Unbelievable news via Reeling and Writhing. It’s one of my frequent small laments that Waugh wrote a finite number of novels. Now there’s to be another.
?This is vintage Waugh,? said an insider, ?from the same period as Vile Bodies and Scoop, and every bit as sharp and laugh-out-loud funny as those books.?
Those looking for a reason for living need look no more.
On September 1st, 1773, Boswell, Johnson and their servants set out on horseback for the crossing to the island of Skye.
It grew dusky; and we had a very tedious ride for what was called five miles; but I am sure would measure ten. We had no conversation. I was riding forward to the inn at Glenelg on the shore opposite to Sky, that I might take proper measures, before Dr Johnson, who was now advancing in dreary silence, Hay leading his horse, should arrive. Vass also walked by the side of his horse, and Joseph followed behind: as therefore he was thus attended, and seemed to be in deep meditation, I thought there could be no harm in leaving him for a little while. He called me back with a tremendous shout, and was really in a passion with me for leaving him. I told him my intentions, but he was not satisfied, and said, ‘Do you know, I should as soon have thought of picking a pocket, as doing so.’
BOSWELL. ‘I am diverted with you, sir.’
JOHNSON. ‘Sir, I could never be diverted with incivility. Doing such a thing, makes one lose confidence in him who has done it, as one cannot tell what he may do next.’
His extraordinary warmth confounded me so much, that I justified myself but lamely to him; yet my intentions were not improper. I wished to get on, to see how we were to be lodged, and how we were to get a boat; all which I thought I could best settle myself ? I however continued to ride by him, finding he wished I should do so.
Next morning, the quarrel is made up. Johnson owns that he spoke in passion, Boswell that he took it too hard, and they set out in a boat for Skye. Continue reading »
Well, the badge itself hasn’t actually arrived yet, but the tireless Jonathan Crossfield at CopyWrite has included us in his Top 50 Australian Blogs on Writing. Are we chuffed, we who talk of ‘fit audience tho’ few?’ Bloody right we are.
Garrison Keillor nailed it. Writers don’t want to mumble ‘Glad you enjoyed the book’. They want to say ‘Rise, my grateful people.’
Sometimes I wonder, as others have, whether we are reaching the end of the literary culture that begins at the renaissance. If we are, one reason is obvious: people write far less than they once did. This was brought home to me when I began reading around in the 18th century. At the moment I am knee-deep in James Boswell, so he is my case in point.
Those who know him only through the Life of Johnson may not appreciate that Boswell’s collected writings will run to maybe forty volumes when the mighty Yale edition is completed. True, Boswell was exceptional and would be exceptional in any period. I cite him because of the role writing played in his life. Continue reading »
There’s a review of this movie at the Noel Coward Society Website which does the basics nicely.
Amongst the felicities, the casting of Jessica Biel as the Woman with a Past. It’s difficult to adapt a ‘stagy’ stage play, one that exploits the big entrance, the expressive group, the d?nouement with the hero centre stage. Keep too much of that stuff, and the film goes dead; do too much, in an effort to avoid stasis, and you’re out on your own with an unrelated mise-en-sc?ne. (Opera films offer hideous examples of both kinds of failure.)
Coward’s play is full of big scenes and strong confrontations, often with Biel’s character front and centre. Biel holds it together with the complete self-possession of a former model and the presence of a first-rate romantic actress. Continue reading »
There is a link now available to download the 125-page transcript (in the form of a .pdf document) of the original 1978 story conference between Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Lawrence Kasdan for a little film called Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Mystery Man in Film provides a ten point summary of what screen writers can learn from the great men. Here’s my three point summary:
Simple, huh? Now go make your fortune, little pig.