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| Ghulam |
 Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 1:03 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| The Hindi-English movie "The Lunchbox" (Dabba) is now in general release in the United States. Mumbai's much praised system of lunchbox deliveries from home to office by hundreds of bicycles and local trains is very well depicted, although a rare exception to its efficiency being used as a basis for an unlikely affair is somewhat silly. There are two or three other interconnected stories, the chief one being of an old accountant, who while getting ready for retirement, undergoes a character metamorphosis under the influence of a younger colleague and a young lunch-packing housewife. It is interesting in parts, but the movie as a whole does not hang together too well. Irrfan Khan delivers as usual. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 1:50 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Ghulam wrote: The Hindi-English movie "The Lunchbox" (Dabba) is now in general release in the United States....
Yabba Dabba Doo! I saw the trailer for this, which focused entirely on the switched boxes romance thread; I thought the woman was stunningly beautiful but other than that had little motivation to see it. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 4:30 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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Joe: What I've read of Salinger's life and from the movie and Joyce Maynard's writings I would say he had a problem with a compulsive focus on young women. And one of those dudes who can easily ingratiate himself into a vulnerable person's life with no reluctance to dismiss same person quite cruelly.
Wouldn't want to know him.
I read Catcher in the Rye for the first time recently. I had more pleasure in reading The Goldfinch than Catcher......as far as reading about a teenage boy growing up in NYC. Holden was critical of everyone except his little sister and had no direction......not an inspiration except I guess to some young guys who were motivated to be killers. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 4:46 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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Befade wrote: ...
I read Catcher in the Rye for the first time recently. I had more pleasure in reading The Goldfinch than Catcher......as far as reading about a teenage boy growing up in NYC. Holden was critical of everyone except his little sister and had no direction......not an inspiration except I guess to some young guys who were motivated to be killers.
Not an inspiration for sure, but maybe some take consolation seeing their own alienation or confusion mirrored or articulated and others can empathise. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 5:44 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| I'm talking fifty-five years ago, but wasn't the emotional center his recurring dream that he was catching little children from getting lost in the rye? He was a screwed up kid with no guidance from anywhere, yet he could show empathy, like with the girl he felt up. It's a great book for kids. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 7:37 pm |
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It's a good book and an interesting one. Holden was a screw up and you could be sorry for him, but you wouldn't like to be with him. I think Salinger was pretty well writing about himself when he was a teen.
I agree with Betsy, he wasn't a very nice person. Completely self-centred in my opinion. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 2:19 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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| It's an irritating but admittedly well-written book. If you're in your teens and self-centered (what teen isn't?), yet like to think of yourself as a caring person (what teen doesn't?), then Holden--who is in his teens and self-centered, yet likes to think of himself as a caring person--is the right character to spend time with. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 2:22 am |
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Betsy,
While I'm not crazy about Maynard's writing, I'm sorry she went through what she went through with him, and I'm glad she ultimately confronted him. And I don't think she deserved the attacks she got after she wrote about him. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 7:55 am |
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Location: Black Hills
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| Read "The Fall" by Albert Camus, and Holden won't look nearly as self-centered. Clemence, the narrator, wants to think of himself as a caring person, but his vanity and narcissism is world-class. I couldn't have read "The Fall" when I was a teenager, I would have just stopped reading about 30 pages into it, but CITR was a more accessible kind of alienation. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 8:45 am |
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Maybe so. Although I wonder if, unlike Salinger, that wasn't Camus' intention (which would make for an entirely different reading experience).
I like The Stranger and I like The Plague, I read Caligula but was indifferent to it. That's all the Camus I'm familiar with. Was thinking of reading The Rebel, but haven't gotten around to it yet. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 9:26 am |
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Joe Vitus wrote: Betsy,
While I'm not crazy about Maynard's writing, I'm sorry she went through what she went through with him, and I'm glad she ultimately confronted him. And I don't think she deserved the attacks she got after she wrote about him.
Maynard did an autobiography when she was a teenager which I liked quite a bit. It was about growing up in the late sixties and it was interesting to compare her experiences with those I had a few years earlier. (For instance my Beatles were the clean-cut ones, while hers were the scruffy ones into the Maharishi.)
I've read little of hers outside of that. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 9:28 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Syd wrote: Joe Vitus wrote: Betsy,
While I'm not crazy about Maynard's writing, I'm sorry she went through what she went through with him, and I'm glad she ultimately confronted him. And I don't think she deserved the attacks she got after she wrote about him.
Maynard did an autobiography when she was a teenager which I liked quite a bit. It was about growing up in the late sixties and it was interesting to compare her experiences with those I had a few years earlier. (For instance my Beatles were the clean-cut ones, while hers were the scruffy ones into the Maharishi.)
Your "clean-cut" Beatles were the same ones decried by then-elders as being scruffy hippies themselves, due to their mop tops. How times do change, as Bob Dylan memorably noted. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 2:22 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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Joyce Maynard wrote Labor Day which I saw as a film with Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin. An intense romantic tear jerker that didn't get much attention.
Good analysis of Catcher, Joe. I guess nobody here read The Goldfinch. Same subject with much more depth and variety plus brilliant writing. Not likely a teenage read. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 2:34 pm |
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Location: Houston
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Thanks. I'd never heard of the The Goldfinch, but did look it up on your recommendation. Will probably end up reading it.  |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 3:30 pm |
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Location: Black Hills
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| Labor Day - that's the one where Kate goes all Stockholm Syndrome when held in captivity by Josh? Seriously, I heard some pretty negative stuff about it, so didn't see in the theater. Might check it out on DVD. I don't care much for Kate Winslet, but I think Josh Brolin is quite appealing. |
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