Wednesday reading - theatre and other roleplaying
What I've been reading
I read Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics, because when I set about geeking out about a subject I like to be thorough.
I read The Voyeurs, which is one possible answer to the question how introverted and socially awkward can you be and still draw a compelling autobiographical comic? which, as an introverted and socially-awkward person, drew me in. Amusingly, her boyfriend during the first part of the period of time covered by this book was some French director named Michel who was working on some short films and stuff, and it wasn't until much later when she mentioned him leaving to make The Green Hornet that I realized oh, wait, that's Michel Gondry. (I am the only person I know who loved that stupid movie.)
I read March: Book One, the first volume of John Lewis's graphic autobiography, and it's really great.
I read Venus in Fur, the play by David Ives. Or rather, I was watching this bootleg recording of Venus in Fur, because I'd seen the gifs of Hugh Dancy on tumblr, and I was having trouble making out the dialogue at times, which is a problem in a talky play, but then I found this PDF of the script that maybe isn't supposed to be public but Google totally found it and that let me follow along. It's a meta play about a playwright who's written an adaptation of Sacher-Masoch's book and an actress who shows up to audition for it. I found it really smart and sexy, the smartness totally enhancing the sexiness for me.
I was then, for obvious reasons, inspired to reread Venus in Furs, and was honestly surprised by how funny I found it. For an absurdly masturbatory fantasy, it's oddly realistic about how tiresome and ultimately unsatisfying it might be to fulfill some dude's incredibly demanding 24/7 lifestyle. I think my favorite part though is how Aurora Rümelin was inspired by reading it to pursue a Venus in Furs-type relationship with the author, only to eventually write her own memoir about how tiresome and ultimately unsatisfying it was. Ahahahaha whoops. I'd really like to get ahold of that book sometime, because it sounds fascinating.
I also reread David Ives's classic collection of short plays, All in the Timing. Back in high school I assistant directed a production of three of them for class and it was awesome, even though we had to edit some of them for language ("You brought me into your freaking Philadelphia!").
I read, for the first time, another of David Ives's collections of short plays, Lives of the Saints. I was particularly taken by the one about the Maytag man who's in a relationship with a washing machine.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, where there are
comment(s)
I read Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics, because when I set about geeking out about a subject I like to be thorough.
I read The Voyeurs, which is one possible answer to the question how introverted and socially awkward can you be and still draw a compelling autobiographical comic? which, as an introverted and socially-awkward person, drew me in. Amusingly, her boyfriend during the first part of the period of time covered by this book was some French director named Michel who was working on some short films and stuff, and it wasn't until much later when she mentioned him leaving to make The Green Hornet that I realized oh, wait, that's Michel Gondry. (I am the only person I know who loved that stupid movie.)
I read March: Book One, the first volume of John Lewis's graphic autobiography, and it's really great.
I read Venus in Fur, the play by David Ives. Or rather, I was watching this bootleg recording of Venus in Fur, because I'd seen the gifs of Hugh Dancy on tumblr, and I was having trouble making out the dialogue at times, which is a problem in a talky play, but then I found this PDF of the script that maybe isn't supposed to be public but Google totally found it and that let me follow along. It's a meta play about a playwright who's written an adaptation of Sacher-Masoch's book and an actress who shows up to audition for it. I found it really smart and sexy, the smartness totally enhancing the sexiness for me.
I was then, for obvious reasons, inspired to reread Venus in Furs, and was honestly surprised by how funny I found it. For an absurdly masturbatory fantasy, it's oddly realistic about how tiresome and ultimately unsatisfying it might be to fulfill some dude's incredibly demanding 24/7 lifestyle. I think my favorite part though is how Aurora Rümelin was inspired by reading it to pursue a Venus in Furs-type relationship with the author, only to eventually write her own memoir about how tiresome and ultimately unsatisfying it was. Ahahahaha whoops. I'd really like to get ahold of that book sometime, because it sounds fascinating.
I also reread David Ives's classic collection of short plays, All in the Timing. Back in high school I assistant directed a production of three of them for class and it was awesome, even though we had to edit some of them for language ("You brought me into your freaking Philadelphia!").
I read, for the first time, another of David Ives's collections of short plays, Lives of the Saints. I was particularly taken by the one about the Maytag man who's in a relationship with a washing machine.
Also posted on Dreamwidth, where there are
comment(s)