"...I'm as blank as a fart..."

It's funny the things that come in to your mind as you're sat in front of an empty screen with a cursor blinking at you. And, then, what it can spark. Typing the quote above instantly draws me to Twin Peaks, but I think I should hold off on the Peaks stuff for the time being as there'll be lots of that later in the year, once we get to Feb 24th, and the subsequent Blu release a few weeks later. With FWWM deleted scenes. 

Trouble is with these blog posts, I know all the things I should say... but it's so hard and I'm not sure I want to, anyway. 

On a different day...

...which, of course, links back to yesterday; when, I was mad. And quite prepared to give up everything. Which is an intriguing notion; to give up everything. We accumulate so much stuff in our lifetime, but of how much worth is it? The things we build up just act to constrain us, when we should be able to just not worry. Does it matter that so much money has been sunk in to the piles of DVDs, Blus, books, etc? Heck; in terms of books I've already bought more than I'll ever get around to reading on my Kindle, and that's so beautifully compact. After all, it's the content that matters, not the pieces of dead tree...

...but imagine if one of those pieces of dead tree happened to be a first edition, first printing of Catcher in the Rye? One of the ones that had the picture on the back, before JDS got it removed. That would be worth having. Especially if signed. But... I've not got one of those, and to buy one would be such silly money it's not worth thinking about. 

You could buy me one, if you like... 

"...a number on a list..."

So, I was having a play with the site stats, and apparently the all time most viewed post of all time is this one;

http://fatsosblog.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/does-somebody-come-around-in-truck.html

And it's not the most viewed by a small amount, it's got just over triple the views of the second placed post. It's also the post which has the least waffling by me in it... but I must remember what Mr Eko said... :)

Oh, and to follow up on the last post; still waiting, Pixies, for something even half as good as Bam Thwok... 

"...we were quoted out of context..."

I guess that's one of the problems with writing the header to a post before you finish it. 'Cos the header's meant to at least slightly relate to what's actually in the post, and had I had a little more time I'd have gone on to talk about Sherlock, and the whole quote would have made a lot more sense. 

But, I never got around to it...

So. Other things that were good about last year in the telly;

Game of Thrones; I decided, on the spur of the moment, after having heard there was a massive outcry at the massive twist in season 3 episode 9 that I'd check out the whole show, and manage to miss the spoiler. Which, somehow, I managed to do. I splurged through 30 episodes in less than three weeks, and it was great. The agony of waiting for the next season to start is really twisting my melon. 

I found myself loving the show. It's violent, rude, and absolutely filthy, but compelling viewing. Loads of wonderful characters, and a propensity for killing them off that probably exceeds The Walking Dead (lets face it; Rick's never gonna die. At least not until the very end). I'm finding that of the characters the ones I like best are Tyrion, Baelish (oh, so slimy!), and Daenerys; although I do wish she'd hurry up and cross the Narrow Sea. Unlike the Walking Dead, though, I've not read the source material as the TV show is a much closer adapatation (within the usual lmitations) than The Walking Dead is. 

The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls; the leaking of three JD Salinger short stories was, to say the least, somewhat of surprise. Bowling Balls was the most surprising of the three, seeing as the only known copy is at a uni library in the states and security around it is tight. You can go in and read it, but they never allow copies. Maybe someone used hi-tech methods? Hidden camera, perhaps? 

Anyhow, it was a very interesting story to read, consisting of what's essentially a rough draft of some of the characters from Catcher in the Rye. Although whereas other rough version Catcher stories (I'm Crazy, and Slight Rebellion off Madison) are, essentially, early edits of Catcher chapters. the story here is not. Well, barring some references to things also referenced in Catcher such as Kenneth's/Allie's death. This one's not even narrated by Holden, rather by Vincent/DB. I don't think too much can be read in to the story, as in terms of Caulfield canon (it's not just Dr Who that yaps on about that) the canon is Catcher, and nothing else. Well, until the purported book of Caulfield short stories comes out... yes, me too; I'll believe it when I see it. Bowling Balls should only really be seen as a work in progress. For one thing, unlike the other two, it was never published. But, it is a fascinating insight to the progression of the work done in advance of Catcher.

Now, can we get some actual proper published Salinger stuff; the stuff he'd been working on since 1965. 

And, please, we're in the 21st century now; Catcher in the Rye on Kindle now, please! :)

More tomorrow, hopefully...! 

"...don't ever tell anybody anything..."

I think there is a certain irony in the fact that the front cover of the 2010 UK paperback edition of The Catcher in the Rye, if looked at right, resembles a £ symbol. Salinger had been dead less than a month when it appeared in the shops, an almost indecent haste with him barely cold before these new editions showed up. On top of that, it looks rubbish too. Now I know there are all sorts of restrictions on what new editions of covers of JDS's books can have on them (no pictures, no plot summary, no author biog, no author photo etc), but this new covers shows a supreme lack of imagination. It is almost as if it was polished off in five minutes in order to get the edition out quicker. It's massively inferior to the old, red, edition; that had class and style, and there was a uniformity of design across the yellow (Seymour), blue (Esme), and green (F&Z) books. Oh, and whilst they've re-done Catcher, they didn't bother with the other three books... ho-hum.

I had intentionally not posted on Salinger's death until now, as really I needed time to reflect. I remember finding out about his death upon reading a flippant comment on an message board (which seems to be the method du jour of findind out these things), and doing a double take. First things I did was to head to the BBC site for corroboration (best news site out there, and thought that it might be neutered by stupid people makes me sick; but that's for another time), and there it was. He'd died. Only three weeks after his 91st birthday. Now, I know it's a cliche to say that it was a shock, but it genuinely was. He was 91, so it's not like it shouldn't have been unexpected, but it did sadden me immensely.

His uncompromising nature was legendary; if things were not done his way, they didn't get done. He had such clout, despite his not publishing anything new since 1965, that he could make the demands as mentioned above about his covers. His steadfast refusal to submit any more material for publication would have got many lesser authors struck off from their publishers, their books allowed to slide out of print. But, I guess when you have a title that still shifted (apparently) circa 250,000 copies a year that must have counted for something.

The thing I most admired about him, though, was his refusal to allow his work to be adapted in to other media. There was no Catcher in the Rye move, stage play, TV show or anything; I really do agree with him on this point. The trouble with, for example, movies of books is that whether bad or good they affect the book. A bad movie can taint the book on which it is based; it will be supposed by many that as the adaptation was bad, the source novel will be also.

A great movie of a book can also be bad for the book in that it will supplant the original text in the minds of the public, so that the only thing people think of is the movie. Now, this is one of those areas where I often say contradictorary things; for example, I love the movie A Clockwork Orange, but I am aware that when I think of Alex, what he looks like, what he's wearing, his swagger, the image in my head is the one designed by Kubrick, and Alex is Malcolm McDowell. Even when I read the book, I picture Alex in his white outfit, with the bowler hat on; even though Anthony Burgess tells me that Alex looks completely different, and his Droog outfit is completely different. I just can't help it. Ditto with Trainspotting; Renton is Ewan McGregor, Begbie is Robert Carlye, and so on.

Now, when I read The Catcher in the Rye, there is a picture in my head of Holden. There is a rhythm to how he speaks. I imagine him narrating the book at a frantic pace, with words tumbling out of his mouth; almost fighting to get out. He's yammering, he's got to get it all out, he's digressing all over the place, he's fast.

Ten years ago, the BBC did a list of best books, and in one programme they did Catcher, and in this they had someone reading the book. But they read it in a really slow drawl, that almost sounded like the K-Billy DJ in Reservoir Dogs... That wasn't how Holden should sound... but clearly someone thought that was how he spoke.

So, should they make a Catcher movie, it will be the director's Holden. They'll get it wrong. Anyone doing it would get it wrong. I'd get it wrong.

And, within days of Salinger's death, there were talks that there may now be a movie... it would all depend on his will. There was talk that a couple of decades ago he made a comment that once he was dead it was up to his estate if his unpublished work was published, and if movies were made; and that he was just glad he wouldn't be around to see it.

I'll tell you this; I don't want to see it. It could be the best movie ever, but I don't want someone else's version of Holden to interfere with mine. I've read that book a million times, and I'll read it a million times more, but I want to read it my way, unpolluted by actors and directors.

There'll be more books by him published in due course, and I'll devour each new one as it arrives. Chances are, most (if not all) will be about people called "Glass", but we shall see.

There's a bit in Catcher where Holden talks of reading a book and wishing that the author was a really great friend of yours you could call up at any time and shoot the breeze with; I always got that feeling every time I'd read Catcher. I would have loved to have called Jerry up and shot the breeze about anything and everything.

He loved the movies, apparently...

"...random shoes..."

It's been a while since I updated this ol' blog, and this in some ways is normal for me, but in other ways, not so. Especially since there's been so much I really need to be writing about. So, this post will cover most of the things I wanted to cover. And probably in a much briefer manner than I really should. There's one thing that I really want to cover in much more detail, and that will be the subject of another post, entitled "...you start missing everybody..." If you can't work out what it's going to be about, please hang your head in shame.

Okay. So. Things.

Heroes

So, Season 4 of Heroes is now ended, and it's been almost a return to form. It was a much better season than 2 and 3, and whilst not reaching the heights of season 1, it's certainly been damn good. There have been patchy moments, and I'm unsure with the direction they're taking Sylar in... but, I do hope that there's a season 5. I'll not say what the end of season cliffhanger is, as it's not aired in the UK yet, but it offers up intriguing possibilities.

Oh, and there's a scene in the finale which, if it does not make a tear flow from your eye... well, you have no soul. It's beautiful.

Lost

We're in the home straight now. 15 to go, and the ending approaches. The parallel timeline is most intriguing. It is obvious that this is not a mere frippery; a "what if?", but rather something integral to the plot. How it is integral is another matter... it'll be interesting to see how.

I'll blog properly on each new episode from now on. But here's some comments I posted elsewhere on the latest episode;

The whole business with Sayid potentially being "claimed", like Jack's sister... that does raise some interesting possibilities. I do not think it was any coincidence that when we see Claire in the woods at the end of the episode, her pose and manner is very much that of Rousseau... Think back to the last time we saw Claire even pick up a gun, let alone shoot one, let alone as expertly as this...

Imagine if, for example, the "sickness" that Rousseau described in prior seasons wasn't in her colleagues, but in her? And that it was some kind of "possession"/"claiming"... And with Rousseau's obvious death, it had to find another consciousness to inhabit... and found Claire.

'Cos there was something not right with Claire since the attack on Dharmaville in The Shape of Things to Come. Even if the entity that "claimed" them could reanimate the dead, it would probably be too conspicuous to bring Rousseau back to life. But Claire... trapped under the debris, not see to be dead. Well, there's an obvious candidate. I dunno, it may be a mile off of what's really the case...

The "not-crash" timeline is getting more and more intriguing; the sudden thought of the name "Aaron" is interesting. There's talk that there's some bleed through in the time lines, and this is one of those occasions. Also, remember that there's no way this "not-crash" timeline is a mere interesting diversion. It's fundamentally important to the story is some way that's yet to be revealed.

Fanzines

I will have something interesting to say about fanzines soon. Both about the old, and the new... Two hints;

1 - it makes me want to shout.

2 - September's not so far away.

Ah... cryptic. : )

Anyhow, must get back to playing Desktop Defender. I tell you, it's like crack...

"...don't ever tell anybody anything..."

The more I think about it, the more annoyed I get whenever I hear JD Salinger described as a "recluse". I just don't get it at all. A brief definition of a recluse, as filched from Wikipedia is;

"A recluse is someone in isolation who hides away from the attention of the public, a person who lives in solitude, i.e. seclusion from intercourse with the world."

Now, it strikes me that this is an entirely incorrect description of Mr Salinger. For one thing, all the while he's been living in New Hampshire, he's regularly seen in his home town doing all the things any ordinary person will do. If you can be bothered, you can search for all sorts of reports of sightings of him by people, be they fans or journalists, on the internet. Photos even. I don't like looking at the photos, so I never do. I remember when they did the top 100 books on the BBC a few years back, they did a segment on The Catcher in the Rye, and in that they showed some video footage of him going about his business. That really made me uncomfortable; it felt like an invasion of his privacy.

At least one of the books about him mentions trips made by him to London. Is that the action of a recluse?

I would suggest that there are plenty of people out there who go about their lives in a manner entirely similar to Mr Salinger; they live private lives, going about their business as they see fit.

The trouble is, that as Mr Salinger is seen as a public figure, by dint of his writing, that means the expectation is that he must, therefore, live his life in public as well. The celebrity culture we have insists that the minutiae of every celebrities life should be part of the whole parcel of that person; that we have a right to know. Know, there are certainly celebrities who cherish a lifestyle like that, going to the extent that they have cameras following them essentially filming their life story. Unfortunately, it does appear that the people who tend to want the most exposure are those who deserve it the least.

We have no right to know the details of any other person's life, unless they choose to tell us. Another person has no compulsion to give interviews, appear at showbiz parties, or do anything they don't want to do; and we have no right to demand it of them. Yes, we'd all love to see more writing from him; but we have no right to demand it of him. It is his choice, and we should respect it. Everyone has the right to a private life, and all Mr Salinger is doing is exercising that right.

He is a private individual; he is not a recluse.

"...if you really want to hear about it..."

Okay. Some people have crazy ideas. It happens. But there can be fewer crazier ideas than that of a certain "JD California" (not his real name!). His bright idea was to write a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye...

Now, call me Picky McPicky, the Pickiest Person in Pickyland, winner of the Gold Medal in the Olympics for Pickiness, but if I were ever to be interested in reading a Catcher in the Rye sequel, really, there's only one person I'd want to have written it, and that's JD Salinger. The characters contained within the book are his to do as he pleases. No-one else. 

So, this "JD California's" sequel, entitled "60 Years Later; Coming Through the Rye" again sees Holden Caulfield on the run, only this time it's not from his school. It's from his retirement home, where the setpugenarian Caulfield lives. And there also appears to me some element of meta-fiction in the book, as Salinger appears as a character within it, deciding whether or not to revive Holden's story. Hmm.

The question you have to ask about this book is a very simple, brief one; why? I mean, what is the point of it? Just because he got a publisher for it, what's really the difference between this book and any number of fan fiction Caulfield stories? None at all. As mentioned previously, there's only one person I'd be interested in seeing a Catcher sequel from...

It would appear that I'm in good company in not liking the idea of this book. A certain JD Salinger dislikes the idea also, and has taken legal steps to prevent its publication. I hope he wins. This chancer is standing on the shoulder of a giant; he knows there will be a certain number of people who will buy the book out of sheer curiousity as to what happened to Holden next. But whatever suggestions he posits on the book are irrelevant, and are no more important than my ideas, or your ideas, or anyone else but Salinger's. 

There is talk that Salinger may not be able to block the publication of the book, citing the case of the unauthorised sequel to Gone With the Wind which had a similar lawsuit taken out to prevent its publication by Margaret Mitchell's estate. This lawsuit failed, and the book was published (though, the estate got a cut of royalties). It strikes me that the main difference here is that Salinger is still alive, and therefore could argue that the publication of an unauthorised sequel could harm the market for any sequel he might desire to write. Though, of course, chances of such a sequel are slim.

However, surely the most salient point is that Holden Caulfield is Salinger's character; he owns the copyright in him (and indeed on all of the characters within the book). For someone to be allowed to take characters which belong to someone else, and exploit them in a way that their creator does not intend is clearly wrong. Now, as mentioned earlier fan fiction does exist; but this is small potatoes in comparison. Fan fiction is shared freely between fan communities, and no attempt is made to gain financially. It's a very niche section of any fandom, as there will always be plenty of fans who do not care for it at all. Indeed, I count myself among their number. The release, however, of a published book takes things to a different, higher, level. 

There are some very real issues at stake at the heart of this lawsuit; that of the right of the creator of a work to be able to control how it is exploited. If Salinger loses this case, this is a fundamental blow to the rights of creators of works of art. 

"...I like it when somebody digresses..."

Okay. So I now have a proper title for this place. Whilst I did like Jibber Jabber, it really didn't seem right. "Digression", on the other hand, is perfect as it's not only something I do all the blimmin' time, it's also a rather neat Catcher in the Rye reference (see quote to right).

I rather like it...

...and I hope you will, too.

That's if anyone ever actually comes here and reads this...

"...does somebody come around in a truck..."

The Lagoon.

In Central Park.

In winter.

' Nuff said.