Well, @eZyT I finally got around to reading Tuna, didn't put it down from go to woah, and here I am at 4.30am.Tuna - kenneth cook
I got excited when i saw this in the ulmarra 2nd hand books.
It was $10, so i figure its hard to come by, but from the bloke wrote 'wake in fright', i wouldve paid $20.
cook makes hemmingway look like the alpha-fuckstick that he was.
And he understands small town australia better than winton,white or woewodin.
In fact, and i dont say this lightly, in this novel cook does coastal nsw like steinbeck does sth california.
On business transacted in pubs, and aussie racism, Cook is unsurpassed.
This is a great novel. Get your library to find it, and read it in a hammock with a chain of stubbies delivered by your youngest son, if you have one.
5 stars.
I've been reading screenplays too. Interesting to compare Aaron Sorkin's 'A Few Good Men' script, which hits all the beats and plot points all the books and script gurus say you need to hit, and is a shining star of the "it's not a formula, it's a paradigm" school, with Charlie Kaufman's 'Adaptation', a brilliantly original work that rips the p!ss out of that same God of Structure.
What also shines through is how much Sorkin is besotted with his own superior cleverness, while Kaufman, an actual genius, shares all his self-loathing and doubt.
Both great reads, but one is popcorn, the other - I dunno - ceviche with a side of oysters? I'd choose a beer with Kaufman over lines with Sorkin, even if Aaron was shouting from the mega-stash you just know he dips into on the reg.
I've been reading screenplays too. Interesting to compare Aaron Sorkin's 'A Few Good Men' script, which hits all the beats and plot points all the books and script gurus say you need to hit, and is a shining star of the "it's not a formula, it's a paradigm" school, with Charlie Kaufman's 'Adaptation', a brilliantly original work that rips the p!ss out of that same God of Structure.
What also shines through is how much Sorkin is besotted with his own superior cleverness, while Kaufman, an actual genius, shares all his self-loathing and doubt.
Both great reads, but one is popcorn, the other - I dunno - ceviche with a side of oysters? I'd choose a beer with Kaufman over lines with Sorkin, even if Aaron was shouting from the mega-stash you just know he dips into on the reg.
Sorkins West Wing seasons are his greatest work and coincide with his taste for Booger Sugar.
I adore Sorkin. The Facebook movie gets nowhere near enough credit.
If for nothing else, these are good days for getting to those books you always said you were going to read. I've started on Darryl's brother Patrick's bio of the former Brisbane skipper, Voss. Reading Patrick's short story on the history of Marvel Stadium, Down At The Dump, as a young bloke, turned me off him - I found it dull, dense and depressing. And I was 20. But 50 pages into Voss, and even though there's no footy yet, there is some ripping writing:
A universal truth for artists and footballers: "To make yourself, it is also necessary to break yourself."
Advice on dealing with the meeja: "A cunning man can be used if he does not first use."
With inspirational speeches like this, Voss' failure as a coach is even more mysterious: "Every man has a genius, though it is not always discoverable. Least of all when choked by the trivialities of daily existence. But in this disturbing country, so far as I have become acquainted with it already, it is possible more easily to discard the inessential and to attempt the infinite. You will be burnt up most likely, you will have the flesh torn from your bones, you will be tortured probably in many horrible and primitive ways, but you will realise that genius of which you sometimes suspect you are possessed, and of which you will not tell me you are afraid." Brick walls, lads. No obstacle.
And I like this one, clearly addressed to a reporter: "But there are droughts, Turner, that no worm will experience in his blunt head as he burrows in the earth. His life is blissfully blindly physical. The worst that can happen to your worm is that he may come up and be trodden on."
I haven't, mate, but I will make a note of it. I have vowed not to buy another book until I have read every one in my house, but I could make an exception for a great Aussie author with great Aussie grist.Ive tried to read Patrick White a dozen different times and ways, and never been able to get traction.
I've got no other real option other than to accept that Im not smart enough.
and yes, every man has a genius has been screamed, possibly with less verbosity, in every half-time huddle, in every footy game, in every country town in Australia since the inception of time.
......... so *smile* go out there fellas, and put your body on the line
have you ever read any Gerald Murnane @spook ?
some of his stuff is P.White inaccessible, except the grist for his mill is horse racing (jockeys colours) and catholic guilt.
hes definitely worth a crack while your in this zone.
I like Sorkin's work too. It's just no one likes it as much as he does. The Social Network is great, West Wing is great albeit idealistic in terms of the purity of its heroes (See also: The Newsroom), A Few Good Men is very good. Charlie Wilson's War was excellent. The man can write.
Jesse Eisenberg playing Mark Zuckerberg written by Aaron Sorkin (so he's really playing Sorkin, cos Zuck doesn't have 5% of the wit and smarm of his fictional self) is peak Sorkin.
it's his follow up to 'The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k', which has some decent stuff in it .."Everything Is F ***** ! A book about hope by Mark Manson
I'm not expecting it to be too high brow or found on the shelves of too many Freud types but I reckon its likely gonna have some good stuff in there.
it's his follow up to 'The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k', which has some decent stuff in it ..
I haven't, mate, but I will make a note of it. I have vowed not to buy another book until I have read every one in my house, but I could make an exception for a great Aussie author with great Aussie grist.
Speaking of vices, have you read any Damon Runyon? After years of describing Dyer'ere as the Runyon of PRE, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to introduce the old fella to his work, which nach was right up his dark, seedy, gently humorous alley.
Don't know if a good 'read' but see Sheedy spruiking a new book 'icons of footy'. KB, Royce, Carey, Hird, Ablett, Franklin, Barassi but no Tommy H, wtf?!!