First, Dear Reader, I owe you an apologize for no post last week. I try hard not to leave you waiting. Obviously, it doesn't always work out like I plan and Robert Burns said it best in his poem "To A Mouse," "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men, gang aft agley . . . ."
The political season is drawing to a close, and a thankful nation will heave a sigh of relief, unless this election manages to wind up in the courts. There are just a few ironies I'd like to point out.
*In 1854, the Republican party was born from the anti-slavery movement. I read this in two separate sources, the Civil War book listed in the sidebar and Caleb's history book Lincoln: A Photobiography. If I was taught that I certainly didn't remember. Today, we are led to believe the Democrats are the party for the blacks. According to Burton Folsom Jr.'s New Deal or Raw Deal, the shift came in the 1930s in part from "the Federal largesse" doled out by Roosevelt via "the FERA, the WPA, the CCC, and especially the PWA which targeted large building projects in black communities" (p. 436). To me the irony lies in the fact that Roosevelt himself "was unhelpful to Black Americans on racial issues" (p. 486). He would not support federal anti-lynching legislation or an abolishment of poll taxes. He often ignored black spokesmen and did not "ask the White House Correspondents' Association to admit even one black reporter" (p. 496-7). Politics hasn't changed at all, presidents will do whatever appears expedient to win votes while neglecting more important principles.
*Gloria Allred, a DNC delegate, seems to think whatever testimony Mitt Romney gave at a divorce hearing a while back is going to show that Romney lied under oath which will then somehow, someway derail Romney's presidential campaign. The disgruntled, angry tweets by Mrs. Allred's client in this article are even further proof this October surprise isn't.
Yet the fact that the President knew of the attack on the Consulate in Benghazi two hours after it began, blamed it on a three-month old video no one had ever seen and lied about knowing this was a terror attack isn't going to derail his hopes for a second term are laughable. His faux outrage at the townhall-style debate is even more heinous and egregious in the face of this revelation. I agree with Roger Simon that the President should resign immediately. This goes well beyond Watergate. However, I know that isn't going to happen; there is no Alinksky rule for that.
*A CBS affliate ran a crawl showing the President winning the election, three weeks BEFORE the election. While I enjoy a good conspiracy theory, it doesn't mean I believe them but this one made the little hairs on the back of my neck stand up. All four debate moderators where in the tank for the President. MSNBC's Chris Matthews gets all tingly when the President talks and all vitriolic in his defense of the President. So, why shouldn't it be a surprise that media outlets will do whatever they can to discourage people from voting or out-right lie about the results?
These ironies brought to you by the letter M for Mainstream Media and the number 0 which is how many journalists really seem interested in the truth and accurate reporting.
Next week, I'll be discussing feminism, scorn and the Church. Nothing could go "gang aft agley" with that, huh?
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
The party starts, and I am late. Years late. Again.
Usually, when I am reading a series of books, I order one book at a time to spread out the damage to the budget over time. With this trilogy, I did not follow the usual procedure, ordering The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest at the same time. And boy, am I glad I did!
There is nothing like ending one book and immediately being able to pick up the next one and start reading. No wait. No gaps in memory. No flashbacks to remind the reader what happened previously. The amazing thing about these last two books is the incredible continuity between them. Where Fire ends, Hornet's Nest picks right up. I love that, in part, because it happens so rarely between books in a series.
Now Fire was published in 2009 and Hornet's Nest in 2010, which explains why I'm late to the party. These were the paperback editions. Before I purchased them, I read the reviews on Amazon, something I rarely do because many of the reviews contain spoilers. And for some even stranger reason, I choose to read all the bad reviews. Fortunately, they did not have a negative effect on my reading, but those bad reviews were certainly entertaining in and of themselves.
These books are kind of hard to explain. They are not three separate stories but rather one story told in three volumes. This is not just a crime, who-dun-it murder story. There's some espionage and defection and political corruption and conspiracy and scandal thrown in. There is Russian mafia and Sweden's version of Hell's Angels. There are several love triangles happening - it would take a very large Venn diagram to work those out. There's a stalking situation that seems to be unrelated to crux of the story but serves as an important device to move a character from one place to another. It's a very large story, covering quite a bit of geography in Sweden and Europe. But there's also redemption and revenge and justice, poetic plus legal, and a whole lot of people working together to vindicate a single person, to right an egregious wrong.
The most fascinating, and rather surprising, aspect of these stories is how they advocate for women and women's rights, so much so that sometimes it is hard to believe these novels were written by a man. In Hornet's Nest, each part of the story is led by a blurb on women and combat. Part 1's blurb is about women fighting in wars. Part 2's is about Irish law banning women from combat and the Greeks discussing Amazons. Part 3 gives more information about the Amazons of Libya. Part 4 begins with a brief history of an all-female army of West Africa. The main character of these novels is a woman, fighting for her life, her spirit, her emotional health and her freedom. The other main character is a man, fighting for this woman, not in a romantic way, but in a freedom-for-all kind of way. Stereotypically, the villians are really evil brutes, and not a woman in the bunch. The father is the worst character of all; I certainly did not see that one coming, and I really like that, when I can't predict the direction a character or novel is going to take. Formulaic fiction this is not!
While the ending of Fire left a lot to be desired, the ending of Hornet's Nest neatly wrapped things up and ended much better. So much better, it forced me to think about the main character, Lisbeth Salander, and how she had grown and changed over the course of these three books. I always enjoy character growth and development.
There is nothing like ending one book and immediately being able to pick up the next one and start reading. No wait. No gaps in memory. No flashbacks to remind the reader what happened previously. The amazing thing about these last two books is the incredible continuity between them. Where Fire ends, Hornet's Nest picks right up. I love that, in part, because it happens so rarely between books in a series.
Now Fire was published in 2009 and Hornet's Nest in 2010, which explains why I'm late to the party. These were the paperback editions. Before I purchased them, I read the reviews on Amazon, something I rarely do because many of the reviews contain spoilers. And for some even stranger reason, I choose to read all the bad reviews. Fortunately, they did not have a negative effect on my reading, but those bad reviews were certainly entertaining in and of themselves.
These books are kind of hard to explain. They are not three separate stories but rather one story told in three volumes. This is not just a crime, who-dun-it murder story. There's some espionage and defection and political corruption and conspiracy and scandal thrown in. There is Russian mafia and Sweden's version of Hell's Angels. There are several love triangles happening - it would take a very large Venn diagram to work those out. There's a stalking situation that seems to be unrelated to crux of the story but serves as an important device to move a character from one place to another. It's a very large story, covering quite a bit of geography in Sweden and Europe. But there's also redemption and revenge and justice, poetic plus legal, and a whole lot of people working together to vindicate a single person, to right an egregious wrong.
The most fascinating, and rather surprising, aspect of these stories is how they advocate for women and women's rights, so much so that sometimes it is hard to believe these novels were written by a man. In Hornet's Nest, each part of the story is led by a blurb on women and combat. Part 1's blurb is about women fighting in wars. Part 2's is about Irish law banning women from combat and the Greeks discussing Amazons. Part 3 gives more information about the Amazons of Libya. Part 4 begins with a brief history of an all-female army of West Africa. The main character of these novels is a woman, fighting for her life, her spirit, her emotional health and her freedom. The other main character is a man, fighting for this woman, not in a romantic way, but in a freedom-for-all kind of way. Stereotypically, the villians are really evil brutes, and not a woman in the bunch. The father is the worst character of all; I certainly did not see that one coming, and I really like that, when I can't predict the direction a character or novel is going to take. Formulaic fiction this is not!
While the ending of Fire left a lot to be desired, the ending of Hornet's Nest neatly wrapped things up and ended much better. So much better, it forced me to think about the main character, Lisbeth Salander, and how she had grown and changed over the course of these three books. I always enjoy character growth and development.
Reportedly, Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara will reprise their roles from in the movie of Fire. I hope I don't have to wait too long. Maybe while I'm waiting I'll check out the Swedish movies of these books.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
"All the President's Men:" Book and Movie
It is a very interesting juxtaposition to watch a movie about a scandal so huge it forced a President to resign hours before watching a Presidential debate.
"All the President's Men" had a stellar ensemble cast. Robert Redford played the clean-cut, by-the-book Woodward while Dustin Hoffman played the chain-smoking Bernstein (and I must confess to seeing shadows of Tootsie in his performance). Jason Robards was Ben Bradlee, who is still alive. Hal Holbrook played Deep Throat, whom we now know was Mark Felt, Associate Director of the FBI. Meredith Baxter, you know, Alex P. Keaton's Mom on Family Ties, played Mrs. Sloan. Stephen Collins, the dad from Seventh Heaven, played Sloan. How young they all were back in 1976.
Of course, one could not help but notice how far cinematography and basic technology has come since then. There was one scene where Redford was on a pay phone and a car was driving by in the background, with all the occupants staring at him, like the celebrity he was. Woodstein, as Bradlee called the two, were doing research in the Library of Congress and the camera panned out, giving us the view from the ceiling looking down on them; the camera wiggled and moved! One scene showed Woodward searching through phonebook after phonebook to find a phone number. Now, we can just google it! The garage scenes where Woodward had his conversations with Deep Throat were highly suspenseful; not sure our modern film makers could have done any better. Seeing how a newsroom operated in the 70s with the reports using typewriters made me thankful for computers! Even the credit card receipts in the 70s are so different from now - they were handwritten for goodness sake!
The most fascinating thing, for me, was the scenes of Washington DC. As a city it hasn't changed much, yet, so much there has changed. Driving by the White House is not quite so easy now. Buildings have incredible security that was not even considered in 1976. It also seemed like there were more trees in DC in the 70s.
Unfortunately, corruption is still alive and well in DC. Where are the Bernsteins and Woodwards of today to uncover it?
"All the President's Men" had a stellar ensemble cast. Robert Redford played the clean-cut, by-the-book Woodward while Dustin Hoffman played the chain-smoking Bernstein (and I must confess to seeing shadows of Tootsie in his performance). Jason Robards was Ben Bradlee, who is still alive. Hal Holbrook played Deep Throat, whom we now know was Mark Felt, Associate Director of the FBI. Meredith Baxter, you know, Alex P. Keaton's Mom on Family Ties, played Mrs. Sloan. Stephen Collins, the dad from Seventh Heaven, played Sloan. How young they all were back in 1976.
Of course, one could not help but notice how far cinematography and basic technology has come since then. There was one scene where Redford was on a pay phone and a car was driving by in the background, with all the occupants staring at him, like the celebrity he was. Woodstein, as Bradlee called the two, were doing research in the Library of Congress and the camera panned out, giving us the view from the ceiling looking down on them; the camera wiggled and moved! One scene showed Woodward searching through phonebook after phonebook to find a phone number. Now, we can just google it! The garage scenes where Woodward had his conversations with Deep Throat were highly suspenseful; not sure our modern film makers could have done any better. Seeing how a newsroom operated in the 70s with the reports using typewriters made me thankful for computers! Even the credit card receipts in the 70s are so different from now - they were handwritten for goodness sake!
The most fascinating thing, for me, was the scenes of Washington DC. As a city it hasn't changed much, yet, so much there has changed. Driving by the White House is not quite so easy now. Buildings have incredible security that was not even considered in 1976. It also seemed like there were more trees in DC in the 70s.
Unfortunately, corruption is still alive and well in DC. Where are the Bernsteins and Woodwards of today to uncover it?
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