I've got a taste in my mouth for what it felt like way back in the old days

[sovay]

I just told spatch that life is a series of exhaustions and interruptions. I spent the day so tired, I almost fell asleep once at my desk and once on the couch and both times my phone jolted me awake, which in the latter case was especially unappreciated. Rob made me a spider cake when he got home from work. His place of work has multiple staff out with COVID. We will be testing before joining the rest of my family for Pesach. One plague-time Seder would have been enough.

I am going to need to read Winifred Holtby's South Riding (1936), because if Victor Saville's South Riding (1938) is at all a faithful transfer of its source material, it's got to be a speedrun. Subplots alternate so rapidly onscreen, you can miss crucial information without even blinking. I imagine the politics were more nuanced in the original, too, and chronologically it cannot have ended by observing the coronation of George VI and Elizabeth, however reassuringly it permits once opposed ideological elements to reconcile in the singing of "Land of Hope and Glory." On the other hand, I cannot disdain any film which offers me Ralph Richardson as a full-fledged romantic lead and John Clements as the local socialist with TB—he answers a charge of being "yellow" with a faintly smiling, "Oh, no, I'm not. I'm not even pale pink. I'm red. Scarlet," then double-entendres the declaration with an inevitable cough. Plus Glynis Johns in her screen debut and about forty-five seconds of Skelton Knaggs. The photography by Harry Stradling is very good open-air black-and-white. If it wasn't a faithful transfer, I'm still interested to see what it was transferred from.

Courtesy of a friend who is not on DW: what to feed a budgie during WWII.

I think I had mono the last time I felt like this.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

♥ I do hope you prove all clear for the visit! And that you feel a little better at least. Maybe. Yes? ♥

(I have read South Riding! I can't remember much about it, though. It was ages ago and I think I was probably too young to appreciate it as much as I might have done later - I think I'd just read Vera Brittain's two Testaments.)

[radiantfracture]

In a slight convergence, yesterday I picked up /Testament of Friendship/, of course all about Holtby, from a Little Library.

[sovay]

In a slight convergence, yesterday I picked up /Testament of Friendship/, of course all about Holtby, from a Little Library.

I like convergences! Let me know what it's like. I have only read Testament of Youth.

[sovay]

I do hope you prove all clear for the visit! And that you feel a little better at least. Maybe. Yes?

I could learn to like that!

(We did test negative, thank you. *hugs*)

(I have read South Riding! I can't remember much about it, though. It was ages ago and I think I was probably too young to appreciate it as much as I might have done later - I think I'd just read Vera Brittain's two Testaments.)

All signs downthread point to the film diverging hilariously, so I'm looking forward.

[vass]

I just told spatch that life is a series of exhaustions and interruptions.

And you were right.

[sovay]

And you were right.

*hugs*

[legionseagle]

I've read South Riding and while I haven't seen the film I reviewed the excrable 2011 BBC series here . But it absolutely does not sodding well end with the coronation of George VI; it ends with the Silver Jubilee of George V, including a letter from the TB-afflicted socialist Communist explaining how the Jubilee symptomises all that's rotten in the state of the nation and Sarah Burton telling her girls that while I Vow To Thee My Country (which is what they are actually about to sing) is a great and moving piece of art, she finds the line "The love that asks no questions" severely Problematic and they must never, ever, ever take it literally.

[legionseagle]

Um. Well. I just watched the film. I have to say, that was a departure from the book I wasn't expecting, going in.

[sovay]

Um. Well. I just watched the film. I have to say, that was a departure from the book I wasn't expecting, going in.

Okay, are we talking one of the film adaptations where the characters have the same names and that's about it?

But it absolutely does not sodding well end with the coronation of George VI; it ends with the Silver Jubilee of George V, including a letter from the TB-afflicted socialist Communist explaining how the Jubilee symptomises all that's rotten in the state of the nation and Sarah Burton telling her girls that while I Vow To Thee My Country (which is what they are actually about to sing) is a great and moving piece of art, she finds the line "The love that asks no questions" severely Problematic and they must never, ever, ever take it literally.

That sounds delightful.

[legionseagle]

No; actually it's a film three-quarters of which is a reasonably faithful (within the limits of the time constraints and also the constraints of what could be depicted on film at the time as opposed to what you can do in a novel) adaptation of the book and then it takes a massive swerve into a completely different film which undercuts some of the key themes of the book -- it's as if someone had looked at Casablanca, heard the line "The problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world" and gone, "No! That's the wrong moral! I need to rewrite it to centre the individual above the systemic issues!"

[sovay]

and then it takes a massive swerve into a completely different film which undercuts some of the key themes of the book -- it's as if someone had looked at Casablanca, heard the line "The problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world" and gone, "No! That's the wrong moral! I need to rewrite it to centre the individual above the systemic issues!"

I have encountered that kind of swerve in Hollywood films, but perhaps wishfully, I had not realized it was transatlantically endemic as well. Well, I will be fascinated.

[edit] I loved the book, and the film ending is, from the perspective of the book, gonzo.

[legionseagle]

Well, quite. I had to dust off my Brian Blessed voice: "Carne's -- ALIVE??????"

[sovay]

I had to dust off my Brian Blessed voice: "Carne's -- ALIVE??????"

I mean, I also like Ralph Richardson, but.

[regshoe]

I love the original South Riding—though I did not know it had such an early film adaptation; perhaps I'll give it a watch some time—and that, er, does not sound like a particularly accurate representation of it, no. The book is highly recommended!

Wishing you negative tests and a good Pesach visit—these disruptions and uncertainties are awful.

[sovay]

—and that, er, does not sound like a particularly accurate representation of it, no. The book is highly recommended!

I'm looking forward to it! It is handily on Faded Page, although I hate reading novels on screens so much, I may see what the library can do me.

Wishing you negative tests and a good Pesach visit—these disruptions and uncertainties are awful.

Thank you. Knock wood, we came through clear!

[choco_frosh]

:(

(Briefly thought about asking your mom if you lot could take Llyan in for Seder, then decided that the answer logically had to be no.)

Right, Chag Pesach sameach! I hope you're feeling, if not good, then at least BETTER today.

[sovay]

Right, Chag Pesach sameach! I hope you're feeling, if not good, then at least BETTER today.

Thank you! At least it is sunny.

(Are you and Llyan doing a Seder yourselves?)

*hugs*

[choco_frosh]

Llyan's doing one (hopefully. It certainly won't be a minyan), but I'm going to be at a Good Friday service. So even if the timing worked, that would just be weird for me. :(

[choco_frosh]

However, because she then got invited to a SECOND seder (on Sat.), and because the Easter Vigil I went to only lasted ninety minutes (Laaaaame), I ultimately wound up sitting the second half a seder then. So thank you for teaching me "Zog nit keynmol"!

[sovay]

So thank you for teaching me "Zog nit keynmol"!

You're welcome! I'm glad it came in handy. Mir zaynen do doesn't seem, unfortunately, to go out of fashion.

[asakiyume]

I'm kind of amazed at the thought of people in the UK in the 1940s with pet toucans!

So is the double entendre about sexual orientation ... or Communism?

[sovay]

I'm kind of amazed at the thought of people in the UK in the 1940s with pet toucans!

I have encountered pet mynas in fiction, but not, like, pet hornbills.

So is the double entendre about sexual orientation ... or Communism?

I believe it's about Communism! Which delighted me.

[oracne]

Fingers crossed for negative tests.

[sovay]

Fingers crossed for negative tests.

Thank you. We got them!

[moon_custafer]

I’ve become sort of fixated on pigeons of late, so I noticed they didn’t appear on that list— presumably they weren’t exotic enough that pigeon-keepers needed advice.

Also, I suppose pigeon-keepers whose pigeons were working for the National Pigeon Service must have received some kind of stipend and extra ration points for the care and feeding of their birds? The article at the link below just mentions that a keeper got 4d every time one of their pigeons delivered a message, but you do get to see photos of pigeons receiving medals for heroism: https://www.classicwarbirds.co.uk/articles/pigeons-at-war-the-raf-and-the-national-pigeon-service.php

[sovay]

I’ve become sort of fixated on pigeons of late, so I noticed they didn’t appear on that list— presumably they weren’t exotic enough that pigeon-keepers needed advice.

Or there were separate instructions entirely for pigeon-keepers in wartime. I would like to think that anything called the National Pigeon Service had pamphlets.

The article at the link below just mentions that a keeper got 4d every time one of their pigeons delivered a message, but you do get to see photos of pigeons receiving medals for heroism

I've seen some of those photos! I don't think I'd seen a complete list of what they got them for. Thank you. That's wonderful.

[selkie]

What do we win if we are exhausted and interrupted, a radioactive lapsed-Catholic vampire?!

[sovay]

What do we win if we are exhausted and interrupted, a radioactive lapsed-Catholic vampire?!

Second prize, two weeks in Philadelphia.

*hugs*

[gwynnega]

I hope you feel less tired soon and that you can join your family for Pesach.

[sovay]

I hope you feel less tired soon and that you can join your family for Pesach.

Thank you! We are here . . . and it looks like my niece has a (tested non-COVID, thought to be allergies, now coughing her face off) bug. Wish our immune systems luck.

[selenak]

I didn't know there was a film adaption, though I watched the tv adaption years ago and then read the original novel, which is great; both reviewed here.

[sovay]

I didn't know there was a film adaption, though I watched the tv adaption years ago and then read the original novel, which is great; both reviewed here.

Thanks for the link! I am looking forward to the novel, which I am looking for in print.