Hey, Guyyyyyyyyyy

[thehefner]

Something about today's date... hmmm... was I supposed to remember something today?

Remember... remember...

Oh well. I wonder what's on TV?



Just in time for the AV Club's article on "20 Good Books Made Into Not-So-Good Movies" comes CHUD.com's new round-table discussion of the snazzy new DVD edition of Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING. When it comes to Kubrick's film and Stephen King's original, most people I know vehemently love one and hate the other.



The book hits me on a visceral, deeply personal level, in that it's less effective to me as a horror story (although it's definitely creepy) as much as an allegory for living with an alcoholic. It's that factor that gives the story its essential human element.

But I ultimately agree with these reviewers when they say that King's flaw is that he explains too much, and thus leaves nothing to the imagination. As a writer, I daily struggle with how much revealed is too much, or will these little but crucial details just fly over people's heads? So I sympathize with King.

Nonetheless, as overhyped as Kubrick's film so often is, I think it's still one of the finest horror movies ever made, and is made all the scarier by how ambiguous the whole thing is. My main rule of horror: nothing is more terrifying than the unknown.

I love this film dearly, but at the same time, it lacks the book's heart and humanity. But then, perhaps heart and humanity has no place in Kubrick's world. As such, I freely and happily treat book and film as separate entities that, despite Kubrick and King's mutual tension, compliment and reflect upon each other wonderfully.



One more thing. I've been reading collections of PEANUTS strips from the 50's and 60's.

Like many people, I used to think of PEANUTS as a harmless, inoffensive, gentle, watery relic, not as taste-assaulting as, say, GARFIELD or FAMILY CIRCUS, but not really ever that funny either. A classic, only because it's widely considered a classic. I imagine some feel this way about CITIZEN KANE and CASABLANCA.

Then I started reading the classic PEANUTS stuff. And... oh... my god.

I had no idea how subversively brutal, how thoroughly rich in literary value PEANUTS was. Really, the best summation of its true power and timelessness was described below by Ivan Brunetti (whom I usually strongly dislike, and still sounds like an out-of-touch snob, perhaps purposefully so, but makes some compelling points):

Comments

[skalja.livejournal.com]

I like that strip, but I don't think it's going to convince anyone who's not already a believer.

EXCELLENT pastiche of the early PEANUTS years, though.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Aye, it does certainly have that feeling that I get every now and again, trying desperately not to preach to the choir, but they're the only ones who listen. Perhaps it just comes with being an elitist snob.

[skalja.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not sure I'd call it elitist? It just doesn't provide any evidence. "PEANUTS was the coolest! The end!" Which I'm not going to argue with, but the reader is given the option of either accepting his assertion, or not.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Aye, he doesn't offer any actual evidence of it. I'd post some scans of classic strips myself if I'd thought it'd convince anyone.

I just like that someone is saying what he's saying at all as, while comic enthusiasts will likely agree, the average person I know wouldn't hold PEANUTS in such regard. Just harmless, unfunny childhood fluff.

The truth is, the emotional heart of PEANUTS is, in many ways, darker than any Robot Chicken murderous-Great-Pumpkin parody.

[tompurdue.livejournal.com]

I like Peanuts, but the problem is that when you call it a post-war strip it has kinda missed the fact that it's post a war that was over before my parents were born. It's taking up space in the daily newspaper telling "timeless" jokes that could be spent telling "current" jokes.

As with so many other classics, it is a great and magnificent thing, but reverence for that thing drives a feeling that the older generation has a privileged position that prevents the current generation from making its masterpiece.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I think he's trying to make a distinction away from pre-WWII comics like Gasoline Alley and Krazy Kat and Ignatz Mouse, that's what I think he was more going for there.

And you make a very valid point. I'm not certain what could possibly be our current generation's masterpiece in comic strip form (MUTTS is close, but it's very much a throwback to everything from Peanuts of Gasoline Alley), if there's anything close.

[tompurdue.livejournal.com]

I suppose that I really shouldn't complain. The Post (home of one of the best comics pages in the nation) ran several weeks of strips from other artists to see which would be most popular, and I agree that the one that won was the best of the lot. But it was "barely tolerable," as opposed to the others, which were "break the artists hands to prevent them from ever picking up a pencil".

It would be very hard for them to get rid of a masterpiece to replace it with some drivel in hopes of finding Calvin and Hobbes (what I would call our generation's masterpiece, but it too is sadly done).

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

But it was "barely tolerable," as opposed to the others, which were "break the artists hands to prevent them from ever picking up a pencil".

God, yes, that about sums it up for many comic strips out there in the average newspaper.

And aye, Calvin was a masterpiece of another generation, but not this one's. (Although I personally favored Bloom County, even though it's so horribly dated, and Berke Breathed can't joke his way out of a nutsack anymore)

Perhaps the new masterpiece is to be found as a webcomic, but what it could be, I couldn't begin to speculate. Nor do I really wish to slough through all the crap that's out there.

[tompurdue.livejournal.com]

I think of Bloom County in a whole separate category. Much of its genius was in political humor, which is important but I think of as a different beast.

I think of it like the difference between improv and sketch comedy, where the timeliness is a major feature of improv and the jokes aren't really much of anything without it. It's no less or more brilliant, but different enough to merit separate consideration.

So I think of Bloom County with the also-brilliant Doonesbury and much lamented Boondocks.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Aye, but it also often mixed political humor with great character-based humor, ala Peanuts and Calvin. But your improv and sketch comedy comparison is worth considering, I'll need to stew on that for a while.

And lament not for Boondocks; it's riding high as an animated series, with far more creative freedom than it had as a strip. However, I should add that, so far, it might prove the series undoing. The second season pales in comparison to the first, which I am tempted to call brilliant (but hesitate, simply because I must be very careful to use hyperbole around you.)

[tompurdue.livejournal.com]

Huh. I saw the first few episodes of the series, and while the others are sitting in my Netflix queue, I wasn't exactly rushing to move them to the top.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I think the season works as a whole, more than any individual episode (although the MLK one is the highlight, methinks, and excellent on its own). It's something of a gradual progression with each episode.

Also, Bush and Rumsfeld imagined as suburban wiggers voiced by Charlie Murphy and Samuel L. Jackson. C'mon, that's just delightful.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

On the OTHER hand... this is you, and I've learned to never speak for your tastes. So you may not be won over ultimately, for all I know.

Still, if you liked the strip, it stands to reason you'd enjoy the show.

[tompurdue.livejournal.com]

I'll give the rest of the season a try. I should point out that Jen liked it more than I did, which I found utterly baffling.

[metalcrowe.livejournal.com]

And aye, Calvin was a masterpiece of another generation, but not this one's

Just curious, if not our generation, whose generation do you consider Calvin & Hobbes to belong to?

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's "ours," but have we seen anything really step up to its mantle in the past ten years? Is there anything out there that could be the next Gasoline Alley/Peanuts/Calvin? I'm genuinely asking.

I spy with my philosopher's eye...

[metalcrowe.livejournal.com]

Ah, I think I see a terminological difference. I view Calvin & Hobbes as belonging to our generation because it was around and at its peak when we were kids, i.e. in our formative years. I agree, there hasn't been anything that has completely replaced it since we've grown up. But that could be just bias due to aforementioned exposure during formative years :-)

My lead pick, at least for what I like, is Ozy and Millie. But I don't know if I'd make the broader claim that O&M is the next Gasoline Alley/Peanuts/Calvin.

[jackolantern.livejournal.com]

I think that King's main complaint against Kubrick's film was that you just knew that Jack was going to flip out, sooner or later; there was supposed to be at least a chance that Jack would beat his demons. I'd rank them as: the book > the Kubrick movie > the miniseries.

Early Peanuts is really amazing considering the era in which it was published. Alan Moore said once that, even if the Jesus and Mary Chain ate live babies on stage, it wouldn't be as subversive as Elvis was in the fifties, simply by virtue of the time and place.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

But let me ask: did you read the book first, or see the film first?

I find that folks who read the book first usually strongly dislike the film. However, I came to the film first, and fell in love with it instantly. Then I read the book, and responded more to the alcoholism allegory than anything else.

And that Alan Moore quote is great. God bless that crazy beard with a man attached.

[jackolantern.livejournal.com]

Not only did I read the book first, but I read King's critique of the Kubrick movie in Danse Macabre first as well. I'm sure that that colored my view of the movie, although I don't necessarily agree with King's views of his own work (can't cite any specific examples off the top of my head).

[angrylemur.livejournal.com]

Hi, you like spiffy comics.

Apropos of nothing. Found you via scans_daily and just thought I'd mention that.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Why thank you, and hello yourself!

*checks out userinfo*

"President of Calenders," heh heh heh. And you draw spiffy comics!

If I may be oh-so-slightly narcissistic, did I happen to do anything particularly to lure you over to my humble side of the intranets?

[angrylemur.livejournal.com]

Other than appear to be a nifty guy? Well, we do seem to share a fondness for a certain crazy lawyer.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Two (appropriately enough) very good reasons! *beams*

Welcome aboard! Hopefully the real me will live up to apparent spiffiness. I have friended you back as well!

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

or rather, apparent niftiness. Huge diff, I'm sure.

[heleneotroy.livejournal.com]

I hate Stephen King with a passion. I mean, I can understand the autobiograhical tinges. That makes sense, people write about their own expirences all the time.
But when he wrote himself into his books as A CHARACTER THE OTHER CHARACTERS MUST RESCUE, all bets were off! That's just dumb.
And while I like the story told in The Shining, I don't like the way it was told in either the book or the film.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

As a Stephen King fan, I can't argue with that logic, nor really defend him.

I honestly think his true strength is as a storyteller, a spinner of yarns, rather than actual plots (and don't get me started on his endings).

[heleneotroy.livejournal.com]

I can't stand the voice he uses when writing in third person. It is so passive, like reading a term paper written by a high school freshman.
His first person narrative is slightly better.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I wonder, then, what you'd make of his more narrator-ly voice in BLACK HOUSE. I loved it, all "gentle reader" and whatnot, but it peeved a lot of people off.

But as you likely won't read it, I imagine it's a moot point. :)

[icewolf010.livejournal.com]

Something about today's date... hmmm... was I supposed to remember something today?

Remember... remember...

Avoid Parliament?

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Aw, but I was gonna have a picnic there tonight!

"How I Hate Him."

[adaptor.livejournal.com]

Charles Schulz has been on my short list for Greatest American Artist of the 20th Century for sometime. I'm hoping to get the early stuff as a Christmas gift (my family never knows what to get me, so I start storing up gift ideas early).

I think I want to read the bio, but as a library book first. Then I'll decide if I want to own a copy (after about 20 moves you start to think a lot about portablility).