I am going to answer my question of last week first. What makes a good reader? And one answer is the time to devote yourself completely to the book. I'd forgotten how much difference it can make. A book read in a few days makes a much greater impact, I think. It's been a while since I stayed off the Internet, stayed off the computer, stayed away from work, stayed home (or at a good friend's house) and just read. I think my blood pressure dropped ten points. I vow to read more books this way.
Your second assignment, should you choose to accept it, is without looking it up, how would you define Byronic. Other than that the word refers to Lord Byron, that is.
Okay. today's question. You're home on a snowy day. ...
What would your triple feature be? All movies are available to you on snow days. Also would they be movies you had already seen or new ones?
Mine are all movies I've seen many times:
Mr. Blanding Builds His Dream House; The Graduate, Rear Window
Second group. Bringing Up Baby, North by Northwest, Pillow Talk.
Yes, I'm a lightweight. I admit it.
When I see the word "Byronic," I always think of someone overly-emotional, self-centered and dramatic. I don't think of that word as being positive. I suppose there's a literary meaning--refering to his work and work by other writers with the same style.
ReplyDeleteAs for snow days, we don't get many here in Louisiana (we might actually have snow tomorrow), but if I'm home and it's a rainy day (rain we have plenty of), I want my comfort movies, movies that I can watch again and again, such as "Moonstruck," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Animal House," "Jaws," the list goes on.
Byronic evokes the same things for me that it does for Deb, only I'd add "gloomy"...attempting to be dashing, as well, though self-consciously not wanting that attempt to be obvious. I've seen it a lot in certain sorts of political activists across the spectrum, and in record-shop employees.
ReplyDeleteYou get to stay home on snow days?
I must admit that the sleepless morning a few months back I spent watching the early shows of PAPER COVERS ROCK (new to me) and THE LAST WAVE (an old favorite, and close enough to flawless) on the Sundance Channel was exceedingly pleasant, even if I did have to shower up and go to work immediately thereafter.
Deb--the Byronic Hero is, after John Polidori's THE VAMPYRE, not someone who you'd really want to hang with...unless you're a character in some romance novels.
ReplyDeletePolidori and Byron own "Don Juu-on" (rather in the manner of Quixote being "Quicks-oat") being the first Byronic (anti)heroes to really earn the name...
ReplyDeleteSnow day three films?
ReplyDeleteThe Big Lebowski, Night of the Creeps and Amelie.
Oh, good one. Let's see.... here's three sets:
ReplyDeleteRebecca, Laura, Howard's End
The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep. Casablanca
Picture of Dorian Grey, Hound of the Baskervilles, The Secret Garden.
Oh, and I like what you say about taking time away from the computer in all it's forms, spending time with the garden, friends, a good book or three. It's a form of self-healing, slowing down the busy brain and the pace of things.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm in the minority. Byronic implies to me heroic, romantic, maybe slightly overblown but in a funny way. Byron had such a great sense of humor, it shows in his poetry and in his letters. Remember his lines from Don Juan (which I think is hilarious):
ReplyDelete"What men call passion and the gods adultery /
Is much more common where the climate is sultry."
Oh, the snow day films, I almost forgot. Has to be movies I love, love, love.
ReplyDeleteSince You Went Away
Rear Window
The Philadelphia Story
Well, as we are more or less snowed in, I´d better admit I haven´t even considered watching a film. I have a novel next to me, but actually I saw the snow as a sign that now I should do something about my own novel. So I killed an infant yesterday and his grandmother today ... (The grandmother was easiest, I admit).
ReplyDeleteNB: I do watch films occasionally, but while I can swallow a two-star book, I cannot concentrate on films that don´t grab me 100 per cent.
Philadelphia Story-just love it. Yes, my thoughts about Bryon were more charitable too. Night of the Creeps-new to me. Yikes. Dorte, I hope the snow melts soon. I can tolerate a two-star movie before a two-star book because it's over faster.
ReplyDeleteSnow day films:
ReplyDeleteThe Lady Eve
Vertigo
Rio Bravo
You're making me pray for snow.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid "Byronic" has morphed into "Tiger Woods" in the 21st Century. Three movies for a snowy day:
ReplyDeleteTHE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN
10
POINT BLANK
My snow day films would be:
ReplyDeleteTHE LOST HORIZON (1937 version)
DOUBLE INDEMNITY
NIGHT AND THE CITY (1950 version)
Snow day #2:
THE BOURNE TRILOGY
These pretzels are making me thirsty. TEN-oh poor Dudley, what a horrible end.
ReplyDeleteAfter hearing Megan lecture on Double Indemnity, I can only see vaginas.
Night of the Creeps is pure 80s fun with a totally over the top and in top form 50s style police detective. It's been favorite of mine for years.
ReplyDeletethat said, if I was snowed in with my DVD collection I would be more likely to pull out a TV series box set and watch a season- Veronica Mars, Firefly, or any of the Homicide-Wire-Shield axis of shows would fill the day.
Instead of movies, give me a few DVDs with a season or two of the Inspector Morse mysteries (featuring John Thaw). Then I'm a happy camper, and I won't care how much it snows (which it might actually do here on the Gulf coast tomorrow evening)!
ReplyDeleteGosh, I miss that series. And Lewis won't quite do.
ReplyDeleteAldous Huxley wrote: "his attitude, his smile, were Byronic, at once world-weary and contemptuous."
ReplyDeleteRichard-Perfect. My husband thanks you for a quote he can use.
ReplyDeleteIt snowed 7-8 inches yesterday but I still had to go to work. But my three:
ReplyDeleteGOSFORD PARK
STRICTLY BALLROOM
PERSUASION (with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds)
Bonus: GALAXY QUEST
Great choices. I want to see all of these movies. STRICLY BALLROOM was so much fun. I'd forgotten it. And Persuasion was my favorite adaptation of Austen.
ReplyDeleteI'm retired. If I weren't home on most days, I'd be home today because of snow.
ReplyDeleteByronic--Handsome, dashing, extravagant Romantic personality. In other words, I can't do it without referring to Byron.
I'd always thought of it as romantic but I think it has some negative connotations too.
ReplyDeleteBy definition, Byronic simply means dark and romantically brooding. I think the negative connotation comes from Byron's critics. IMO the literary critics too often give the man short shrift. He gave the critics hell in his own day, so maybe they're just protecting their own. Me, I love me some Byron.
ReplyDeletehum, I'd have to pick three I haven't seen since I don't often watch movies over.
ReplyDeleteI'm barely literate, so I'll forgo the Byronic portion. Don't hate me, but I've never been snowed in ;-). But, if I were, my triple feature would be:
ReplyDeleteCASABLANCA
HEAT (Michael Mann's)
CHARADE
And, if there was a second day, I'd go for Mike Dennis' Bourne Trilogy recommendation.