Revisiting The Screwtape Letters

Korf! Korf!
I function therefore I am....   back.

.....and listening to BBC Radio 4's current "Book of the Week" which is Simon Russell Beale reading C.S. Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters". Some (like The Old Man) may say:
"Whatever For?"
(But then The Old Man do not like organised religion, Simon Russell Beale or C. S. Lewis ... since he realised he be a member of an organised religion....)

To which I reply:
"Our headmistress used to read it to us by way of an RK (Religious Knowledge) slot when I be a sixth former. And I always liked it and be thankful for her treating us as if we do have some brain cells."

And... I do find some comfort as I do ponder the shameful fate of my beloved Co-Op and in particular the appalling car-crash what be the appointment of the Rev Paul Flowers as its Bank Man (The Co-Op's very own "Mayor of Toronto" with religious pretensions.)
Clearly Screwtape won through on that particular Methodist Minister... for me the rest is ashes....

Mark Lawson's European History Through European Crime Stories

The very estimable broadcaster Mark Lawson is to be doing a series of short programmes on BBC Radio4. As of Mon Oct 22 at 1.45pm they will broadcast daily for 15 episodes. The series is called "Foreign Bodies"  in which... and I quote.... "Mark Lawson shows how crimes reflect Europe's times" by taking a look at some of the most celebrated detectives in European crime fiction.

I and Mrs D will be followin' it all closely: on the radio, recorded, or from the BBC website. We shall be there.

The Old Man Explores Literary Genres

Discussin' the Man Booker Prize, The Old Man be talking about the Will Self book "Umbrella"....

".....It's Stream-of-Consciousness?...
.... Stream-of-Consequences?...
....Stream-of-Confidences?..."

It's The Old Man's "overactive thesaurus" thingy again, innit.
Still.
Room for thought.

Graphic Passions: Being Literary with Auster

So while we's being literary in the graphic novel department - let me mention "City of Glass".

It's an adaptation of Paul Auster's novella of same name... by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli and published in the UK by Faber. (Click here for link to Paul Gravett piece on Mazzucchelli.)

The Old Man gives this to me as a Christmas present and as I start to look at/read it... (Does one "read" a comix book/ graphic novel? Well I guess that I would argue that you can "read" a painting... so maybe "read" is OK.) ..as I be sayin ...

I begin the book and I realise that I did read Auster's original novella. Because I do occasionally read a work of literature you know, and Paul Auster be a writer I do read. So take that, all youse out there who do think I do nothing but watch telly and filch Mrs D's thrillers...

Anyway, anyway, what I want to say is that I really like it. It's a splendid adaptation with a visual, graphic structure that works well as a translation of the book. This edition has a forward by the revered Art Spiegelman explaining how the project came about.

And by the way... for those of you with access to BBC's podcasts you may want to download the broadcast of Radio 4's Book Club of Feb 5 2012.... in which Spiegelman talks about his major work "Maus", without which......

That Lack of Facial Recognition Thing - and Literature

We's havin' one of our literary conversations... The Old Man and me. This is because Mrs Doonuthin has taken up a new obsession which be reviewing crime books.

Honest. She's not just leaning out the window and pontificating on the state of the thrilling art to any unfortunate passer-by. She be reviewing books for the website Eurocrime. (Under another name of course.) And the place be littered with books now; chairs and tables stacked with crime, murder and mayhem; the floor knee-deep in discarded notes and review attempts.

Anyway, The Old Man is explaining to me why he doesn't read such stuff.

I have always taken this as hauteur on his part and a looking-down-his-nose at my (and Mrs Doonuthin's) literary tastes. But you see, I hadn't put two and two together had I?

I have long accepted that he can't follow crime series on the telly - cos he can't tell one person from another. Well in the main that is. I mean he seems to have a peculiar set of priorities when it comes to facial pattern recognition on screen. And as for the cosmetically polished world of Hollywood or even Telly phyzogs, well that's an infinitely slippery pole for him to slide down. And so, not being able to tell one character from another in a drama just about guarantees that he will never know whodunit, if you take my drift.

Well, he explains how it's a bit the same with reading. He can't remember one name from another, nor sometimes one character from another... And this, The Old Man explains to me with a beatific smile...

is why he likes to read Beckett .

He has a point. If there's only one character on the stage or in the novel.... it's harder to forget who they are.