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Equally true of most fictional accounts of the past. And of too many of my and many others’ recollections of their own personal histories. Wasn’t so wonderful, wasn’t so woeful, either.
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You know you are getting old when:
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Equally true of most fictional accounts of the past. And of too many of my and many others’ recollections of their own personal histories. Wasn’t so wonderful, wasn’t so woeful, either.
GHT
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It may not be a Movie show or TV, but if you only know HG Wells because of, "The Invisible Man," dip into some of his other books, you will be amazed by his predictions.
Phones, Email, and Television, in Men Like Gods, (1923.)
In When the Sleeper Wakes (1899), the protagonist rouses from two centuries of slumber to a dystopian London in which citizens use wondrous forms of technology like the audio book, airplane and television.
Genetic Engineering. Visitors to The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896) were confronted with a menagerie of bizarre creatures including Leopard-Man and Fox-Bear.
Lasers and Directed Energy Weapons. Martians in, The War of the Worlds (1898) unleash what Wells called a Heat-Ray, a super weapon capable of incinerating helpless humans with a noiseless flash of light.
Atomic Bombs & Nuclear Proliferation. Wells recognised the world-changing destructive power that might be harnessed by splitting the atom. The atomic bombs he introduces in The World Set Free (1913) fuel a war so devastating that its survivors are moved to create a unified world government to avoid future conflicts.
The Invisible Man didn't, ahem, "materialise." Time travel is still a fantasy and, as yet, The Martians haven't invaded. But his other predictions are uncannily close.
Edward
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I'm in the middle of marking papers for undergraduate kids who will, all being well, graduate in July. A fair proportion of them were born in 2021.
I've never felt so old as the first time I referred to a class as "you young people" and none of them laugh. They all laugh now when I tell them their youth disgusts me. THen they think I'm joking...
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Exceptionally gifted bunch you got there.
Edward
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Ha! I've been at my desk too long today already.... I shoulda said 2000.
Also on point: when you confuse two different figures you have in your head....
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A couple days ago I barbecued country style “ribs” (they aren’t really ribs) on the Weber kettle — coals on one side of the lower grate, drip pan on the other. Put the meat on the upper grate, put the lid on the grill, slid down the vents about half way and set a timer for an hour.
Came back an hour later to discover that I had placed the ribs directly above the coals. There’s enough fat in those things that they weren’t completely dried out, but the bottoms of some of ’em were good and burnt.
Came back an hour later to discover that I had placed the ribs directly above the coals. There’s enough fat in those things that they weren’t completely dried out, but the bottoms of some of ’em were good and burnt.
Harp
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I recalled a Classics professor last nite who would deliver a fantastic lecture and simply conclude
by assigning half the Iliad to read by Thursday; other works to be read in their entirety by then,
two days away. I didn't start university until I was twenty-one, can still remember all the kids groaning
and moaning. I loved that professorial pile on. And stopping by his office to discuss Schliemann's
excavation of Troy. Times that went by way too fast but wonderful instruction sorely missed.
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Of course, you are correct. I haven't taken the opportunity to read Wells' works, I've only viewed some of the movies based on them. Thank you for keeping me honest!
MisterCairo
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I have just started to read The Invisible Man as my wife has it for her next year's English text, Gothic module. I confess to having read none Wells' works, which needs correcting.
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Way back in 1981 I accompanied some friends to see the much-maligned-for-good-reasons Tarzan the Ape Man starring Bo Derek, Miles O'Keeffe, and Richard Harris. After the movie one of my friends asked me a few questions about Tarzan, and I told him I didn't know the answers. His response was something to the effect of, "But I thought you read all of that stuff." I realized he was right--I had an interest in the character, but had never read any of Edgar Rice Burroughs' novels. So I found a paperback copy of Burroughs' first Tarzan novel, read it, found a copy of his second Tarzan novel, read that, and so on and so on, until I found I'd read all 24 of them over the course of a few years. Fun stuff!
GHT
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That's not the first time that I have heard of getting to know an author through a character only known through a film experience. I did much the same with Fleming's 007 Bond. Having seen Dr. No, I learned that there was much more. In second hand book shops, (remember them?) I scoured the shelves and eventually got together the entire collection, only paperback of course, I was a penniless student, but I kept them. Where they are now is for those, to discover, who inherit my life's collection of junk, some of which has become quite expensive, worthy junk.
Harp
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The franchise first appealed to my adolescent hormonal drive, Eunice Gayson in particular.
I was smitten-still; but Bond himself seemed distant, an enigma. I recall a second hand bookshop
purchase of a dog-eared paperback, it might have been Dr No or From Russia With Love, had to be an
early 007 because Bond died from a poisoned shoe blade kick in the leg delivered by a Soviet female.
Fleming killed off the franchise. Inadvertently, of course, and Bond came back.
Quite the literary Lazarus.
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"Bond. James Bond." That's another literary character I should probably re-acquaint myself with through Fleming's novels.
GHT
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Reading Fleming's creation helps you to know Bond, you immediately see why some actors adopt Bond's character, but most don't. For example, Timothy Dalton, a renowned Shakespearian actor, yet Bond fans give Dalton short shrift. Those who have read Fleming's own take on Bond have formed a character in their head. Do read the Bond novels, they are such compulsive reading, you just can't put the book down. And that is despite sixty years of international publicity.
Harp
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I thought Dalton handled the role well.
Pierce Brosnan did Bond best. Takes an Irishman to play such a complex character.
Pierce Brosnan did Bond best. Takes an Irishman to play such a complex character.
GHT
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It's common knowledge that Fleming didn't take to Sean Connery, he didn't want him to play the British super-spy!I thought Dalton handled the role well.
Pierce Brosnan did Bond best. Takes an Irishman to play such a complex character.
Connery claimed Fleming wasn't happy with a “working-class Scot” playing the smooth and suave spy.
Harp
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Connery never convinced me either; hardly the patrician public school, Cambridge, Cmdr Royal Navy lineage,
the Scot served as an enlisted man Royal Navy, discharged coffin polisher, knocked around, took to acting,
made the most of it to his credit, but craft only took him so far. Brosnan, for example, same Celt plebeian stock
but possessing a requisite polish patina Fleming painted his character with. Dalton also had that down pat like
butter. Brosnan is my top pick for Bond. And the current Bond, forget his name, absolutely does not have it.
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Here's a large part of my criteria for the actor portraying James Bond--if I think I could beat him up, he's a poor casting choice. Connery? He wins. Craig? Likewise. Dalton? 50/50 odds. But I'm pretty sure Moore and Brosnan would be going down for the count, so... Don't get me wrong, I like Pierce Brosnan and thought he did the best he could, but that the scripts for his Bond movies were weak.
Harp
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I agree with Brosnan's poor script material. Definitely affected his portrayal, gave him short end of the script stick,
not nearly enough substance to work with. Pedestrian low brow hokum-a franchise fault due to poor parochial
control over the character franchise itself which derailed Moore-era if not sooner.
Whatever the actor, the character is a trained professional, a proven product from a brutal tortuous process;
whatever an audience member's particular thought toward a personal match, such sentiment toward the actor
is a delusion as to the individual portrayed.
Craig, though capable, doesn't quite fit finger-to-glove Bond background. Truthfully, Craig looks a bit too much
the Cockney East Ender, an ex-para or Marine grunt. Common, rough-hewn muscle, a dime-a-dozen bar bouncer,
not the Fleming patrician Secret Service agent recruited Royal Navy officer.
I completely stopped watching the franchise flicks, far too much horseshit political correctness gone amuck.
Good riddance to rubbish.
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When you still know this classic meal:
Bauernfrühstück/Farmer's Breakfast. Made from leftover potatoes. Fry it with bacon bits, some spicing and put eggs into, the last minutes of frying.
Bauernfrühstück/Farmer's Breakfast. Made from leftover potatoes. Fry it with bacon bits, some spicing and put eggs into, the last minutes of frying.
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