TIME Magazine All-time 100 Great Novels
Okay, I'm a sucker for book lists. This one is by TIME and purports to be the best 100 books published in English since 1923. I've only read 22 of them. I feel like such an underachiever. 😉
Kingdom of Heaven
Just watched the movie last night. First, let me say I have a graduate minor in history. I know this movie is historically incorrect.
But I still enjoyed it. ((Guilty shrug)) I have no problem with making Saladdin a smart, honorable guy (uh, he was a bit more blood-thirsty than that, really, but that's never stopped Hollywood before). I have no problem with making the Crusades a bad thing. They were a bad thing, and though you can't blame all the poor guys who went to fight for the glory of God, you sure can blame the greedy misguided idiots who sent them in the first place. Religious fanatics of any stripe are reprehensible.
But this movie reminds me of old Hollywood epics, and I liked that. It has the pagentry of Cleopatra and Ben Hur, and a couple of Shakespearean moments that almost seem cribbed from Henry V. “I am what I am,” says one guy. “Someone's gotta be.” For some reason, this reminded me of Ancient Pistol.
Over all, a decent Hero's Journey type movie, in spite of some stretching of credulity in places and a couple of clunky transitions. Two slippahs up.
Sunday Thoughts
I'm in a quiet moment, sort of, between the day's activities and tonight's jogging. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is playing on the television. I find it dull and stupid, but since I picked it (yes, me), I'm watching it through to the end while Mike has a nap. I am also blogging because it doesn't take much attention, frankly, to follow this fluffy movie. I can suspend disbelief, sure, but my difficulties began with the name Totenkopf. I started expecting the SS to show up. I could even buy the fact that the Death's Head units would build great big robots, and when Polly and Joseph and everyone else kept wondering who was behind everything, I kept saying, “Sheesh, how dumb can you be? It's Hitler of course!”
But the joke's on me because Totenkopf is the name of a scientist (German, naturally) and not the traditional Totenkopfverbande I expected. But I think it would have been far more interesting if Hitler had instructed the SS to create robots to take over the world instead of this rogue scientist with a Noah's Ark complex who wants to found a new world. Sheesh.
The other major annoyance of the day is Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code. Oh my God, this book is awful, and not because I'm offended by the subject matter. Where was this man's critique group? Where was his editor? No one in my writers' group writes prose this bad. If they do, they don't do it for long. Here's the best explanation possible as to why this writing sucks. Syntactic swill, I believe this fellow says. By far one of the funniest articles on the subject is here. I suggest, however, that easily offended Christians not read this one. This guy is definitely not a Christian, and he doesn't care who he pisses off. 🙂
In the meantime, I'll soothe my offended grammarian genes with some great writing. Ann Patchett, anyone?
Pushcart Prize
Fellow Aloha Chapter member Sally Sorenson has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize!!! Her story “Kaneloa,” which appears in Ghosts at the Coast, has just been nominated. Awesome news! The Pushcart Prize features the best of the small presses and is quite a big deal. 🙂
The Tonight Show
Watch tonight as Jay shows the Maui Writers' Conference “Pitch to America” segment! A friend, Malena Brooks, may be on there pitching her women's fiction novel. With a name like Malena you'd think she's Hawaiian, but no, she's African-American. She's a lovely lady with the most infectious attitude you ever came up against. No matter how down I might feel, an evening talking with Malena always brightens my outlook. The woman is smart and classy and she knows what she wants. 🙂 So tune in tonight and see if Malena made the cut!