Day: May 22, 2005

It’s been so long since I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy that I felt little concern about seeing the movie this evening. I wasn’t worried that it “wouldn’t be true to the book” or anything purist like that because I could remember only the barest outline of events… and, having seen the movie, even that outline was sketchy. That said, if you hadn’t read the books at all, I would have to imagine that this is one of the oddest movies ever. Vaguely Python-esque, but not so obviously funny. The movie does make me want to re-read the book, though, to try and grasp why Douglas Adams captured the imagination of so many. I know I enjoyed reading it, and I did continue on to finish at least one or two more of the series.

The animations in the “Guide” in the film are faithfully reproduced on the website. Now that I think of it, I wonder if the ones used in the movie were created in Flash first.

Last week we enjoyed a mid-week night out to see The Interpreter. I really liked this film. I won’t try and put too much into that, but there you are. One ridiculous point, from the film’s website (Flash, everyone’s favorite):

The Interpreter is the first movie to be granted the honor of being able to film within the United Nations’ Headquarters, marking yet another significant moment in the U.N.’s unique history. [emphasis added]

Ummmm… folks? When they write the history of the U.N., the first movie isn’t going to make more than the footnotes, and it shouldn’t even make those. Still worth a watch, though nothing that can’t wait for DVD in the subject matter.

Bernard Cornwell notes that the action Sharpe’s Enemy is entirely fictional. Not bad. I don’t mind a bit of license taken in the name of entertainment when it comes off well. My only lingering quibble is that Obadiah Hakeswill dies his second death in this book. I preferred the death by snake from Sharpe’s Fortress to the firing squad funeral in this book, written 15 years before Fortress.

One fun typographical note broke through to make me laugh and share it. On page 88 of the library copy I read, Cornwell’s original sentence: “Sharpe was placatory, yet all of them knew that less men deserted from the Rifles than from other Regiments.” Do you see the error? An earlier reader did, and jotted (in pencil) the word “fewer” above “less.” Must have irked the reader quite a bit, because he or she did it at least once more.

Now for another break from Sharpe before I finish the headlong rush to Waterloo.

Sharpe’s Sword gives our hero the chance to cuckold a Spaniard married to a French spy. Oh, and Wellington wins the battle of Salamanca in 1812.

I realized why these novels are reading faster and faster. Bernard Cornwell uses stock paragraphs (pages?) to describe certain things in each book. Of course, there is little reason to come up with new ways to describe the same gun or military manuever or the like. Cornwell clearly assumes nothing, which is disappointing only because this is the thirteenth book in the series, chronologically, and the third in order of writing. If you’ve gotten this far, you know all about the seven-barrelled gun that Sergeant Harper carries. I know I gloss over those words without a thought in my head. And yet I still enjoy these books. Onwards!