M&D 300 (M & D ans Bob And Bing)(with some minor spoilers)

[Peter Giordano]

Minor spoliers ahead:









I said:
>> Bob Hope and Bing Crosby have been mentioned by
>> several reviewers but I have to say (perhaps this is
>> a minor spoiler) after about 300 pages I just don't see
>> it  - Actually the development of the friendship seems
>> to be quite subtle and is one of the more serious
>> aspects of the novel (thus far)

He said:
>I definitely got a Hope/Crosby feel out of the section Peter's read.  One
>or two of the songs are "cued" in the same way that songs are cued in the
>Road movies.

I say:

The musical cues are a good point - I hadn't associated that with Bob and Bing
since it's something one finds in a lot of screwball comedy (Marx Bros. , etc.)
- I think the superficial "Road movie" comparison does not take one
very far - In Bob and Bing's movies there were very specific dynamics at
play (i.e. Bing constantly cheating Bob and Bob being hopelessly clueless) -
I can remember only one real "dramatic" moment (albeit) in a comedy which
moved the relations forward: in one movie, Bob gets up and says "I'm sick of
you cheating me all the time (I am paraphrasing of course - But my son could
quote it flawlessly) I'm leaving" - He storms out - Bing looks a little
lost - 30
seconds later Bob's back all glib and happy

What I was suggesting (and perhaps it's too obvious to mention) is that
TRP seems to be very careful about character development

Peter Giordano
Williams College
Williamstown, MA