Czeslaw Milosz (ed) A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry (1996) - I’ve only read a few Milosz poems and don’t remember what they were like (though his recent collection is sitting a few feet away from me) but after this book I’m not sure that I will. The selection isn’t half bad but it’s Milosz’s inane introductions to each and every poem that almost sink the book. Such as opening a Ginsberg poem by pointing out that “America is, for the most part, not all big cities—but often little towns and villages” (guess that dash is poetic somehow) and then apparently believes that Berkeley is one such. Or for a Chinese poem “Now a true love poem about the love of man and woman, husband and wife, but above all, about mutual tenderness.” Or a Raymond Carver poem where he explains every event in it. Not just an annoying tick but dimishes the poem. I’m reminded of the record producer Orrin Keepnews who reissued albums on CDs that inserted alternate takes in the middle of the original album, apparently feeling his desecration of these works was a way to mark his territory. Similarly Milosz diminishes the poems by his ill-conceived and poorly executed intros.
It doesn’t help that there’s too much poetry that’s really just relined prose and not even good prose. “The line through the hold in the dank / vestibule ceiling ended in / a powerful knot worn slick, swinging / in the breeze from those passing. Half / an hour[…]” (Robert Morgan) or “This evening, the sturdy Levis / I wore every day for over a year / & which seemed to the end in perfect condition, / suddenly tore.” (Steve Kowit) There’s a thick strain of such work in poetry of the past few decades where the mere presentation of experience in A Poem is considered poetic. There’s not any real difference between this and any self-publisher parlor poet except that several writers have built supposedly serious careers on such bluntly a-poetic work.
Steven Jay Schneider and Tony Williams (eds) Horror International (2005) - Just a few years ago horror films outside the Anglo-American lineage were considered hopelessly esoteric and information hard to come by. Now I’ve read three entire books on this and seen several more that tackle specialized areas. The best is hands down Pete Tombs’ Mondo Macabro. When I spotted Horror International in the library I hoped it wouldn’t be as bad as another anthology called Fear Without Frontiers so imagine my disapointment when I got home and discovered that Schneider had edited both. Well, you can see the good and bad of Horror International in the first two essays. Raiford Guins opens with something called “Blood and Black Gloves on Shiny Discs: New Media, Old Tastes, and the Redemption of Italian Horror Films in the United States.” A promising subject actually, the way perception and interpretation has changed from the edited poor quality versions on VHS to the uncut, sharp presentations of DVD. Only everything of value in the essay could fill a single page. Guins brings little data or close readings but only points out abstracts that really don’t amount to much. By contrast Andrew Snyder and Dolores Tierney’s “Importation/Mexploitation” is witty, perceptive and solidly based in fact. Ever think that the lengthy wrestling sequences in Mexican horror films were just padding? Not the case and they explain why. They also cover the ways the Mexican filmmakers used American models (frequently 30s Hollywood horror), how the dubbing north of the border affected their impact and how this whole thing figures into debates about the entire concept of a national cinema. It’s a top-notch piece. Much of the rest of the book tends to alternate between these poles. On the good are pieces about German serial killer films, critical reception to Man Bites Dog, Spanish horror and Hong Kong’s Category 3. On the bad are ones about the lack of horror films from Egypt (again could be covered in one page) and something by the Umlands about Scandanavian horror that is really about quasi-horrific art films and reveals no knowledge about Scandanavian films beyond the most rudimentary.
Donald E. Westlake The Ax (1997) - Let’s see, a critique of modern capitalism in the form of a serial killer’s first-person narrative. American Psycho? No, The Ax. I happen to really like Westlake (and his alter ego Richard Stark) and have read well over a dozen of his novels. This one has its moments and reads quickly but too often feels like a novella that was padded out for the greater money an actual book would bring. Westlake’s target (corporate downsizing) is so easy to hit that I’m not sure he even intended for it to be taken seriously. Not much else to say, really, but mildly amusing fluff (or MAF in lit crit speak (itself known as LCS)).
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
wow, quitting WoW
Well, it was finally time. After playing well over a year I finally quit World of Warcraft. Logged in today, mailed my gold and items to friends & guildies, cancelled the billing and uninstalled the program. Have been toying with this for a few months but with the next billing to hit in a few days this was just the right time. There was still a lot I never did in WoW but the deciding factor came a couple of weeks ago when my most recent character hit 60. The last time that happened there were lots of cheers from my guild and every time I logged in for a few days somebody had noticed and sent congratulations. This time only two people said anything. Admittedly not a very good guild to begin with and there were internal squabbles that broke it down shortly afterwards but still. WoW was still "fun" but was also starting to feel like more of the same - hitting BGs just to keep up honor, grinding for items, etc. So I have Operational Art of War 3 and Civilization 4 just waiting, then there's always City of Heroes....
Monday, October 23, 2006
The Constant Gardner (Fernando Meirelles 2005)
Ah, the bitter pangs of disappointment. I'd planned to see this during its theatrical run because it was advertised as a politically engaged "grown-up" thriller as well as adapted from a Le Carre novel. Not that anything claimed as grown-up or adult means anything other than self-congratulation on people making the claim but I'd hoped at least for more complexity than usual. But this is no more grown-up than any other Hollywood outing, the politics are decidedly regressive and it's no more complex than any TV cop show.
A main problem is that the real focus of the film should be Justin (Ralph Fiennes) as he progresses from a routine diplomatic politics to something more involved and layered. Instead almost the entire first third of the film is devoted to flashbacks of Tessa (Rachel Weisz), a character who could barely be called two-dimensional. Tessa is only a catalyst for Justin and nothing is fleshed out (except the softcore porn at the opening) beyond her purely plot function. (Inexplicably Weisz won an Oscar for this but then again maybe the unthinking safety of the character is the reason why.) I'm curious how the novel is structured and may even read it someday but in the film by the time we get to Justin's reaction there's no momentum.
Even more surprising is that in 2005 somebody could make a film that has such a near-racist colonial view of Africa. Sure they're careful enough to be clear that this is Kenya and not some abstract "Africa" but that hardly matters. Kenya is presented as postcard pretty when it's not slum-ridden and the resident Africans are pure stereotypes, most of them not even given names. Noble savages, savage savages and the quietly suffering. This could easily have come from 1955 or 1935 or even 1855. Combine with a cliched knee-jerk anti-big business theme (however true this might be in reality) and the film would come across as distasteful if it wasn't so deadly dull.
A main problem is that the real focus of the film should be Justin (Ralph Fiennes) as he progresses from a routine diplomatic politics to something more involved and layered. Instead almost the entire first third of the film is devoted to flashbacks of Tessa (Rachel Weisz), a character who could barely be called two-dimensional. Tessa is only a catalyst for Justin and nothing is fleshed out (except the softcore porn at the opening) beyond her purely plot function. (Inexplicably Weisz won an Oscar for this but then again maybe the unthinking safety of the character is the reason why.) I'm curious how the novel is structured and may even read it someday but in the film by the time we get to Justin's reaction there's no momentum.
Even more surprising is that in 2005 somebody could make a film that has such a near-racist colonial view of Africa. Sure they're careful enough to be clear that this is Kenya and not some abstract "Africa" but that hardly matters. Kenya is presented as postcard pretty when it's not slum-ridden and the resident Africans are pure stereotypes, most of them not even given names. Noble savages, savage savages and the quietly suffering. This could easily have come from 1955 or 1935 or even 1855. Combine with a cliched knee-jerk anti-big business theme (however true this might be in reality) and the film would come across as distasteful if it wasn't so deadly dull.
Monday, September 25, 2006
fanboys
http://yeoldecomicblogge.blogspot.com/2006/09/has-mark-millar-ever-even-read-marvel.html
Yeah, fanboys are always an easy target though it's strange that somebody passionately interested in some form of art is considered weird and mindless while somebody following the momentary diversion of sports is considered normal. Though really put like that sort of answers the question, Americans have always been suspicious of art.
This post, though, is fanboyism done right. Though engaged in discussion of just who could wield Mjolnir, it also perceptively breaks down narrative structure and its political aspects. And not just superficial knee-jerk politics either but the real thing, at least as real as you could get from any fiction. Plus it's actually funny. And how much of this could you say about pretty much any mainstream or academic writer?
Yeah, fanboys are always an easy target though it's strange that somebody passionately interested in some form of art is considered weird and mindless while somebody following the momentary diversion of sports is considered normal. Though really put like that sort of answers the question, Americans have always been suspicious of art.
This post, though, is fanboyism done right. Though engaged in discussion of just who could wield Mjolnir, it also perceptively breaks down narrative structure and its political aspects. And not just superficial knee-jerk politics either but the real thing, at least as real as you could get from any fiction. Plus it's actually funny. And how much of this could you say about pretty much any mainstream or academic writer?
24, Season 3
Originally I was going to write a probing, imaginative essay about 24 but in the end just had these bits of notes and left it at that. After all, it's only 24, the most politically reprehensible show I've ever liked.
* Interesting how the show gets increasingly less plausible even on its own terms. Starts with a standard-issue terrorist threat then shifts to a daring counter-terrorist scam against organized criminals and then finally ends up against Lex Luthor. Speaking of whom - Saunders’ motives are never really explained; sure he wants to hurt the US and particularly Jack as well but that’s not much different from the first two seasons except that this is all there is. Saunders’ change from good guy to bad is repeatedly brought up but never completely addressed, unless the remark about two years of torture by Bosnians is meant to do so. But why should it? Saunders wants to cause great harm because, uh, well, because he can. And Americans deserve it. That’s why he seems more like a C-movie criminal mastermind who wandered onto the wrong set, sort of Jack Bauer vs. Dr. Mabuse. You particularly see this with Saunders' daughter. At the end he finally gives up rather than see her get killed though he was willing to unleash an unstoppable virus about an hour’s drive from where she lived. (It’s possible to motivate his surrender at the end as having finally realized he was beaten chose the "defend my daughter" reason as a way to save face. Too bad the writers put nothing like this into the completed show.)
* Some of this problem may have been caused by the rushed feeling of the final episodes. It’s almost like they got a few hours away from the end and realized they couldn’t finish the story so they not only sped it all up but just started omitting things. The entire subplot about the spread of the virus is just dropped cold when all it really needed was a line or two about the quarantines appear to be holding. Did Wayne report the murder or just leave the scene? (A deleted scene on the DVD answers this: Just left.) Did only three people survive the hotel? That’s all you see leaving, and we’re not even sure if the others were killed when Michelle was kidnapped.
* doubling: Bauer/Palmer (id/superego or action/thought but can’t take that too far) then Bauer/Saunders
* Reality is kinda irrelevant in 24 but you do wonder whether a husband and wife would be allowed to work together at some place like CTU. You can pass on Kim working there as Jack’s string-pulling. And who would let the wife of a dead agent (Gael) in the command center at any time, let alone during a major crisis? And why would a regional center keep an entire suitcase--a small suitcase but still a suitcase--of suicide tablets? If it’s used for actual field operations then wouldn’t these be distributed under much greater security at the appropriate time? Heck, do actual government counter-terrorist agents even use suicide tablets? Sure LA gangs are supposed to be tough but did they think the tablets would be needed for that? And Nina gives Jack a phone number which he just la di da calls. It’s not clear what he was intending to do but why would he trust her rather than checking the number. Even if it’s implausible that Nina’s backdoor would still be in the computer four years later at least they addressed this with a line about putting it in a section that wouldn’t be updated. You do have to wonder why she never sold that info earlier.
* An example of why the show isn’t real time: At 6:36am Chase is on the roof of CTU then commercial break and at 6:40 he’s about to storm Saunders’s suspected hideout. Nice of Saunders to place his lair across the street from CTU. Honestly, we all grant that it’s not actually “real time” and can excuse this as just a glitch in such a complex story but still....
* I sometimes wonder what the media reports afterward would be like. For Season Two, in the space of two days (we know it was 24 hours but it would appear as two days) there was a bombing at CTU headquarters, the president’s chief of staff (or something) is mysteriously killed (again viewers know why but the outside world wouldn’t), a nuclear bomb goes off, there are riots, the cabinet removes the President from office, there are assorted plane crashes and military actions all around LA and of course scads of dead bodies. How much would be pieced together? Wouldn’t Jack become the most famous man in the country? Would the woman who picked up a hitchhiking Kim while she said goodbye to her father appear in the New York Times or the Weekly World News? In Season Three there's about 800 dead bodies plus whatever the virus caused when it spread outside the hotel, a prison riot, the mysterious deaths of at least two major political figures, scrambled jets (twice), a shootout in a mall and so forth.
* Interesting how the show gets increasingly less plausible even on its own terms. Starts with a standard-issue terrorist threat then shifts to a daring counter-terrorist scam against organized criminals and then finally ends up against Lex Luthor. Speaking of whom - Saunders’ motives are never really explained; sure he wants to hurt the US and particularly Jack as well but that’s not much different from the first two seasons except that this is all there is. Saunders’ change from good guy to bad is repeatedly brought up but never completely addressed, unless the remark about two years of torture by Bosnians is meant to do so. But why should it? Saunders wants to cause great harm because, uh, well, because he can. And Americans deserve it. That’s why he seems more like a C-movie criminal mastermind who wandered onto the wrong set, sort of Jack Bauer vs. Dr. Mabuse. You particularly see this with Saunders' daughter. At the end he finally gives up rather than see her get killed though he was willing to unleash an unstoppable virus about an hour’s drive from where she lived. (It’s possible to motivate his surrender at the end as having finally realized he was beaten chose the "defend my daughter" reason as a way to save face. Too bad the writers put nothing like this into the completed show.)
* Some of this problem may have been caused by the rushed feeling of the final episodes. It’s almost like they got a few hours away from the end and realized they couldn’t finish the story so they not only sped it all up but just started omitting things. The entire subplot about the spread of the virus is just dropped cold when all it really needed was a line or two about the quarantines appear to be holding. Did Wayne report the murder or just leave the scene? (A deleted scene on the DVD answers this: Just left.) Did only three people survive the hotel? That’s all you see leaving, and we’re not even sure if the others were killed when Michelle was kidnapped.
* doubling: Bauer/Palmer (id/superego or action/thought but can’t take that too far) then Bauer/Saunders
* Reality is kinda irrelevant in 24 but you do wonder whether a husband and wife would be allowed to work together at some place like CTU. You can pass on Kim working there as Jack’s string-pulling. And who would let the wife of a dead agent (Gael) in the command center at any time, let alone during a major crisis? And why would a regional center keep an entire suitcase--a small suitcase but still a suitcase--of suicide tablets? If it’s used for actual field operations then wouldn’t these be distributed under much greater security at the appropriate time? Heck, do actual government counter-terrorist agents even use suicide tablets? Sure LA gangs are supposed to be tough but did they think the tablets would be needed for that? And Nina gives Jack a phone number which he just la di da calls. It’s not clear what he was intending to do but why would he trust her rather than checking the number. Even if it’s implausible that Nina’s backdoor would still be in the computer four years later at least they addressed this with a line about putting it in a section that wouldn’t be updated. You do have to wonder why she never sold that info earlier.
* An example of why the show isn’t real time: At 6:36am Chase is on the roof of CTU then commercial break and at 6:40 he’s about to storm Saunders’s suspected hideout. Nice of Saunders to place his lair across the street from CTU. Honestly, we all grant that it’s not actually “real time” and can excuse this as just a glitch in such a complex story but still....
* I sometimes wonder what the media reports afterward would be like. For Season Two, in the space of two days (we know it was 24 hours but it would appear as two days) there was a bombing at CTU headquarters, the president’s chief of staff (or something) is mysteriously killed (again viewers know why but the outside world wouldn’t), a nuclear bomb goes off, there are riots, the cabinet removes the President from office, there are assorted plane crashes and military actions all around LA and of course scads of dead bodies. How much would be pieced together? Wouldn’t Jack become the most famous man in the country? Would the woman who picked up a hitchhiking Kim while she said goodbye to her father appear in the New York Times or the Weekly World News? In Season Three there's about 800 dead bodies plus whatever the virus caused when it spread outside the hotel, a prison riot, the mysterious deaths of at least two major political figures, scrambled jets (twice), a shootout in a mall and so forth.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Video WatchBlog
http://www.videowatchdog.blogspot.com/
How could I have not known about this? I've only had time to skim recent postings yet but it looks like one of those blogs that are worth going back and reading the entire thing. Time to get started....
How could I have not known about this? I've only had time to skim recent postings yet but it looks like one of those blogs that are worth going back and reading the entire thing. Time to get started....
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