MOTD

Two strange coincidences. I found that the library has a decent Pratchett collection and decided to fill the gap between the point where I was buying the paperbacks when I was home and when The Brother would buy me the hardbacks as presents. The two books missed in that switch were Carpe Jugulum and Jingo. The former was clearly the set-up for The Fifth Elephant and was okay, but not that strong. I found a belly laugh in the last few pages. Coincidence number 1 was that I took home Jingo at the same time I borrowed the DVD of JFK. By the time I had reached the point where Vimes tells of the theory about "the second bowman" I was grinning. What didn't have me grinning was Ike's speech at the start of the film. The one where he warns about the power of military manufacturers at the end of WW2. Even more poignant was JFK's speech where he says that the world doesn't need a unilaterally imposed pax Americana. Coincidence number 2 involved me borrowing the book Fight Club on the same evening that NPR aired a piece describing how single people tend to shop at IKEA. Eerie huh? I was interested to see how the book would measure up to the fillum. Would it be a weak catalyst for a good movie or was the book even better or were they only distantly related? The answer is that the book is used almost verbatim for the script. There's a little rearrangement and a cleaner ending in the film but otherwise there are no real surprises. The two memorable small chunks from the screen version missing from the book are the aforementioned Gandhi/Lincoln conversation and the short monologue about Marla ("If I did have a tumor, I'd name it Marla. Marla... the little scratch on the roof of your mouth that would heal if only you could stop tonguing it, but you can't."). Now I have to read some more of Mr. Palahniuk. My favourite non-film piece is;
"..the [after hours dance] club is too loud to talk, so after a couple of drinks, everyone feels like the center of attention but completely cut off from participating with anyone else.
You're the corpse in an English murder mystery."

Current music is mainly T-Rex, Thin Lizzy and ELO in the car. My habit is to switch on the music when the radio begins to annoy me. This doesn't take much lately. Since Our Beloved Leader has decided that a vote for him was an automatic vote for war life has been quite depressing. This was brought home to me listening to the radio tonight when they were talking to a U.S. serviceman who had been pulled from Iraq to help the tsunami victims. His point of view was that now he could REALLY do some good in the world.

I think I had some more to say but I'll close for now.