Please note that this post inevitably reveals some details concerning the plots of the three films comprising the “Apu Trilogy” – Pather Panchali, Aparajito, and Apur Sansar. However, these films do not rely on the plotlines to make their impact, and in my opinion at least, those who have yet to see the films, and [...]
Archive for October, 2011
29 Oct
By Anonymous
Strange how one changes over time. I used to get quite worked up over all this Shakespeare-didn’t-write-Shakespeare business, and was happy to engage in debate. Nowadays, I really don’t care. If some people really want to believe that someone else wrote those plays, then fair enough, and good luck to them. I was, nonetheless, amused [...]
22 Oct
“Amelia” by Henry Fielding
In many ways, Amelia, Fielding’s last novel before his somewhat untimely death, is a sort of antithesis of the earlier Tom Jones, written only two years earlier. The principal male character, William Booth, husband of the eponymous Amelia, is like Tom in many respects. He has a frank and open nature, has about him an [...]
20 Oct
The pseuds vs the plebs
So, after all the hoo-ha, after all those silly comments from the panel of judges seemingly promoting populism as a criterion of literary quality, after a speech from the chairman of the panel that raised a few eyebrows, the Booker prize is awarded to a very literary author who takes serious literature seriously. But all [...]
15 Oct
Imitations of styles past
Would Jane Austen have flourished in our own times? A bit of a pointless question in many respects, since, as we all know or are supposed to know, Austen, like anyone else, was a product merely of her own times, and that it is but sentimental mush to imagine that the yawning gaps of culture, [...]
13 Oct
“Joseph and his Brothers” by Thomas Mann
When I first came across the novels of Thomas Mann, the only translations available were those by Helen Lowe-Porter, Mann’s first translator. I read The Magic Mountain, Doctor Faustus, and a few short novels (including Death in Venice) in Lowe-Porter’s translations, and, although I liked what I read, I was surprised to hear a friend [...]
7 Oct
Anyone on for a “group read” of “Our Mutual Friend”?
Recently, it was suggested that we celebrate the Dickens bicentenary next year by having a group read. For no better reason that that I was planning to re-read Our Mutual Friend, we decided to go with that one. (At least, I think I did – please correct me if I am mistaken on that.) I [...]
6 Oct
What do we want? Instant gratification! When do we want it? NOW!
May I draw attention to an excellent, impassioned article by Sarah Spilsbury of the group “Friends of Radio 3”? There is little I can add to what Ms Spilsbury says, both in the article itself, and in her splendid combative responses to various comments below the line. And after all, given that the decline in [...]
1 Oct
Sullivan’s Travels (1941), written & directed by Preston Sturges
I’d guess that for most film-goers today, generally uninterested in or at best condescendingly tolerant of anything deemed to be “before their time”, O Brother, Where Art Thou? would mean only the recent film of that title by the Coen Brothers. I’m afraid my tastes are rooted somewhere further in the past, and before the [...]
