tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post8838168461410918229..comments2024-03-27T18:24:19.683-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: Paradise LostUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-91487900005603921752011-05-09T03:44:24.885-07:002011-05-09T03:44:24.885-07:00L.A. had its heyday and things at one time were go...L.A. had its heyday and things at one time were good. But it couldn't last, like a drug high. There must have been a reason why old Protestant L.A. fell harder than old Catholic San Francisco did.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-29183986839604100012011-05-08T20:53:25.974-07:002011-05-08T20:53:25.974-07:00Having gone to the trouble to get Mildred Pierce a...Having gone to the trouble to get Mildred Pierce and read it, I must say I was disappointed. If this is "the" novel of Los Angeles, then I must say I feel sorry for Southern California. What is it about the West Coast and literature?<br /><br /><br />Anonymous had it right when he wrote, "Whether Los Angeles was good or bad, it eventually became bad for the nation . . ."Luke Leahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11290760894780619646noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-16467502447932524812011-05-04T19:33:35.079-07:002011-05-04T19:33:35.079-07:00"Say what you will about Michener, I learned ..."Say what you will about Michener, I learned a lot of history from him."<br /><br />SHUNNING is an excellent novel. And he introduced me to Henryk Sienkiewicz, and I hope to read POLAND one day, so he's okay in my book. But I refuse to read Tom Clancy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-19532519192299991832011-05-04T06:06:54.082-07:002011-05-04T06:06:54.082-07:00"You mean like James Michener."
Say wha..."You mean like James Michener."<br /><br />Say what you will about Michener, I learned a lot of history from him. He was not a great formuator of character, but his description of environment and situation was exact. He did his research. His fascination with family or "extended family", generational epics and the twists of fate that separated and connected as the years went on, could have something to do with his being an adopted child.lesleynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-77290733648188320632011-05-04T06:03:33.874-07:002011-05-04T06:03:33.874-07:00"Overall,[Sunset Boulevard] it's a cruel ..."Overall,[Sunset Boulevard] it's a cruel movie, almost autocannibalistic. It is worth watching for Stroheim's incredible performance, though, if nothing else."<br /><br />Cruel and prescient. http://www.bricksandstonesgossip.com/2011/05/03/former-playboy-pinup-yvette-vickers-body-found-mummified<br /><br /> Yvette Vickers, a young actress with a small part in the movie, later became a pin-up, playmate and B movie starlet. Her body was found her a big old house not too unlike Gloria Swanson's in the movie. The former Bunny was in a "mummified" state. A neighbor, after not seeing her for months, finally wondered enough to go to her door, and found cobwebs around Ms. Vicker's mailbox. Not a good sign.lesleynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-79093184726726130122011-05-02T18:13:57.296-07:002011-05-02T18:13:57.296-07:00Yes, Mildred Pierce resembles in some ways the hug...Yes, Mildred Pierce resembles in some ways the hugely informative books of Michener and Wouk. Few read them anymore because the stuff they informed people about is now out of date.<br /><br />Cain has a higher reputation today because his works also helped stoke film noir, which is a hugely influential aesthetic style, although I'm not sure how much he contributed aesthetically. His Mildred Pierce, for example, is much less noir than the 1945 Joan Crawford adaptation of Mildred Pierce.<br /><br />But, yes, it's right to see Mildred Pierce as a first rate middlebrow novel, but one given added interest because it's written by a man with a cool eye.Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-38425181321806685482011-05-02T17:06:24.533-07:002011-05-02T17:06:24.533-07:00"You don't read 'Mildred Pierce' ..."You don't read 'Mildred Pierce' for the plot, you read it because James M. Cain understood how the world worked. Cain was one of the great middlebrow writers, not all that aesthetically edifying, but hugely informative."<br /><br />You mean like James Michener and Herman Wouk?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-37840396611140193512011-05-01T14:47:56.862-07:002011-05-01T14:47:56.862-07:00"There was never any "Golden Age" i..."There was never any "Golden Age" in Los Angeles."<br /><br />There's never a golden age for ACTORS because actors are generally ****ed up.<br /><br />That has nothing to do with the average person.Wandrinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-67763545707618530482011-04-30T22:03:14.794-07:002011-04-30T22:03:14.794-07:00Can we get some Joan Didion for contrast?Can we get some Joan Didion for contrast?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-71391381441516175702011-04-30T20:03:16.143-07:002011-04-30T20:03:16.143-07:00"The studio buys Cain's bestseller 'D...<i>"The studio buys Cain's bestseller 'Double Indemnity' and Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler start to work on adapting it. Chandler announces that Cain's dialogue won't work on screen and that Chandler will rewrite all of it."</i><br /><br />I never read any Cain but I just now read the Google Preview of <i>Double Indemnity</i> Ouch! Chandler was right. Cain's observations are astute but his dialogue is flat.<br /><br />I've read a couple of Chandler's novels. Good writing but something's missing. When it comes to hard-boiled, give me Hammett. <i>Red Harvest</i>, especially, is terrific.Kylienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-4152945119048269492011-04-30T17:54:42.427-07:002011-04-30T17:54:42.427-07:00"American accounts of American history seem t..."American accounts of American history seem to me to be usually risible rubbish, "<br /><br />Can you give us specific examples, Dear Limey?<br /><br />Oh, and good luck with the new royal. I look forward to seeing Harry snort coke in uncle Gary's Casa de Bang Bang.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-50051771617336149242011-04-30T17:02:50.779-07:002011-04-30T17:02:50.779-07:00Here's another James M. Cain story:
The studi...Here's another James M. Cain story:<br /><br />The studio buys Cain's bestseller "Double Indemnity" and Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler start to work on adapting it. Chandler announces that Cain's dialogue won't work on screen and that Chandler will rewrite all of it. Cain is working on another picture on the same lot, so Wilder calls Cain in to talk to Chandler. Cain and Chandler are rivals and they've never liked each other much. Cain listens to Chandler's complaints about his dialog and his ideas for how to rewrite them and ... he agrees with Chandler. <br /><br />Out of this process comes one of the best movies ever.Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-12303632018068836692011-04-30T16:58:37.185-07:002011-04-30T16:58:37.185-07:00"Plus it's really funny, in a mean-and-sa..."Plus it's really funny, in a mean-and-sardonic kinda way."<br /><br />And, yet, she really is a heroine, all at the same time. If you like eating at restaurants that provide good food at a reasonable price, then the world needs pushy people like Mildred Pierce, even if they can get on the nerves of more refined people like James M. Cain. <br /><br />The parts of the book that are more personal to Cain about Mildred's daughter's opera career (Cain's mother was an opera singer and his father a college president) are ho-hum compared to the more journalistic stuff about how hard it is to launch a restaurant.Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-23451155899510836652011-04-30T10:58:17.723-07:002011-04-30T10:58:17.723-07:00"I wonder if at least a few of the directors ...<i>"I wonder if at least a few of the directors weren't incredibly sardonic about casting choices for movies that were a bit too like the actors lives. This perhaps deliberate bit of sadism on the directors behalf disturbs me deeply when I think about it so I usually don't."</i><br /><br />Then you'll really want to avoid <i>Sunset Boulevard</i>. Billy Wilder cast a has-been director working as an actor (Stroheim) as a has-been director working as a butler. He cast several formerly big silent stars (Nilsson, Warner and Keaton) as has-beens the narrator calls "The Waxworks".<br /><br />He let Gloria Swanson pull out all the stops in her role as a forgotten star obsessed with the younger man she supports but while it's a sympathetic role, it's hardly a flattering one.<br /><br />Overall, it's a cruel movie, almost autocannibalistic. It is worth watching for Stroheim's incredible performance, though, if nothing else.Kylienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-4427273476174493472011-04-30T08:17:04.498-07:002011-04-30T08:17:04.498-07:00Steve writes:" "Mildred Pierce" is ...Steve writes:" "Mildred Pierce" is an unusual novel because you have a 140 IQ heterosexual man writing with deep insight about a 100 IQ woman who isn't a great beauty or a buttkicking babe or anything else to interest a heterosexual man in her. She's above average only in willpower, which makes her a successful restaurant owner-manager."<br /><br />That's exactly right. Plus it's really funny, in a mean-and-sardonic kinda way. <br /><br />A major novel, and a majorly-underappreaciated one too, IMHO.Ray Sawhillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02434181069400646328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-44479440927985366972011-04-30T03:12:40.263-07:002011-04-30T03:12:40.263-07:00"Come on, get into the anti-burgeois propagan..."Come on, get into the anti-burgeois propaganda of film noir. This not only explains the huge discrepancy that a working class family could produce an opera star but also that the working class mother is somehow trumped by the amoral yet more culturally sophisticated daughter."<br /><br />I was thinking about this myself. Usually the stage mother is the villain in these flicks which include many instances of the child star or less gifted siblings being abused. It's so commonly accepted that the stage parent has the wrong priorities in life, as well as in child rearing, no one thinks to empathize with the mommies and poppies dearests when child stars go bad.<br /><br />When looking up background material on some of these old flicks, it also seems it might be uncomfortably self referential for many of these actresses to play parts in movies in which fame has destroyed the soul of at least one character. I wonder if at least a few of the directors weren't incredibly sardonic about casting choices for movies that were a bit too like the actors lives. This perhaps deliberate bit of sadism on the directors behalf disturbs me deeply when I think about it so I usually don't.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-10476885174306763432011-04-29T20:20:47.640-07:002011-04-29T20:20:47.640-07:00"She's above average only in willpower, w..."She's above average only in willpower, which makes her a successful restaurant owner-manager."<br /><br />I'm not certain this is an accurate description of Kate Winslet & will be surfing the internet for the "daughter" who is so much hotter than mom that stepdad would prefer her. <br /><br />My personal opinion is that film noir was mostly an indictment of capitalism despite the fact that the pie-baking mother was a much more sympathetic character than the opera singer daughter. <br /><br />Come on, get into the anti-burgeois propaganda of film noir. This not only explains the huge discrepancy that a working class family could produce an opera star but also that the working class mother is somehow trumped by the amoral yet more culturally sophisticated daughter.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-60958066783608704842011-04-29T19:41:12.077-07:002011-04-29T19:41:12.077-07:00You don't read "Mildred Pierce" for ...You don't read "Mildred Pierce" for the plot, you read it because James M. Cain understood how the world worked. Cain was one of the great middlebrow writers, not all that aesthetically edifying, but hugely informative. <br /><br />"Mildred Pierce" is an unusual novel because you have a 140 IQ heterosexual man writing with deep insight about a 100 IQ woman who isn't a great beauty or a buttkicking babe or anything else to interest a heterosexual man in her. She's above average only in willpower, which makes her a successful restaurant owner-manager.Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-43687047122388829452011-04-29T19:23:41.491-07:002011-04-29T19:23:41.491-07:00OK. Just read the plot synopsis for Mildred Pierc...OK. Just read the plot synopsis for Mildred Pierce, the novel. OMG, how horridly bad. I don't think there's a Mexican soap opera that disjointed and implausible. Thanks, Sailer, for setting me straight: Sometimes fiction is stranger than fiction! <br /><br />P.S.<br /><br />Didn't you say you had written an article on the topic of sometimes the movie is bettern' the book, one featuring the works of Ray Bradbury? ;0)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-374603638087950832011-04-29T17:30:49.171-07:002011-04-29T17:30:49.171-07:00What are you complaining about? California is stil...<i>What are you complaining about? California is still paradise.<br /><br />Have you ever traveled outside major tourist destinations in Mexico or China? California has a long way to fall before it's worse than those places and people stop coming.<br /><br />This, epecially considering all the freebies like health, education and other generous welfare programs. Also, consider intangibles like clean air and a declining but relatively high trust system.</i><br /><br />I'd rather not have my country destroyed. Since those places are bad, we need to avoid becoming those places.Difference Makernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-22115810208624318612011-04-29T16:51:42.441-07:002011-04-29T16:51:42.441-07:00But BLADE RUNNER still looks kinda cool. What we n...But BLADE RUNNER still looks kinda cool. What we need are replicants. More Aryan than Aryan is our motto.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-32451310735883343802011-04-29T15:23:24.056-07:002011-04-29T15:23:24.056-07:00There was the movie location and there was the act...There was the movie location and there was the actual place. LA in its Spanish Revival period was beautiful with very distinct and charming architecture. There were great schools and colleges and some pretty serious intellectual firepower around Cal Tech, JPL, and out at Claremont.<br /><br />You could live a serious life there and ignore Hollywood, but its values gradually leaked out to environs at large.Carolhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09055468613470143350noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-22152288534377694142011-04-29T14:35:29.056-07:002011-04-29T14:35:29.056-07:00Well, at least Los Angelinos don't have to go ...Well, at least Los Angelinos don't have to go south of the border for Mexican tourism.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-60801120175527273542011-04-29T14:34:23.317-07:002011-04-29T14:34:23.317-07:00"But what is the great lesson that she learns..."But what is the great lesson that she learns at the end of the movie? That you can't buy love/meaning/truth with meaning."<br /><br />I meant she couldn't buy all that stuff with MONEY.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-37908874263329951492011-04-29T12:59:20.605-07:002011-04-29T12:59:20.605-07:00Texas and California are pretty much done.Texas and California are pretty much done.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com