Kings new clothes...

[Grant Goggans]

I heard it argued once that a good film director should be able to make an excellent movie that they would personally not enjoy watching.  I'll give Quentin Tarantino another try when he makes a romantic comedy.

[Rio De Fideldo]

If you say David Jason three times apparently you conjure up Ade Bamforth a la Beatlejuice.

[Quirkafleeg]

Campbell... you are so very very wrong.

[Jim_Campbell]

"Campbell... you are so very very wrong."

About Tarantino or Banks?

Cheers

Jim

[Funt Solo]

Reservoir Dogs, a "deeply conventional heist-gone-wrong movie"?  Well, except that we don't see the heist, and usually "you're hit, you're dead" prevails in such movies, as opposed to bleeding slowly to death from a gut shot.

The jigsaw puzzle narrative of Pulp Fiction is one of the major strengths of the movie, yes - but it is so full of screen-eating scenes that it beggars belief.

Jackie Brown has one of the most tense, edge-of-your-seat sequences in movie history.  It's not his fault that a slower pace and increased characterisation baffled cinema-goers that were obsessed with seeing "another QT movie".  Only LA Confidential stands alongside as successful modern film noir.

If you're going to slag off QT, then his acting ability and From Dusk Till Dawn are ripe for a slating, but his believable chit-chat dialogue, playfulness with convention, experimental film-stock mixing techniques (Kill Bill Vol 1) and non-linear plotting are strengths that bring his work above that of standard Hollywood by-the-numbers bullshit - and the praise he receives for such is worthy.

Oh - and Iain M Banks plays with scale and astounding reveals - which I'm always happy with.  That he can still produce innovative and orginal work from The Culture without repeating himself is no mean feat, and I'd be interested to hear an expansion of what you consider "the same ... tricks from a small bag", as I don't see it myself.

[Jim_Campbell]

"Only LA Confidential stands alongside as successful modern film noir. "

Also over-rated, in my opinion. See also: The Usual Suspects.

"...the praise he receives for such is worthy. "

OK ... his stuff leaves me cold. Maybe that's just me. We'll have to agree to differ.

"Oh - and Iain M Banks plays with scale and astounding reveals [...] and I'd be interested to hear an expansion of what you consider "the same ... tricks from a small bag", as I don't see it myself."

Ah. Maybe you missed the bit where I said I was talking more about his non-SF stuff.

Of the 'M' Banks stuff, I've only read Look to Windward, Inversions and Feersum Endjinn, none of which impressed me very much.

Of the non-'M' stuff, I'm talking about:

Consensual incest: Song of Stone and Walking on Glass

The real love interest was right before the protagonist's eyes all along: The Business and Crow Road

Coy literary riddling to hide the identity of the narrator: The Bridge and Song of Stone

There's more, but I've been drinking and I'll have to return to this when I'm sober, but I've found the more Banks novels you read, the easier it becomes to work out what's going to happen.

Dead Air features none of the above, but I found to be rather dull.

Cheers!

Jim

[Trout]

Jim, I'd recommend The Player of Games. I like it a lot.

- Trout

[Quirkafleeg]

>About Tarantino or Banks?

Everything

[Funt Solo]

Oh - the non-SF stuff, yes.  I tend to agree.  I've always been much more of a rabid fan of his M-work.  There again, Feersum Endjinn is probably my least favourite (it's a very long, overly stylised Future Shock).

Song of Stone, Walking on Glass, The Business and Dead Air were tricky to get through, but I have a real soft spot for The Bridge and The Crow Road.

With Banks, there's always a twist, which can leave you looking for it, and the main character is always somehow on the fringes of normal society.

Have you read his whisky tour non-fiction book?  I couldn't bring myself to.

---

And back on topic:  another vote for Friends.

[Trout]

I didn't like the whisky book much.

It was all about him and his chums and his cars.

Bah.

[Jim_Campbell]

"Oh - the non-SF stuff, yes. I tend to agree. I've always been much more of a rabid fan of his M-work. There again, Feersum Endjinn is probably my least favourite (it's a very long, overly stylised Future Shock).

In the SF vein, I was somewhat at the mercy of what my local library had to offer, and I was conscious that I was probably not reading his best work. A number of people have pointed to Use of Weapons as a book I should read, and it's on my list of books to get round to ... [1]

The problem with Feersum Endjinn is that is awash with cracking ideas which build expectation, but ultimately turns on (as you say) a twist that would probably get rejected for a Future Shock.

"Song of Stone, Walking on Glass, The Business and Dead Air were tricky to get through, but I have a real soft spot for The Bridge and The Crow Road.

Now, please don't get me wrong - I loved Walking on Glass ... it's both strange and wonderful, and somehow makes me think of Grant Morrison (it's probably the number-crunching!), and I also really enjoyed The Bridge and Crow Road.

What I was (probably not very clearly) alluding to was the fact that more Banks I read, the more he seems to be recycling the same signature themes, with diminishing returns.

"Have you read his whisky tour non-fiction book? I couldn't bring myself to."

Heh ... no. Me neither.

Cheers!

Jim

[1] 2005, and a chunk of this year so far, was rather dominated by Neal Stephenson, since I tackled The Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon, all of which I enjoyed enormously, but --my God -- that's a lot of pages!

[Floyd-the-k]

Clive James


grrrr

[Slippery PD]

Radiohead - shoe gazing introspective twats dressed up as leading edge music.  Feckwits.

and I say that every time this comes up...

Slips

[Woolly]

Steven Spielberg
Plasma screens
Being fashionable

[WoD]

Morrisey...just smile ffs.