Joe Haldeman's Blog, page 74

grit

The True Grit class went well, and the movie was . . . interesting. The print was so old the Technicolor had faded to sepia, and in copying it to DVD, the media center left off the last few minutes! Fortunately, one of the students had seen the film, and could tell us how the ending differed from the book.

The movie followed the book with almost xerographic accuracy. More than 90% of the dialogue was straight from the book; the plots were almost identical. Here's a funny thing that Antony Donovan pointed out: the same thing happened last year when I screened the TV special version of The Great Gatsby – but Gatsby was ruined by the faithfulness, and True Grit was not. At a first approximation, I think you can say that's a difference between straightforward clear writing and complex artistic prose. Layers of meaning are lost when an actor is interposed between the novel and the "consumer."

But Gatsby is a silly plot elevated to art by the quality of the prose. True Grit is a damned interesting story told in a plain way.

One thing that was lost in translation: in both the book and the movie, plucky little Matty faces down adults time and again, and always gets the best of them, by dint of cleverness and wisdom beyond her years. There's a delicious ironic tinge to this in the book – it is, after all, an old lady telling an old familiar story for the thousandth time, so of course she's the hero, and of course she's never wrong. In the movie that quality of irony is lost in service to assumed verisimilitude. Little Matty is just as plucky as all get-out. So it loses a level of adult humor.

John Wayne is still da man, though. Fill your hands, you sons of bitches!

Joe

Ralph

Going to New York on the train this morning for a sad duty – an old friend, Ralph Vicinanza, my agent, died in his sleep a couple of nights ago. Gay and I are going down for ceremonies today and Friday.

Joe

Chilicon

I've been having connectivity problems here in Cincinnati. Looks like I can get through now. Here's yesterday's report from Chilicon –

An interim con report . . .

Sitting in Becca Levin and Guy's living room in Cincinnati, Chilicon, about an hour before the Saturday feast begins, fourish. Cooking all day yesterday and some this morning. I've made Jackalope chili. A wily beast, difficult to bring down – you need a zip gun, where the "i" in zip stands for the square root of minus one.

Actua...

politics as unusual

woozle, many years ago there was a compelling article in Esquire by Arthur Schleschinger, Jr., that examined the particular example of America's founders -- how (with the exception of Hancock) they seemed _not_ to be the types of individuals who abuse power. Why, was his rhetorical question, with a much more educated electorate, and six times the population, can't we come up with leaders of that caliber today?

The answer, of course, is in the selection process through which the population is f...

Mudcat rules!

last night we had some easy listening, the result of an impressive accumulation of skill. It was the "Toni Lynn Washington Band," which had never existed before the boat pulled up. Sounds more organized than "Toni Lynn and four Boston guys she called up," I guess. The musician we went with, bassist Michael "Mudcat" Ward, had played for Toni before, and knew two of the other guys. Toni only had songsheets for four tunes. But they were all old pros – traps, guitar, and keyboard as well as ...

School days

My classes are shaping up pretty well, though I don't have much writing to evaluate yet. The students seem together and laugh at the right places, and a number of them are serious about writing. A higher percentage in Genre Fiction than sf, which is usual.

It really feels good to be back in Cambridge; back on campus. The teaching gig is only a small fraction of my income – vanishingly small, this year, thanks to the Writing Gods – but it's a large fraction of whoever and whatever I am.

Ye...

Apple picking

Robert Weiner sent along some pictures from out apple-picking expedition at his New Hampshire farm last week. Let me see whether LJ will let me paste one in here --







Yours truly showing unusually good aim with the apple (I missed more often than I scored), flanked as always by attractive women. Gay and Jag Patel. The contraption we're throwing apples into is a grinder that reduces them to mash for the cider press.

Thanks to Robert for his hospitality and generosity! We came home with two gal...

Bill Staines

Last night we saw Bill Staines at Club Passim -- sort of an annual tradition for us. He was good as always. When we first saw him in 1983, it was his twentieth anniversary at Passim! Moving up on a half-century, and he's still making his living on the road, traveling with his guitar about ten months of the year.

His guitar, incidentally, is exactly the same as my steel-string at home, a Taylor dreadnought 210. His sounds better, even though he plays it upside-down.

He's left-handed. Som...

war and peace

[On sffnet, Geoff Landis mentioned Vasili Arkhipov and the Cuban Missile Crisis . . . :]


What a fascinating story about Vasili Arkhipov. Thanks for passing that on.

I was a sophomore in college during the Cuban missile crisis. I'd registered for the draft and my grades weren't great, so I was in a nail-biting mode. Went down to the Air Force recruiting office and made enquiries; they weren't accepting anybody without a college degree. So I sat tight and cooler heads did prevail. No nuclear ...

Love it or live it

[In sff.net, Blues said "Well, no, Joe. I don't believe President Obama said anything so specific. But I can't help but get the feeling that America's failings, rather than its
virtues, have shaped his worldview.":]

I think my own world view, as well, is more affected by America's failings than by its virtues. I grew up protected by some of its virtues and immune to its most egregious failings, being white and not poor.

I will admit that I take those virtues for granted, but will note in pass...