NOSTALGIA FOR THE IRON CURTAIN. My other reaction to the Russian invasion of Georgia is disappointment—no, revulsion—at the casual reaction of so many commentators to the threat to all the former Russian satellites. A large body of opinion says that we should look at things from Russia’s point of view—surrounded by hostile countries (which evidently pose the threat of providing a democratic example). It is further said that we should grant Russia the right to the sphere of influence that it used to have. I posted here that Tom Stoppard’s ROCK N’ ROLL was a rare work of fiction that addressed and celebrated the freeing of Eastern Europe. Much of the reaction to the current Soviet invasion confirms what I said there: “It seems that the freeing of Eastern Europe was of importance mainly to East Europeans and to writers with East European roots.”
Archive for August, 2008
NOSTALGIA FOR THE IRON CURTAIN.
Sunday, August 31st, 2008THE “POWER GUYS” EXTEND THEIR RULE.
Sunday, August 31st, 2008THE “POWER GUYS” EXTEND THEIR RULE. I think that the Russian invasion of Georgia is one of the most significant events of the last twenty years. I find that my reaction is pretty much covered by previous posts. I pointed out here that the KGB’s assassination of a political opponent on British soil was deliberately conspicuous and provocative. Using a radioactive weapon left dangerous records of the murder all over London. Along with the denials, there was the message that “we can and will do anything we want.” The invasion of Georgia follows the same pattern of sending a message (of course, along with denials): excessive force and obvious evidence of planning.
A TARANTULA ON A PIECE OF ANGEL FOOD CAKE.
Saturday, August 30th, 2008A TARANTULA ON A PIECE OF ANGEL FOOD CAKE. Raymond Chandler’s figures of speech are not for everybody. I remember a friend reading to me from FAREWELL MY LOVELY the evening after I had had my wisdom teeth out. She got as far as Chandler’s observation that Moose Malloy walking in an ordinary Los Angeles neighborhood was as out of place as a tarantula on a piece of angel food cake. She put the book down and refused to read any further.
RATS BEHIND THE WAINSCOTING.
Saturday, August 30th, 2008RATS BEHIND THE WAINSCOTING. A difficulty in capturing the book THE BIG SLEEP in a screenplay is the vivid excess of Chandler’s narration. In one scene the narrator (Marlowe) says that Carmen Sternwood has eyes as “shallow as enamel on a cafeteria tray” and that her giggles “ran around the corners of the room like rats behind the wainscoting.” In the movie, those wild metaphors are lost.
FAULKNER AND RAYMOND CHANDLER.
Saturday, August 30th, 2008FAULKNER AND RAYMOND CHANDLER. William Faulkner was one of the script writers for the movie of THE BIG SLEEP. The book reads like a screenplay, with many of the big scenes in the movie coming straight out of the book. However, the movie has a lot of double entendres that are not in the book. One example: Philip Marlowe hails a cab and says to the young man driving it, “This is a tail job.” In the movie, the cab driver is a girl who turns to Marlowe and says, “I’m your girl.” It’s jolly to think of Faulkner devising the double entendres, although there were other screenwriters.
THE BIG SLEEP—NO CLARITY IN THE DARKNESS.
Friday, August 29th, 2008THE BIG SLEEP—NO CLARITY IN THE DARKNESS. How can a movie of a detective story be successful without making clear who did it? Great acting, vivid scenes, a problematic love story—but still….I think the movie gains power from going against the audience expectation of a clear solution to the mystery. The movie is full of innuendo and hints about forbidden topics, especially topics that were forbidden in 1940’s Hollywood. All kinds of things are below the surface: drugs, pornography, homosexuality, promiscuity, criminal gangs, blackmail. There are hints about who killed the chauffeur, but that killing is also a forbidden topic. We may think we know what happened, but it is somehow satisfying that in this dark world, we can’t be sure.
UNKNOWN PUNISHMENTS (COMMENT).
Thursday, August 28th, 2008UNKNOWN PUNISHMENTS (COMMENT). I posted here on how effective the threat of a nonexistent spanking machine was when I was a boy. Unknown punishments can be very effective. A lady I knew had a threat that always worked with her son. She would start counting to ten and say, “You don’t want to find out what happens when I get to ten.” After he was an adult, he said one day, “I have always wondered what you would have done when you got to ten.” She paused, and said, “So have I.” My mother said that her mother’s ultimate threat was, “You don’t want me to tell your father.” It was only after that she was grown up that she reflected that her father was very gentle and would never have done any disciplining at all.
UNRESOLVED MYSTERIES.
Thursday, August 28th, 2008UNRESOLVED MYSTERIES. Because of the expectations of readers, the deliberate refusal of an author to provide a solution for a mystery can be very powerful. I can think of two novels that do that. THE BIG SLEEP is not one of them. A COAT OF VARNISH (1979) by C.P. Snow goes unsolved (I had a theory, but it can’t be tested.) The book’s title illustrates what the book presents. Beneath the cultured surface of British society (Belgravia) are unknown horrors reflected in an unsolved murder. The other is BLIND MAN WITH A PISTOL (1969) by Chester Himes, which presents another breakdown in urban society. Although the form is that of a detective story, it concludes with a blind man with a pistol shooting wildly on a subway train. The reader’s expectations that the book and the society it presents will have an underlying order make the endings of the books more troubling and shocking—or that was my experience.
THE BIG SLEEP–DOES CRAFTMANSHIP MATTER?
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008THE BIG SLEEP–DOES CRAFTSMANSHIP MATTER? The Financial Times article about THE BIG SLEEP that I posted on yesterday draws the lesson that “in classic crime fiction the character of the detective is more important than any mystery he or she might solve.” I disagree. If an interesting detective is what mattered, it is hard to see how there would be so many Hercule Poirot stories. In fact, Ross McDonald, one of the masters, considered his detective, Lew Archer to be simply a story-telling device. The genre works because it presents a world where we can have certain knowledge. Raymond Chandler is not, I think, as good a craftsman as some other writers of detective stories, but he valued craftsmanship. He concluded the book with classical confrontation and explanation scenes. The movie left them out, and yet the movie was a great success. I will be giving my theory as to why this is so.
POLITICAL CONVENTIONS ARE NEWS.
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008POLITICAL CONVENTIONS ARE NEWS. At the beginning of the year, I expressed my frustration here with the refusal of the networks to show the political conventions directly. I have resolved to post only once on the subject during the conventions, and this is the post. This article describes how the major networks did not give Nancy Pelosi’s speech any significant air time. When the Speaker of the House gives an address at a convention that is held every four years, giving arguments for her candidate, that is news. Chatting among journalists is not news.
