Monday, and a Meme!
Mar. 5th, 2012 03:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nightdog_barksMore beautiful weather -- 75 degrees (23.9 degrees Celsius) and not a cloud in the sky. Doing housely stuff today with the back door and windows open. Finished Sheri Holman's Witches on the Road Tonight and liked it a lot. Here's an excerpt:
It was at one of those seminars, led by a rabbi -- and, yes, I am a sucker for a long, white beard -- that I heard the most cogent argument for a Creator. This delightful old rabbi told us God commanded His angels, "Make me a creature with the ability to say thank you."
... snip ...
It takes many attempts and many more failures before we mortals can offer up those two simple words. Thank you. Some of us die never being able to do so. Some give lip service to our thanks, but most of us don't even know what we're grateful for. We throw our happiness away with both hands.
:-) While I'm not sure I agree with Eddie, it's a lovely piece of writing, and I give the book a strong thumbs up. Magical realism isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, so I'll caution for that.
The meme is from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yarroway, who said,
1. Leave a comment to this post - specifically saying that you would like a letter.
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Post the name of five fictional characters whose names begin with that letter, and your thoughts on each. The characters can be from books, movies or TV shows.
... and I made an Executive Decision that the first or last name could start with K. :-D
1) Keith Talent, from Martin Amis' (brilliant) novel London Fields. Oh my god, what can I say about Keith? He's a dim moke, a violent, dart-playing monster with murderous intent, and I adore him, just as I adore Teddy Bass in the film Sexy Beast (although Keith is nowhere near as urbanely smooth as Teddy). Martin Amis is another one of those writers who showed me how written dialogue could flow just as engagingly as the spoken word (Tom Wolfe is another notable example with Bonfire of the Vanities), and Keith Talent, with his irrepressible optimism and dreams of dart-championship glory, is one of his best examples.
2) Charles Foster Kane, from Citizen Kane. Yes, I'm one of those tiresome people who think this film is a masterpiece, brilliant in every frame and shot, a crowning achievement of American cinema, blah blah blahdy-blah. Kane, to me, is the quintessential Lost Boy, someone who never really found what he was looking for and was never able to return home. And it wouldn't surprise me at all if there's some Charles Kane/Jed Leland fic out there. I'm just sayin' ...
3) Chin Ho Kelly, from Hawaii Five-0. Those eyes. Those cheekbones. Those arms. Those ... well, everything. He's smart, he's funny, he's badass, he's ... did I mention those cheekbones?
4) Clark Kent, Superman. The secret hero. Good-deed doer, fraught with vulnerability. Bundle of archetypes. Another Lost Boy. Where is he when we need him?
5) K, from Men in Black. One of my favorite movies, one of my favorite actors, K roams the streets and rural environs of New York looking for the one thing he doesn't want to find. He doesn't like his job anymore, but he'll do it until he can't, reveling in the occasional enjoyment of his Ford POS rocket car and his beloved Elvis music. Yet another hero who can't find his way back home.
Honorable mention: Kalvin, from the House episode, "Hunting." Kono Kalakaua, from Hawaii Five-0. Kevin Arnold, from The Wonder Years. "Kid" Curry, from Alias Smith and Jones. And Joe Kavalier, from Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.
It was at one of those seminars, led by a rabbi -- and, yes, I am a sucker for a long, white beard -- that I heard the most cogent argument for a Creator. This delightful old rabbi told us God commanded His angels, "Make me a creature with the ability to say thank you."
... snip ...
It takes many attempts and many more failures before we mortals can offer up those two simple words. Thank you. Some of us die never being able to do so. Some give lip service to our thanks, but most of us don't even know what we're grateful for. We throw our happiness away with both hands.
:-) While I'm not sure I agree with Eddie, it's a lovely piece of writing, and I give the book a strong thumbs up. Magical realism isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, so I'll caution for that.
The meme is from
yarroway, who said,1. Leave a comment to this post - specifically saying that you would like a letter.
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Post the name of five fictional characters whose names begin with that letter, and your thoughts on each. The characters can be from books, movies or TV shows.
... and I made an Executive Decision that the first or last name could start with K. :-D
1) Keith Talent, from Martin Amis' (brilliant) novel London Fields. Oh my god, what can I say about Keith? He's a dim moke, a violent, dart-playing monster with murderous intent, and I adore him, just as I adore Teddy Bass in the film Sexy Beast (although Keith is nowhere near as urbanely smooth as Teddy). Martin Amis is another one of those writers who showed me how written dialogue could flow just as engagingly as the spoken word (Tom Wolfe is another notable example with Bonfire of the Vanities), and Keith Talent, with his irrepressible optimism and dreams of dart-championship glory, is one of his best examples.
2) Charles Foster Kane, from Citizen Kane. Yes, I'm one of those tiresome people who think this film is a masterpiece, brilliant in every frame and shot, a crowning achievement of American cinema, blah blah blahdy-blah. Kane, to me, is the quintessential Lost Boy, someone who never really found what he was looking for and was never able to return home. And it wouldn't surprise me at all if there's some Charles Kane/Jed Leland fic out there. I'm just sayin' ...
3) Chin Ho Kelly, from Hawaii Five-0. Those eyes. Those cheekbones. Those arms. Those ... well, everything. He's smart, he's funny, he's badass, he's ... did I mention those cheekbones?
4) Clark Kent, Superman. The secret hero. Good-deed doer, fraught with vulnerability. Bundle of archetypes. Another Lost Boy. Where is he when we need him?
5) K, from Men in Black. One of my favorite movies, one of my favorite actors, K roams the streets and rural environs of New York looking for the one thing he doesn't want to find. He doesn't like his job anymore, but he'll do it until he can't, reveling in the occasional enjoyment of his Ford POS rocket car and his beloved Elvis music. Yet another hero who can't find his way back home.
Honorable mention: Kalvin, from the House episode, "Hunting." Kono Kalakaua, from Hawaii Five-0. Kevin Arnold, from The Wonder Years. "Kid" Curry, from Alias Smith and Jones. And Joe Kavalier, from Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.