Horizon

Never noticed before how many different places Orwell used that phrase "mental atmosphere."

JK Rowling is amazing. The individual sentences and plot points are frequently crappy but she's so good at maintaining narrative flow and suspense and punching culturally ingrained buttons that she draws you right in against your better literary judgment.

Or do others find the same?

A friend recommended the Harry Potter series after the fourth book was released. I tore through them. Her style is a bit lacking but despite that, I can't wait for book six.

Have you every read any Anne Rice? Vampire tales were an obsession as a teen, so I tried "Interview with a Vampire". Rice's novels have great detail which she obviously spent some time developing but her voice just annoyed the hell out of me. I tried a few different books because it was beach reading that I should" have enjoyed. I think Rowling and Rice have the same problem.

I hope that a having a new director, Alfonso Cuaron, will temper the special effects requirement Hollywood demands of its blockbusters. Cuaron is best known for "Y tu mama tambien", but directed a great adaption of Frances Hodgson Burnett's "The Little Princess" in 1995. It was a revelation compared to the Shirley Temple drivel and it lacked the disneyfication of "The Jungle Book", another children's classic released the year before.

Unfortunately, Chris Columbus of "Home Alone" infamy is still produceing so I will not be suprised if Cuaron is unable to create a SFX lite film.

Haven't read any Ann Rice apart from flipping through in bookstores, but I've seen parts of the film version of "Interview..." a couple of times. They staged the actual "interview" in the third floor end room of San Francisco's own San Cristina Hotel, which is a flatiron-style residential hotel at Sixth and Market downtown. It really is about the most grandly located cheap hotel room they could have found anywhere. I've worked in advocacy offices on two other corners of that intersection and it's a thrill to see a piece of "home" in the movie. The "Sympathy for the Devil" bit at the end is lovely too. Some of the stuff in between seems comically overheated though.

What do you mean about Rice's voice being annoying?

Re: directors, the stuff about Cuaron sounds encouraging and so do early comments on David Thewlis' performance as Lupin. Dunno if we'll go see it but any reports wld be appreciated.

I've never read beyond the second book, as I found that Rowling is the postmodern children's author--her books are samplings of other people's genius--most notably Roald Dahl and C.S. Lewis remixed.

They're not really film adaptations though--they're probably more literal depictions than anything, done with the same po-faced reverence found in Biblical epics normally (done with a literalness not even reserved for the Good Book). Any other film would jettison a lot of the incident that takes place in the films purely because kids will expect to see "the scene where..." In fact I completely disagree with Alan in that I think a TV adaptation couldn't possibly stretch it out any more than it already is.

All the same, I think the films are quite charming in their own right. I really like Daniel Radcliffe and the kid who plays Hermoine is cute as a button.

You're right about Roald Dahl, come to think of it. Especially the horrible Dursleys and the magical candies. Surely Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea stories are a strong influence too, what with the school for wizards and all. And there seem to be bits from Tolkien too tho I can't think of any at the moment.

Are you planning to see the new Potter film, Graeme?

I have an eleven year-old Goddaughter. It seems inevitable, actually.