Wednesday, December 21, 2011

A Christmas Carol, The Movie, or Mr Dickens Meets Gonzo

Mr Dickens: Mr Gonzo, I must object…

Gonzo: Sorry to interrupt, but it’s just Gonzo, you can drop the Mister, Mister.

Mr Dickens: As you like. Gonzo, I must object…

Gonzo: How did you like my portrayal of you? I thought it was a clever device to fill in the gaps in the action with narration. Great book, by the way.

Mr Dickens: Thank you, that is very kind. However…

Gonzo: I think the addition of Rizzo was brill, don’t you? You wouldn’t believe how many people emailed me saying it’s the first time they ever laughed at a rat!

Mr Dickens: Actually, that’s one of the things I wish to address. In the time period in which the novel is set, rats were…

Gonzo: I’m not sayin’ rats are ever welcome visitors, just that Rizzo was pretty funny, all things considered.

Mr. Dickens: I bid you good day, sir.
*puts on hat and storms off*

Gonzo: I got the last word with Mr Charles Dickens? Boy, I am good! Now, where’s that chicken? Come here, my little Dickens Chicken!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Book Thirty-Four - Rebecca - Part Four

Daphne du Maurier
From dumaurier.org
Daphne, you ingenious sneaky little thing! This story has as many twists and turns as the drive to Manderlay. When I finished it I had to go back to the beginning again.

Rebecca is a story of love, trust, friendship, betrayal, lust, loneliness, kindness, impulsiveness, and offers quite the example against putting all your eggs in one man, er, basket. It is also one of those books in which I kept looking down at the page numbers toward the end and thinking, there's no way she can wrap this up before the end of the book! There isn't time! I knew there wasn't a sequel so the novel had to end but I didn't see how it could. And du Maurier, master of description, gives us only two lines of description at the end. Brilliant.

The movie is next up in my Netflix queue. Directed by Hitchcock, it stars Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. Netflix anticipates it is a 3.8 (out of 4) for me. Can't wait!

Guess how we're meant to feel about this character

Random question: in the US we call a party at which everyone comes dressed as someone else a costume party. In the UK this is called a fancy dress party. Why is that? If you come dressed as a pirate you're probably not fancy, now are you?