Eccentric Flower:199908/Novelties sundries and notions I

Well, it's a lovely Saturday morning and I'm listening to my CDs of 40's and 50's novelty songs - no, really, I like things like "Mairzy Doats" and "I'm My Own Grandpa" - it gives me perspective and reassures me that people will always be willing to be silly. Sometimes I worry about that. I feel silliness is vital.

I have a lot of loose ends I've been accumulating for a few days - carrying them around with me on a battered little pink piece of paper - so I may just run myself right up to the Three-Entry Limit this morning, as long as the coffee holds out. Prepare yourself for the onslaught.

I've been accumulating these things because (I know you won't believe this, given the word count here) I haven't had time to write. Really. There might have been twice as many entries here this week if I had. Of course, very little of it would be about my personal life. I just keep seeing things in the paper and on other web pages that make my mind work. That's the problem with absorbing information - sooner or later you have to think :)

But my own life? Well, gee, last night I had a drink with Molly and Marc; then Marc and I took our leave and went to see Mystery Men with Nonelvis - go see it, it's not high art, but it's a lot better than Wild Wild West - and it was raining and Nonelvis and Marc and I drove to the S & S to have omelets and pastrami sandwiches and such. That was the good part of the day.

The bad part of the day was spent trying to unscramble bad behavior on the part of Netscape - and while my frustrations make for an amusing story, I don't want to waste the typing. Suffice to say that I tried to get Netscape configured in a way which should be easy to do, except that Netscape deliberately makes it impossible ... and the reason they make it impossible is that they want to sell you the software which can do it, Netscape Mission Control, at $800+. Bah. It's a scam and we found a way around it anyhow.

Then I came home and a wholly unexpected Tolkien rant surfaced in my brain (see the previous entry). When I checked my email this morning, I found a number of messages on this rant.

A number of Ardent Readers tell me the same thing, in different ways, and in retrospect I agree: I'm not being entirely fair to single out the fantasy genre for poor overall quality. As Kristina said:

I don't think it's particular to the fantasy genre, what you were complaining about: the bad writing that may give it its stigma. After all, you have that in the modern literary fiction as well (ooh, if I never see a "drugged-out and disappointed father" short story again, it'll be too soon), and in westerns and crime novels and mysteries and SF. If there's a good book appearing in any genre, I'll bet you there'll be a review somewhere talking about "reinventing the genre."

I think this is probably true.

I downplayed the rabid-fans argument last night because, frankly, I can only take so much controversy at one time :) Ardent Readers probably already recollect that I tend to shy away from anything which attracts the more extreme fannishness ... so rather than use my own words and get into trouble, will you permit me to quote someone else who has also been reading journal-l, and who summarizes what I first was thinking?

Despite the fact that rereadings have planted more information in my head about Tolkien's writings than most fans even have, I can't abide Tolkien geeks. It took wild horses for coworkers to drag out of me that I not only liked Tolkien, but could correct them on several errors in plotting, characters, etc. that they had been discussing.

I hate it when I particularly enjoy a book or author and feel like perhaps I shouldn't because the fans of that book or person are such a turn-off. I have the same problem with Terry Pratchett - even with Harlan Ellison sometimes. You'd think the Ellison people would know better, considering, but they're just as lame. Rabid fans make me want to hide away somewhere, and it's embarrassing for me to read or do anything that would cause people to associate me with them.

So I got all the Balrog, cram, lembas, and other jokes on journal-l but see if I admit it in public.

For obvious reasons, I have removed all the distinguishing marks from this quote! But I agree with it. So I guess you can count me among the Secret Tolkien Fans. For what it's worth.

You know, the song "Huggin' and Chalkin'" would never get recorded today. People would say it was offensive. Not sure what that amounts to.

Oh, sorry - the CD distracted me.

On Thursday night I went to have dinner with Eric and Rose and help them make an impromptu photography studio. Among the many things we discussed was Eyes Wide Shut. Eric wouldn't tell me what he really thought of the film until after I'd seen it. It turns out he thinks it's a prime candidate for that special kind of Bad Film, the Spectacular Failure. There are very few of these, because you have to start out with really big aspirations in order to fall flat on your face this loudly, and most directors (I think) are not trying to make Big Statements.

I am a little more charitable to the film than he was - I think that anything which has people talking about it this much can't be all bad - but I agree that I wouldn't see the film again and I can't recommend it except as a conversation piece ... so he may have a point.

At any rate, at one point in the conversation we were discussing how the critics seem to be bamboozled by this film - why haven't there been any major reviewers pointing out that the Emperor has no clothes? - and I said, "I wish Pauline Kael were still reviewing films." In case you haven't read any of her film writing (you deprived soul), Kael has a well-developed BS detector and is not scared to have "improper" tastes.

Well, this week's Entertainment Weekly has an article about the backlash against the MPAA - and Kael is quoted. She is talking about directors having to make cuts in order to get an R rating:

"Something good is almost always taken out," she continues, "but I don't know that anything could [redeem] Eyes Wide Shut," a film she calls "a piece of crap."

And there you have it.