Quote from a Fictional Character #40

"Why would a reviewer make the point of saying someone's not a genius? Do you especially think I'm not a genius?"

--- Eli Cash,
The Royal Tenenbaums, 2001

Friday Flashback: Rec. #80: Ascending Peculiarity

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: You might know Edward Gorey from his "Gashlycrumb Tinies" ("N is for Nigel, who died of ennui"), or from the opening titles of PBS's Mystery! series, or from the somewhat inappropriately gothic greeting cards you've received from me. 

Gorey's art and wit are distinctly macabre and stylized, with a touch of elegant violence. His work seems vaguely Victorian and British, but Gorey was born in Chicago and started creating his own books in the middle of the twentieth century. In this collection of interviews with Gorey, you'll learn about his varied (and sometimes unexpected) interests, including: cats, French symbolist poetry, yard sales, George Balanchine, soap operas, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Also, there are pictures.

Representative quote: "What is your motto?" "O the of it all."

You might not like it if: You're not familiar with Gorey's work and you don't really want to become familiar with Gorey's work, so reading interviews with him seems kind of pointless.

How to get it: You might have trouble finding it new, but you could find it used. Or look at your library (it might be either in the fine arts section or with the biographies).

Connection to previous Wreckage: The Salmon of Doubt (Rec. #4) is another posthumous collection of words from a beloved twentieth-century author who's something of a cult figure (Douglas Adams). (Adams actually is British.)

See also: List #40: Happy Birthday, Edward Gorey

[Originally posted 3/22/11.]

List #42: In Praise of the American Screwball Comedy, Part 1

5 Tropes of Note


1. Animals running amok

Such as: the leopard in Bringing Up Baby

Bringing Up Baby

2. Falling into/over/under tables and other furniture

Such as: The dinner party scene in The Lady Eve (Rec. #129)

The Lady Eve

3. This thing looks like that thing

Such as: the plaid suitcases in What's Up, Doc? (Rec. #38)

What's Up, Doc?

4. Fast, fast, fast patter

Such as: Walter (Cary Grant) and Hildy (Rosalind Russell) in His Girl Friday (QfFC #34)

His Girl Friday

5. Fake relationship

Such as: Gladys (Jean Harlow) and Bill (William Powell) in Libeled Lady (Rec. #229)

Libeled Lady

Continue with Part 2 here and with Part 3 here.

Quote from a Fictional Character #39

"I suppose one gets to know men quickest by the things they take for granted."

--- Camilla Haven,

My Brother Michael, Mary Stewart, 1959

Also by Mary Stewart: The Ivy Tree (Rec. #201)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #52: Kamikaze Girls

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: One of them is depressed about relocating to a rural town after her father's work selling designer knock-offs gets him in trouble with corporations and with the mob. (Her solace is her obsession with Rococo-era France.) The other is a member of a female motorcycle gang.

The ensuing unlikely friendship isn't a surprise, but it is frenetically paced and has delightful touches of absurdity. Like these guys:

Comparable to: It has an Amelie-esque visual whimsicality. Kamikaze Girls has more spitting and falling down, though, plus a multi-gang biker fight.

Representative quote: "Humans are cowards in the face of happiness."

You might not like it if: You get dizzy easily and/or you hate reading subtitles.

How to get it: I would not want to promise that your library has it, but you can rent or buy it online.

[Originally posted 2/20/11.]

Rec. #349: Art & Lies

What: On a high-speed train hurtling through a near-future dystopia, we encounter Handel (not that Handel), Picasso (not that Picasso), and Sappho (yup, that one). Jeanette Winterson does her sly-philosophy-sexy-social-commentary thing.

Representative quote: "That which is only living can only die."

You might not like it if: You find it all a bit opaque.

How to get it: Buyable, borrowable, Kindle-able.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Winterson also wrote The Passion (Rec. #66), The PowerBook (Rec. #302), and Weight (Rec. #272).

Quote from a Fictional Character #38

"I'm gonna give you a little advice about life. You follow this, you won't be sorry. Don't screw with your brains and don't think with your dick. That's from the heart."

--- Uncle Georgie,

Betsy's Wedding, 1990

Friday (er, Saturday) Flashback: Rec. #41: Ella Minnow Pea

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: In the subtitle, Mark Dunn's book describes itself as "A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable." This is entirely accurate, but perhaps a bit dense for an explanation. 

It's actually quite simple: More than a hundred years earlier, a man came up with a phrase that uses each of the letters of the alphabet: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." His hometown (a small fictional island) erects a statue in his honor, with the sentence on it. 

One day, the letter "Z" falls off the statue, the Council decides it's a Sign, and suddenly no one is allowed to use the letter "Z" anymore. Then the "Q" drops . . . then the "J" (you see where this is going). Oh, and the whole story is told via letters written between the characters.

Comparable to: Kinda Kurt Vonnegut-ish. Also similar to the "fable for adults" tone of The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip.

Representative quote (from the first half of the book): "I must own that we were quite ataken by the Council's initial reaction to the incident, most of us regarding it as mere happenstance. The Council, on the other hand, sought with leapdash urgency to grasp sign and signal from the loss, and having offered themselves several possible explanations, retired with all dispatch to closed-door chambers for purposes of solemn debate and disposition."

Representative quote (from the second half of the book): "Pharewell. Pharewell. Tho we were not phrents 4 long, I will so miss ewe. Ewe are strong. It is goot that ewe are lepht."

You might not like it if: You don't believe the charm of the execution can outmaneuver the preciousness of the premise.

How to get it: Easy to get! The newer editions have a different subtitle, though: "A Novel in Letters."

Connection to previous Wreckage: The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip was Rec. #18.

[Originally posted 2/9/11.]

Rec. #348: Berkeley Square

What: A long holiday weekend is looming in the U.S., and you know what that means, right? Right, it means time for a British miniseries. This is eminently appropriate behavior for celebrating our independence . . . from the British.

Berkeley Square is about three young women working as nannies in London's West End in 1902. So, right there, you've got class struggles and family drama and early-Edwardian repression in the basic setup. Add on illegitimate children and accidental deaths and kidnapping attempts and doomed adultery, and you're set for the weekend.

You might not like it if: You rage against the ending. I personally threw something at the TV after the last scene.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Berkeley Square was part of Personal Wreck Week: List #1. And I also made a whole list of Content That Has Actually Caused Me to Throw Something Across a Room (List #26).