Day: December 19, 2004

Now that I’ve finished Blue at the Mizzen, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin have sailed off into the sunset. Yes, Norton decided to publish three chapters from the unfinished 21st book which O’Brian was working on before he died in 2000, but a score of novels feels like a tidy sum. I also have lots of other books I want to get to, so while I floated comfortably with the Surprise all this time, I am ready to move on. I own all twenty, and I’ve been known to re-read books from time to time, but for now I’ll let Aubrey sail to his flag and his new fleet off South Africa.

If you, too, have read them all but find yourself wanting more, you can join the fanatics at The Gunroom, a collection of fervent readers of the canon whose mailing list volume frightened even me, an information junkie. From the FAQ:

List traffic can be overwhelming — up to a couple hundred messages a day is not unexpected. In fact, heavy volume is the number one reason that people leave the list.

I subscribed a year or two ago for about two weeks, in digest form, and then turned tail and ran. There is always someone reading and rereading the entire series there, all the better to debate the finer points of spotted dog and the trim of the main topgallant staysail. I should fit right in, having read not only “The Canon” but two of his earlier novels and a biography, but I clearly don’t read with enough intent, beyond escape.

From one documentary to the next, it seems. We watched The War Room last night. Though it felt topical with one presidential election recently finished, the documentary film was made in 1993 about the 1992 campaign of then Governor Bill Clinton. What little I knew about the film boiled down to the idea that there was a big sign saying “It’s the economy, stupid.” on the wall of the campaign office. Well, it was one of the three mantras scribbled on a white board, but hardly the unswerving theme of the film, at least.

With James Carville and George Stephanopoulos now firmly ensconced as TV personalities, I am left wondering if the 2008 campaign will see either return to the arena of their greatest triumph. Or can they both live off the 1992 campaign for the rest of their lives, as they are doing now? That may not be fair, especially to the younger man (Stephanopoulos). But I turned on a recent TiVoed Daily Show episode right after the film finished and both Carville and Stephanopoulos were in clips from that night’s section on AIDS (just shy of 4 minutes… not sure if they keep their links working over time, so enjoy it now). Stephanopoulos interviewed Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist about AIDS transmission, and Carville (a self-caricature) explained that he knew a lot about masturbation. Nice of him to share, on national (cable) TV. Overall, a reminder that times change, and not everyone get to keep their chair when the music stops.