Comments | extemporanea: the important virtue of bloody-mindedness

extemporanea

the important virtue of bloody-mindedness

Apr 07, 2006 13:11

For the last year or so my street cred as an English academic, bookworm, pseudo-intellectual and suchlike has been seriously under threat within the confines of our book club by a serious failure on my part, viz. a continued inability to read The Time-Traveller's Wife. All other book club members have raved about this work. Various reviewers have ( Read more... )

sheer bloody-mindedness, fangirling, books

Comments 7

Re: Titanic anonymous April 7 2006, 14:48:01 UTC

Edwardian costuming, surely?

I know how you feel (although not Kung Fu Hustle, it rocked my socks), but not the degree to which you seem to feel it.

Re: Titanic extemporanea April 8 2006, 08:12:37 UTC

Oh, picky, picky. Yes, you're right. The Edwardian corset pushes the bust into a completely different shape to the Victorian one. More pointy.

Extremes or nothing, say I! (Obviously that last bit related to the feeling cussed about movies, not the bust and corset issue, although I can see how it might have been interesting in the latter context, too.)

It Sinks pinkthulhu April 7 2006, 23:12:46 UTC

As a film buff, arguably you have a duty to grit your way through Titanic, if only for the sole purpose of being able to throw knowledgeable cussing at it? ;)

Re: It Sinks extemporanea April 8 2006, 08:46:32 UTC

Yes, but Leonardo di Caprio? Does cinematic duty actually extend that far?

Re: It Sinks first_fallen April 9 2006, 09:27:22 UTC

Through no fault of my own, I have seen Titanic 3 times. My sister owned it on DVD. She used to have a thing for Leo before she discovered she batted for the other side. I suppose you could say Leo turned her off men?

Anyway, the best part of the movie is when he sinks to the bottom of the ocean, frozen and blue. Just rewind and watch, over and over. Seriously, the rest is crap.

-Jo(ty)

Time out anonymous April 9 2006, 17:59:18 UTC

By and large, I think it's a good rule to eschew reading these raved-about, critically swaddled books for at least two years after publication. Your perspective is thus -- as in the case of The Time Traveller's Wife -- not clouded by the hype and a more accurate assessment is possible. I loved Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections -- after the aforementioned two years had passed. I then snapped up Strong Motion and The Twentyseventh City immediately (no hype) and enjoyed those too. Delayed gratification is an important element of reading appreciation. I'm now enjoying Neal Stephenson's The Confusion (Vol 2 of the trilogy) after tossing it impatiently aside after a few pages several times, despite urgent cajoling from friends. NOw they've shut up, I can get on with it.

Re: Time out extemporanea April 10 2006, 07:46:30 UTC

NOw they've shut up, I can get on with it.

Exactly! People repeatedly urging an action on the wantonly cussed tend to cause its opposite, just because.

You have more moral fibre than I have re the Neal Stephenson. I adore Neal Stephenson, and take a gleeful pleasure in forcing third-year English students to read Snow Crash, but the Baroque Cycle is seriously daunting me. All those damned science history in-jokes simply go straight over my head.