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Writers and things written...
Oct. 18th, 2003 08:37 amAhem. What can I say? Belatedly, after posting yesterday's entry, I realized it could have started another kerfuffle. Instead, everyone was receptive and amused, which is all I hoped for. So let me get into my Norma Desmond mode - thank you, you wonderful people out there in the dark.
Yesterday was great otherwise, too.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
andrastewhite told me I was evil, which is all a girl can hope for, and promised Garak fanfic. Meanwhile, she wrote a fabulous Farscape story about Harvey and his feelings for John here. Go. Read. Admire! But don't assume this means I have forgotten she is still withholding the Andrew, Buffy and the unicorn saga from me.
ascian3 went and saw Neil Gaiman. Who talked about writing. I'm so not envious. Not me. If you want to be completely free of jealousy, too, read her fantastic report of the occasion here.
And while we talking about writers, it appears H. Bloom is miffed at the thought people read J.K.Rowling and Stephen King. He also threw in Aphra Behn for good measure. Aphra Behn, while not the first female writer of note in the English language, was the first to earn her living with her pen (not via patronage, inherited money or marriage), and as has been noted in these pages before was a highly successful Restoration-era playwright who also wrote good poetry and a novel. I'd say the JKR of her day but alas Aphra never made that much cash. Anyway, the disdain of Mr. Bloom for Behn, King and Rowling earned a great reply.
Moving on to two other writers I like, the biopic Sylvia about Sylvia Plath, or perhaps more accurately about SP and her marriage to Ted Hughes, got its first glowing review in the NY Times. It appears that they got around the prohibition of not being allowed to use either Plath's or Hughes' poetry by using disjointed quotes from Plath's not longer than a minute and thus not covered by copyright and letting Hughes recite Yeats. (The later I predicted, as Kate M. did it as well in her novel Wintering, so I feel somewhat smug.) Otherwise, the review makes it sound like they're really trying to be fair to both parties, but it amuses me that the reviewer only talks about Paltrow and director Christine Jeffs, and not at all about scriptwriter John Brownlow who after all started the project and wrote every single line. It seems Joe Gillis' observation about the audience's regard for screenwriters still holds true.
Lastly, it appears Ted Kennedy was in fine oratory form in the senate. The American people were told Saddam Hussein was building nuclear weapons. He was not. We were told he had stockpiles of other weapons of mass destruction. He did not. We were told he was involved in 9/11. He was not. We were told Iraq was attracting terrorists from Al Qaeda. It was not. We were told our soldiers would be viewed as liberators. They are not. We were told Iraq could pay for its own reconstruction. It cannot. We were told the war would make America safer. It has not. Before the war, week after week after week after week, we were told lie after lie after lie after lie. You can read the entire speech here.
Yesterday was great otherwise, too.
andrastewhite told me I was evil, which is all a girl can hope for, and promised Garak fanfic. Meanwhile, she wrote a fabulous Farscape story about Harvey and his feelings for John here. Go. Read. Admire! But don't assume this means I have forgotten she is still withholding the Andrew, Buffy and the unicorn saga from me. ascian3 went and saw Neil Gaiman. Who talked about writing. I'm so not envious. Not me. If you want to be completely free of jealousy, too, read her fantastic report of the occasion here.And while we talking about writers, it appears H. Bloom is miffed at the thought people read J.K.Rowling and Stephen King. He also threw in Aphra Behn for good measure. Aphra Behn, while not the first female writer of note in the English language, was the first to earn her living with her pen (not via patronage, inherited money or marriage), and as has been noted in these pages before was a highly successful Restoration-era playwright who also wrote good poetry and a novel. I'd say the JKR of her day but alas Aphra never made that much cash. Anyway, the disdain of Mr. Bloom for Behn, King and Rowling earned a great reply.
Moving on to two other writers I like, the biopic Sylvia about Sylvia Plath, or perhaps more accurately about SP and her marriage to Ted Hughes, got its first glowing review in the NY Times. It appears that they got around the prohibition of not being allowed to use either Plath's or Hughes' poetry by using disjointed quotes from Plath's not longer than a minute and thus not covered by copyright and letting Hughes recite Yeats. (The later I predicted, as Kate M. did it as well in her novel Wintering, so I feel somewhat smug.) Otherwise, the review makes it sound like they're really trying to be fair to both parties, but it amuses me that the reviewer only talks about Paltrow and director Christine Jeffs, and not at all about scriptwriter John Brownlow who after all started the project and wrote every single line. It seems Joe Gillis' observation about the audience's regard for screenwriters still holds true.
Lastly, it appears Ted Kennedy was in fine oratory form in the senate. The American people were told Saddam Hussein was building nuclear weapons. He was not. We were told he had stockpiles of other weapons of mass destruction. He did not. We were told he was involved in 9/11. He was not. We were told Iraq was attracting terrorists from Al Qaeda. It was not. We were told our soldiers would be viewed as liberators. They are not. We were told Iraq could pay for its own reconstruction. It cannot. We were told the war would make America safer. It has not. Before the war, week after week after week after week, we were told lie after lie after lie after lie. You can read the entire speech here.
