10/10/2011 Positively scary...Thank you to Christopher Fowler for posting this video on his blog (www.christopherfowler.co.uk) Food for thought, unless our brains are already dead. This is very scary stuff in a society in which being your own person is already extremely difficult. We need to be vigilant, now more than ever before. 29/9/2011 Are books dangerous?That is the question asked by A BLOG ON THE WRITERS AND ARTISTS WEBSITE.
The definition of "dangerous" is, much like "right or wrong" - how I loathe the phrase! or "moral values" completely flexible and subjective. I am pretty sure that what I consider as being OK would send quite a few people into spitting and hissing fits. Most of the stories my mum was reading to me every night when I was a little child are now considered as "dangerous" or "inadequate" (full of lying, stealing, cruel children and of course the usual diet of incestuous royal relationships, cannibalism, domestic violence, infanticide, gruesome murders, etc.). Oh, and some of them had princes and princesses, old-fashioned tales of downtrodden housewives and weak females, you know, the type that are now supposed to "show girls the wrong role models". *cough* I'd be intrigued to see who those people think is an appropriate female role model? Bitterness incarnate Germaine Greer? Now. I am the most non-violent and squeamish person you can think of – not for me grisly horror movies or the Dungeon of the Torture Garden – and I am quite proud to be the kind of woman who, er, is all but a victim of her sex, believe you me. I've never believed in prince charming and I can’t stand anything “domestic”. The books I have read haven't turned me into a victimised housewife with a penchant for gratuitous violence and perverted sex. I am completely and entirely against banning books because, say, they are not suitable for Young Adults – Young Adults, pray, not even little children! As an ex-teacher, I have always been gobsmacked by the (faux) naivety exhibited by parents and people in general regarding “young adults”. Are they made of cotton wool? Are they so weak and innocent and pure that you need to ban some books to protect their precious little persons from the corruption of the big bad world? If only parents knew what their kids are up to behind their backs… I grew up in a small town dead in the centre of France, where nothing ever happened. I had a rather idyllic childhood and I remained a rather “unspoilt” teen. I was quiet, shy, artistic and politically aware, but more importantly, despite being all snug and comfy in my safe little world, I loved books. And I read loads of them. And not only children-orientated books… From the age of six, I have always had free access to the bookshelves of my parents, my grandmother and my parents’ friends. And books taught me LIFE, because I wasn't going to learn about it in the real world, at least not just there and then. They taught me about THE WORLD. They taught me about evolution, the human condition, periods and pregnancy and birth – I didn’t like that bit at all! – love, hatred, sex, ambition, history, prehistory, other countries, other cultures, other civilisations, other eras. After the age of ten - even earlier than that - I read adult books. I remember an erotic book set in China in the world of concubines – even then I knew it was badly written – or one in which a young French girl gets raped by a playboy GI in 1944 France and gives birth to a boy she then locks up in an attic. I read about the incestuous relationship of a brother and sister, I read Agatha Christie’s detective books, and so so many more. This complete lack of any censorship opened my eyes to the world, shaped my opinions and taste, taught me to choose and to think and most of all, they inspired me to write, to seek self-expression in everything I do. No book should be banned, all should be available to everyone, at any time, in any place. People who ban books wants to narrow your horizon, hide things from you. They want to shape your brain the way they think is appropriate so they can manipulate you. That's why they want to ban books, because they are AFRAID. 28/9/2011 The importance of books28/9/2011 ArtistsI have spent the last 30 mn writing a lovely blog about it and stupid Weebly stopped working in the middle of it... Next time I write a long blog, I will do it on a Word document first. Bloody thing.
Replace "artist" with "writer" for me! So you'll only get the picture at the moment! 22/9/2011 Tinker Tailor Soldier SpyI hadn't read the book, I hadn't seen the series; So I arrived at the cinema yesterday evening without too many prejudices and expectations, apart from the fact that 1) it was a British movie with a Scandinavian director, and therefore not an overblown American bling feast and 2) the cast was superb anyway, so it couldn't be all bad.
I had heard a few reviews on the radio (I never let myself be influenced by reviews, mind) - Front Row on Radio 4: they all adored it, and The Saturday Review, on Radio 4 again: a bit more blase, and I have to quote the uber-irritating Miranda Sawyer who didn't like it mostly because (she moaned) "There is only ONE woman in the movie and she's BEAUTIFUL and she DIES" and of course mumbled something about feminism. She must have had an orgasm, then, when a graffiti spelling "The Future is Female" can be seen on a fence several times in one of the scenes... And actually, Kathy Burke has a speaking part, so it might be demeaning to her to say such a thing... If these programmes could avoid inviting embittered female guests to review movies and plays, they would do us a favour... At least, the blokes get on with it. Anyway, so, the movie... I loved it, because it was such an unusual piece of work. Moody, slow, atmospheric... It recaptures the idea I have of the seventies - not that I remember any of it, though, I was just a kid - everything is dirty, grey, messy, unkempt, depressing. Of course, all the actors were all excellent and Gary Oldman, whom I have always liked for actually having a personality and taking risks, is masterful: understated, quiet, reserved, thoughtful but also a wounded man in his personal life. He ends up being very touching. It is rare nowadays to see a movie that takes its time and that understands the importance of silence, of facial expressions and of what's happening behind a person's eyes. And some of the reviewers clamoured loudly that of course, they had guessed who the mole was from the beginning, well, I didn't even try to guess, I let myself be carried to the end by the plot and the actors. It was strangely gripping, and deserves to be successful at the box office, although I am sure quite a lot of people wouldn't have the patience to sit through this slow-burning, unglamorous, intelligent movie. Next movie for me will be Anonymous, the "Shakespeare" movie, out at the end of October. Looks like this one won't be moody ... 21/9/2011 SmokeToday, I have been doing a little bit of research on 1920s cigarettes.
I have just come across this gorgeous 1924 advert and thought I would put it on here, as it is wonderfully suited to the theme of my novel, The Book of Thoth! The picture was found on HERE. They have some more gorgeous images! What do you mean, "Dolly Who?" Here is Matt ArtPix's report from the Leigh-on-Sea Handmade and Vintage fair that took place last Saturday... He had some very funny customers! We had a lot of fun and can't wait for our next fair (more on this soon!)
2/9/2011 AthleticsI have been watching a little bit of the World Athletics Championship (taking place in Daegu, South Korea) for the first time in about 20 years!
I am not being sexist, but: the female athletes are all staggeringly beautiful and as hard as nails. They are modern day amazons. Great, great women! I could do without the cringeworthy French commentators, though. What a bunch of arses. Also, a lot of the French athletes have a ridiculous attitude: they are incredibly bad losers, and are always finding excuses for not winning Gold, as is their birth right just for being French. Idiots. 26/8/2011 The HourThis week was the last episode of the BBC drama "The Hour". I do not watch TV very often, and I choose the programmes I want to watch very carefully. There have been excellent dramas this year (Any Human Heart, Christopher and his kind, South Riding, The Night Watch and the wonderful, wonderful The Crimson Petal and The White and dare I add the fluffy, easy on the eye Downton Abbey?), some with excellent reviews and some with less good ones. What these programmes have in common is that they shine like stars among the idiotic, tacky, grotesque, simplistic audience-grabbing miasma that invades our screens every day.
I don't really care about reviews because much as for everything else in my life, I do not follow trends and other people's opinions and prefer to follow my instincts. And my instinct told me right from the start that I was going to love The Hour, which I dully did. I absolutely loved it. I am not going to write a long review or anwer point by point the criticism The Hour has received. Nobody seems to have really liked it, apart from some female bloggers who liked the outfits and fancied Dominic West's Hector. *sigh* I found the dialogues witty and snappy, I loved the attention given to the props, atmosphere and clothes, but most of all, I loved the characters and found the story quite gripping. I was reminded of the time when I was a concerned teenager and I was desperate to become a journalist (I don't often go back to the times I was a teenager, believe me...). The type of journalist I wanted to be would have been Bel, Lix and Freddie all rolled into one. Yes, there might have been a lot of anachronisms, but what do I know? and anyway, I was too taken in the story to notice them. The thing about the language not being "of the time", for example. Do we ask every costume drama, be it Medieval, Elizabethan or Victorian, to be exactly accurate about the language used by the character? Something tells me that we wouldn't understand much of the dialogues, then. Artistic license it is. I was very impressed by the actors too. Romola Garai is fast becoming one of my favourite actresses - with Anna Maxwell Martin - and I was very impressed with the wonderful Anna Chancellor... What a woman! I also adored Freddie. Ben Wishaw gave his character an incredibly realistic obsession and a touching mix of strength and vulnerability, arrogance and self-doubt. Isn't he an incredible actor? While all the females were swooning over the slimy, quite repulsive Hector, I was thinking that Freddie was actually the most attractive male character - both physically and intellectually - of the cast. Freddie is a terrific guy. People have said they stopped watching after the first or second episode because it was "boring". No. It is actually what all dramas should be: slow burning, with enough time to develop the characters and situation. It was a joy to watch something that took its time. People nowadays have got a short attention span and need immediate gratification. People cannot cope anymore with a good story, good characters, good dialogues. Take the original Brideshead Revisited. It was as good as it was because it did take time to develop the characters and the story and pick up on everyone's little inner dramas and fears and foibles (and hopes, sometimes!). And no, I've never watched Mad Men (as everyone has been saying that The Hour was the BBC's version of the US hit and never ending comparisons have been filling in column inches) and therefore I couldn't compare, but I have the sneaky feeling that it wouldn't have been that clever, and would have been much more shallow. Yes, I loved The Hour, and I might not be cool but so be it! |
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