Interlude: If James Wood Supposes...

[Paul Mackin]

kelber at mindspring.com wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
>   
>> From: Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
>>     
>
>   
>> On 2/5/08, Paul Mackin wrote:
>>     
>>> Last evening I watched a dvd of "Children of Men."
>>>
>>>       
>> I totally missed the buzz on that one...thanks for the tip,
>> it sounds like something I might like...
>>     
>
> Personally, I thought it was over-hyped.  The contrived plot device was too distracting.  I think a lot of people responded on some level to the Madonna-and-child aspects of the story.
>   

The level upon which I responded to the adoration of the child scene was 
definitely negative.

I got the feeling that at that point in the proceedings the director was 
desperate for a place to turn.

The story was going nowhere.

I haven't read the P. D. James novel upon which the film is based.  
Perhaps that was part of the problem. Did she play up the redemption 
theme in a way that would have been antithetical to Cuaron.  Or would it 
have been? He' s very eclectic.  Can't tell with those Spanish guys. 
Actually he's Mexican. The movie certainly didn't follow through on a 
possible meaning of the baby Jesus. Not like, say, GR. The mother and 
child simply finally got on that big boat that was sailing away to a 
better world. Or some such thing.

P.








>
>   
>> I was considering this afternoon how the characters in AtD
>> have a bit more depth than those in, say,  V. --
>> ie, more physical detail such as eye color, hairscapes, neckscapes --
>> ie, are not obvious symbols or pointers to some tendency or
>>        force of nature (as, say, Pig Bodine tends to verge on being,
>>        or Benny Profane is declared to be (schlemihl)
>>        -  well, ok, Vibe has a touch of that and maybe Webb...)
>> ie, have inner lives that stand revealed by a variety of methods
>>                     (although maybe not as lavishly as some might want)
>>
>> but that thought isn't fully formed --
>>
>> could go 2 ways:  drag in more examples from other writers,
>> and eventually end up agreeing that "characters who leap up off the page"
>> isn't maybe Pynchon's main thrust (although his characters tend to have
>> experiences that *some* people strongly identify with)
>>     
>
> TRP's novels aren't psychological studies, so, in theory anyway, realistic characters aren't required (though they sure wouldn't hurt).  He sort of has generalized types: hedonist, seeker, no-nonsense sanguine types (Merle, Dally, Frank, Stray).  Actually, it's hard to think of any of the last type in TRP's earlier works.  A sign of the "mature" Pynchon?
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> Laura
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