Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week – our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! No cool industry person this week (I’d like requests though. No Classical Gas), but I want to get back into the habit of posting the column regularly regardless, since the comments are always a medium good time, which is the maximum amount of good time allowed on a Sunday.
I have actually been more on a film kick this week, although I am a decent way through Blood Meridian now. How this book reads if you’re not on Kindle to look up every third word, I don’t want to know. Is it better if you don’t speak Spanish? Am I ruining the mystery of this untamed land for myself by looking up words like ‘playa’, ‘discalced’, ‘sark’, and ‘apishamore’? Only the lord can rightly judge me goblinhunched over demon backlight when night does fall after gored sunset upon my extant form.
On films, two quick things. Firstly, the remake of Speak No Evil is vapid and cowardly and I do not accept that adding, to the original themes, the addendum “… but if that happens, all your problems can be solved by a brick” is a worthwhile interpretation. McAvoy is good though, obviously.
Secondly, I rewatched The Lobster after not seeing it for years, having now seen the rest of Lanthimos’s films, and I’m curious if there’s a particular tradition he’s working in. I want to find some writers than write like that, basically, although I’m not sure I’ve unpacked exactly what “like that” is. I think it’s largely to do with his characters being incapable of irony. I also like this video’s take that they are capable of distress, but somehow not surprise, at absurdity. Let me know if anyone springs to mind, and if not, let me know what you’ve been reading regardless. Book for now!
