And now a Major Motion Picture...
Unfortunately, together with painfully brilliant (Yes!) “The city of Thieves” I picked up one more book at Waterstone’s on the way to Athens:
The BOURNE SANCTION
Yes, action and spy novels are a particular genre, and thus we must accept certain peculiarities. I do enjoy film versions of the above with it’s unbelievable plot, undoable stunts and beyond human capacity of main characters to survive - plus truly daft dialogue at times - the visual side of things combined with usually very good soundtrack makes up for it.
Lured by the promise of mindless entertainment I picked up Ludlum’s “The Bourne sanction” (written by some Eric Van blah-blah). Unfortunately, printed word engages your mind in a very different way to a fast-paced edit of footage shot by a top-notch cameraman.
Never mind the plot, I give him that: the genre is the genre. I don’t expect shadows of grey and undertones of white in his language. Give us the bullets and mind games. And so I tuck in.
Unfortunately for me some locations and some characters are Russian. And so my mind goes into a natural stupor every time I am confronted by a detail, that should be, how shall I say it, rather better researched. Below examples are from three consecutive pages. Bless.
We are in Sevastopol, now part of Ukraine. The time is around about 2007 I should think.
The character in question is a Russian assassin, I reckon in his late 30s. He comes to Sevastopol armed only with the full name of the guy he has to track down, Now, what does he do?
Any Russians out there? Any Ukranians? Here: The assassin checks into a hotel and picks up a Telephone Directory, where he finds 5 people of the same full name.
Am I on a different planet here? A Telephone Directory with private numbers in Sevastopol?
“Assuming he had a landline, which was always problematic outside Moscow and St.Petersburgh” - Oh, c’mon, this is 2007, no?
Never mind, minor glitch.
Regardless, I keep on.
Next page - the Assassin goes to track down 5 of the identically named men. First three are a no-go, he comes to the fourth. The fourth happens to a wrong guy as well, but (and this has nothing to do with Russia, or Ukraine, but with a fucking sloppiness of a writer) - the guy, this Russian worker, looks at the list of names presented by the assassin (all identical, I remind you, all called Oleg Shumenko) and says: “Pity you did not come to me first, these three are my cousins…”
Oh, fuck me… Really? All named exactly the same? What a marvellous inventive family you have.
I feel stupid but keep reading. The worker says his good byes to the assassin (both Russian of a certain age, huh) and makes the following remark: “… We are in the Gagarinsky District, named after the world’s first astronaut, Yuri Gagarin.”
Jesus. I only pray Eastern European writers portraying “The West” will never concoct a dialogue between two ageing French “You have to go to Charles De Gaulle airport, named after Charles de Gaulle, the French General…”. But then again - I am sure they do.
On a different note:
Went to the cinema today, to watch something good. Had to give up, as the film was Chinese, in Chinese or Mongolian (I could not tell, I confess) with Greek subtitles. And despite mesmerizing visuals I couldn’t concentrate.
Shame, really good film, I missed it back in London. “Tuya’s Marriage” . Stunning imagery.
The BOURNE SANCTION
Yes, action and spy novels are a particular genre, and thus we must accept certain peculiarities. I do enjoy film versions of the above with it’s unbelievable plot, undoable stunts and beyond human capacity of main characters to survive - plus truly daft dialogue at times - the visual side of things combined with usually very good soundtrack makes up for it.
Lured by the promise of mindless entertainment I picked up Ludlum’s “The Bourne sanction” (written by some Eric Van blah-blah). Unfortunately, printed word engages your mind in a very different way to a fast-paced edit of footage shot by a top-notch cameraman.
Never mind the plot, I give him that: the genre is the genre. I don’t expect shadows of grey and undertones of white in his language. Give us the bullets and mind games. And so I tuck in.
Unfortunately for me some locations and some characters are Russian. And so my mind goes into a natural stupor every time I am confronted by a detail, that should be, how shall I say it, rather better researched. Below examples are from three consecutive pages. Bless.
We are in Sevastopol, now part of Ukraine. The time is around about 2007 I should think.
The character in question is a Russian assassin, I reckon in his late 30s. He comes to Sevastopol armed only with the full name of the guy he has to track down, Now, what does he do?
Any Russians out there? Any Ukranians? Here: The assassin checks into a hotel and picks up a Telephone Directory, where he finds 5 people of the same full name.
Am I on a different planet here? A Telephone Directory with private numbers in Sevastopol?
“Assuming he had a landline, which was always problematic outside Moscow and St.Petersburgh” - Oh, c’mon, this is 2007, no?
Never mind, minor glitch.
Regardless, I keep on.
Next page - the Assassin goes to track down 5 of the identically named men. First three are a no-go, he comes to the fourth. The fourth happens to a wrong guy as well, but (and this has nothing to do with Russia, or Ukraine, but with a fucking sloppiness of a writer) - the guy, this Russian worker, looks at the list of names presented by the assassin (all identical, I remind you, all called Oleg Shumenko) and says: “Pity you did not come to me first, these three are my cousins…”
Oh, fuck me… Really? All named exactly the same? What a marvellous inventive family you have.
I feel stupid but keep reading. The worker says his good byes to the assassin (both Russian of a certain age, huh) and makes the following remark: “… We are in the Gagarinsky District, named after the world’s first astronaut, Yuri Gagarin.”
Jesus. I only pray Eastern European writers portraying “The West” will never concoct a dialogue between two ageing French “You have to go to Charles De Gaulle airport, named after Charles de Gaulle, the French General…”. But then again - I am sure they do.
On a different note:
Went to the cinema today, to watch something good. Had to give up, as the film was Chinese, in Chinese or Mongolian (I could not tell, I confess) with Greek subtitles. And despite mesmerizing visuals I couldn’t concentrate.
Shame, really good film, I missed it back in London. “Tuya’s Marriage” . Stunning imagery.