Life, one story at a time
Posts tagged 101 Classics
101 Classics: The Constant Gardener
Jul 31st
The Constant Gardener is a book by the great John le Carré. If anyone wants a masterclass on writing, I advise you to read this novel or, indeed, anything by him that you can get your hands on. Each character’s internal monologue is not limited by traditional speech devices but spills forth from the dialogue and segues into the surrounding text. The effect of this is that you feel as if you too are there, a fly on the wall sizing people up by their nervous twitches and trying to figure out who is with you and who is against you in your quest for answers.
The icing on the cake are the characters. They have foibles; they have fears; they know what they’re doing will lead them to death’s door and they continue to march on, full of idealism (Tess) and bound by love (Justin). I don’t disregard the fine plot of The Constant Gardener but, like with any good story, the characters are the reason the reader comes back time and again. Tess is the primal force that will “not go gentle into that good night” and Justin her counterpoint. Through their relationship, The Constant Gardener achieves that rare balance of profundity with credibility.
101 Classics: The Aeneid
Apr 5th
The Aeneid by Virgil is a legendary tale baked with all the usual ingredients: a dash of hyper-masculine leading man, a pinch of the ol’ “ill-fated lovers” scenario, and a dollop of grandiose battle scenes à la Troy and 300. Oh yeah and the cherry on top is Queen Dido, who kills herself atop a burning funeral pyre. (She had a touch of the dramatic about her, it must be said.)
The central character, Aeneas, is a Trojan fleeing from Troy with the remains of his people. He journeys to Italy and ends up founding the Roman civilisation after much placating of the interfering god Juno by her husband, Jupiter.
The epic poem – I want to say book but know this is wrong, and that if I did, my old Classics teacher would surely mount her own funeral pyre – is almost on par with Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey but suffers as a result of trying to combine these two works into one.
What lifts it up is its commentary on the dangers of mindless passion and the benefits of commitment to a higher purpose. A read worthy of your time.
101 Classics: Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Mar 29th
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All pumped? Good.
Being a vampire is all the rage these days but not so when Buffy The Vampire Slayer first aired in March 1997. Primetime shows about the supernatural were practically non-existent – a notable exception being The X-Files – which is hard to imagine in the current era Buffy helped usher in. Numerous shows, like Charmed, Supernatural, and True Blood, have become popular shows with millions of fans. To see the potential in supernatural offerings to the hungry teen demographic you need look no further than the Twilight juggernaut (remember, I said popular, not necessarily good).
How did Buffy grab us by the jugular? It felt fun and fresh. We’ve all been through – or are currently still living with – the horrors of high school: the changing cliques which we were and were not a part of; the principal who had it out for us; the unrequited love; the embarrassing moments we pray senility will rob us of. Buffy’s creator Joss Whedon added all of these memories into the pot and then took the metaphor of surviving high school to a whole new level. Buffy and the Scooby Gang had to contend with painful math homework, along with the monster of the week and the looming ‘Big Bad’, and didn’t even break a sweat. Okay, maybe Xander did, but that was to be expected.
I wish I’d had Buffy’s writers cooped up in my brain throughout high school. Not only did they create classic lines that were idiomatic and witty, they always shaped the lines to the personality of the characters:
I mean, you can just feel the Willow in her line, “That’s me as a vampire? I’m all evil and skanky…and I think I’m kinda gay”.
Buffy was all the other things we remember high school for, too. It was superficial and occasionally an entire episode dragged on and on like a class we knew we shouldn’t have gotten out of bed for. Contrary to reality, the show and its characters were at their finest in high school. The further Buffy moved away from Sunnydale High, the further she left her quirky side behind. Season 6 failed to balance high drama and emotion with comedy and fluff, and by Season 7 the Buffy we all loved was gone.
I’d be staked and trampled on by an army of Buffybots if I left out the storytelling moments that did succeed. ‘The Body’ was an intense hour of television that poignantly dealt with the fallout from Joyce Summers’ death; ‘Hush’ demonstrated the show did not depend on its pithy dialogue; ‘The Gift’ is the series high on which the show should have ended.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer is a classic television show that wasn’t afraid of dragging its heroine and her loyal band of followers through hell and high water. Not many shows can spin a yarn on the universal themes of sacrifice, love and redemption, and then have the leads dance around in a trashy nightclub to some equally trashy music, but Buffy could, did and was so self-aware it mocked itself straight after. Not bad for a show that started life as a mid-season replacement, ay?
