Those On The Internet
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Dear ReadersI have just finished Helene Hanff's 84, Charing Cross Road, brought to my attention by the inimitable Wheatsone, fellow cubicle farm denizen. It's an easy single-sitting read for anyone born before 1980; for those born after 1980, half that or an outright nonstarter.
There are lots of reviews here, so I won't bother. What I found endearing and life-affirming was the "The more things change, the more they stay the same" aspect. It's pretty much like reading a modern day email, except that fifty years ago, the gap between replies was in the order of ten days. I suppose language doesn't change that much when measured in decades. Not so long ago I took out a Library of Congress recording of Jelly Roll Morton to sample some early jazz. What surprised me (Creole accent aside) was how thoroughly modern his vernacular was in the recorded interviews. Like a modern-day Louisianan. There were however a few dated expressions in this book that I haven't heard in ages, such as "a whole raft of ... cousins", meaning a whole bunch.
Jelly Roll Morton is dead (1941). So are the two correspondents, Frank Doel (1968) , and Helene Hanff (1997). For some reason, the book seems more real to me, more flesh and blood, when I consider that Frank, Helene, and I all drew breath at the same time.
I've read that the screen adaptation is pretty good. If any of you have the DVD, feel free to drop it off on my desk at work.
Sincerely,
Gavin
Gavin
3 comments:
Man, your spelling is way off. It's I-G-N-O-R-A-M-U-S not I-N-I-M-I-T-A-B-L-E.
Wheatstone
Anonymous:
Why are you using Wheatstone as your alias/handle?
You can't be the real McCoy as the Wheatstone I know couldn't spell or write if his sorry ugly life depended on it. He would've used "you're" and "Its" instead.
Your right, you caught me. Its just that I can't stand that Wheatstone jerk.
- Shirley
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