sovay: (Default)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2007-10-18 01:45 am

Must be a devil between us or whores in my head

If [livejournal.com profile] ericmvan can describe Videodrome (1983) as the best adaptation of a book that Philip K. Dick never wrote, then I reserve the right to call Eastern Promises (2007), which we saw tonight, very close to a nonexistent short story by Simon Logan. Or at least to hope that someday David Cronenberg will direct an adaptation of Pretty Little Things to Fill Up the Void, because while the setting of Eastern Promises is present-day London rather than an industrial neverwhere, the underworld of the vory v zakone has much of the same elsewise, timeslipped feel without a single definable incidence of the fantastic or the science-fictional—a motorcycle and a black limousine are character traits, casual extensions of identity; skin and ink are their own language; a character can rage, "You pronounced the name of my father!" and the line carries the old charge of invocation: to know a thing by its name is both powerful and perilous and sometimes impossible. There are no demons and no angels, but the air is full of their potential. For one reason or another, there is blood on everyone's hands. I like ambiguity. I loved this film.

On a rather different note: I'm a feature, not a bug. My first published poem "Turn of the Century, Jack-in-the-Green" is now online at Mythic Delirium as a sort of retrospective treat, along with video by [livejournal.com profile] time_shark. I can never get used to the way my speaking voice sounds outside my head. But I am still proud of the poem.

[identity profile] clarionj.livejournal.com 2007-10-19 02:51 pm (UTC)(link)
How nice to get to see and hear you read. How do you feel about reading your poems? I don't like reading mine aloud at all, but I have read quite a few of your poems and stories aloud, when I want to read to my sister. I have to read yours slowly because the lines are loaded and the images lush; that's a chore for me because I speak very quickly, but it's good for me, and all poetry should be heard slowly. I love dwelling on your lines. Heh, I'm going on here because hearing your work has really made me want to read your work again too. And share it with some people. Do you have any more poems or stories available online?

As for Eastern Promises, I only see movies about twice a year, and this is the one I chose for this fall season. I'm so glad I did. I couldn't believe how quiet the movie was in a way, yet so incredibly tense. I found myself slouching farther and farther down in my seat. I have a collection of Simon Logan's industrial fiction. I didn't make the connection you made--I'm curious about it now.

[identity profile] time-shark.livejournal.com 2007-10-25 01:51 am (UTC)(link)
I realize I'm responding to this a billion years after the fact, but there in fact two other videos of your reading that I expect to bring into play at some point, either as featured poems or just plain 'ol posts....