Reading Schedule, and General Remarks

[Tristram]

Yes, it's true - she was Estelle ;-) but she was also brilliant as Miss Havisham.

[Kim]

Tristram wrote: "I have got one single version of GE on my movie shelves..."

I have never seen a movie version of a Dickens' book, except for A Christmas Carol that is. Unless the characters in the movie would be saying the exact words that Dickens wrote I would be disappointed. I think so anyway.

[Tristram]

That's exactly how I feel. Mini-sagas are a bit better because due to their length they can take in more scenes from the book and develop the characters better, but still, with authors like Dickens, Conrad, Dostoyevsky, Trollope, it's the words that I like, and naturally, most of them are missing in screen versions.

[Bionic Jean]

I have to confess I enjoy both dramatisations and reading on the page - but only some of the films as they are so short. And even some longer dramatisations such as mini-series are very flat. I gave up on a recent one of Anthony Trollope's, books, as they had updated the language so much. Yet of all the Victorian novelists I can think of he is one of the the most chatty and colloquial!

[Kim]

Perhaps there are good ones out there, I have seen a few ACC ones and some of those I enjoyed. There was an older one, black and white, I can't remember who was in it, but according to what was on the DVD case, it is the version most loved, or something like that. In it Scrooge calls Belle Alice and it almost drove me crazy.

[Everyman]

Jean wrote: "I have to confess I enjoy both dramatisations and reading on the page - but only some of the films as they are so short..."

I don't oppose films on principle since I understand that they are a different art form. I understand that they need to omit some elements. What I do object to is when they are dishonest to the original text by changing significant elements of it, such as the version of Sense and Sensibility which moved the cottage the Dashwoods moved into to the seaside and made the sea views a significant element of the movie, which was totally false to the book. I was also very disappointed in a version of Tess which converted the wonderful mowing scene into a weed pulling scene (which the director, who participated in an on-line discussion of the film, said was done solely for reasons of cost). But when they are truthful to the book, even when they have to edit out elements, I can accept that as part of turning one art form into a different art form.

But I hate, hate, hate, despise, and abhor when they totally change core elements of the work, such as putting bicycles in A Midsummer Night's Dream or dressing King Richard up as a Nazi. That is simply lies, lies, lies, and art has no business lying.

[Kim]

Bikes in A Midsummer Night's Dream? Dressing King Richard up as a Nazi? I'm glad I don't watch movies. :-) The ones about classics anyway.

[Mary Lou]

Jean wrote: "I read somewhere that she really wanted to do that, because as a child she was the quintessential child-Estelle in David Lean's film. Nice!"

Do you mean she played both Estella and Miss Havisham in two different versions? It would be interesting to watch them both. The only similar situation I can think of is Patty Duke playing Helen Keller as a child, and Anne Sullivan as an adult in two versions of The Miracle Worker.

[Bionic Jean]

Mary Lou wrote: "

Do you mean she played both Estella and Miss Havisham in two different versions? ..."

Yes, at opposite ends of her life, of course. And Tristam is right I think - she acted both superbly :)

[Bionic Jean]

Everyman wrote: "I don't oppose films on principle since I understand that they are a different art form. I understand that they need to omit some elements..."

Yes, I agree here, and I also may go further in accepting very loose interpretations, if they are true to the spirit of the book. But that is a very subjective matter of course. I doubt very much whether I'd enjoy any of the crazinesses you describe!

[Tristram]

I have found that the more I like the particular novel in question the more likely I am to find fault with the movie adaptation. So I have, for instance, no real problem enjoying the "Lord of the Rings" saga by Peter Jackson because I always read fantasy, whenever I do it at all, tongue-in-cheek.

I hate it when they stage classic plays avantgardistically, which they often do in our city theatre, which is why I never ever go there (except for the Christmas Fairy Tale, which is for children and done in a lavish way). I suspect that their main reason for doing a play avantgardistically, which usually also involves actors jumping on stage naked at some point of the play, is that they don't have enough money to get up a more luxurious production. But the stage, to me, should be lights, music, charm, fireworks directed at the senses - and not such a bleak minimalistic avantgard kind of thing you can't make head or tail of.

[Bionic Jean]

I do remember watching a theatre in the round production of Coriolanus with actors in modern dress, and no sets or props. I couldn't make head or tail of it - it just seemed to be a lot of actors shouting at one another. Yet I sort of knew the play ... :D

[Kim]

avantgardistically? What is the matter with you? Now I'll have to go look that one up, that is if it exists at all.

[Kim]

comparative more avantgardistic, superlative most avantgardistic

(of a work of art) Innovative, pioneering.

or -


"Avantgarde", a semi-sweet Mosel red wine in an Aavantgardistically shaped bottle is one of them.



Here's more on the wine, it looks German but don't take my word for it:

http://www.winerambler.net/category/a...

[Xan]

I vote for the wine. Wait how much? The other day someone reviewed this restaurant that makes $5,000 hamburgers . . . and said it was worth it. You need to look at the price tag.

[Mary Lou]

"Avant garde is French for bullsh*t." -- George Harrison. :-)

[Kim]

Xan Shadowflutter wrote: "I vote for the wine. Wait how much? The other day someone reviewed this restaurant that makes $5,000 hamburgers . . . and said it was worth it. You need to look at the price tag."

$5,000 for a hamburger? and they said it was worth it? I can't imagine such a thing. Heck, we went to Red Robin once and all the hamburgers were $10 - I think that's what it was - so we left.

[Tristram]

Mary Lou wrote: ""Avant garde is French for bullsh*t." -- George Harrison. :-)"

George Harrison is absolutely right. French is a language that makes even bullsh*t sound like a clever thing.

[Tristram]

Kim wrote: "Xan Shadowflutter wrote: "I vote for the wine. Wait how much? The other day someone reviewed this restaurant that makes $5,000 hamburgers . . . and said it was worth it. You need to look at the pri..."

Maybe they had not eaten a hamburger or anything else for a long, long while and were nigh starving, and so they found $5,000 an adequate price for the hamburger? I am usually inclined to pay good money for good food, but that hamburger must have been very, very good, some kind of Holy Grail hamburger.

[Bionic Jean]

I think you're back to the wine there Tristram ...

[Tristram]

I've never left it altogether ;-) Saying that, it's the second day of Lent, and I am painfully aware of that.

[Xan]

Kim wrote: "$5,000 for a hamburger? and they said it was worth it?"

I saw it on the news the other day. Here's the short review.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/23/i-trie...

[Kim]

Tristram wrote: "I've never left it altogether ;-) Saying that, it's the second day of Lent, and I am painfully aware of that."

It is - the second day of Lent that is - and I never even gave it a thought, now I have to think of what I'm giving up and I'm two days late already.

[Mary Lou]

Kim wrote: "Tristram wrote: "I've never left it altogether ;-) Saying that, it's the second day of Lent, and I am painfully aware of that."

It is - the second day of Lent that is - and I never even gave it a ..."

I'm giving up being a couch potato, Kim, and have made a pledge to use my treadmill everyday. 2 for 2 so far! Weather permitting, I'd do my walking outside, but my old dog can barely make it to the mailbox now, and I can't bear to leave her behind. Poor old girl.

[Everyman]

Tristram wrote: "I am usually inclined to pay good money for good food, but that hamburger must have been very, very good, some kind of Holy Grail hamburger. "

Apparently it was, according to the review I had read and Xan posted before I got a chance to.

[Everyman]

Although since I don't like either truffles or foie gras (even disregarding the cruelty of it), I would prefer a Wendy's double bacon cheeseburger.

[Kim]

Everyman wrote: "Although since I don't like either truffles or foie gras (even disregarding the cruelty of it), I would prefer a Wendy's double bacon cheeseburger."

Me too.

[Kim]

Mary Lou wrote: "I'm giving up being a couch potato, Kim, and have made a pledge to use my treadmill everyday."


A few years ago, yes that's right years, I noticed I was putting on weight. I don't get along with putting on weight and hadn't done it since I had those now grown kids of mine, and even then I only got to 138 lbs. or something like that. But, this time I was putting on weight for no reason at all. I finally bought a scale, weighed myself and found I was 20 lbs. heavier than I usually am, I now weighed 134 lbs. My husband got me an exercise bike the same day - mostly because I was in a panic because of my weight. So now I ride my bike everyday, unless something else dumb happens to me which seems to happen often , seizures, migraines, things like that. Almost everyday for years I've been riding that thing and as of this morning I weigh 146 lbs. There is something so wrong about this.

[Xan]

Everyman wrote: "Although since I don't like either truffles or foie gras (even disregarding the cruelty of it), I would prefer a Wendy's double bacon cheeseburger."

$1,500.00 a pound for the fruit of a fungus that grows under the roots of trees.

I like Jack in the Box burgers, but I can't find one in southern Maryland. I once ate lunch at a Chipotle and walked around the rest of the day with what felt like lead pellets in my stomach. Never again.

[Tristram]

I like home-made burgers most, and now I come to think of it, I might be able to charge 5,000 $ for a home-made burger. If I just sold as many as two burgers a month, I'd have a very good income.

[Xan]

Tristram wrote: "I like home-made burgers most, and now I come to think of it, I might be able to charge 5,000 $ for a home-made burger. If I just sold as many as two burgers a month, I'd have a very good income."

Yes, but you have to include a fungus. Look around the roots of trees near you.

[Kim]

When my oldest sister graduated from college (finally) we had a dinner for her in a Mexican restaurant. My dad was not a fan of Mexican food but that's where my sister wanted to go. We were all seated at a big round table and we were eating our food and doing that "do you like what you got" kind of conversation, when someone made the mistake of asking dad how he liked it. Here's a helpful hint if you ever meet my dad in Heaven, if he's being quiet that's a bad sign. Anyway, he was asked how he liked the food and he looked up, looked around the table and said "we could just spin the table and when it stops just start eating the food in front of you. You wouldn't notice any difference."

Now, while I agree with him to a point, I feel the same way with Chinese food, I would have been sure that the waitress wasn't at that moment standing at the table asking if we would like more to drink.

[Everyman]

Lindsay wrote: "kudo's to Mods for creating new sub-section "Unread Topics", it makes it easier than weeding through 18 open threads for this book..."

The "unread" option has been part of GR discussions all along -- if you go to the discussions link, there's always been an option to find just the unread topics.

Have the GR mods put this somewhere else, too? I haven't seen that because I never go to the main pages of GR, just to my group pages. But I use the "unread" option in the discussion topics list all the time, and have for years.

[Kim]

If anyone added an "unread" other than the one at the top, it wasn't me. I do use it though, just to make sure I saw everything going on in our group.

[Tristram]

Neither did I add an "unread" thread - I think it just comes automatically, like only too few good things in life ;-)