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| yambu |
 Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 12:30 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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[quote="Syd"]knox wrote: Happy Columbus Day. Or, for Yambu and Bart, Happy Native Peoples Day. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 7:49 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Befade wrote: Never Let Me Go was a great book and a great movie. I am reading It Can't Happen Here now. I'm having trouble sorting all the characters and their funny names. I really enjoyed Babbit.
I started with Kingsblood Royal.
Not sure why Lewis uses these odd and elaborate names.
The wife is named Vestal Kingsblood. Neighbors are the Curtiss Havocks. Another character is Susie Pzolt or something like that. The unusual names are distracting. And don't seem to add anything as they do in say Dickens.
Overall, Lewis has a rather clunky writing style. Seems often like a throwback to the pre-1920's before a distinctly American identity and voice arose in literature. He does get a good line in now and then.
Eg: "The struggle of the honest and innocent Neil to express his racial ideas was complicated by the fact that he had no notion what those ideas were."
That captures both Sinclair Lewis' wit and clunky writing.
I would be tempted to read "honest and innocent" as intentional parody, except most of his sentences contain such descriptions cluttering things up.
Today that sentence would simply be written:
"Neil's struggle to express his racial ideas was complicated by the fact that he had no notion what those ideas were."
Complicated is a nice touch. Notion sounds old-fashioned but he didn't want to repeat ideas a 3rd time.
He is pretty tough about exposing casual racism, and seems to be a writer of ideas and outrage rather than a stylist. I read Arrowsmith in high school, and recall that the writing was a bit plodding. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 3:04 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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gromit wrote:
Overall, Lewis has a rather clunky writing style. Seems often like a throwback to the pre-1920's before a distinctly American identity and voice arose in literature. He does get a good line in now and then....
I can't remember which book. One town is transitioning rapidly from frontier to more comfortable living. It has the Moose, Elks, Rotary, Chamber of Commerce. The men go to all their dinners, networking like mad, though there are not yet enough backs to be slapped. Very funny.
The guy who manufactures men's high collars for the region is the richest, and so automatically beats out everyone else as the leading citizen. Doctors, judges, etc. step back. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 11:05 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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If we are still a film forum, current events are probably worth talking about....
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/14/opinion/sunday/harvey-weinstein-sarah-polley.html
I tried to imagine being spoken to the way Weinstein spoke to Polley, in that meeting in his office when she was 19. Made my skin crawl. Fortunately, we all benefitted from her choice to become a director, rather than a career actress, given her great directorial talents. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 2:13 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Harvey's a funny name . . .
(not to make light of the situation. I'm just a bit worn down by all the details. Hopefully powerful males are learning they won't get away with such behavior, and women are learning they need to speak out so others aren't subjected to the same) |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 10:36 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| When I was new in NYC and working at Dell Publishing Purse Books, I sometimes babysat the assistant editor's four-year-old daughter--they lived in my neighborhood and she paid me $5 an hour, very helpful in 1970. But then her husband drove me home one evening and started coming on to me, asking for a kiss, and so forth--I didn't really know how to handle it, and got out of the car quickly and didn't babysit for them again. I couldn't tell her why I kept turning her down, since we worked together every day and it would have made the office very uncomfortable. They got divorced a few years later. Fortunately, that's the only time I faced that situation, since the publishing world has a high percentage of women and gays, so predatory men are rare. But I know it's a problem that has always existed and will probably always exist, as long as there are people (usually women) who need work or money, and men (very seldom women) who take advantage of them. The only reason the Weinstein case blew up in the media was the Hollywood stars angle. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 11:29 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Weinstein = proxy for Trump.
Trump is a monster who is proving hard to get rid of, so people can enjoy watching another corrupt wealthy molester topple more quickly. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 12:28 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| When the eclipse happened, I read something on the Internet about how a total eclipse in that astrological position was believed to presage the fall of a highly placed leader. I hoped it would be Trump, but maybe Weinstein qualifies. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 11:20 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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We really need more eclipses located in the House of Throw the Bum Out.
This latest thing with "he signed up for that" just makes you wonder how stupid and callous Trump can be before his astonishingly durable base starts to erode. Imagine if Obama, or HRC, had said something like that. HRC was right: people who still support Trump ARE "deplorable." |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 11:27 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Almost every day Trump says or does something that makes me think, suppose that was Obama or Hillary? It's amazing what he gets by with, or has made "acceptable." It's almost funny watching the Republicans tie themselves into knots trying to explain why they go along with him. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2017 11:32 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| Arrest warrants to be executed Monday. Woohoo! |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2017 5:15 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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bartist wrote: Arrest warrants to be executed Monday. Woohoo!
I'm saving my woo-hoo's until we hear more. But my fingers, toes, and eyes are all crossed. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2017 9:47 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| For sure. My "woohoo" is more on behalf of there being some sign of momentum developing on Russiagate. With grand juries, from what I know of them, things don't usually happen this quickly unless someone hit a mother lode of criminality. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2017 10:04 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Speculation is that Flynn will be one indicted. I'm thinking Kushner, too, for giving false information for his security clearance. Probably not Donald Trump, Jr., though he's coming off as the biggest idiot. (Not counting Conway and Sanders.) |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2017 10:30 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Flynn and Manafort are the most likely contenders, and also, unfortunately, the least interesting to me. I'm hoping for Trump Jr., Kushner, Bannon, and/or Ivanka. |
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