media consumption
October 25th, 2006 by tree
I am interested to read the reviews for the new Truman Capote biopic, Infamous. The NYT gave it a positive review. After having seen the movie on Sunday, I have to disagree with the paper and state that last year’s Capote was much, to me, more satisfying and interesting. Infamous was uneven and questionably accurate, including a cell-bound kissing scene between the writer and Clutter killer, Percy Smith. Ew. They turned what might have been a troubling and conflicted friendship into a full-on love affair, and at the end, put in a Freysian disclaimer stating that many fictional elements were inserted. The movie was to have been based on the excellent Plimpton oral bio, Truman Capote. I remain skeptical and unimpressed. So, Netflix subscribers, if you are going to see one Capote movie, choose the Philip Seymour Hoffman version.
In television news, I’m gearing up to NOT watch American Idol this year. Whether or not I withstand the fervor remains to be seen.
I’m still reading the Lehane murder mystery, which is chock-full of gory violence and snappy dialogue.
I’m taking the week off from my office this week, working from home and spending some time with the girls on their fall break. We had planned to go out of town, but when 16 said she was going to take a vow of silence for the trip a la Little Miss Sunshine, I said, “There’s no way I’m going out of town with you for four days if you aren’t going to talk,” and she wouldn’t relent. So we’re home. I don’t know that she would have gone through with it and perhaps that was her way of getting out of spending that much time with us. She’s generally much more pleasant than that, so who knows.
13 needs a frenectomy. That’s where they cut the connective tissue that attaches your top lip to your gum. Stick your tongue up there. Yes, that’s it. Hers is too long. Who knew there were standard lengths?
Regarding biographies and autoerographies, there is no such thing as non-fiction. So it’s good that you can reccommend a version you found more palatable.
I just finished the lastest Walter Mosley and I’m reading the latest Turow, the one from last year, Ordinary Heros. Don’t you just love that title?
The notion that one of my kids would contemplate a vow of silence… it .. does .. not .. compute..
I did not know that frenums included that lip and gum area. Puck has a short Lingual Frenum (tongue tied) which was not diagnosed until he was in speech classes in college. It then was too late really to have it snipped and learn to speak all over again.
i wish half the kids i work with would shut up for at least half a week. i’ll just take about 3 hours a day really….
“Regarding biographies and autoerographies, there is no such thing as non-fiction.”
This person should have said that biographies and autobiographies have various degrees of non-fiction content and that there are those that are completely non-fiction ( or until proven to have some falsities). That there is no such thing as non-fiction (or fiction for that matter), or truth, or beauty, or the argument “nothing is real” etc., etc., are fun tools used to stop debate and are the arguments of uneducated children. The arguments hold no water.
From what I have read regarding Capote having a romantic relationship (possibly sexual) with Smith, it is very difficult to determine just how far their relationship went, though it is clear Capote and Smith were very close, it is quite possible it could have involved sex. In the final analysis it doesn’t matter (except perhaps for box office ticket sales), we do know that this relationship crushed Capote as a writer and as a person. He did very little with the remaining years of his life, if they kissed or had sex isn’t really all that important IMHO.
Obviously every story is a construct of a sort, with nuances of fact and embellishment.
I was giving my opinion about the merits of the two versions of the story side by side. Of course whether or not there was a kiss doesn’t ulitmately matter, but since little is known, I think it kind of “The Path to 9-11″ to first show us a brutal near-rape, then later, romance and love. I find it ironic that much has been made of In Cold Blood being a nonfiction novel, and the “Infamous’s” voice of reason and constraint, Harper Lee, berated the Capote character for making the Clutter story more than it was in his work, when the filmmakers turn around and do precisely the same thing in the movie. And from the work I did read in Plimpton’s book (remember, it’s just an oral history by the people who knew TC and had at some point either loved him or despised him) Capote was as ruined by drink and his utter betrayal of his society friends by writing about them as he was by the Kansas stint. Maybe the events fed on each other in a vicious circle. Neither movie showed this part of his life.
Bert, I wouldn’t mind so much if she did follow up on her vow of silence for a while, but at home where I could truly enjoy myself.
“Freysian disclaimer” Ha! Good one
In re not watching American Idol . . nooooooooooo, Tree!!
Talented as he was, the thought of Truman kissing anyone is repugnant to me.
Bro. Bly, I stand firm in my resolve that there is no such thing as non-fiction in literature. I would hope there there was non-fiction in brain surgery instruction manuels, etc., but I simply do not WANT to believe that there is a perfect human being out there who will tell ALL the unvarnished truth about life its ownself.
Perhaps you will be mollified if I restate this as a belief, rather than argue it to be a truth. Which I DO believe exists, along with beauty, honesty, prefect breasts and The American Way to Tax Cuts.
Thank you and I hope I can count on your vote in November.
Re: “The American Way to Tax Cuts.”
Bert, as I am sure you are aware the promised GOP huge tax cuts have already arrived, the goal now is to make these huge tax cuts permanenet. These huge tax cuts have truly changed my life.
I know some Republicans are promising more tax cuts if elected, I can hardly wait.
Enjoy all that extra money, I know I am!
Bert are you still pretending to be a Republican? There are less Republicans now then in the last election-we need you. What’s the latest from Dredge and Fox TV?
I tend to like critically accepted non-fiction novels/books like Capote’s “In Cold Blood”, “Killer Angels” by Shaara, and Mailer’s ” The Executioner”s Song”. I like the idea where in order to tell a more complete story the writer fills in with what he believes to be accurate from the best of his research “true” material eliminating those few unverifiable periods of time/events/characteristics with which will make it then possible to give the reader a more total piciture of the entire story.
Filling the holes does not necessarily make something less truthful as it can be the case that the fictional material that fills the holes can be true or agreed to be very likely true. Experts can debate the “holes” if they are important enough to warrent it.
Bro. Bly, I have switched my allegiance. I no longer pay $0 dues to the Republican Party. I am now paying twice that amount to the Laztheist Party, which promises unlimited tax cuts in Heaven.
Regarding “… the writer fills in with what he believes to be accurate from the best of his research…” I like that. It totally describes how I complete my tax returns. But as the auditors continually point out, heartfelt belief does not necessarily equal unvarnished truth.
“which promises unlimited tax cuts in Heaven”
….Bert, I think this new direction is much more likely to produce the desired results that you wish for.
Good move!
“But as the auditors continually point out, heartfelt belief does not necessarily equal unvarnished truth.”
One must satisfy the experts and silence the critics with one’s answers to their questions if one is to be believed to be correct or truthful in one’s statements. Simply believing is not enough when going public.
I have read in many different places that Capote was in love with Perry Smith and that’s what compelled him to do all of the things he did during the duration of his book writing before the execution. Some of it is highly believable, some of it is not. Truman Capote was a very flamboyant individual and I wouldn’t put falling in love with a cold blooded killer past him.
“Simply believing is not enough when going public.”
There goes organized religion!
Bert, I think you need a savior or a new set of beliefs to live by. Do you have any beliefs (other than those connected with golf)?
“Do you have any beliefs (other than those connected with golf)?”
I used to be a non-practicing atheist. But that was too much effort. So I founded my own … my own.. Well, whatever it is, I’m an avowed Laztheist.
Laztheistm posit that either there is nothing worth knowing or if there is something worth knowing, someone else knows it and isn’t going to share it. So either way, there ends up being no reason to get up in the morning if you don’t have a tee time, or a job that will pay you enough to get a tee time.
Golf is the ultimate ‘video game’ where you become your own body becomes the game controller. But I
One thing about bothering to have a “belief”: Someone somewhere will take the time and trouble to pooh-pooh your belief, with charts and graphs to prove his point.
I don’t believe there is a god. So there’s no need for a savior. But a good caddie is a joy forever.
-A truly great caddie could be your savior. Saviors, heros and “good guys” are real and are very rare so accept them when you meet them and give them the recognition they’re due. They deserve it.
-Laztheism is too negative and undoubtedly decreases one’s good times while alive, it seems to narrow one’s enjoyment of life, in your case it limits enjoyment to golf and tee-times.
I fear that you are ageing a little more quickly now (past 35?) and becomeing less and less likely to laugh freely. Oh sure you still chuckle but it is slowly becoming more and more guarded. Do not be alarmed as this is normal. Laughter decreases with age but do not dispair for as you grow older you most likely will become more and more occupied with distractions (money is a huge distraction for old people, and the steady decline of your golf game will take up a lot of your brain’s free time). Look around and you can’t fail to notice that you and your peers are slowly becoming more and more somber and conservative.
-Sorry about poo-pooing your Laztheism belief system, at least there were no charts, but I think you should fight the good fight against the growingly laughterless world. Perhaps it’s too late, you do seem to be fairly rooted to Laztheism but it’s never too late to change your religion (or your political beliefs) when they are so negative. It’s true we live in dark times.
Bert, look on the bright side, you are not dating carp-men.
Bro. Bly, I turned 76 in August. I haven’t really had a good laugh since my colestomy bag fell off in Macy’s and splattered the perfume lady.
And seriously, It’s been all downhill since I three days after my 66th birthday, when my scrotum was split by the head of my sandwedge, when it fly off the shaft hitting a tree root. I double-bogeyed the hole… Now ten years later, I’d give up all my pain killers if I could get back to double bogey golf.
My life is nothing but aches, pains and Tree’s blog. If I were limber enough, I’d eat my own liver, I’m so bitter.