Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Book Thirty-Four - Rebecca - Part Three

No spoilers, but a certain someone reminds me of the Cloris Leachman character in High Anxiety.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Book Thirty-Four - Rebecca - Part Two

Daphne DuMarier's writing is intoxicating and inviting. I feel as if I am present in the exotic locations. And she's got something else right, too -
They are not brave, the days when we are twenty-one. They are full of little cowardices, little fears without foundation, and one is so easily bruised, so swiftly wounded, one falls to the first barbed word. To-day, wrapped in the complacent armour of approaching middle age, the infinitesimal pricks of day by day brush one but lightly and are soon forgotten...
I'm not sure how often these days that the age is twenty-one; the book was first published in 1938. These days we're, like, allowed outside without a chaperone and stuff and so we mature faster.

I especially appreciate the notion of a young person as a delicate fruit or flower "easily bruised," with words which are "barbed," like a medieval weapon hurled by an enemy. Spot on, that's what Daphne is.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Book Thirty-Four - Rebecca

Though I haven't read this book before, I am somewhat familiar with it. I saw a sketch on the Carol Burnett Show about it and I just found that sketch on You Tube.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Great Expectations The Movie

I saw the 1946 version and it was a nice adaptation. They got pretty close to the heart of the matter. I liked the Miss Havisham. She was so... Miss Havishamish (it's difficult to write much  since I don't want to spoil).

Unfortunately I get distracted when I watch old movies because I'm always looking at the "landscape" to see if anything moves. It's mostly painted - nice painting, but painting nonetheless. I also look at everyone's hair and figure out whose hair is real. (You'd be surprised how many aren't.) Any weird things you do? Come on, I can't be the only one.