Archive for July, 2012
Dream editor
Letters of Note featured the correspondence between F. Scott Fitzgerald and his editor Maxwell Perkins beginning when Scott submitted an early draft of the novel tentatively titled The Great Gatsby. At that point Scott wasn’t in love with the title—he was considering Gold-Hatted Gatsby (ehh), Trimalchio in West Egg (ew) and The High-Bouncing Lover (what).
Maxwell Perkins replied with the sort of letter writers wish their editors would send them.
Dear Scott:
I think the novel is a wonder. I’m taking it home to read again and shall then write my impressions in full;—but it has vitality to an extraordinary degree, and glamour, and a great deal of underlying thought of unusual quality. It has a kind of mystic atmosphere at times that you infused into parts of “Paradise” and have not since used. It is a marvelous fusion, into a unity of presentation, of the extraordinary incongruities of life today. And as for sheer writing, it’s astonishing.
Now deal with this question: various gentlemen here don’t like the title,—in fact none like it but me. To me, the strange incongruity of the words in it sound the note of the book. But the objectors are more practical men than I. Consider as quickly as you can the question of a change.
But if you do not change, you will have to leave that note off the wrap. Its presence would injure it too much;—and good as the wrap always seemed, it now seems a masterpiece for this book. So judge of the value of the title when it stands alone and write or cable your decision the instant you can.
With congratulations, I am,
Yours,
[Maxwell E. Perkins]
Two days later Perkins sent a longer letter that began, “I think you have every kind of right to be proud of this book…” There’s a postscript in which he discusses royalties and asks, “Why do you ask for a lower royalty on this than you had on the last book…” That’s amazing!
Maxwell Perkins was also the editor of Ernest Hemingway, which reminds us that we saw the movie Hemingway and Gellhorn starring Clive Owen as Ernest and Nicole Kidman as Martha Gellhorn, the writer and war correspondent who became Hemingway’s third wife (and the first wife to dump him). Clive Owen is one of our favorite actors but we never believe he’s Ernest. Nicole Kidman is very good and with her voice pitched an octave lower we forget that she’s Nicole. But the real shocker of Hemingway and Gellhorn is finding that its director Philip Kaufman—the guy who made The Right Stuff, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Henry and June—is capable of such…how do we say this…Kabaduyan. The movie has its moments, but generally it is mawkish, corny and wtf. In short is baduy. We need to erase the memory by watching Henry and June.
Einstein’s tennis robot
While writing Sunday’s column we looked up some facts about Roger Federer’s career and found this bit in his Wikipedia entry.
Controversy
Due to his extremely consistent playing style and seeming indefatigablility, some commentators have accused Federer of being an extremely advanced Swiss robot.[41] Swiss ingenuity is well known, as evidenced by the superiority of Swiss Army Knives and Swiss clocks. Swiss patent documents recovered from the effects of Albert Einstein reveal a 1904 application for a mechanical tennis partner that was later abandoned. [42]. Engineers studying the attached drawings believe the design to be decades ahead of its time, and have concluded that it is entirely possible that in the intervening decades, the Swiss were able to perfect the technology, the end result being Roger Federer.
When confronted with this evidence in the winter of 2006, Federer denied the allegations, stating they were “preposterous” and that to his knowledge “such technology does not exist, even in Japan.” Federer then dispensed hot chocolate from a cavity in his chest and flew away, powered by rockets located in the soles of his feet.
Hah!
What if the earth had no moon?
Photo: Harvest Moon over the Basilica of Superga by Stefano De Rosa in NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day.
We asked Google, which directed us to Life’s Little Mysteries.
According to physics professor Neil Comins, if the moon hadn’t formed life might not exist. “Huge tides generated by the moon—which orbited much closer to Earth when it formed—washed the chemical building blocks for life from land into the oceans and helped ‘stir up the primordial soup.'”
Also, the days and nights would be much shorter, and any existing creatures would’ve had to migrate frequently to deal with extreme climate changes. Read it here.
Magic Mike: Shake and bake
True story: We almost missed the screening of Magic Mike because Robin got confused. We were supposed to have lunch, then watch Magic Mike at Greenbelt. He thought we were having lunch at the karaoke joint in Greenbelt.
L-R: Joe Mangianello, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Channing Tatum in Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike.
1. Channing Tatum is a very smart man. He knows that if everybody thinks you are a certain way (For instance a brainless slab of beef), you should play along and bide your time until you have amassed sufficient influence to show them what you really are. Which is a very smart man.
2. He has never attempted to deny that he was a male stripper; in fact he alludes to it constantly (See his hosting gig on Saturday Night Live). In the group numbers of the male revue, he stands out for sheer dancing ability. The other guys are also hot and capable dancers, but there is no question as to who the star is.
3. Apart from Tatum as Mike, Alex Pettyfer as his 19-year-old protege, and Matthew McConaughey as Dallas the manager of the club, there are no other characters. We know nothing about the strippers played by Matt Bomer, Joe Mangianello, Adam Rodriguez. Not that we’d like them to leave.
4. Throughout his unremarkable career we have wondered: “What is Matthew McConaughey good for?” We have our answer. This is the role he was born to play: retired stripper turned macho dancer impresario.
5. Cody Horn in the lead female role has that look we refer to as “the producer’s daughter”.
6. Cultural differences between America and the Philippines: This is a male stripper movie with no gay characters. (Unless you agree with Vivien’s reading that McConaughey’s character is gay.) If Magic Mike were set in the Philippines 70 percent of the audience would be men, gay men. Apparently in the US there are ladies-only strip clubs.
7. Vivien noted that if in six years the hardworking Mike has managed to save only USD13,000 from the bills stuffed into his thongs, they’re really in a recession.
8. The environment portrayed in Magic Mike is known to be rife with drugs, prostitution, criminal syndicates, sleaze. Perhaps because the film is based on the early life of its producer and star Tatum, the stripping…industry seems almost wholesome. Soderbergh’s film brings up drug use but almost as an afterthought. There is no mention of prostitution.
9. The movie has a washed-out look in the daytime but bright lights and color at night. Okay, we get it.
10. We are impressed that no one delivers a “Kid, don’t be like me” speech. (“Ah, the stupidity of youth: they think that because they have money and they can get laid every night they’ve got it made.” That’s not the movie, that’s us.) They don’t have to; the movie says it clearly.
Highly recommended.
P.S. There were noticeable cuts in the movie we saw. Perhaps the distributor Viva was worried that if the audience saw everything onscreen they would leave their husbands immediately.
Of course you have a review of Magic Mike. Post it in Comments.
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