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Post by Shrink Proof on May 27, 2020 11:04:46 GMT
"Oh, nobody reads actual texts nowadays. We only read commentaries." It was one of those revelatory moments. Wow, just ... wow! This must be the saddest - and dumbest - thing I heard in a while. No wonder everything is going to hell. Reminds me of a similarly sad incident I witnessed on a hospital ward about 10 years ago. A bright-eyed young medical student was explaining to a curmudgeonly old-school Consultant Surgeon (who was also clinically brilliant - think James Robertson Justice as Sir Lancelot Spratt in the "Doctor" films) that the new, modern, all singing & dancing medical curriculum meant that nowadays students were "trained to achieve competence". "Utter piffle," he snorted. "When I was a student we were trained to achieve excellence!"
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Post by Knygathin on May 27, 2020 12:59:39 GMT
I am going to watch the 1935 film She, colorized by Ray Harryhausen in 2006 as a tribute to producer Merian C. Cooper.
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Post by helrunar on May 27, 2020 13:12:26 GMT
In terms of drama and characterization, the 1935 She is my favorite of all the films, though I would not care to watch a colorized version--even from the hand of such an extraordinary artist as Harryhausen. Just take note that the story in the film was considerably changed from Haggard's book, which is excellent and has considerable virtue.
The most startling change is the name of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed. In the books, HER name is Ayesha, which Haggard said should be pronounced ASSH-ha... well, you can guess why it was changed for the 1935 film. SHE got HER name back in the Ursula Andress film but the pronunciation was changed to ay-EE-sha which I think is how it is generally pronounced today. A side note is that there was a popular TV personality in Britain in the Seventies named Ayesha--she appeared in the cult series UFO and went on to be a variety show presenter. I believe I just read about her attendance at a program at the BFI last November, so she is still around.
Anyhow in the '35 film SHE is named Hashem-o-tep... I guess somebody came up with that from Im-Ho-Tep in Karloff's The Mummy. There are several other changes to the plot and the characters as well.
Too bad the book is not on your reading list, but I'm all too keenly aware of the limitations of time and energy...
cheers, H.
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Post by helrunar on May 27, 2020 13:19:44 GMT
Follow-up to the texts vs commentaries thing:
I left academia behind around a quarter of a century ago. There were a number of factors involved, including considerations of livelihood and how I wanted to live my life. The ways in which "high theory" and ideological imperatives were taking over so much academic "discourse" and the increasing frenzy of a parade of buzzwords in lieu of serious research made me disillusioned with the likelihood of being able to get real work done. That process of disillusionment started early on... I was already beginning to feel it in the late Seventies.
I don't like the term "pc"... I am actually quite sympathetic to efforts to open up our society to new ways of living and doing things, and I am firmly committed to equal rights and equal opportunities for all. What I have never believed is that we all have the same level of abilities, talents, or temperament. Variety is the spice of life.
The teaching I now do--most of it is mentoring, not teaching as such, but occasionally I do have to take the bull by the horns as it were--is not in an academic context.
Sorry for the blather. Just felt like clarifying. As you were!
H.
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Post by Knygathin on May 27, 2020 14:11:19 GMT
In terms of drama and characterization, the 1935 She is my favorite of all the films, though I would not care to watch a colorized version--even from the hand of such an extraordinary artist as Harryhausen. .. H. I know, normally I don't either. But I feel there is a special case here. Cooper wanted to make She in color, but was denied by RKO at the last minute. Cooper and Harryhausen worked together on Mighty Joe Young, so there is a relevant connection between them. Don't know how much of this colorization was the actual effort of Harryhausen himself. He was pretty old at the time. Perhaps he was supervising and guiding. Still, he was in on it, and that counts for me. I have a colorized version of Night of the Living Dead, and it is pretty odd, difficult to take seriously. Still, I think some good colorizations have been made, like for The Phantom of the Opera (1925).
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Post by helrunar on May 27, 2020 14:16:19 GMT
Phantom of the Opera is a very different case... the Bal Masque sequence was filmed in the early Technicolor process. I haven't seen the restoration you mention, but in the mid Seventies, one of the main TV channels in the US started showing silent films with the original tinted effects that I have read were achieved by sliding different colored panes in front of the projector in the theatre.
I didn't realize that Cooper wanted to film She in color. I suppose that does make a difference.
Would love to read your thoughts about the movie after you have seen it.
H.
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Post by Knygathin on May 28, 2020 9:19:29 GMT
What I start to fool around with and stir, usually goes down all the way. Arghh! I have succumbed! Like I surrendered to Charles Birkin, I have now surrendered to H. Rider Haggard! He seems important, if for nothing else then for historical reasons. If I want to be a serious fantasist, then I probably should get acquainted with him.
I downloaded two nice pdfs of SHE and PEOPLE OF THE MIST from archive.org. (First looked for audio recordings, to save my eyes, but couldn't find any good ones. Audio books can be very satisfying, if read by someone with real authority and not some young overconfident brat, and if the play speed is turned down one step under normal.) They are now shuffled in somewhere in my towering to be read book-pile. I can't say when, or even if, I will read them. But my mind stands open and receptive.
I probably should, also, sometime, get around, to reading THE WELL AT THE WORLD'S END by William Morris! And then THE WOOD BEYOND THE WORLD, ... or maybe read it first. And then ..., and ..., and ...
I sometimes wish I was a fast reader, but I really don't think fast readers are as richly rewarded, as I am. I like to linger over each sentence and paragraph, almost like poetry, to get its full picture and meaning, and to remember as much as possible. Preferably I read aloud. And by candle light. I don't like electric light - it is an abomination aesthetically. Although, contradictory, reading books on my computer screen as proven surprisingly enjoyable. There is something special about getting the ethereal story into my head, without having the entangling encumbrance of the physical book. I love my physical books, it's not that, but I find I have collected enough of them. Now and then a rare one is added, but it is not often.
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Post by andydecker on May 28, 2020 10:33:52 GMT
I probably should, also, sometime, get around, to reading THE WORLD AT THE WORLD'S END by William Morris! And then THE WOOD BEYOND THE WORLD, ... or maybe read it before. And then ..., and ..., Here is a scan of the translation of Morris' WELL. It is 575 pages of small print. For this you really need time and patience. As with Eddison and his trilogy THE WORM OUROBOROS. Also 1400+ pages, if you read all four novels. Here a translated edition from the 80s.
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Post by Knygathin on May 28, 2020 13:57:10 GMT
... the translation of Morris' WELL. It is 575 pages of small print. As with Eddison and his trilogy THE WORM OUROBOROS. Also 1400+ pages, if you read all four novels. Here a translated edition from the 80s. THE WORM OUROBOROS. Never read that one either, except half first page. It seems unbearably stuffy, and too quirky personal to pass for convincing fantasy. But I really have no idea about the contents of that book. How about German fantasy and supernatural authors? Hanns Heinz Ewers is great. Any others?
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Post by helrunar on May 28, 2020 15:18:37 GMT
Great covers, Andreas!
Queen Zimiamvias really was quite the party beastette, wasn't she?
cheers, Steve
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Post by Knygathin on May 28, 2020 15:29:27 GMT
... Morris' WELL. 575 pages of small print. Eddison THE WORM OUROBOROS. 1400+ pages, ... THE WORM OUROBOROS. Never read that one either, except half first page. It seems unbearably stuffy, and too quirky personal to pass for convincing fantasy. But I really have no idea about the contents of that book. Alright, enough excuses! Now Knygathin, you must read this one too! SUCCUMB! ........ Alright, I am all set!
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Post by andydecker on May 29, 2020 13:22:40 GMT
How about German fantasy and supernatural authors? Hanns Heinz Ewers is great. Any others? This is hard to say. There are of course some classics like Gustav Meyrink or E.T.A. Hoffman, but this is a small group. Kafka is named, which I always thought reaching, beetle-man or not. For a nation which is so related to the Gothic, it never produced much. Maybe this would have changed after the success of Silent Movies like Dr. Caligari or Nosferatu, but the Nazis nipped this in the bud. The first new genre-movies were produced long after the war. The only place where original fantasy at first was published was YA, the success of translations finally gave writers the opportunity to produce fantasy novels as they became marketable. I guess there must be more classics, but not a lot comes to mind without checking.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on May 29, 2020 13:51:10 GMT
Kafka is named, which I always thought reaching, beetle-man or not. Or simply because he was not German.
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Post by Knygathin on May 29, 2020 16:04:20 GMT
... Gustav Meyrink and E.T.A. Hoffman. Silent Movies like Dr. Caligari or Nosferatu. Thank you.
The following movies (please excuse my mix of languages for the titles) may be of interest for fantasists, with some gentle supernatural components or else expressive scene settings:
Abwege (1928) by Georg Wilhelm Pabst (Austrian)
Pandora's Box (1929) by Georg Wilhelm Pabst Der Blaue Engel (1930) by Josef von Sternberg (Austrian) Das Blaue Licht (1932) by Leni Riefenstahl The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) by Fritz Lang (Austrian-German). (Have not seen his Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922), which is 4 1/2 hours long. I did not have the patience. )
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Post by andydecker on May 29, 2020 19:01:44 GMT
The following movies (please excuse my mix of languages for the titles) may be of interest for fantasists, with some gentle supernatural components or else expressive scene settings: Abwege (1928) by Georg Wilhelm Pabst (Austrian) Pandora's Box (1929) by Georg Wilhelm Pabst Der Blaue Engel (1930) by Josef von Sternberg (Austrian) Das Blaue Licht (1932) by Leni Riefenstahl The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) by Fritz Lang (Austrian-German). (Have not seen his Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922), which is 4 1/2 hours long. I did not have the patience. ) Not to forget Max von Kastell's unfinished Silent Movie Judas Jedermann.
I also never saw Dr. Mabuse the Gambler except in outtakes. but The Testament impressed me at a young age. I am not a Marlene Dietrich fan and I saw this a long time ago, but I don't know if one can really include it.
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