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Book Lag
Posted by: Liz | From: May 09, 2006
My book a week project has hit some snags. Namely a big old book I started and can’t seem to finish. I have it in my head that it would be easier to just complete the book so I can check it off the list for the week and move on, but this particular book has been so slow going for me that I’ve been jammed around the 50-page mark for way too long. So instead of plowing ahead, as would be the right and admirable thing to do, I’ve decided to take the cheater shortcut route and read three shorter (or faster going) books all this week to make up for the two weeks that were stagnant. I think that’s fair. Even if one of the books is Ethan Frome and is really REALLY short. Also, I’m sure I’m supposed to be keeping track of these books so I can count them up at the end of a year and feel proud at my accomplishments, but I keep forgetting. I keep thinking, “Oh, I’ll figure it out,” but suddenly it’s May and that’s a lot of weeks I have to “figure out.”
I started In Cold Blood this morning and was reminded about a weekend last month when J and I were getting ready to watch a movie. We’d popped the DVD in and flipped on the stereo and were otherwise busy with getting situated, when we realized Cinemax was on and a new movie was starting. What was strange was that it seemed like it was "Capote." In fact, that was definitely Philip Seymour Hoffman’s voice and it was definitely setting us up for the movie. It was a weird beginning, with the dark screen fading in and out, and random phrases from the movie being echoed over it all. We debated whether to go ahead and start the movie we were planning on watching, or whether to watch "Capote," which we both also wanted to see. I remember thinking how weird it was that it was already on Cinemax, given that it seemed like it had just come out on DVD. In the end, we decided to just watch our DVD and we flipped the television over to AV.
Coincidentally, a preview for "Capote" was at the beginning of the DVD. Which, we then realized—duh—was what we’d been listening to the entire time. It had been coming through the stereo and playing over whatever movie was starting on Cinemax. We felt very royally stupid and I made J flip back to the TV movie so we could see how long it would have taken us to realize that it wasn’t "Capote."
Let me tell you, a weird movie starting with a scene of an ancient Aztec human sacrifice, can look like "Capote" for quite a while. I mean, somewhere along the line, the human being sacrificed starts to scream, and THAT doesn’t match up, but you’d be surprised how far your mind will jam something into the wrong receptacle just because it thinks it should go.
Wait--was Philip Seymour Hoffman in the movie about Aztec sacrifice? Because that would blow my mind. Although even with self-tanner, I can't quite picture him all "Aztec."
Does it count if you read one book that you already read in manuscript/draft form, but never in its gorgeous, final version?
Posted by: Real Girl at May 9, 2006 12:51 PM
The retrofitting of sound onto video works well with older music videos from the 80's. Take any video from back then and play any foreign language song and its surprising at how often the cuts match up to the change in beats and tempo.
In the movie, everyone, including Capote, keeps mentioning that this book would be groundbreaking, the best ever written and that it would live on forever as a classic. How were they all so sure of that at the time?
Posted by: kedar at May 9, 2006 02:22 PM
Kedar I believe that's what we in the business call "creative license". I think the movie took quite a few liberties (in fact, Harper Lee even wrote a letter to the New Yorker with corrections).
Posted by: abby at May 9, 2006 03:27 PM
Don't talk to me about long, slow books. I started Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell before Easter and am still digging through it.
Posted by: Jennie at May 9, 2006 05:45 PM
What are these 'books' everyone keeps talking about? Doesnt anyone have important things to do like watch television or am I the only one responsible for that?
Posted by: kedar at May 10, 2006 12:16 PM
I have fallen behind on my book a week thing as well, but then again I lie a lot, so no one will ever know.
And Kedar, balancing one's television and literary commitments takes careful planning.
I remember hating Ethan Frome, but I only read it in high school, and later I became an Edith Wharton fanatic. How was it? Should I reread it?
Posted by: Sally Nordan at May 10, 2006 09:43 PM
I liked it. But I'd also just watched "Match Point," so I had a very interesting recasting of Wharton's characters.
Posted by: Liz at May 11, 2006 09:42 AM
Post a comment:
Oh god.
I won't even let myself read books until I'm caught up on all the New Yorkers I neglected when my course load was so heavy. Although I did finally start The History of Love, upon your recommendation, and I like it so far. It's too bad Jonathan Safron Foer already has a rad wife. It means he probably won't leave her for me.
Rats.
Posted by: willow at May 9, 2006 12:29 PM