Re: A *** & Bull Story

michael adams goes:

"Alan Hope" <usenet.identity@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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michael adams goes:

"Julian Karswell" <hauntedriver@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1187601614.597514.121060@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I'd avoided this because of...well, 'The Parole Officer'....but caught
it last night for the first time. It's an excellent film that I would
heartily recommend. What John Landis would call 'smart'. Some very
funny jokes, skilfull editing and scripting, and some genuinely
amusing banter between Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan.

I always thought one of the essential points about "Tristram Shandy"
was that it was the first book to made specific references to itself
as a book in the hands of the reader.

The first in English, perhaps. Don Quixote came first. Cervantes has
the second half written supposedly as a reaction to the outcry caused
by the first half, which you've just been reading.

By way of the typographical devices
- the totally blacked out pages, the use of different typefaces, the reference
to the marbled pages which have actually been included in the book, at the
end of chapter 29.

This is the sort of thing I'm talking about Barker -

http://i10.tinypic.com/67qqp85.jpg

Childish, petty, moi ?

Anyway if there was one book in the whole of the English language
least deserving to be turned into a film for this very reason, then
it has to be "Tristram Shandy".

It's commonly reckoned to be unfilmable, so you just knew some cocky
twat was going to try.

So it's particulalrly pleasing that even the great man himself,
Stephen Fry, didn't turn down the opportunity to grace this literary
and bibliographical outrage with his presence.

I'm a great fan of Fry

...

Yeah well, you're probably a big admirer of Richard Branson and
any number of other popular heros.

Oops. Guess again.

What with Fry being the thinking man's Angus Deaton and all that.

He's a little more than that, but so what if he weren't? I'm not
looking for him to remove my tumour or cure world hunger. What he
does, he does very well.

I much prefer unsung heros myself.

Gosh, how adolescent of you.

Although it is some achievement I must admit, to invent an entirely new mental
condition and have it accepted by the more gullible fringes of the medical
establishment and garner support from fellow "sufferers" such as Robbie "mature"
Williams. In order to explain scientfically the reason why at times, to all intents
and purposes you've acted like an insufferable self-centred arsehole.

I get the impression he stole your bird at some point. Bug up the
arse, Michael? But why? He didn't invent manic-depressive disorder by
a long way. Blame someone else.

Although "insufferable self-centred arsehole syndrome" doesn't quite fit the bill
for obvious reasons.

He's a luvvie, for ***'s sake. He's supposed to be a self-centred
arsehole.

You sure know how to pick 'em Chum. I'll give you that.

Goodness, a TV presenter/actor who's a bit up himself. How unusual.

Lynn Barbers been around for a very long time BTW in the Mail and Independent
to name but two.

Making a name for herself by leeching off people with bigger names.
Her entire stock in trade has been interviewing celebs. She's never
once written even a Sunday paper article on her own initiative. So
it's a bit rich having her lambast Fry. Apart from anything else, the
article in which she does so is fucking abysmally written, and not
argued at all. You could have done a better job, even with all that
unreasonable bile that's eating away at you.

see
http://grapes2dot0.blogspot.com/2007/08/stephen-fried.html) but I have
to admit he would turn up for the opening of Ulrika Johnsson's fanny.
He wouldn't turn down a part if it fell off a leper and turned up in
his River Cafe risotto. And so forth.

I'll just leave this plug in.


--
AH
http://grapes2dot0.blogspot.com



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