The Wizard of Oz

Book 20 of 2014 is from the BFI Film Classics series and is a review by Salman Rushdie of the movie The Wizard of Oz. I'd call this an essay, more than a book but my only criteria to satisfy something is a book is if it looks like a book and quacks like a book.

In 69 pages, Salman Rushdie reviews the movie The Wizard of Oz in a way that has changed, ruined and enhanced my view of it.

He does this as the first part of a series of essays commissioned for a project by the National Film and Television Archive in the UK. This was before DVDs and IMDB and was a way of deconstructing and reviewing 360 classic movies by great minds of the time. When Rushdie looked through the list, he chose Oz as one of his favourite places as a child and decided to write about this movie.

Like anything you love that is deconstructed and discussed, some of the magic disappears but Rushdie's passion for the film and shared discovered facts compensate greatly.

The thing I did like the most was finding that this essay inspired Gregory Maguire's Wicked. I love the Oz world and Wicked continued for me, as this essay has extended it for me.

At the end of this essay, the author writes a fantastical story about the futuristic auctioning of the famous and obviously magical Ruby Slippers from the movie. There is a great quote that seems quite apt in this time...

"We, the public, are easily, lethally offended. We have come to think of taking offence as a fundamental right. We value very little more highly than our rage, which gives us, in our opinion, the moral high ground. From this high ground we can shoot down at our enemies and inflict heavy fatalities. We take pride in our short fuses. Our anger elevates, transcends. 

Salman Rushdie. At the auction of the ruby slippers. 
In: East, West. Vintage, 1995."

I give this a brain, a heart and some courage out of 5. Yes, that's a 3.5.

Should I read this? Read this if you love The Wizard of Oz movie. It would mean nothing otherwise.
What did I learn? Toto was female and her name was Terry.

As You Wish

This makes me teary now.

Stages of Input

Sometimes, I can't go more than a few hours without returning to a book or two. That can last months.

Then there are times that I want to watch movie after movie until my brain is so full of stories that useful information falls out. Useful information like people's names.

Music doesn't seem to be a need that waivers. It is always there.

Not sure what changes each time to push me from one obsession to another. And they Are obsessions. Never ending walks that all of a sudden end with me feeling over-satisfied. Sometimes, I think I will never want to read or watch again.

But I do.

Sally and Harry

I wrote to you.

A few times.

I deleted them. I wrote to you and it was always when I was watching movies.

There were these moments in the movies when you'd cry. Maybe you'd cry. Yeah, probably.

Then there was this movie and I typed the text. Then there was this movie and I typed a text. Then it happened again.

So tonight, Harry met Sally. So I wrote this and it's dumb and every time I think about it, I'm more and more convinced I did the right thing.

This is Beautiful

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

Thanks, Candace.

The way it ends

"What makes a man a man? A friend of mine once wondered. Is it his origins? The way he comes to life? I don't think so. It's the choices he makes. Not how he starts things, but how he decides to end them" -- John Myers in Hellboy

Avatar 3D

The world was beautiful.
The story was sweet.
The effects were amazing.

The movie was wonderful.

Bollywood He-Man

Blister in the Sun

I'm proud of myself. Today was a tough day. I got up when the alarm went off, I got ready and went to work after 8 days off. It was a good day with lots of people, adventures, reading and music.

This has been a good week too. Since last Thursday, I've been going to the gym and seeing a personal trainer. I've thrown up twice from three training sessions and am doing more strenuous exercise than I think I have ever done in my life. My body thinks it's being tortured but the consequence is days filled with energy, remembering to eat again and smiling. It's been a while.

Tonight, I saw a movie called Confessions of a Shopaholic. It is possibly the worst movie I have ever seen in my life and this includes all the Brandon Lee ones. I could argue it was the poor acting of Isla Fisher or the try-too-hard-to-be Sex and the City but in all honesty, it was the fact that the only way a woman could communicate financial news to other women was to use shoe analogies. It was condescending boy-meets-girl, girl-goes-shopping, boy-sees-depth-in-girl, girl-goes-shopping, boy-realises-he-was-wrong, girl-goes-shopping, boy-falls-in-love-with-girl-anyway-cos-she's-pretty crap. Don't go see it. Don't borrow it on DVD. You won't get those two hours of your life back.

I like chick-lit, don't get me wrong. I read the entire Twilight series in a couple of weeks and that was just a gateway drug to more vampire chick-lit which is quite well written - much better in fact than a lot of sci-fi fantasy pulp. This guy I know made a reference to Mary Sues when talking about these types of books. If you haven't heard of it, it's a slightly elitist term used to describe characters or a world in a book whose primary function is to serve as wish-fullfilment for the readers and authors.

"In a possibly unique case Andor in The Wheel of Time series borders on a fuedal sue-topia at times. Nobels are all noble and deeply care about the welfare of their people. The peasents all love them. And there's almost no poverty despite lots of money being poured into castles, palaces and personal armies."

Personally, there is nothing wrong with this sort of thing. Not every story has to be a literary masterpiece. Not all characters have to teach you a noble lesson or be a rogue of an anti-hero. Don't we read books and watch movies as a form of escapism? I certainly do.

At one of the happier points in my life, I was obsessed with books based in post-apocalyptic worlds. At the time of heartbreak, I've needed books with tales of endless love and recovered hope. We escape. We don't go in to fiction to search for our souls. We wander in to join the adventure and be lost in the tale.

I guess this rant is really about the fact that no matter what people say about your tastes and who you are, don't listen too hard. Like what you like. Be who you are. Read and watch whatever you like from classics to pulp fiction and be honest if you see no difference.

Life is wonderful but escape it however you choose. I'll respect you for that.