Brett Heller

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Language Problems Brett Heller 9/4 '14

Language Salesman    

Have you thought much about language, Mr. Banks?

Joe

No, I never really have.

Language Salesman

It's the central preoccupation of my life.  You travel the world, you're away from home, perhaps away from your family, all you have to depend on is yourself and your language.

Joe

I guess that's true.

Language Salesman

I believe I have just the thing.

Joe

Wow.

Language Salesman

This is our premier dialect.  All handmade, only the finest metaphors.  It's even hyperbole-tight, tight as a drum. If I had the need and the wherewithal, Mr. Banks, this would be my method of expression.

Joe

I'll take four of them.

Language Salesman

May you live to be a thousand years old, sir.

(Thanks, John Patrick Shanley)

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9/4 '14 3 Comments
I don't remember the movie much, but all I could think while watching the scene was "Jesus. That's the worst luggage for a 'remote island' that anyone could come up with."

Which, I'm sure, is the point. Guess I'm just 'thinking out loud' here.
Matt Lichtenwalner
I love that movie. And the luggage turns out to be just the thing for an "ocean voyage."
Brett Heller
Ahh. I can imagine.
Matt Lichtenwalner
 
 

P.K. Dick's Thermonuclear Chainsaw Brett Heller 8/26 '14

I love most of what PKD has written, but  a few things stick out. Once I discovered Confessions of a Crap Artist I always felt it was my favorite.  His only "mainstream fiction", but still written in his style; I felt it was like a pocketknife. The ideas I discovered in it were everyday useful, and changed my life in a small but important way.

But I just restarted rereading the Valis trilogy: Valis, The Divine Invasion, and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. Now I remember that compared to that little pocketknife of pratical wisdom it's a thermonuclear chainsaw capable of opening The Universe up and showing its guts.

As you might expect, they both get my highest recommendation.

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8/26 '14 13 Comments

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Well? What's the line?

The trilogy is especially neat to me in that each book is pretty much the same thing from a different perspective (skeptical, gullible, disbelieving). Plus Radio Free Albemuth is the proto-version of the whole set, I think.

I remember loving a lot of lines from the whole thing, but what always stuck in my head is from Transmigration. Guy comes to guru, who tells him (more or less) "I know you came here for wisdom, but you need to eat a sandwich."
Brett Heller

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"You're going to be here 90 days."
Brett Heller

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Just rediscovered my favorites from Divine Invasion & The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. "Even a goat can cite scripture" and "Who would eat a pork chop that had an evil spirit in it?"
Brett Heller
"Just because something bears the aspect of the inevitable one should not, therefore, go along willingly with it."
Brett Heller
I keep thinking about this post, which means I need to get some Dick.
Lindsay Harris Friel
A little Dick is surprisingly satisfying. Too much Dick can make you crazy.
Thomas Boutell
I wish Dick were in the public domain.
Lindsay Harris Friel
Never read either. Why am I so up on space opera by lesser authors?
Thomas Boutell
I don't know about "lesser" but I think he's pretty great. A lot of people start with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep because of Blade Runner, but the novel is VERY different. Still great, but when I tried to read it in high school I did not appreciate it one bit.
Brett Heller
Yes, I enjoyed the novel a lot. So much that isn't even hinted at in the movie. And I love the movie.
Thomas Boutell
 
 
 
 
 

The Glass Menagerie Brett Heller 8/16 '14

I hear it's playing soon in Philly.  I'd love to go see it. I've seen the movie version with Malkovich as Tom and Karen Allen as Laura.

I doubt the special effects will be as good.

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8/16 '14 6 Comments
Oh, and May/June of 2015 Rosenkrantz and Guilenstern are Dead is playing at the Wilma Theatre.
Brett Heller
wait wait wait wait...
you can post, then follow up by replying to your own post?
Robert Bryan
Sure. I didn't see any reason to forbid it. Sometimes it's more convenient than editing it properly.
Thomas Boutell
I hear Hamlet will be attending Glass Menagerie on 8/22 along with Shelle...
Thomas Boutell
as am I.
Lindsay Harris Friel
You don't avidly troll my Facebook looking for invites to plays? Well you should! This Friday, it's GA, get a ticket if you're free, let me know if you have a ticket so I can add you to my dinner invite list. Commonwealth Classic Theatre Company ... http://www.commonwealthclassictheatre.org/
Shelle Klein Houser
 
 
 
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