Weeknote 10/2024
In his viva voce examination for "Divvers" [Divinity] at Oxford, Oscar Wilde was required to translate from the Greek version of the New Testament, which was one of the set books. The passage chosen was from the story of the Passion. Wilde began to translate, easily and accurately. The examiners were satisfied, and told him, that this was enough. Wilde ignored them and continued to translate. After another attempt, the examiners at last succeeded in stopping him and told him that they were satisfied with his translation.
"Oh, do let me go on," said Wilde "I want to see how it ends."
Verbs
Watching: Dune Part II (2024) and The Holdovers (2023)
It won’t be any surprise at all to those who know me that I’ve been hugely excited for Part II of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. I adored Part I and was completely absorbed by the scale, majesty, and weight of it all, and Part II 1-ups the first part in every way. It is louder, wilder, more gargantuan, and more all-consuming. Incredible performances from every single person on screen - although I still feel like the (dazzling) Christopher Walken may not have been the very best choice for the role of the Padishah Emperor. He’s glorious, no doubt, but he’s also always, and inimitably, Christopher Walken. That tiny, tiny niggle aside, it’s a real masterpiece of epic filmmaking.
As a counterpoint to the overwhelming grandeur of Dune Part II, The Holdovers is a small, contained, and beautifully constructed piece of cinema that reminded me of some of the real character-led classics of the past. Films like The Birdcage, Annie Hall, or even The Breakfast Club. Paul Giamatti gives a masterclass performance and Da’vine Joy Randolph deserves every single one of her growing collection of awards.
Writing: Input - Process - Output, and Now is Now
Two new articles on my blog this week. The first, Input - Process - Output was spurred by reading Cory Doctorow’s article The Memex Method which talked about the ways in which he reads, makes notes, and writes for his blog and the value he sees in having his blog function as a kind of public repository of his own reading and thinking. My article tries to take that process of reading, watching, listening etc and look at how that forms the wide end of a funnel that eventually, hopefully, leads to us creating something new. A blog post. A painting. A lesson. Whatever it might be. It’s an idea I want to dig deeper into in time, but in the spirit of Doctorow, I’ve put those first thoughts out there now because if I don’t they’re sure to evaporate into the ether.
The second article is about another film I watched this week, Wim Wender’s Perfect Days. It’s not a review of the film - there are plenty of those around - though for what it’s worth I thought it was brilliant and completely captivating. Instead, I wanted to talk about some of the ideas and themes that are at play in the film. Even as I was watching it I was scribbling bits and pieces into my notebook because I knew I wanted to write and talk about the film more. It’s a philosophical take - not really an analysis, more an exploration - of a film that I think very carefully and gently gives us just a little in the hope that we will want to find the rest ourselves.
“Every truth has four corners. As a teacher I give you one corner, and it is for you to find the other three.” - Confucius, The Analects, Ch. 7.
Listening: Off Menu Episode 229 with Sam Campbell
I’ve written before about how much I love the comedy of Sam Campbell so it’s about time that one of the best and funniest podcasts, Off Menu, finally had him on as a guest - and for a live show at that. There’s rarely a dud episode of this podcast, but Sam’s is a solid 1h14m of unbridled, silly, free-wheeling joy. If you don’t know him you really should, and if you don’t know the podcast (is that anyone at this stage?) this is a great place to jump on board.
There may also be something of a theme to this week’s weeknote, in that Dune is going to crop up more than once and here is its second outing for the week. Alongside seeing Part II on the big screen I’ve been listening to Hans Zimmer’s colossal film soundtracks (Dune Part I and Dune Part II) as well as *deep breath* this bonkers, brilliant, fan album - Dunewave: Odyssey. I don’t know anything about who made it, or why they mashed up ambient synthwave and Frank Herbert, but why not?
Reading: Dune by Frank Herbert
And here’s number 3 - I’m reading Dune. I’m a big sci-fi nerd - I always have been - but Dune was just never on my radar. I don’t think it was such a big thing when I first got into sci-fi in my early teens, especially in the heavily British-led sci-fi I was reading, and so I never really had much awareness of it. That’s changed now, of course, so it seemed like it was finally time. I’m around 1/3 of the way through the first book and enjoying the hell out of it, though I was struck by just how much the language and style feel almost old-fashioned in a way. There’s certainly a kind of 60’s feel to the phrasing and Herbert is clearly very happy to ignore the rule of “show don’t tell” as he leaps upon every opportunity to spell things out for us. It’s not a bad thing in any sense, just a stylistic thing, and really we’re all here for that grand, operatic story anyway.
In his article for rogerbert.com Matt Zoller Seitz talks of Dune (in his case the movie, but it applies just as readily here) as almost being pre-novelistic. It reads more like Greek drama, Shakespeare, or The Odyssey. Not so much in the language, although I think there are parallels, but in how the story unfolds in front of us to present us with people doing things that they must do because of circumstance, conditioning, and upbringing. Dune is much more a story of action and reaction than it is of motivation and choice and in that way reads to me more like Hamlet, or The Oresteia than it does contemporary science fiction.
Words
I was a little run down at the beginning of the week with what felt like some kind of cold but fortunately managed to give that the heave-ho. Sadly our lush, warm spring weather has given way to colder temperatures and rain. All good for a better spring and summer, I’m sure, but I was just beginning to get used to being able to go out without a jacket. Such hardships, I know.
It’s been a very busy week in lots of ways, with all sorts of things going on at home, but it’s also felt like a productive week as well. Last weekend we had friends visit us to celebrate my birthday which was a lot of fun. Together we played an escape-room-in-a-box game which we made really good progress through, right up until the point that we realised one crucial document was missing from the box. That sort of put paid to our whole escape endeavour, unfortunately, so we are metaphorically still trapped aboard the failing space station with rapidly dwindling oxygen supplies. I will update everyone on any news on that front, of course.
We’ve been watching some great films this week, beginning with Dune Part II which, if ever there were a movie to be seen on the biggest screen available, this would be it. It’s vast, and absorbing, and arresting and just a real masterpiece. I’m very much hoping that Villeneuve’s tentative comments about Dune: Messiah prove true and that one day we’ll get a third part to this triptych. Perfect Days and The Holdovers (see above for more) also featured this week and were also sensational and I’d recommend them both. The Holdovers will please just about anybody, I think, although Perfect Days might not be for all as it’s a slower, meditative, reflective film that won’t be to everyone’s taste. It’s a great time for cinema though, and long may it continue.
Last of all, I was pleased to get two new articles onto the blog this week. Ideally, I’d like to try and get at least one new article, as well as the weeknote, online every week if not, I’ll say it out loud, even two. A dream scenario might be a new article every Monday/Tuesday, another every Wednesday/Thursday and the weeknote on a Friday. I don’t think that will always work, or always be possible, but why not have something to aim for?