You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June, 2006.
In a wonderful week of reading, I’ve just finished issue 1 of the Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr. colloboration The Eternals. I’m absolutely bowled over by it. Quite apart from the excitement of Gaiman writing in this form again and seeing what he is doing with Jack Kirby’s original premise, the art is stunning. Eagerly awaiting the next instalment.
I’ve just finished Douglas Coupland’s latest book JPod. Unsurprisingly it’s a book that has attracted a huge amount of attention in the blogosphere as well as in the books pages of the newspapers and the traditional literary journals. Without committing a horrendous act of oversimplification, I think one could say that the book has interestingly caused a dichotomy between these two groups. It’s provoked much angst and soul searching amongst the more geeky bloggers who are troubled by (I paraphrase!) the anti-intellectual existentialism portrayed by the major characters, whilst almost to a person the literary critics, in the UK at least, have failed to understand it.
In my view, it’s easily the most impressive new novel of the year so far. Coupland (ostensibly using the device of the ‘Coupland’ character in the book not very selectively dumping chunks of the laptop of the main character, Ethan, rather than having to write original fiction himself) brilliantly captures the ever more fractured narrative of our lives, which are just about clinging on to their linearity. The fragments and the story are woven together in a way that is reminiscent of the most effective uses of the device in ‘modern’ literature but which is no way derivative or inferior. The use of the author as a character is as effectively done as in Coetzee’s recent Slow Man. The book is also very very funny and deadly accurate about many aspects of the way we live and work (I defy anyone not to feel a shudder of recognition in Ethan’s account of the behaviours typically evidenced at meetings).
At first I was bemused by the marketing around the book, for example the special edition, complete with JPod figures or the absolutely ludicrous blurb. Then I realised that Coupland’s sense of irony (a characteristic whose presence or absence is commented on several times in the book) was probably pervading every aspect and I bow to it.
Do read this book, whatever you might think of his previous work. I very much doubt there is a more accurate and gifted observer of certain aspects of our society (particularly but not exclusively on the effect on it of technology) writing today.
The New York Review of Books: Beckett: Still Stirring
Interesting article by Tim Parks in the current edition of the NYRB (publicly available) to follow up on today’s earlier post.
The Anne Atik book reviewed is published here by Faber and has been out here for a number of years. I absolutely agree with Parks that is a fascinating read.
Although I first came to Beckett via the theatre, I have to say that more and more I agree with Parks sentiment:
For those of us who were long ago enchanted by this prose and believe
it second to none, there will always be a certain sadness in the
reflection that Beckett achieved fame through the theater and will be
remembered by a wider public only for his plays.
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I suppose we have to accept that the main flurry of activity for the Beckett centenary is over. Overall, a bit muted perhaps, but there was much that was truly valuable. Here’s a quick roundup and some thoughts.
Theatre
The main focus of activity within the UK was at the Barbican in April (and the Gate Theatre, Dublin), with a number of productions. The uunavoidable thoughts for me were about what had changed since the last time the Barbican and Gate put these plays on. Most obviously, the festival itself was smaller and less ambitious. So, not complete as it was in 1999. No Happy Days for example. There were some absolute gems though.
Above all I was reminded of the power of Beckett’s late pieces for theatre. How they expand to fill the mind to an almost obsession degree. Seeing Rockaby and Ohio Impromptu on stage for the first time I found them gnawing away at me so that I went back to the Pit again for their last performance.
Equally the Come and Go/Footfalls double bill left me hugely uplifted. Extraordinary those these works are on the printed page, to see them realised is thrilling. In particular, there was a performance of utter magnetism and luminosity by Justine Mitchell in Footfalls.
Of the larger works, not having seen the Walter Asmus production of Waiting for Godot in 1999 I eagerly awaited the chance to see it in the most recent Barbican celebrations and wasn’t disappointed. Clearly this is not ‘Beckett’s production’ nor is it (as The Guardian’s critic tried to suggest) some sort of museum piece. It was a perfectly played and judged, utterly vibrant revival, offering many insights into the heart of this great play. For very positive reasons I think it can properly be judged as historic. Out of such a fine ensemble it seems wrong to single out an individual, but I found Barry McGovern’s Vladimir compelling.
Incidentally, the production used a version of the revised text that Beckett used for his 1975 Schiller Theatre production. I find it hugely frustrating that the only way to read this text is in Volume 1 of the Theatrical Notebooks. An absolutely invaluable volume but increasingly hard to get hold of and hardly handy to carry around. How about an affordable paperback of this and the other texts in the Notebooks series Faber?
Radio
The Radio 3 output though was bizarre and disappointing. New plays inspired by Beckett on The Verb (almost a complete no go area for me in any event because of the presenter). I struggled through half of the Anthony Mingella offering and gave up. Then there was a Beckett Evening with some curious ideas. Not I for radio anyone? I’m surprised that idea made it past the Beckett Estate unscathed. A new Waiting for Godot, when there was one at least one truly excellent production already in the archive (a cast including Alan Howard and Michael Maloney and rebroadcast in 1999 to coincide with the last Beckett festival) which simply offered no discernible justification for its existence apart from a commercial tie in to Naxos.
Books
The major tribute volume, Beckett Remembering, Remembering Beckett was a curious affair. Difficult to know what to say. The word which won’t go away is slight. I feel this is somewhat unkind but in some respects it does reflect the achievement of Knowlson’s biography. There is very little new and some very variable contributions.
So whilst enjoying Coetzee’s whimsy, the memories of members of the Schiller Theatre (much discussion here and elsewhere about how Beckett wasn’t a ‘theatre person’ from which some of the ‘theatre people’ do not emerge very well) and Gontarski’s insight, I cringed at some others: the gripes and self-pity of a member of the San Quentin Drama workshop, Michael Rudman’s piece (astonishing that he allowed this to be published) and I mostly reacted badly (with some honourable exceptions) to the academic reverence and sentimentality that pervades the second half of the volume.
So, doesn’t make much sense without the ‘companion’ biography but then once you have read that it’s difficult to see what this adds in any substantial way. Perhaps I was expecting too much. Generally in the introductions to the sections within the book the appetite is whetted more than the contributions justify and I suppose I never tempered my expectations appropriately as I read on.
I should say that I did then reread the Knowlson biography. On a second reading my admiration for its telling of the life is undiminished. I am surprised though at the cursory attention given to many of the texts. I suppose this would have doubled the length of the book. But what a book it could have been. Knowlson is clearly as well placed as anyone to have made a telling synthesis of man and work. This time round I also notice either lapses of detail or him working with texts since revised. But in every respect the book sends one hurrying back to the primary source, so unequivocally effective.
My favourite new book though was The Faber Companion to Samuel Beckett, a first UK publication of a book which came out in America a couple of years ago. I defy anyone interested in Beckett to be able to put this book down. You select a page at random and you are hooked, cross-referencing away.
A warm word of tribute to the Grove Press in the USA for their centenary edition. Handsome and handy and very much nicer than anything available in the UK. There was talk in a couple of the articles I read of a possible Pléiade edition. This would be extremely exciting, one day, given the standards implied. No sign of any letters this year, either although I understand Cambridge should be publishing something in 2007.
Incidentally, of the Beckett texts I read again, I have to say it was the early work that I enjoyed most, particularly Murphy and Watt. I think one has different preferences and emphases each time one comes back to Beckett though.
Exhibition
Finally to pay tribute to a really memorable smallish exhibition at Reading, Samuel Beckett – The Irish European. It combined texts with other material, including stage props in a really imaginary way that should serve as a model for future exhibitions not just of Beckett but for other men of letters and the theatre.
So what more did I expect?
I suppose a better tribute from the BBC (as I say, the radio output was disappointing, the TV nonexistent)
Something perhaps from the RSC or the National? It might have given some valuable additional perspective, although I suppose they were put off (or actually prohibited) by the Barbican event
I was though, very grateful, as I am sure many others have been, for what was achieved.
So, finally got the family PC running in an almost satisfactory way.
Finally managed to download and install Vista. Used it for almost a day. Only one slight problem, which is that if you want to use that Internet thingy on a wireless network it pretty well doesn’t work. I expect it was to do with my slightly wacky choice of laptop manufacturer. Dell, I think they are called. Oh well. The desktop looks pretty and let’s not underestimate the importance of that.
Apparently one or two others experienced the same problem. Perhaps that is a slight understatement. And the solution? Still waiting for that.
Also, it appears ever so slightly surprising that Microsoft don’t appear to offer its own antivirus product for Vista yet.
Anyway, that apart I’m happy.
Except that everything seems to run twice as slowly.
Did I mention how nice the desktop is?
Boing Boing: Darwin’s tortoise dead at 176
Just in case you haven’t seen this. Extraordinary, particularly to those of us who had forgotten about the lifespan of tortoises. The first ’scientific’ post on this blog. Hooray!
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The BBC 2 website offers the chance to watch The Culture Show again online. What a curious affair this is, very redolent of other TV arts programme offerings of various vintages. I watched it for the first time ever last night for the Simon Rattle interview. Not much new here but nice to see Rattle so philosophical. There are some splendid oldish clips though. A late 70s/early 80s CBSO took me right back to my youth in Birmingham Town Hall and there was a choice extract from Face the Music in 1979 where Rattle had clearly non plussed Joseph Cooper. What a programme that was (not)! If you tried to devise a format like it now people would think you were not in your right mind. Anyway…
There are a host of really excellent concerts from the Aldeburgh Festival from Radio 3 on the Radio Player and more to come this week, plus the first concerts in Paul Lewis’ Beethoven cycle.
Finally for those that heard the excerpt from what sounds like a brilliant CD of Shostakovich 3rd, 7th and 8th quartets on DG on CD Review recently I discover this too is available on iTunes. I think they have been sneakily planting good CDs ever since I moaned!
I have one of those weekends I put off as much I can in a cowardly way. For one thing migrating the family computer to a new model. All fine until for some baffling reason it is impossible for more than one user at a time to have Internet Explorer open. Much research on various support forums until the problem comes down to McAfee SpamKiller. I had already had several unhappy experiences with this product which led me to take it off my laptop, as it was frequently making Outlook (2003 not the beta of 2007) crash. I should have known better I suppose but as I don’t use the computer and everyone else who uses it uses web based mail it didn’t seem a huge issue and besides the new machine (a Dell) came with a free 36 month subscription. Anyway, free or not, it didn’t take me long to realise the balance of utility came with getting rid of McAfee. It hung half way through uninstalltion and then every time after that I attempted to call up the uninstaller all I got was a blank screen and a menu bar. Aaarrggghh.
The manual uninstallation was long and painful. Much registry hacking etc.
How can companies put out software like this.? No wonder a free 36 month subscription was on offer. If they paid me I would never touch the miserable lousy product again.
Then I installed Norton. Not without difficulty again but it is finally working.
A mere 5 hours of my weekend down the drain.
And that’s without recounting the difficulties of installing Vista on my laptop, which I had thought would be a sensible thing to do in parallel. Not sensible as it turned out. In short, I am still running XP whilst gathering strength to tackle Vista when I next have aeons of time to spare.
Why am I telling you this? One choose your antivirus product with care! Two, it’s cathartic of course…
I've been wondering about what Yahoo and the new Microsoft web based mail services might have to offer over GMail, which I've used for a while now. Below is link to an interesting article I found via Digg which answers that question.
Various sites have commented on the results of a new Hitwise survey (here is the TechCrunch version) which shows that that Flickr is only sixth among the top 10 photo sharing sites.
I’m among those somewhat surprised. Apparently it's the MySpace traffic that accounts for the Photobucket lead. It just goes to show how one's innate perception about things may not be reflected in reality.
TechCrunch has some interesting but rather less surprising facts on Digg. It's launching a very interesting looking Version 3 on Monday has long since surpassed Slashdot (a site I continue to be very fond of and still gravitate to more than Digg. Is this me responding to paternalism rather than democracy? Another day…) and is challenging the New York Times.
I'm not quite sure I'd go with the view of Digg as 'the newspaper of the web' though as TechCrunch has it. Seems the wrong metaphor somehow. How about the Junior Common Room of the web?
