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Jul. 16th, 2007 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blodeueddSeems there was a major earthquake in Japan this morning. Not that I'd know, because even though I was up and about and walking to the station, I did not feel a thing. Even though other people in Tokyo told me they felt it and couldn't believe I hadn't.
One of these days I'll get around to writing about all those tv series I've been watching, but today it'll just be
The Mourner's Bench (Susan Dodd): I can't say I would recommend this to anyone with tastes similar to mine, but perhaps this is the kind of book you like. A novel about loss, regret, acceptance, love. The story of a dying man (William) who decides to spend the last months of his life with the woman he loves, the younger sister (Leandra) of his wife (Pam), who died ten years previously. William is a teacher, a failed poet who despises clichéd language. Leandra is a down-to-earth Southern woman who lives with the bare necessities in a little shack and restores antique dolls for a living. How symbolic! Not that symbolism is a bad thing, but reading this, I constantly had the nagging feeling that somewhere, the author was wanting very hard for me to think, about every single sentence, "This is Deep! This is Meaningful! This is Literature!" Which is a problem when you notice it. The book is told in the first person, alternating between William and Leandra and while Leandra's voice was believable, William's was not, to my mind. Even for a man who considers himself a poet, he just didn't sound like... a man, to be honest. Or a man so far removed from himself that there's no passion. Which might have been the author's intention, but really, where's the interest in reading about something as dramatic as a person dying from a long illness when the emotions seem to muted as to be completely dormant? While reading this, I kept thinking back to Fall On Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald, which was a far superior book, filled with all the emotion and passion that The Mourner's Bench lacks. And again, I realise that that was sort of the point, but it didn't stop me from being bothered by the feelings it failed to raise in me, especially when dealing with the death of a baby. That should always be a tragic event, wouldn't you think? In this book, however, it was sterile and cold, and I found myself emphatically not really caring about it, nor about any character in the book at all. I suppose it shouldn't bother me so much, but I'm always annoyed by unfulfilled potential.
Le Rouge et le noir (Stendhal): Should it be embarrassing to admit that I picked this one out mostly because its title is a line* in one of the most heartbreaking songs ever written, i.e. Jacques Brel's "Ne me quitte pas"? That was part of the reason, the other part being that I thought I should read some more classics. It's a 19th century novel, though one ahead of its time, which means that knowing the mores and politics of the times helps a great deal, especially since the protagonist himself seems to miss out on a lot that the readers can pick up re: the various factions of the day, with which he becomes involved to a certain degree. Quite a bit of it went right over my head, because France in the 1820s and 1830s is not my area of expertise, but the main theme being Julien Sorel trying to work his way up past his low birth, it's easy enough to follow. As a psychological study it's certainly thorough, but I can't say I'd read it again, unless it were after reading up on that period of history. Still, it's one of those novels that stays with you; I'd started it last summer, read half of book one, then not touched it again until a few weeks ago, but had no trouble getting back into the story.
Desert Hearts: I though I'd check this out because it seems to be a lesbian classic. Unfortunately, though the two leads are lovely, lovely women, I wasn't really drawn into their romance. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that much of the dialogue was hard to hear. Also, the whole thing was unsatisfying, it just seemed that none of the characters were properly fleshed out.
Beautiful Thing: This is a feel-good movie that never fails to make me smile. Come on, a sweet, gay coming-out and coming-of-age story set to the music of Mama Cass? What's not to love? My favourite line, when Sandra refers to a woman as a "bird" and Tony replies, "Do you have to use words like that? It really disempowers you." Actually, the movie's full of funny lines, although the accents sometimes make them hard to understand and this is another movie unfortunately plagued with too-soft dialogue.
*The English version "If You Go Away" is also beautiful, but the lyrics don't have much to do with the original. To wit (my translation, trying to be accurate and poetic at the same time):
Ne me quitte pas Don't leave me
Il faut oublier We must forget
Tout peut s'oublier All can be forgotten
Qui s'enfuit déjà That is already fading
Oublier le temps Forget the days
Des malentendus Of misunderstandings
Et le temps perdu And the time lost
A savoir comment In wondering how
Oublier ces heures Forget the hours
Qui tuaient parfois That sometimes killed
A coups de pourquoi With strokes of why
Le cœur du bonheur The heart of happiness
Ne me quitte pas Don't leave me
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Moi je t'offrirai I will offer you
Des perles de pluie Pearls made of rain
Venues de pays Come from countries
Où il ne pleut pas Where rain never falls
Je creuserai la terre I will dig up the earth
Jusqu'après ma mort Until after my death
Pour couvrir ton corps To cover your body
D'or et de lumière With gold and with light
Je ferai un domaine I'll make a kingdom
Où l'amour sera roi Where love shall be king
Où l'amour sera loi Where love shall be law
Où tu seras reine Where you shall be queen
Ne me quitte pas Don't leave me
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas Don't leave me
Je t'inventerai For you, I'll invent
Des mots insensés Senseless words
Que tu comprendras That you'll understand
Je te parlerai I'll speak to you of
De ces amants-là Those lovers
Qui ont vu deux fois Who twice saw
Leurs cœurs s'embraser Their hearts flare up
Je te raconterai I will tell you
L'histoire de ce roi The story of the king
Mort de n'avoir pas Who died for not
Pu te rencontrer Having met you
Ne me quitte pas Don't leave me
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
On a vu souvent Often has been seen
Rejaillir le feu The fire reviving
D'un ancien volcan In an ancient volcano
Qu'on croyait trop vieux Thought to be too old
Il est paraît-il There are, it is said,
Des terres brûlées Scorched lands
Donnant plus de blé That put forth more wheat
Qu'un meilleur avril Than a better April
Et quand vient le soir And when evening falls
Pour qu'un ciel flamboie For a sky to flame
Le rouge et le noir Musn't red and black
Ne s'épousent-ils pas Come together
Ne me quitte pas Don't leave me
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas Don't leave me
Je ne vais plus pleurer I won't cry anymore
Je ne vais plus parler I won't speak anymore
Je me cacherai là I'll just hide over there
A te regarder Watching you
Danser et sourire Dance and smile
Et à t'écouter And listening to you
Chanter et puis rire Sing and laugh
Laisse-moi devenir Let me become
L'ombre de ton ombre The shadow of your shadow
L'ombre de ta main The shadow of your hand
L'ombre de ton chien The shadow of your dog
Ne me quitte pas Don't leave me
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
One of these days I'll get around to writing about all those tv series I've been watching, but today it'll just be
The Mourner's Bench (Susan Dodd): I can't say I would recommend this to anyone with tastes similar to mine, but perhaps this is the kind of book you like. A novel about loss, regret, acceptance, love. The story of a dying man (William) who decides to spend the last months of his life with the woman he loves, the younger sister (Leandra) of his wife (Pam), who died ten years previously. William is a teacher, a failed poet who despises clichéd language. Leandra is a down-to-earth Southern woman who lives with the bare necessities in a little shack and restores antique dolls for a living. How symbolic! Not that symbolism is a bad thing, but reading this, I constantly had the nagging feeling that somewhere, the author was wanting very hard for me to think, about every single sentence, "This is Deep! This is Meaningful! This is Literature!" Which is a problem when you notice it. The book is told in the first person, alternating between William and Leandra and while Leandra's voice was believable, William's was not, to my mind. Even for a man who considers himself a poet, he just didn't sound like... a man, to be honest. Or a man so far removed from himself that there's no passion. Which might have been the author's intention, but really, where's the interest in reading about something as dramatic as a person dying from a long illness when the emotions seem to muted as to be completely dormant? While reading this, I kept thinking back to Fall On Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald, which was a far superior book, filled with all the emotion and passion that The Mourner's Bench lacks. And again, I realise that that was sort of the point, but it didn't stop me from being bothered by the feelings it failed to raise in me, especially when dealing with the death of a baby. That should always be a tragic event, wouldn't you think? In this book, however, it was sterile and cold, and I found myself emphatically not really caring about it, nor about any character in the book at all. I suppose it shouldn't bother me so much, but I'm always annoyed by unfulfilled potential.
Le Rouge et le noir (Stendhal): Should it be embarrassing to admit that I picked this one out mostly because its title is a line* in one of the most heartbreaking songs ever written, i.e. Jacques Brel's "Ne me quitte pas"? That was part of the reason, the other part being that I thought I should read some more classics. It's a 19th century novel, though one ahead of its time, which means that knowing the mores and politics of the times helps a great deal, especially since the protagonist himself seems to miss out on a lot that the readers can pick up re: the various factions of the day, with which he becomes involved to a certain degree. Quite a bit of it went right over my head, because France in the 1820s and 1830s is not my area of expertise, but the main theme being Julien Sorel trying to work his way up past his low birth, it's easy enough to follow. As a psychological study it's certainly thorough, but I can't say I'd read it again, unless it were after reading up on that period of history. Still, it's one of those novels that stays with you; I'd started it last summer, read half of book one, then not touched it again until a few weeks ago, but had no trouble getting back into the story.
Desert Hearts: I though I'd check this out because it seems to be a lesbian classic. Unfortunately, though the two leads are lovely, lovely women, I wasn't really drawn into their romance. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that much of the dialogue was hard to hear. Also, the whole thing was unsatisfying, it just seemed that none of the characters were properly fleshed out.
Beautiful Thing: This is a feel-good movie that never fails to make me smile. Come on, a sweet, gay coming-out and coming-of-age story set to the music of Mama Cass? What's not to love? My favourite line, when Sandra refers to a woman as a "bird" and Tony replies, "Do you have to use words like that? It really disempowers you." Actually, the movie's full of funny lines, although the accents sometimes make them hard to understand and this is another movie unfortunately plagued with too-soft dialogue.
*The English version "If You Go Away" is also beautiful, but the lyrics don't have much to do with the original. To wit (my translation, trying to be accurate and poetic at the same time):
Ne me quitte pas Don't leave me
Il faut oublier We must forget
Tout peut s'oublier All can be forgotten
Qui s'enfuit déjà That is already fading
Oublier le temps Forget the days
Des malentendus Of misunderstandings
Et le temps perdu And the time lost
A savoir comment In wondering how
Oublier ces heures Forget the hours
Qui tuaient parfois That sometimes killed
A coups de pourquoi With strokes of why
Le cœur du bonheur The heart of happiness
Ne me quitte pas Don't leave me
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Moi je t'offrirai I will offer you
Des perles de pluie Pearls made of rain
Venues de pays Come from countries
Où il ne pleut pas Where rain never falls
Je creuserai la terre I will dig up the earth
Jusqu'après ma mort Until after my death
Pour couvrir ton corps To cover your body
D'or et de lumière With gold and with light
Je ferai un domaine I'll make a kingdom
Où l'amour sera roi Where love shall be king
Où l'amour sera loi Where love shall be law
Où tu seras reine Where you shall be queen
Ne me quitte pas Don't leave me
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas Don't leave me
Je t'inventerai For you, I'll invent
Des mots insensés Senseless words
Que tu comprendras That you'll understand
Je te parlerai I'll speak to you of
De ces amants-là Those lovers
Qui ont vu deux fois Who twice saw
Leurs cœurs s'embraser Their hearts flare up
Je te raconterai I will tell you
L'histoire de ce roi The story of the king
Mort de n'avoir pas Who died for not
Pu te rencontrer Having met you
Ne me quitte pas Don't leave me
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
On a vu souvent Often has been seen
Rejaillir le feu The fire reviving
D'un ancien volcan In an ancient volcano
Qu'on croyait trop vieux Thought to be too old
Il est paraît-il There are, it is said,
Des terres brûlées Scorched lands
Donnant plus de blé That put forth more wheat
Qu'un meilleur avril Than a better April
Et quand vient le soir And when evening falls
Pour qu'un ciel flamboie For a sky to flame
Le rouge et le noir Musn't red and black
Ne s'épousent-ils pas Come together
Ne me quitte pas Don't leave me
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas Don't leave me
Je ne vais plus pleurer I won't cry anymore
Je ne vais plus parler I won't speak anymore
Je me cacherai là I'll just hide over there
A te regarder Watching you
Danser et sourire Dance and smile
Et à t'écouter And listening to you
Chanter et puis rire Sing and laugh
Laisse-moi devenir Let me become
L'ombre de ton ombre The shadow of your shadow
L'ombre de ta main The shadow of your hand
L'ombre de ton chien The shadow of your dog
Ne me quitte pas Don't leave me
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
Ne me quitte pas
