Woke up. World still here.

[alexsarll]

Two Edinburgh previews last night. It wasn't surprising that both included material about the expenses crisis, the smoking ban and the general decline of British civic society - but what are the odds on them both having jokes about raping horses?

When the Observer music magazine first hit, it was briefly the best music mag going - between the decline of the weeklies and the way the monthlies seemed trapped in retro rockist amber, that maybe wasn;t saying much, but still. Picked one up this weekend for the first time in ages and it seems to have followed the same trajectory as the Guardian's Saturday mag, turned into a flimsy, shiny guide for confused consumers, written by churnalists incapable even of contradicting a press release (I'm enjoying Neil Hannon's Duckworth Lewis Method album a great deal, but anyone repeating the lazy lie that it's the first album entirely devoted to cricket needs their genitalia used for a wicket until they apologise to the Cavaliers). One exception, though - Paul Morley talks about his crash course in classical composition. As much as I like Paul Morley's writing, a lot of his journalism lately has been on autopilot - still ahead of the competition, but far behind what he can do. This one has had all the usual tricks pruned away, without for a moment feeling compromised.

Finished Joe Haldeman's The Forever War yesterday. I'm not sure where spoiler etiquette points when you're discussing a book from 35 years ago, but Ridley Scott's film of it comes out in a couple of years, so let's just say that I can see exactly why he feels there'd be a wider audience for it now, geopolitically speaking. One element I'm not sure he'll get on to the screen is the bit where, as our time-dilated protagonist encounters humans from 500 years in his subjective future, everyone on Earth has turned homosexual. A trope which also appeared - coincidence again - in the Cordwainer Smith story I read yesterday, 'The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal', written a mere decade earlier but considerably more terrified by the Planet of the Gays.

Otherwise, what have I been doing? Finishing up Torchwood and the second series of Justice League Unlimited (both of which, surprisingly, have a greater degree of ambiguity to them than Alan Bleasdale's much-praised GBH, which I am enjoying but which is basically a pantomime). A (not quite) midnight picnic in the park - and the only hassle we got was a Fighting Fantasy-derived heckle when we were clearly playing a card game - stupid young people. Pubs, of course. A play on the Heath, or half of one. It wasn't a weekend that lives in legend, but it was fun.

Comments

[stephens.livejournal.com]

I second the excellence of the Morley article, it stood out a mile in that flimsy publication.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

And it's such a shame because I remember the whole mag being, if not quite at that level, still eminently readable.

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Frever War is one of my faces. Just found out there's two sequels too

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Ish - I saw the sequel-in-name-only The Forever Peace in the library and wasn't tempted. Similarly, the summary of Forever Free doesn't sell me on the concept - I just want Mandella and Potter to live happily(ish) ever after on Middle Finger! A Separate War sounds interesting, though - and I learned from the link that I appear to have read a short version of Forever War itself.

[(Anonymous)]

Forever War is genius. They better not muff the film up!

James
liquid city

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I trust Ridley Scott with this sort of material - although bear in mind that I rate Kingdom of Heaven, his last approach to Iraq, a lot more highly than most people seem to.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I think the period where, by law, he is apparently obliged to be in all films made should have expired by the time Scott is finished with Robin Hood. Still, plenty of time for him to underwhelm us as Green Lantern before then!

[tintintin.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed Kingdom of Heaven, although I think casting pretty, bland and wooden Orlando Bloom as the lead was a fatal mistake.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I thought it worked like Keanu can sometimes work, as the best way to convey a man horribly out of his depth. Obviously Brendan Fraser does that sort of thing better, but then he has the advantage of being able to act.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I'm betting there's been a couple of cricket-themed calypso, reggae or dub albums too.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Though sadly nothing by Scientist along these lines:

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

That's not showing up for me, I'm afraid- but yes, you may well be on to something with the first point.

[tintintin.livejournal.com]

What was the Fighting Fantasy heckle, then? I imagine some sort of "roll two dice and add your skill score" thing but I would be incredibly impressed if it was something like "You're a bigger twat than Yaztromo" or "You couldn't even find the Archmage of Mampang, let alone defeat him".

[tintintin.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the Forever War is ace, even if reading it does make you realise how much of the fourth vol of Halo Jones was nicked from it.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I wasn't thinking of that so much as John Scalzi's Old Man's War series, but yes.
It was 'Skill 7, Stamina 12', so not quite geek-fu, but still way more than they could get away with while acting like they were somehow above such things, particularly given we were only playing Gloom, not a collectable or anything with counters.

[tintintin.livejournal.com]

Bah! If they'd been actually nerdy instead of "just read a gamebook once" they'd have referenced Lone Wolf or something a bit more obscure.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Even I never did those, and I got through all four of the Green myth series whose name currently escapes me!

[tintintin.livejournal.com]

The Cretan Chronicles?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Those are the fellows! Except there are only three so I must have confused them slightly with Sorcery!

[tintintin.livejournal.com]

They were clearly written by academics (or pseudo-academics) with a pretty good feel for the classical Epic - having a system whereby if you amass more Shame than Honour you character kills themself is straight out of the Iliad. I only ever read the second one with the Minotaur, though.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Do you reckon? I just assumed that myth and roleplaying already had enough crossover to explain it - see also Pendragon, or Ars Magica.

[tintintin.livejournal.com]

I think the emphasis on offering libations, sacrifice etc to the gods, whilst also paradoxically seeking personal honour in the most selfish manner, is peculiar to classical literature, as well as the idea of spiteful gods inflicting punishment on mortals for transgressions that are alien to the modern mind.

Chivalric literature is a good comparison, though, with its idea of a Hero being similarly idiosyncratic as the Epic Hero, requiring an irreconcilable mix of chastity and (amorous and martial) valour to be the perfect knight (hence Lancelot weeping when he, an adulterer, is still proven to be the best of knights, as it meant there wasn't anyone who actually fulfilled the brief, as it were - Galahad had already faded into the twinkly ether by this point).

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Oh, for sure, but I think a lot of the same people who read classical literature are the ones gaming. Certainly, while I can't remember a direct link, I was into Homer before I was reading Fighting Fantasy. And certainly some of the people who go on to study Classics properly got their start there. I don't think we're disagreeing on the fundamental here: whoever wrote those books knew their classics. I just don't see that needing them to get in an academic for that, when it's entirely plausible that a gamer would already know it. Or, of course, a long-time gamer who has since become an academic, in which case we're both totally right!

I think one fundamental which any audience of whatever era would share is finding Galahad really bloody annoying.

[tintintin.livejournal.com]

Given how venal and rough Malory is reputed to have been in real life, and definitely was as an editor (he chopped out all the romantic soliloquising of the de Troyes originals and replaced it with extended battle scenes, like some sort of medieval Paul Verhoeven or something), it's possible that we're supposed to find Galahad a dislikeable sanctimonious prig. Malory likes 'em flawed, bitter, violent and sexy.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yes and no - Malory's the first great synthesis, so while he's rough and brutal compared to Chretien, compared to the Geoffrey/Wace/Laymanon tradition he's Mr Fluffy.