Mott's topic always brings to mind Pale Fire, and right on its heels is the thought: "Is Lolita really adaptable?" I was relieved when the Lynne version came out, lacking several of the glaring flaws in Kubrick's. Now I can't stand either.

On the other side, "Slaughterhouse-Five" is an inexplicably successful adaptation.

Mott made my skin crawl at the prospect of Pixar attempting "Skinny Legs and All", one of my very favorite novels. For those of you unfamiliar, it involves "inanimate" objects with consciousness, getting involved in human religious/spiritual affairs. Part of the premise is that objects move themselves too slowly for people to notice, presumably because we're insufficiently capable of calming our frantic minds. There's a wonderful section about a street performer called "Turn Around Norman", who seems to be standing completely still but is actually doing a steady 360 over some immense period. So, the prospect of the story being filmed with goofy-voiced objects bouncing around... yikes!

Posted by: J. Goard on February 15, 2007 4:36 PM

Finally, as many of you probably know, Atlas Shrugged is coming. For a time, I revered it. Now my attidute is basically awe: at its preposterous anachronisms; its accidental parodies of Dostoyevsky and Hugo in the long speeches and asides; its wacko Horatio Alger premise that anyone who can be a great exucutive or academic will also be a great engineer or sandwich-maker; its odd place in the literature of utopia; and, most importantly, its richly ironic relationship to Rand's life and movement. In other words, it's a colossal work of strangeness. No way it can be reasonably adapted.

Posted by: J. Goard on February 15, 2007 4:41 PM

Dutch money beautiful? Well, if you say so. But look at this currency...

http://tinyurl.com/23brr2

Posted by: Charlton Griffin on February 15, 2007 4:41 PM

I agree that the Dutch money is not beautiful. The only term I can think of is etiolated, bloodless. It was designed by someone determined, IMO, not to celebrate Dutchness, not, god forbid, to show any evidence of that retrograde condition of the heart, patriotism.
Whether the schillings shown by CG are beautiful is questionable, but they are stirring, they do unashameadly celebrate German heroes and heroines, an attitude our betters have now, in effect, outlawed.

Posted by: ricpic on February 15, 2007 7:21 PM

So ashamed. Unashamedly.

Posted by: ricpic on February 15, 2007 8:21 PM

On The Wire being Anti-Semitic:
I am as un-Anti-Semitic (Pro-Semitic?) as anyone, but, is it possible that their is a corrupt, money-grubbing, oily Jewish lawyer for drug lords in Baltimore?

I don't mean is it possible in the sense that anything is possible, but in the sense that most of the drug-dealers in Baltimore are black and that Jews make up a disproportionate number of Lawyers.

I think that one of the signs that we have destroyed Political Correctness is when we can have shows like The Wire and no one will comment on the stereotypes.

Posted by: Ian Lewis on February 16, 2007 1:52 PM






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