An actual social life - who'd have thought it

[brixtonbrood]

Scintillating week full of culture and human contact
example22 dragged me 5 minutes down the road to my local pub to see Steven Sondheim's Follies which was great, although the economics of doing a show with a cast of twenty in a tiny pub theatre baffle me. The grinding predictability and schematicness (there's a real word for that I'm sure) of the plot was more or less offset by the songs (except the ones which Sondheim cut after previews which they chose to restore - I suspect they cater for a rather hard-core musicals fanbase at the Landor).

Met up with bugshaw for lunch at Leadenhall Market which was nice despite the combined attempts of the weather, the London Underground system (and her knowledge of it), Lloyd's brand new visitor admissions policy and Jeans for Genes day.

5 year-old's birthday party on Saturday at which my friend Xena* confided that she was watching Jane Eyre on TV with her husband Zac* when he had come up with the gobsmacking remark "Ooh, there's a face at the attic window! Who's that then?". I'm torn between bafflement at how a competently educated middle class middle aged Brit (even a man, even an engineer) could have failed to learn the plot of Jane Eyre, and terrible envy, because he's going to have such a great time finding out. I had a similar feeling watching Psycho for the first time with my brother and realising that he didn't know who dunnit. I feel a poll coming on - which of the great plot devices of film and literature did you find out by actually reading/watching them and which did you learn by osmosis in advance? And do I have a duty to make Small read them at the minimum possible age so that she can enjoy them unspoilt? (answer, no, that would be crazy) Actually another example comes up in The Foundling, the Georgette Heyer I'm reading at the moment, when our hero is given a copy of Frankenstein, knowing nothing about it at all. Now I loathe Frankenstein, but the idea of actually sitting down to read it with no preconceptions whatsoever is definitely enticing.

And today percyprune, Motoko and Kei came over for lunch and to take Small's old carseat off our hands, which was very pleasant as we got to meet M and K for real life after admiring umpteen photos (he has a sweeter smile in the flesh, probably because you have to be quick to catch it) and also had an excuse to cook a real Sunday lunch with crumble, which is what October requires.

Burst of energy will continue with house and work stuff but Strictly Come Dancing will absorb most of my emotional energy from now until Christmas.

*names changed to protect the ignorant
ETA: comments include spoilers for Jane Eyre and the Sixth Sense (though if you don't know the latter just watch it already, or admit defeat and read the plot summary on Wikipedia)

Comments

[white_hart]

ISTR one of coalescent's problems with The Eyre Affair being a complete lack of familiarity with the plot of Jane Eyre. Although he may be a special case.

I like the sound of the poll, though!

[k425.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what's going to happen in the final episode of Jane Eyre. I've never read the book. I know about the woman in the attic because that's one of those cultural things, isn't it. Like a portrait in the attic, or half the King James Bible... But I'm looking forward to next Sunday's episode because I know the ending (again, it's cultural, innit) without knowing the ending, if you know what I mean.

I never got on with the classics at school. I ought to make more of an effort now. Mind, I read Dracula as a young teenager, for fun.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

As a public service I should warn you against assuming that you might like Frankenstein because you liked Dracula. Dracula is a rollicking rollercoaster of a novel full of sizzling gypsies. Frankenstein is the best part of a century earlier and comprises 45% Romantic philosophy, 50% teen angst and 5% monster movie (though really innovative monster movie).

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I didn't read Frankenstein until I was about 17. And had I left it much later than that, I probably wouldn't have bothered: it certainly was a grind.

Wrt your main question, I saw Psycho before I'd heard anything about it, and so was genuinely shocked by the various surprise bits. Which was nice.

And similarly but not so nice, I experienced an enveloping rush of disappointment when I found out at the end of the film that the Maltese Falcon was just (what I later learnt to call) a McGuffin.

[zengineer.livejournal.com]

As a middle class, middle aged, British, male engineer I can say it is very easy to have missed Jane Eyre. It doesn't quite fall into the Jane Austen category of cultural omniprescence. Jasper Fforde has meant that all SF fanatics will know about it and so this now the second adaptation I've (partly) seen but for at least 35 years I was completely unaware of the plot.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

I think it's partly a male/female thing - Wide Sargasso Sea and The (look away now) Madwoman in the Attic mean that the central plot twist is unavoidable if you take a passing interest in feminist thought.

[zengineer.livejournal.com]

As indicated I have a passing knowledge of the plot and haven't read the book but why is Jane Eyre feminist thought? My knowledge of Wide Sargasso Sea is virtually non existent but from a rapid briefing by Rufusfrog it was written well after by someone else so for me doesn't count as part of the same work.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

Jane Eyre itself is not especially feminist, but Bertha Mason and her re-imagining (which is what WSS does) is a classic feminist lit-crit trope.
Specifically you can know a fair amount of general stuff about Jane Eyre without knowing what's in the attic, but if you know anything much about WSS then you know what the plot twist of JE is - ditto Madwoman in the Attic of course.

[waistcoatmark.livejournal.com]

I read (an abidged version) of Jane Eyre at such an early age that I recall nothing of the plot.

Managed to miss the word Rosebud at the end of Citizen Kane, and similarly (albeit somewhat lower artistic height) managed to miss the rather important name at the end of Julian May's Intervention.

Got the twist of Sixth Sense spoilt for me by the largest flame war I've ever seen on the main DVD newsgroup (guy posts "is the twist in 6th sense XXXXX?" in the subjest line while film is still being trailed much less shown in cinemas. Large numbers of people shout at him, many still including the subject line unaltered except for an RE: prefix).

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

The Sixth Sense is a bit of a problem in that the knowledge that a) it's a ghost story and b) it's got a twist narrows the possibilities down considerably. Once you add a fairly explicit trailer (the boy sees dead people, Bruce Willis gets shot and starts talking to boy) I have relatively little sympathy for people who complain about being spoilt. The line between spoiler and speculation is a tricky one though - I got spoilt very effectively for the end of New Who season one by a completely uninformed forum speculation on the identity of Bad Wolf which was so obviously correct that it removed all the suspense.
My mother has no concept of spoilers and would regularly bring the plots of classic novels into discussions of eg divorce laws so I read very very few of them unspoilt.

[zengineer.livejournal.com]

I've just seen BBC4's version of WSS and I hope it doesn't do credit to the book because it was slight. Nevertheless it does as you say have that classic feminist lit crit trope. Rochester doesn't come out of it well but then even in JE he is a bit suspect. Most of all I just felt mildly depressed - it's a rather negative story.

[zengineer.livejournal.com]

I'm with your mother. The idea that we are led along by a plot not guessing the ending is generally not true. Occasionally a story surprises me but most often the endings are predictable from early on. In many ways I regard this as consistency and so not a bad thing.
I guessed sixth sense from the trailer and still wasn't disppointed by the film.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

The book's strengths lie in its prose and ambience IMO, it is intentionally a slim volume and yes it is indeed very depressing.