Macbeth

Last night's production of Macbeth was excellent. HUGE thanks go to webcowgirl for organising it and getting the tickets. It was fantastic to see Patrick Stewart on stage. The rest of the production was very good. Bill and I were both reminded of Silent Hill a little, with the creepy walls, the spreading blood and the evil nurses. I'm really glad that I wore my glasses as there were some fantastic small details. They did the banquet scence twice, the first time from Macbeth's point of view, the second as everyone else saw it. In the first version the nurses all had knives held behind their backs, the second time they just had closed fists. There were some excellent performances, the witches/nurses were stunning their scene in the morgue was VERY powerfull, Macduff seemed to make the dialogue seem the most natural of anyone, Satan(the servant) was fantastic and Lady Macbeth also great.

At the moment there are still tickets available, if you have been thinking about it you should go. Even if you sit in the very back (like we did) it's still totally worth it!!!!!

I also found out that Stephen Fry HAS WRITTEN a panto opening this year at the old vic. May have to attempt to obtain tickets to that too!

Chinese Poetry and Prophecy: The Written Oracle in East Asia by Michael Strickmann.

This is the second book of Strickmann’s to be published after his death having been edited and finished by Bernard Faure. . Unfortunately I read this book months and months ago and have only just got around to writing it up, and am having difficulty remembering many of the details of the book, (which is why I started writing about them in the first place!) The book looks at the history, and modern use, of Chinese temple oracles. These oracles are strips with numbers on that are in a large pot; (or similar object) the person selects one and takes it to the priest who lets them know the poem associated with the stick and their fortune based on that poem. Strickmann looks at how these oracles have spread beyond China, and pays particular attention to their use in Tibet and modern Japan. Strickmann attempts to trace back the oldest examples of this type of oracle, and looks at early Buddhist and Taoist versions and the interaction between the two. I found this part very interesting but rather short, without a more detailed analysis it was harder to evaluate the effectiveness of his arguments. The book also had some interesting insight into the current debate between popular and elite religion in China, this material was very interesting and worth re-reading when I go back and study this again. (Hopefully taking better notes next time). I will definitely have to get a copy of Chinese Magical Medicine (Strickmann's other posthumous collaboration with Bernard Faure) though I do hope it is a little longer, and focuses more on China and less on influence outside its borders. As far as I am aware this is the only scholarly work in English on the subject of Chinese oracles and is both enjoyable and insightful. I hope it encourages further research in this area.

The Devil Rides Out by Dennis Wheatly

I bought this book because I am very fond of the Hammer film, and wondered how the book compared. I have to say I enjoyed it tremendously. It was a very fast read, it was written quite simply, but there were very effective passages of action as well as lots of interesting discussion between the characters on the nature of magic and good and evil. . I was amused by the introduction which mentioned how in order to do research he met with both Crowley and Montague Summers, and that it was Montague Summers who disturbed him the most, inviting him to stay at his house and then trying to sell him a very rare occult book that Wheatly didn’t want and couldn’t afford, after which Summers apparently freaked out and Wheatly had to fake an excuse to leave.

At first I was surprised to see how closely the book followed the film and had a hard time picturing everyone in nice 1930s clothes instead of their 60s Hammer attire. But as I read further it was easier to see the characters in the book quickly over shadowed their counterparts in the film, (with the exception of De Richelieu who always remained a lot like Christopher Lee). This started with the abduction of the friend Simon; the older and wiser De Richelieu in order to protect him from the occult influences put a swastika around his neck. His young friend was horrified that he’d do this being that their friend was Jewish and it was 1935! The book was a sequel and there were constant references back to their previous adventure in Russia I found this rather reassuring rather than annoying. As that adventure has simply been a straightforward adventure story with no supernatural or occult events, to me it added further spookiness to what they were going through this time.

There were a lot of great moments, one of my favourite early on was when they were exploring their friend’s house to discover the nature of his involvement in the occult and made a point of bringing the champagne with them on their explorations. There was also a very striking scene set on the river as they young American hero attempted to woo the beautiful medium and she told him why she was attracted to the left hand part and why she wanted to participate in the ritual.

I found it very interesting and highly enjoyable book.

The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad

I have to admit I found this book rather disappointing. It was pretty good Edwardian fiction, but I have read a lot better. I really enjoyed the first few chapters; in particular I loved the description of the porn shop that the main character, Mr Verloc, was running. There seemed to be a lot going on in the middle that I wasn’t understanding the significance of, as the police looked at the double dealings and intrigues of the anarchists/terrorists/spies. The last third however was much better. When the story focused back to the Verloc’s I found I was once again drawn in, and from that point to the end found it to be most enjoyable. It was a book largely about unsympathetic people that the author was trying to instil a sense of sympathy in his readers about. Despite being about spies it seemed to really be about the very human motivation behind their activities, which was a very interesting idea I thought. I wasn’t entirely convinced that Conrad really knew much about the motive of spies and anarchists, but giving them simple human motives, rather than political or idealistic ones, was a very humanising process for characters which are normally separated out as very different to normal people because of their strong convictions. Here there were no convictions at all.

For people running around with bombs and discoursing about the nature of humanity I much prefer “Revolt of the Angels” written by Anatole France around the same time as this book. It also made me want to read “Fathers and sons” which I think would be a very different take on the nature of revolutionaries. (If I’m remembering Bill’s description accurately). It wasn’t terrible; it did also have some rather shockingly accurate descriptions of relationships within a family where one of them was learning/developmentally disabled. At on point the disabled brother started to freak out and his sister used very similar tactics to calm him down as I did when I worked in the group home. It was also the best portrayal of that I’ve read in fiction of this era, and unlike the spies, you really got a sense that this was something Conrad understood and had experienced himself. Not a book I would recommend as an example of great fiction from this era, but one I’d recommend for people who were interested in anarchists/terrorism/spies or disabled people.