(no subject)

[fajrdrako]

From March 19, 2009: What’s the worst 'best' book you’ve ever read — the one everyone says is so great, but you can’t figure out why?

Easy: Moby Dick. I'd heard great quotes from it on X-Files and Star Trek and it sounded brilliant. So only a few years ago I sat down and read it cover to cover, and haven't been so bored (or frustrated) by a novel since Ivanhoe. But I understand why some people might like Ivanhoe, or, rather, might have done so in the 19th century. Moby Dick? I just didn't get it.

It quotes well, though. Ignorance is the parent of fear.

It was a sharp, cold Christmas.

Comments

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the wonderful 1968 BBC adaptation? Alasdair Sim as Amos, Rosalie Crutchley as Judith, Sarah Badel as Flora, and Peter Egan as Seth. Brilliant! It's not out on DVD, alas: I had to get a secondhand VHS set from the US.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

I haven't, unfortunately. I saw the one from the 1990s with Ian McKellen as Amos, Kate Beckinsale as Flora, Rufus Sewell as Seth and Eileen Atkins as Judith, and I liked it but not as much as I liked the book. I wouldn't mind seeing a different version as I wasn't too convinced by Kate Beckinsale for some reason; I will add it to my list of "things to track down at some point".

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That was one of the things that got me hooked on Rufus Sewell. Except I was crazy over him already; that's why I watched the movie. I had not at that time read Cold Comfort Farm and had little idea ahead of time what it was.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Rufus was wearing far too many clothes, though, as Seth! He even fastened his shirt and wore a waistcoat! Seth in the book is permanently unbuttoning his shirt. (Peter, despite being fair-haired, was (un)dressed far more appropriately: quite an eye-opener for one of my friends, who was far more used to seeing him in middle-age in comedies!)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

LOL - Seth is fun.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I love the way he starts off as this absurd Lawrentian stereotype and turns out to be just a movie-struck kid!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I sent fajrdrako a copy on disc. It's got a much longer running time (the 1990 one was only about 90-100 minutes; the 1968 one is more like 140 minutes), so there's more of the book in it, including the narrator, who highlights the purple-prose bits with asterisks that appear on screen!

I thought the 1990s version threw away the wonderful scene when Seth does all his Lawrentian spiel while Flora is sewing. The 1968 version is hilarious.

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

the narrator, who highlights the purple-prose bits with asterisks that appear on screen!

How brilliant! I did miss the asterisks in the other adaptation, and I don't think they had all the references to The Higher Common Sense either and that was a shame too. It is always better when they can get as much of the book in as possible.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

The narrator is Joan Bakewell in voice-over. And you get the on-screen montages of nature burgeoning, flowers blooming, wildlife shagging, & c, whenever she's reading. Considering how long ago it was made, it's far more risqué in places than the 1990s version, but I suspect that's because the 1990s TV movie version was made with an eye to US cinema release. US cinema seems happier with violence than it is with sexual references.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

There are so many shows I really, really want, which aren't on DVD.