Battle of the Bathtubs-Yates's REVOLUTIONARY ROAD v. Percy's THE MOVIEGOER: RGBIB 408
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- It's the all-dementia episode! Watch as I literally tell the same story twice within a few minutes of each other! I blame it on all the retakes I had to film before I could keep Dodo and Lucky quiet long enough to hear myself think!
And here's a link to that article about the 1962 National Books Award controversy:
slate.com/cult...
I read the Moviegoer when I was about twenty also and it put me to sleep. I will read it again and hopefully I will like it the second time around. Revolutionary Road is an all-time classic and look forward to reading it again.
And Scott, thanks to the miracle known as streaming, I saw that movie you mentioned-Still Life. I loved it and Eddie Marsan should have been nominated for an Oscar. I told my friend Larry Carr about it and he saw it and feels the same as I do. Thanks for making us aware of it. P.S. Available for free on UA-cam.
Thanks, Dennis! Especially for reminding me of STILL LIFE and Eddie Marsan, lovely movie! Uberto did few movies and all are beautiful! s
Please don’t ever start editing these videos. The chaos of them is such a core part of their charm (and, going off film criticism, long takes always denote quality).
Well chaos is about the best we hope for in these vids! Thanks for dropping by, Ab/Oxy! s
I just finished Revolutionary Road (in fact, while master bathing.) Wow! The writing is the pleasure that kept me going through the whole inevitable house fire. Readable but rich. Rich but readable. I’m glad you hipped me to Master Yates. The whole book is brilliant. Chef’s kiss at the John Givings insane asylum character!
Great! So glad you enjoyed one of my favorite books by one of my favorite writers! Try his short stories next but all his books are really good. Stay safe in the bathtub! s
@@Scottmbradfield Thr first time I tried his short stories I thought they were too depressing. But after Revolutionary Road, I doubt it can get more depressing, so I may try them again.
Thanks for a painless deja vu.
Any time, Croink! Or should I say: Any time, Croink!
On the Yates-Percy question I must second your emotion. Have read 3 by Yates, including a story collection, and greatly enjoyed them all. As for Percy, my copies of Moviegover and Love in the Ruins still contain the paper scraps used to mark my progress and eventual desertion. Hard to believe WP's book beat out that "murderer's row" of classics. Speaking of modern American novels, are you familiar with Other Men's Daughters by Richard Stern? Published in '73, I just finished it and was blown away. A book and author I'd never heard of. Thank you, public library. And thanks to you.... I always enjoy your posts. We've read and loved a lot of the same science fiction.
Thanks, Tim! No I don't know the Stern novel, need to keep it in mind... Yates is the best. s
Loved the film of Yates's novel; but haven't read it (yet). I do love The Moviegoer. I found its insights quite piercing, personally. I'm glad I read it when I was young. I need to re-read it.
Somehow Scott sold me on it despite him not liking it. Funny how that works!
Yates is the greatest. I read The Moviegoer recently, didnt realize the connection. It had such a strong start but really went nowhere for me by the end of the book sadly i was just happy to move onto something else. Thankfully it was pretty short.
I think Barth was much more successful in Floating Opera/End of the Road in doing what Percy may have been getting at with The Moviegoer
@@drainel9707 Interesting... the "everydayness" of Percy does sound like the "weatherlessness" of those early Barth characters, but Barth is loads more fun...
@@drainel9707 absolutely right....
Read my 1st Barth last week, The Development… Will be going back for more…
Have several Walker Percy’s on my shelves, no recollection why I read him? A taste of the South perhaps?
Fun video, Scott. Hope you have been able to get some rest. Been meaning to read both Yates and Percy for ages. Will try Yates very soon!
Definitely must read Yates, he's probably my favorite American writer... s
@@Scottmbradfield Oh btw Scott, while I’m remembering I wanted to tell you about a book I’ve been reading by a reasonably obscure English writer named Phyllis Paul. The book is Twice Lost and it’s been reprinted within the last few years. Not sure if you’re familiar with it already but I thought you might be interested. Pretty cynical about the authors trade but kind of funny in those early sections. Also has a strange plot involving a missing girl. Reminds me of Evelyn Waugh, Lovecraft, maybe Henry James or Muriel Spark. I know you’ve never adored James but I thought I’d let you know haha. Take care Scott.
@@stantonsullivan-readdelillo interesting comparisons. I don’t think I’ve heard of her before…
Had me in stitches 😂
speaking of dementia, im going to try to write this comment, again......this will be attempt 3 hahhhah...anyway, i love Yates...i've read 4 of his novels and a ton of his stories...Revolutionary Road AND The Easter Parade should be mandatory reading...is there a finer line in American literature about sadness and loneliness than this, "There were worse things in the world than being alone. She told herself that every day.”...punch right to the gut....and i did love Moviegoer when i read it in a southern lit as Existentialism class (faulkner, o'connor, mccullers, percy, williams, welty, dickey and crews), i havent re-read....i too loved Lancelot....but Yates was introduced to me by one of my beloved writing profs, chuck kinder...a fine writer and brilliant teacher...do you know his work sb?...anyway, kinder had a read him, and later met him at a reading w/chuck...anyway, i may just pick up revolutionary road again...as for the vid, wonderful...even the repeated stories (i feel that is part of this bathtub series to begin with)...btw, did yates read history of luminous motion?...im sure he would have admired it...i sure did....anyway, hope all is well with lucky, thats some fiesty car barking....anyway, maybe do something on easter parade for your bathers....ok, tha'ts it, i dont feel like writing about how much the chaos here reminds me of a certain peter weiss play...oh, one last thing, one of the reasons why i love Yates is for the same reason i love the films of John Cassavetes...our poets of domestic broken souls....stay safe sb...a post about your novel soon.....bb
chuck wrote, about his childhood in WV, "those sweet, innocent lightning bug spring and summer times when boy detectives could solve any mystery except those in the center of their own lives.."...seems to me sb, that could be said about the heart of your own first book...i hope you had to pleasure to meet him in your life.......night, bb
Yates is the best, but Chuck knew his writers! I don’t know his work at all, I’m afraid. Stay safe, BBBB! P.s. Easter Parade is great, I read it many times…I was surprised when I interviewed Yates that he was disappointed with the book himself, but he was a harsh self-critic…
Battle of the bathtub idea...Brian Evenson v. Thomas Ligotti...
Yeah they belong in the same bathtub, but they'd lose each other to death. I love them both. s
@@Scottmbradfield me too
How about Henry Green? I'm having a tough time getting past p. 20 of Living. Agree about Percy btw.
I haven't quite cracked Green either but want to try him again...
Henry Green is the greatest. But among his books, Living is the one I would least recommend by far. The dropped articles are exhausting. Try Loving, Back, or Concluding (three more one-word titles….)
@@joebeamish Thanks.
Thanks, Scott. Love Richard Yates. Like Tolstoy's unhappy families, each novel is miserable in its own way - which is what makes them so fascinating. Please don't edit these videos or do anything about the pale, washed-out Lucian Freud 'Benefits Supervisor Sleeping' light.
Nice hearing from you, Marc. As always, we aim for a pale and washed out ambience here at the bathtub! Like a night out with one of Richard Yates's couples! Stay safe.
I read The Moviegoer a few months ago and most of my memory of it was that it had surprisingly little moviegoing, so I suppose I also didn't find it very interesting.
I know that's exactly how I felt. He never talks about movies at all or seems to see many, he just talks about them a bit at the beginning and stops. I didn't get that novel. s
Thanks for the readings. I liked RR when I read it but the movie never appealed.
@@excelsiorathletic I love the novel but liked the movie more than I expected. All of Yates’s books are a pleasure.