What are you currently reading?

[Karl Henning]

Yesterday, I watched a YouTube review-comparison of the three movies based on Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, in which the reviewer at one point gives the opinion that Heston in The Omega Man is the best of the lot;  but at the end, he concludes that none of the three does the literary source justice.

Now, even from the clips which the above reviewer provides, I did not find myself inclined to give the 1971 flick a shot.

Furthermore, here is Ebert. (And yes, I know that I found myself happy to disregard his critique w/r/t John Carpenter's The Thing . . .)

If anybody has to be the last man in the world, I suppose it might as well be Charlton Heston. At least we know we're in good hands. He outmaneuvered the apes in "Planet of the Apes" (1968), so why not send him up against the ghouls in "The Omega Man"? They're not a whole lot smarter. Also, if God should decide to start the human race again, Heston could always be Moses. Or God.

The ghouls, by the way, have been produced as a side effect of biological warfare between China and Russia. They can't stand light, they all have nasty bruises over their left eyebrows, and they wear the costumes of medieval monks. Why? Because that's what ghouls wear, I guess.

Heston is immune to the plague, thanks to a vaccine he was working on just before things broke loose. He barricades himself in a Los Angeles penthouse with floodlights outside to scare away the ghouls and puts in a 20-year supply of the best imported Scotch. Prudent of him. Even if biological warfare doesn't break out and leave him marooned with a city full of ghouls, at least he can have a drink while thinking about his close call.

The ghouls, alas, are a little too ridiculous to quite fulfill their function in the movie. They make all the wrong decisions, are incompetent and ill-coordinated, and speak in an elevated "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here" sort of English. Wouldn't you like to hear a little slang from a ghoul for a change?

The others in the movie are more interesting, however. Heston is the only truly immune man, but he stumbles across a band of survivors who haven't yet fallen to the plague, and provides them with a serum that will save the human race. This band includes Rosalind Cash, who is engagingly brash and rescues Heston from cremation. Then there's an obligatory motorcycle chase (well done) and a creepy interlude in a ghoul-infested wine cellar before the movie sort of bogs down. Not even a shot of Heston in the obligatory crucifixion pose can quite mend things.

"The Omega Man" is based on an uncredited novel by Richard Matheson. I wonder if it was I Am Legend, a very good work about the last normal man left in a world of vampires. He held them off with mirrors, crosses, and garlic--the usual mixture -- and did very nearly as well as Heston with his spotlights.

Postscript:  So why, and why not?  I guess I don't mind Ken Russell as the hero in the Antarctic, but I find Heston not to my narrative taste.  More importantly, my ear is lured in by the Morricone soundtrack, where watching Heston with a cloned Mod Squad soundtrack sends me packing.

Post postscript:  I think I liked the Will Smith I Am Legend all right, but never need to watch it again.  I liked Vincent Price in The Last Man on Earth, but would not necessarily agree with my buddy David Frieze that it is clearly the best movie of the three.

[Marsch MacFiercesome]

Eurodammerung.

When has counterfeiting ever produced prosperity?

[bwv 1080]

I had read the first book in The Expanse some years ago, and had not been moved to continue on by the mashup of solar system space opera, zombies, and Lovecraftian horror.  I decided to reread it again after watching the SyFy production.  The elements of pastiche didn't bother so much this time (these guys do write well), and so continued on to the second book, which is even better than the first.   (It really annoys me that everything SF and Fantasy these days is part of some gigantic series, but that's the way it is.)  I'm now on the 3rd volume, which seems to be the inevitable falling off point, with some "I don't care about this person" type characters.  But hopefully it will improve.

[asin]0316311294[/asin]

Three and out for me- the Amazon reviews seem to support my decision.  Alastair Reynolds seems to be the only consistently good living Space opera writer

[NikF]

"She hath wrists which, did her bangles not contain,
Would run from out her sleeves in silvern rain."

[Daverz]

Three and out for me- the Amazon reviews seem to support my decision.  Alastair Reynolds seems to be the only consistently good living Space opera writer

Yup, already the 3rd book is a falling off.  Not bad, exactly, but the focus is obviously failing.  I thought the 2nd book was the best.  The 4th book sounds so dire, that I think I'll cut my losses.

[kishnevi]

News alert.

http://www.repubblica.it/cultura/2016/02/20/news/morto_lo_scrittore_umberto_eco-133816061/?refresh_ce

[NikF]

Sexus by Henry Miller. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rosy_Crucifixion#Sexus

I'm making a start on the trilogy.

[ritter]

Tipped off by some fellow GMGers in the (IIRC) "What is the composer's intention?" thread, I bought this, and it is proving to be a fascinating read:

[aligreto]

John Fowles: The Collector....

[NikF]

John Fowles: The Collector....

That's an interesting book - offering insights into two different mindsets. A good read but perhaps not the most comfortable one. At least, that's the way I remember it.

[aligreto]

That's an interesting book - offering insights into two different mindsets. A good read but perhaps not the most comfortable one. At least, that's the way I remember it.

Yes indeed. I am only a short way into it but it is a bit disconcerting in the cold, calculating approach of the protagonist. I look forward to the development of the intrigue.

[Bogey]

PDK



One of my all time favorite authors.  This one launches a bit slowly and ping pongs around a bit, however I hit about page 40 and now I cannot put it down. 

[Artem]

Bogey, thank you for the explanation regarding the book you're reading in the listening thread.

I've only read one Philip K Dick book that was Ubik. I rather liked it. I rarely read science fiction novels though, I try to read one book in that genre a year.

[Bogey]

Bogey, thank you for the explanation regarding the book you're reading in the listening thread.

I've only read one Philip K Dick book that was Ubik. I rather liked it. I rarely read science fiction novels though, I try to read one book in that genre a year.

About the same.  PDK is the exception.  I usually read one in the summer.

[Jo498]

PK Dick has several books with classical music references. It's been a while, so I am hazy on the details but I think in "Martian timeslip" Mozart's great g minor symphony is somehow relevant and "Flow my tears, the policeman said" refers to the Dowland song.

[André]

If you ever come across the name of author Boileau-Narcejac, you might want to know that they are actually a pair. Writer Boileau plots the outlines of the novel (most often a mystery) and writer Narcejac fleshes it in fluent, superbly french prose. Hugely successful, many of their novels have been adapted to the screen, most notably Clouzot's Diabolique and Hitchcock's Vertigo. They are also responsible for the scenario of Franju's Eyes Without a Face.

Highly recommended if available in translation at your library.

[Karl Henning]

Just an amusing snippet from a listener's review on Amazon:

FYI - I think his own music [Boulez's] is terrible and an evil influence on modern music. But I am very glad he gets to direct orchestras.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Curt von Westernhagen's Wagner biography. While it contains some interesting information, I am seriously annoyed by the author's constant attempts to whitewash Wagner's behaviour. He does say at the very beginning of the book that he intends to be the one Wagner biographer who does not complain about his bad character and I'm fine with that, it's just that he constantly twists around the truth in order to make everyone else but Wagner seem like the bad guy. I'm not saying Wagner didn't have some good in him, surely he did but come on, Westernhagen even goes so far as to disgracefully blame Minna for not having a saint's patience with Wagner's constant skirt-chasing, narcissistic manipulations, streaks of sadism etc. WTF?

[NikF]

Hell: Barbusse.

[asin]1885983018[/asin]

[Drasko]

Finishing the zenith storyline, before moving onto early years. Not a greatest fan of Boulet's drawing, looking forward to Christophe Blain.

[asin]1561635502[/asin]