Just watched "Control Room." A very intriguing documentary that looks at the role satellite TV plays in the Iraqi war, from basically an Iraqi perspective. Lots of Al-Jazeera type stuff, their thoughts on the Invasion of Iraq. Most surprisingly, a journalist from Al-Jazeera -- notably journalistic in their approach, certainly a great idea for a television station -- jovially arranging dinner plans with the media operations dude from the US side. US dude was balanced, smart, but obviously coming from what I'd call a corrupted viewpoint (that America is justified), but a viewpoint which has its balances nonetheless. It also goes into explaining the lies that the US were spreading, and the media coverage of certain events, such as the weight given to media coverage during the invasion of Bagdhad (almost none) compared to the timely Jessica Lynch (still trying to forget). And so forth.
Also watched a French film called "Wasabi" a cute little number about a badass French cop who goes to Japan to see his now dead girlfriend. He inheirits a lot of money and gets involved with the Yakuza, and at the same time, a daughter he's never known. Think "Lost in Translation" meets "Beverly Hills Cop" meets a burly Frenchman.
Finished the first draft of my first chapter today. I got a whopping 17 pages done. I've decided to add another character so I can inject witty banter whenever the hell I feel like it. There's something liberating about writing something purely for the sake of entertaining myself, or to say it another way: to have a work with hardly any ambitions at all. I like the idea of an idea novel, but that's what everyone does. Though to present it any other way would mean to explore monkey shit on the end of a tube and then throw it into a bag of grits.
Posted by matty-b at November 21, 2004 12:00 AMI'm just throwing shit in and making mini-chapters as I go. There's barely any dialogue but the word "Darling" is in there about a billion times. It's like a mantra. It's an ode to memory and self-mythologizing and by god it's fun when the writing trance starts up. I'm not sure how long the first section will be by the time I hand it in but who knows.
Posted by: ben at November 21, 2004 1:10 AMAnd incidentially I want to read it. I want to read it with a bottle of sangria.
Posted by: ben at November 21, 2004 1:22 AMI have the sudden urge for the novel to take a dumb narrative turn: where the hero's pick up a critic in distress, who learns of their situation and then says that they wouldn't be fit to star in a novel. Instead, they should be Canadians under siege, and it would be a mix of the British version of Stallone (imagine a man rowing a boat in a river pontificating women) and our accepted visions of Stallone. Maybe a home-video, where he's working out.
Posted by: matt at November 22, 2004 10:16 PMI think you should do that. Or at least talk about it in your plot outline for Bill.
Which I have to go write now.
Posted by: ben at November 22, 2004 11:45 PM