As I came home on Saturday night and staggered up the stair

[sovay]

1. My poem "Domovoi, I Came Back!", after the pendant of the same name by Elise Matthesen, has been accepted by Stone Telling. This is going to be some inaugural issue.

2. Bob Colby, B. Diane Martin, David Shaw, and Eric M. Van have been nominated for a World Fantasy Award for Readercon. As much as I loved Kit Whitfield's In Great Waters, I would by far prefer to see greygirlbeast take the award for The Red Tree. I wouldn't mind if Miyazaki won for Ponyo, either.

3. I seem to have had a vacation. It was lovely. There will be a synopsis tomorrow.

(I climbed Mount Hancock. The pleasing part is that even in its current state, my body is capable of a four-thousand footer. The impressive part is that schreibergasse and his brother are still speaking to me.)

4. And when I got back to Boston, Viking Zen showed me Jane Campion's The Piano (1993), which I loved. This I had expected; its cast alone was enough to compel my attention (Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin, Sam Neill) and I had been very impressed with Bright Star, with which it shares a nineteenth-century setting and a concern with voices. No one warned me, however, that it would be as fetishistic about music as The Pillow Book is about text. No wonder Michael Nyman did the soundtrack. I approve.

5. Happy birthday, fleurdelis28! Happy birthday, rushthatspeaks!

6. My God, have I got a lot of e-mail to answer.

Comments

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the sale!
I have seen The Piano multiple times, but not recently. I love it, even though I find it kind of troubling. I have sheet music for the piano pieces somewhere, too, although I haven't played it in a long time.

[sovay]

Congrats on the sale!

Thank you!

I love it, even though I find it kind of troubling.

Because of the turns of plot or imagery, or because of whatever they say?

I have sheet music for the piano pieces somewhere, too, although I haven't played it in a long time.

That's very cool.

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

I love it, even though I find it kind of troubling.

Because of the turns of plot or imagery, or because of whatever they say?

It's been a long while since I've seen it, but as I recall, there is some weird stuff around the two men having this struggle for possession of Ada, and I wish that she had been a bit more active in making her choice. And then, of course, there's that one extremely disturbing scene (which is why I haven't watched it in a long time).
But the whole thread of Ada's relationship to her piano and her music, and how much the other character's reactions to that reveal about them is so wonderful. And the scenes of Ada playing the piano are so beautiful and real.

[sovay]

It's been a long while since I've seen it, but as I recall, there is some weird stuff around the two men having this struggle for possession of Ada, and I wish that she had been a bit more active in making her choice.

. . . I don't know how to block out text or encrypt it, so I am attempting to avoid spoilers for the non-kenjari reader in this reply. I agree that the initial positioning of Ada between the two men is troubling, but I found it resolved strongly in favor of Ada's autonomy first by what Baines does with the piano and finally with Stewart's last interaction with Ada, both of which make it clear that she is not to be viewed as in anyone's possession but her own. One of the things I loved about the film was its handling of things like consent and trust and subject/object, almost without using any of those words.

But the whole thread of Ada's relationship to her piano and her music, and how much the other character's reactions to that reveal about them is so wonderful.

Yes.