT #7943 of 10002
Because books.
The only Melville I liked was Bartleby the Scrivener.
t /Melville heretic
ChiKat - Jun 17, 2005 12:16:49 pm PDT #7944 of 10002
That man was going to shank me. Over an omelette. Two eggs and a slice of government cheese. Is that what my life is worth?
Standing with AmyLiz's heretic corner.
Sophia Brooks - Jun 17, 2005 1:00:21 pm PDT #7945 of 10002
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here
billytea - Jun 17, 2005 2:34:48 pm PDT #7946 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.
FWIW, I've read Moby Dick too. I recall enjoying it, but couldn't say much more than that. I've also read 100 Years of Solitude, and loved it. One of my favourite books.
DavidS - Jun 17, 2005 2:46:33 pm PDT #7947 of 10002
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
I've also read 100 Years of Solitude, and loved it. One of my favourite books.
Moi aussi, aussie.
erikaj - Jun 17, 2005 3:25:14 pm PDT #7948 of 10002
Always Anti-fascist!
I've thought about reading it, but in the end I didn't have the nerve. After the book is over, maybe.
JZ - Jun 17, 2005 7:26:54 pm PDT #7949 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.
FWIW, I've read Moby Dick too. I recall enjoying it, but couldn't say much more than that. I've also read 100 Years of Solitude, and loved it. One of my favourite books.
Heh. I'm the un-bt. Greatly enjoyed 100 Years... but remember little of it other than a general lucid-dream kind of atmosphere. Moby Dick, though, is vividly lovable to me in exactly the way -t describes: I read it in high school because it was on a list of stuff we were supposed to have read by the time we graduated, picked it up dreading it, and found myself frequently weeping with laughter and wondering who the assholes were who'd covered it with Important Literature warnings and spoiled it for everyone else.
Of course, I also loved Tom Jones (and a novel by Fielding's lesser-known but apparently equally snarkful and sex-comic sister is presently near the top of my to be read list) and Tristram Shandy and have adored the bits and pieces of Ulysses I've nibbled at, so my taste is clearly antiquarian, eccentric and likely suspect in the extreme.
Betsy HP - Jun 17, 2005 7:40:00 pm PDT #7950 of 10002
If I only had a brain...
Joe, that was a splendid recommendation for Moby-Dick; it made me want to try reading the book.