The Spoiler That Wasn't

One of the big holes in my science-fiction reading is Robert Heinlein. I don't know why; somehow I just never got around to reading him. So I'm trying to make up for lost time.

This week's Heinlein book was The Door Into Summer, an intriguing tale of cats, cryogenic freezing, time travel, and business fraud. I picked it because I love time travel; I'm a total sucker for almost any time travel story.

"The Spoiler That Wasn't" is the cover- which shows a cat, a female, a cryogenic freezer and a bush. Halfway through the book, I looked back at the cover and realized that it had just spoiled the entire plot for me. Grrrrrrr!

... And then I got to the end of the book, and discovered that it hadn't. That the cover, in fact, had no direct relation to the plot at all; it simply pictured several elements in the novel.

(The female, cat, and cryogenic chamber, that is. I have no clue why the bush is there.)

Something similar happened to me when I went to see The Sixth Sense. Someone on an online message board commented that the surprise ending was that the kid's mom had murdered his dad- and that's what prompted his uncanny connection with the dead.

I was really annoyed that the ending had been spoiled for me, went in, watched it- and was taken completely by surprise when the real ending hit. The guy on the message board had been joking, and his spoiler was actually an anti-spoiler: if I hadn't thought that I knew the ending, I would have been trying to figure it out, and I might have succeeded.

Remember Dudley Moore?

Last night I watched Unfaithfully Yours, a 1984 comedy with Dudley Moore and Nastassja Kinski.

Moore becomes convinced that his wife (Kinski) is cheating on him; and comes up with an absurd Rube-Goldberg plot to murder her and pin the blame on her lover. There are Halloween masks, multiple tape recorders, drugged drinks, and walks along high building precipices in the middle of the night.

The first part of the movie sets up the situation; the second is Moore's daydream scenario of the murder; the third is what actually happens. Of course, things don't work out perfectly.

I love this movie. It's a comedic response to movies like The Italian Job or Ocean's Latest Number, in which the most overelaborate plans seem to go off perfectly.

(Well, all right. Maybe "response" isn't the right word, since it preceded those movies by decades; but the point is still there.)

What I Got From Amazon Recently...

Two things.

Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare- which I read in the library, a long time ago, and only vaguely remembered. I wanted to compare it to Harold Bloom's Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.

Asimov focuses much more on historical background than Bloom does; especially in the history plays, he often neglects the plays themselves to discuss what really happened, and how Shakespeare got it wrong or right. This can get frustrating; but it's very informative, and after all, with Bloom I've already got an in-depth look at the plays from a literary perspective.

That arrived yesterday. Today's arrival was Illegal Alien, an early Robert J. Sawyer novel about a first alien contact turned into a murder mystery.

I'm a big Sawyer fan, so I'm going to have to delve into it.

Embarrassing Non-Arrival of the Day: I misread a banner advertisement for the latest Harry Potter novel, and wandered around for ten minutes looking for copies. So it's due out in July. Hmmph.

Another Little Geek Moment

So I'm reading a collection of Jorge Luis Borges essays; and one of these is a discussion of the various translations of The Arabian Nights. One of the translators he talks about is a "Dr. Mardrus."

Forget the Arabian Nights for a moment (I did.) Forget Borges. It's DOCTOR MARDRUS!

Has there ever been a better supervillain name? I don't think so.

Kipling: An American

The American Spirit speaks:

If the Led Striker call it a strike,
Or the papers call it a war,
They know not much what I am like,
Nor what he is, My Avatar.

Through many roads, by me possessed,
He shambles forth in cosmic guise;
He is the Jester and the Jest,
And he the Text himself applies.

The Celt is in his heart and hand,
The Gaul is in his brain and nerve;
Where, cosmopolitanly planned,
He guards the Redskin's dry reserve

His easy unswept hearth he lends
From Labrador to Guadeloupe;
Till, elbowed out by sloven friends,
He camps, at sufferance, on the stoop.

Calm-eyed he scoffs at Sword and Crown,
Or, panic-blinded, stabs and slays:
Blatant he bids the world bow down,
Or cringing begs a crust of praise;

Or, sombre-drunk, at mine and mart,
He dubs his dreary brethren Kings.
His hands are black with blood -- his heart
Leaps, as a babe's, at little things.

But, through the shift of mood and mood,
Mine ancient humour saves him whole --
The cynic devil in his blood
That bids him mock his hurrying soul;

That bids him flout the Law he makes,
That bids him make the Law he flouts,
Till, dazed by many doubts, he wakes
The drumming guns that -- have no doubts;

That checks him foolish-hot and fond,
That chuckles through his deepest ire,
That gilds the slough of his despond
But dims the goal of his desire;

Inopportune, shrill-accented,
The acrid Asiatic mirth
That leaves him, careless 'mid his dead,
The scandal of the elder earth.

How shall he clear himself, how reach
Your bar or weighed defence prefer --
A brother hedged with alien speech
And lacking all interpreter?

Which knowledge vexes him a space;
But, while Reproof around him rings,
He turns a keen untroubled face
Home, to the instant need of things.

Enslaved, illogical, elate,
He greets the embarrassed Gods, nor fears
To shake the iron hand of Fate
Or match with Destiny for beers.

Lo, imperturbable he rules,
Unkempt, desreputable, vast --
And, in the teeth of all the schools,
I -- I shall save him at the last!


-Rudyard Kipling

My Current Geek Pleasure

Entirely by accident, one of my music searches came up with Fellowship!, a musical parody of Fellowship of the Ring.

The website has some music samples under the "Merchandise" section; unfortunately, they don't include "Galadriel Explains It All" or "The Lament of the Ring," which are the two funniest songs on the soundtrack. Trust me, it's very good.

(Well, it's very good if you like musical parodies of movies based on epic fantasy trilogies. And doesn't everyone?)

So Here We Go.

Hello, everyone! I'm Fenris.

This blog is going to be a rambling commentary on whatever book I'm reading, or whatever news I've just seen, or whatever odd thought passes through my mind (probably quite a lot of the latter.)

We'll see where I go with it.