The Earth has lost its last great dictator

[sovay]

R.I.P. Milo O'Shea, a man with great eyebrows and a way with a rape piano. I saw him first as the owlish-eyed Friar Lawrence in Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968), but I remember him most vividly from Barbarella. This is probably unsurprising on some level. I have never heard that the 1966 Ulysses is a great adaptation of the novel, but I still want to see it someday.

I do not want to requiescat Iain Banks while he's still making personal statements, but I don't like this one. I still need to read The Crow Road (1992).

handful_ofdust, have a 1985 interview with Peter Cushing. Starlog has just gone up at the Internet Archive.

Comments

[rosefox]

a way with a rape piano

A... what?

[sovay]

A... what?

rushthatspeaks' name for the Excessive Machine in Barbarella (1968), a sort of pipe-organ orgasmatron played by the mad scientist Durand Durand; it is supposed to destroy our heroine with sexual pleasure and instead she blows out its circuits. Rush showed me the movie last January; the really strange thing about it is that pieces of it are completely, reasonably good.

(But that's a fair question.)

[rosefox]

Okay! And here I thought it was a most peculiar typo.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm glad to have the news on Iain Banks in time to warn B., who is going to be very upset, but it is terrible news and I am sad.

Have you read Whit? Please tell me you have and I can lend it to you if not.

Also, Milo O'Shea. ... it has not been the best day, has it.

[sovay]

it has not been the best day, has it.

It could really have used some work.

(I have not read Whit. You should lend it to me.)

Love.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

I love Whit.

Damn.

Nine

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

Rape piano? What the deuce can a rape piano b--

Oh. Barbarella. A-ha. Yes, there can be no other term for it. That scene would be a lot less fun if Jane Fonda wasn't so skilled at acting dim yet unfazed.

[sovay]

A-ha. Yes, there can be no other term for it.

I know it has a canonical name, but I am incapable of thinking of the Excessive Machine as anything other than the rape piano. The term may be rushthatspeaks'. I first heard about that scene from hans_the_bold, nearly a decade ago.

That scene would be a lot less fun if Jane Fonda wasn't so skilled at acting dim yet unfazed.

And the fact that when Milo O'Shea starts yelling in disbelief ("What kind of girl are you? Have you no shame?"), she doesn't look the slightest bit ashamed, just disappointed that the machine's caught fire around her—it's not her fault it didn't go up to eleven after all.

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

And R. I. P. composer Robert Ward, who wrote a good opera on The Crucible.

[sovay]

And R. I. P. composer Robert Ward, who wrote a good opera on The Crucible.

Yeah, and then today Roger Ebert and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, so I got nothing.

(I did not know there was a good opera on The Crucible. I will have to check it out.)

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

The Boston Opera Collaborative did The Crucible a few years ago, at one of the churches on or near Newberry street. It made for really interesting and generally effective staging. There were some issues with the performance itself, but I liked the music quite well.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Although I claim to love his Culture books above all others, in fact The Crow Road is probably my favourite of Iain's novels, with Whit a close second. After those, I'd probably take most of the SF ahead of most of the others. And I'd live in the Culture sooner than I'd live anywhere else.

[sovay]

in fact The Crow Road is probably my favourite of Iain's novels, with Whit a close second. After those, I'd probably take most of the SF ahead of most of the others.

I love The Wasp Factory; I could never get into any of his science fiction. Do you have any you consider particularly good gateway drugs?

And I'd live in the Culture sooner than I'd live anywhere else.

Why?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I always liked the SF, so I'm not sure how to persuade anyone who hasn't. I think Use of Weapons is the best, but Against a Dark Background might be a better way in, perhaps...

And as to why: limitless resources, extended lifespans, body-mods and gender-swapping, a galaxy full of adventure and change... Who wouldn't? The Culture is all about learning what it means to be human when the drudge of work is gone and everything is mutable, accessible, on offer. It's a kind of socialist utopia, with very very sharp edges.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

That's horrible about Banks, but man, he's taking it with amazing sang-froid.

Thanks for the Cushing link! As always, I'm impressed by the way that he dedicates a paragraph and a half of it to listing off all of Christopher Lee's amazing qualities, including his abilities as a mimic. As Steve said: "Now I want to hear Lee doing Cushing."

[sovay]

That's horrible about Banks, but man, he's taking it with amazing sang-froid.

It's a very good statement, and it is good to know a person can rise to the occasion. I just object to the occasion.

"Now I want to hear Lee doing Cushing."

He should read your fic I mean, that's a very reasonable point of reciprocity to make.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

He should read your fic I mean, that's a very reasonable point of reciprocity to make.

D'Oh! When what he meant was MIMICRY, obviously...;)

Actually, I just sketched out part of the Dracula/Van Helsing knock-down drag-out for "The Narrow Bed" Part Two, and that's definitely going to end up getting conjugal. Horribly damaging, but conjugal. The great part about vampire-on-vampire is you don't really have to worry, because whatever you do to each other, it'll pass

[sovay]

Horribly damaging, but conjugal.

Read that.

[selidor]

Gosh I wish this news wasn't the case.
There's a shelf of (mostly M.) Banks books that need to travel in December from NZ back to where-ever all the other books will be living by then. I remember The Crow Road as disturbing as anything, and evocative.

[sovay]

I remember The Crow Road as disturbing as anything, and evocative.

I like the sound of both of those things.

Also, yeah.

[barry-king.livejournal.com]

I have yet to find a piece of fiction more disturbing than The Wasp Factory. Some of the imagery gets caught in the woolgather like burdock. An author should not be able to do that and then go on to write all the other.

[sovay]

Some of the imagery gets caught in the woolgather like burdock. An author should not be able to do that and then go on to write all the other.

That was the novel I discovered him with: I love it. The other is what was surprising to me.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

RIP

I'm sorry to hear about the state of Iain Banks' health, although I admire the way he's responding to it.

[sovay]

I'm sorry to hear about the state of Iain Banks' health, although I admire the way he's responding to it.

"Well, at least he gets twenty-four hours' notice. That's more than most of us get. All most of us get is, 'Mind that bus!'–'What bus?!' Splat."