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Jan. 30th, 2015 11:43 pm1. I'm going to miss Jason Katim's Parenthood, which like Friday Night Lights before it was a well-written, if at times uneven, family oriented drama. With quiet moments, and under-stated acting. And much like FNL before it - wrapped things up in such a way to uplift the viewers spirits and leave a gentle smile on my face...humming the title credits theme song.
Can't say that about many television shows, unfortunately.
The season finale was tonight.
It will be replaced by another violent spy drama, which appears to copy heavily from The Americans and Elementary.
I'd prefer a family drama. If just for a change of pace.
2. The Most Dangerous Book - seems to be as much a historical account of the publishing industry or rather it's beginnings as it is a story about a fight over a book. It's also about the history of censorship and copyright laws. Found out a few things I did not know.
* The Modern Library which in turn gave birth to Random House - was started by Cerf and Klopher for a $250,000 which at the time was actually quite a bit of cash and the most anyone had spent for a second edition or third edition publishing line. This was back in 1925 or thereabouts. The Modern Library was basically the republishing of books already in the public domain or that had previously been published. In 1927 - they decided they wanted to publish first editions or books that had not been previously published in the US - it would be a bunch of random books, not that many to start. And they decided to call it, Random House. Years later they sold Random House and the Modern Library for $45 million.
The Modern Library did very well during the hey-day of Wall Street.
The Modern Library also gave birth to The Great Books Foundation. [Which has some meaning for me - considering it was my father's first major job. He worked for the Great Books Foundation in Chicago, when I was born. He trained facilitators and book leaders around the country. As well as wrote training manuals on how to teach and interpret the material.] At any rate, according to Birmingham - this was initially a means of selling the Modern Library's listing to subscribers. He goes further to state that Ulysses or rather Joyce's rational for Ulysses inspired them - Joyce's view or the whole point of Ulysses was that the human condition can be expressed through art. That we can understand ourselves and others through literature. [I'm not so sure this is a new idea. I think people had it before Joyce. Not all roads lead to James Joyce. Come on.]
* There was a lot of piracy going on back then. Apparently in the 1920s - English copyright did not translate into American copyright. In 1926, you could only claim copyright protection in the US if your English-language book had actually been printed on American manufactured plates within (at most) six months of the initial publication. If it had been published in England or Britain and shipped to the US, it did not have copyright protection in the US and was in the public domain. Which is why it was hard to get books published in Britain but not published in the US - distributed in the US. This rule has since changed, thankfully. As a result, in the US, where it was being banned, James Joyce's Ulysses had fallen into the public domain - and people could do whatever they wanted with it. [This may not be interesting to anyone but me...]
* The British were as nasty with their censorship laws as the Americans (sigh, dang puritans lived on both sides of the Atlantic). At one point they went after a famous literary critic, Levitias..who taught at Cambridge. The critic wanted to use Ulysses to teach a course in Modern Literary Criticism. When he was told that he could not teach Ulysses to a co-ed class or at all for that matter, or own it. He said that he could have gotten it down on the docks for cheaper. And there was a cult surrounding the book. He was merely proposing examining it and critiquing it. But was shut down. They didn't just want to censor books back then, they wanted to erase them from existence and along with that erasure any proof of censorship. Approximately 300,000 copies were burned. (It may be more than that - can't remember exactly - go read the book yourself to find out.) But not to worry, Harriet Weaver just ordered more to be printed from Paris and smuggled in. It's rather funny in way, reading about the amount of money the British government and US government spent to ban this poor book.
Also a bit disturbing - think how much better our world would be if they put the funds to a more positive purpose - such as feeding the hungry or housing the poor?
* Joyce meanwhile underwent thirteen painful eye surgeries...he was rapidly going blind in both eyes. He was far-sighted not near-sighted. In short, he needed glasses to read and write and reading and writing strained his eyes. He also had most of his teeth removed, various abscesses, etc. His eyes were treated with atrophine, cocaine, scopalpine, and various other pharmaceuticals, including leeches. The medication he took - either induced hallucinations, anxiety, or giddiness. At one point he complained that he was being haunted - he saw his desk, chairs, and books flying around in the air.
In part because of the iritis, which rapidly evolved into advanced glaucoma, and the medications he took for it - Joyce receded into his own thoughts and consciousness. His writing was his world. His thoughts were everything. He was isolated by his illness and in some respects trapped inside his own head. His book is an expression of the limitations of the human body and the beauty of it. And it is in a way a direct result of his illness and what he was going through at the time.
Can't say that about many television shows, unfortunately.
The season finale was tonight.
It will be replaced by another violent spy drama, which appears to copy heavily from The Americans and Elementary.
I'd prefer a family drama. If just for a change of pace.
2. The Most Dangerous Book - seems to be as much a historical account of the publishing industry or rather it's beginnings as it is a story about a fight over a book. It's also about the history of censorship and copyright laws. Found out a few things I did not know.
* The Modern Library which in turn gave birth to Random House - was started by Cerf and Klopher for a $250,000 which at the time was actually quite a bit of cash and the most anyone had spent for a second edition or third edition publishing line. This was back in 1925 or thereabouts. The Modern Library was basically the republishing of books already in the public domain or that had previously been published. In 1927 - they decided they wanted to publish first editions or books that had not been previously published in the US - it would be a bunch of random books, not that many to start. And they decided to call it, Random House. Years later they sold Random House and the Modern Library for $45 million.
The Modern Library did very well during the hey-day of Wall Street.
The Modern Library also gave birth to The Great Books Foundation. [Which has some meaning for me - considering it was my father's first major job. He worked for the Great Books Foundation in Chicago, when I was born. He trained facilitators and book leaders around the country. As well as wrote training manuals on how to teach and interpret the material.] At any rate, according to Birmingham - this was initially a means of selling the Modern Library's listing to subscribers. He goes further to state that Ulysses or rather Joyce's rational for Ulysses inspired them - Joyce's view or the whole point of Ulysses was that the human condition can be expressed through art. That we can understand ourselves and others through literature. [I'm not so sure this is a new idea. I think people had it before Joyce. Not all roads lead to James Joyce. Come on.]
* There was a lot of piracy going on back then. Apparently in the 1920s - English copyright did not translate into American copyright. In 1926, you could only claim copyright protection in the US if your English-language book had actually been printed on American manufactured plates within (at most) six months of the initial publication. If it had been published in England or Britain and shipped to the US, it did not have copyright protection in the US and was in the public domain. Which is why it was hard to get books published in Britain but not published in the US - distributed in the US. This rule has since changed, thankfully. As a result, in the US, where it was being banned, James Joyce's Ulysses had fallen into the public domain - and people could do whatever they wanted with it. [This may not be interesting to anyone but me...]
* The British were as nasty with their censorship laws as the Americans (sigh, dang puritans lived on both sides of the Atlantic). At one point they went after a famous literary critic, Levitias..who taught at Cambridge. The critic wanted to use Ulysses to teach a course in Modern Literary Criticism. When he was told that he could not teach Ulysses to a co-ed class or at all for that matter, or own it. He said that he could have gotten it down on the docks for cheaper. And there was a cult surrounding the book. He was merely proposing examining it and critiquing it. But was shut down. They didn't just want to censor books back then, they wanted to erase them from existence and along with that erasure any proof of censorship. Approximately 300,000 copies were burned. (It may be more than that - can't remember exactly - go read the book yourself to find out.) But not to worry, Harriet Weaver just ordered more to be printed from Paris and smuggled in. It's rather funny in way, reading about the amount of money the British government and US government spent to ban this poor book.
Also a bit disturbing - think how much better our world would be if they put the funds to a more positive purpose - such as feeding the hungry or housing the poor?
* Joyce meanwhile underwent thirteen painful eye surgeries...he was rapidly going blind in both eyes. He was far-sighted not near-sighted. In short, he needed glasses to read and write and reading and writing strained his eyes. He also had most of his teeth removed, various abscesses, etc. His eyes were treated with atrophine, cocaine, scopalpine, and various other pharmaceuticals, including leeches. The medication he took - either induced hallucinations, anxiety, or giddiness. At one point he complained that he was being haunted - he saw his desk, chairs, and books flying around in the air.
In part because of the iritis, which rapidly evolved into advanced glaucoma, and the medications he took for it - Joyce receded into his own thoughts and consciousness. His writing was his world. His thoughts were everything. He was isolated by his illness and in some respects trapped inside his own head. His book is an expression of the limitations of the human body and the beauty of it. And it is in a way a direct result of his illness and what he was going through at the time.