#4 Ode to Travel

The Road Not Taken

© St Martin's Press

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Books and brickbats

Over the past fortnight, I bought just three books from the secondhand bookstall I frequent on my way home from work. I usually pick up more. They were The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn, an Inspector Morse mystery by British crime writer Colin Dexter; Dr. Death by American psychologist Jonathan Kellerman; and Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut. These are used books in very good condition and cost me a little over a dollar…for the lot.

While I am familiar with Dexter and Vonnegut, I have never read Kellerman before. However, Dr. Death will have to wait his turn behind a long line of to-be-read books which, on last count, was pushing fifty, maybe more; not counting the unread Agatha Christie, P.G. Wodehouse, the Classics, and God alone knows what else.

Of course, I can get Kellerman to jump the queue because I am curious to read how psychologist-detective Alex Delaware solves the brutal murder of Eldon Mate, alias Dr. Death, somewhere near Hollywood. I will have to bring Kellerman to the book-front ever so discreetly lest it annoys Martin Cruz Smith, Agatha Christie, Lloyd C. Douglas, Frank G. Slaughter, Amitav Ghosh, and Ed McBain who are immediate next.

When the hoarding gets tough, the books (have to) get going. Pretty unlikely, till I decide whether to read them, and read them fast, or give them away. It’s a malady that afflicts and a dilemma that confronts all book lovers.

For the time being, I have decided to take the middle path—no more new (old) books.

So this entire week, as I stepped out of the railway station in the evening peak hour and walked past the bookshop, I turned abruptly on my heels, stepping on cursing shoes and feet, to look at the neat pile of books. I didn’t buy any, though, except for a beautiful hardbound The Secret of the Lost Necklace and Other Stories by Enid Blyton (Award Publications Ltd, 2008), a gift for a child.

Here’s what I have missed so far, all in mint condition and selling at Rs.100 ($2) each—five books by James Patterson, based on his characters Alex Cross and Michael Bennett; three books by the historical-romance author, Julia Quinn, which included the Bridgertons family series; one book by Jasper Fforde, whose title I don’t remember; two books by fantasy writer Jonathan Stroud (Books 2 & 3) of the Bartimaeus Trilogy; Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith; and Samit Basu's The Manticore's Secret (Book 2) of the three-part GameWorld trilogy, a fantasy. There were more, many more…

Then yesterday, December 1, as I was browsing but not buying, the shop owner came up to me and said: “A new lot has just come. We are sorting them. Wait for a couple of days.”

“What category of books?” I asked.

“The Rs.20 lot,” he smiled, knowingly, for half my collection in recent months has come from the 50-cents pile. You don't want to know what it looks like.

HOT OFF THE PRESS

Fahrenheit 451 lights up as an e-book

© Ballantine Books

"Take Fahrenheit 451. You’re dealing with book burning, a very serious subject. You’ve got to be careful you don’t start lecturing people. So you put your story a few years into the future and you invent a fireman who has been burning books instead of putting out fires—which is a grand idea in itself—and you start him on the adventure of discovering that maybe books shouldn’t be burned. He reads his first book. He falls in love. And then you send him out into the world to change his life. It’s a great suspense story, and locked into it is this great truth you want to tell, without pontificating."
— Ray Bradbury in an interview to Paris Review, in 2010 (check it out at www.theparisreview.org)

Fahrenheit 451, the classic science fiction by Ray Bradbury, is now available as an ebook for the first time, Simon & Schuster announced on November 29. The New York-based publisher has been the hardcover publisher of Fahrenheit 451 since it was first published in 1953.

© Del Rey, N.Y.

The publication in digital form comes as part of a new publishing agreement that includes all English language print and digital formats of Fahrenheit 451 in North America, and also includes English language mass market rights in North America to Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man, Simon & Schuster said in a press release.

The agreement was negotiated by Simon & Schuster Publisher Jonathan Karp and Bradbury’s agent, Michael Congdon of Don Congdon Associates.

Following the release of the ebook edition of Fahrenheit 451, Simon & Schuster will also publish a trade paperback edition in January 2012. The mass market editions of The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man will go on sale in March 2012.

"It’s a rare and wonderful opportunity to continue our relationship with this beloved and canonical author and to bring his works to a new generation of readers and in new formats," said Jonathan Karp.

© Ballantine Books

Having sold over 10 million copies since its original publication, Fahrenheit 451 is one of the most famous and widely-read novels in American history, and has never been out of print. It has been translated into 33 languages and published in 38 countries.

© Ballantine Books

(You can read the entire release at Simon & Schuster)

FILM REVIEW

Sidney Poitier in 

In the Heat of the Night

The first thing that strikes you about Sidney Poitier, irrespective of which of his films you are watching, is his steady gaze and unblinking eye. It makes you uncomfortable even if you are nowhere in his picture. If you play who-blinks-first with one of America’s most intense-looking actors, you’ll blink first. I bet he can stare down an owl. It’s a look Poitier has patented in reel life and, I suspect, in real life too. It sits easily on his face.

It’s this unwavering eye that greets small-town police chief Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger) who hauls up Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) and pins a high-profile murder on him, which goes well with the tagline—“They got a murder on their hands. They don't know what to do with it.” If you don’t catch the culprit, within twenty-four hours of the murder, you fabricate one, like evidence.

Tibbs, a seasoned homicide detective from Philadelphia, is passing through the town when Gillespie orders patrolman Sam Wood (Warren Oates) to arrest him for the murder of a prominent businessman. The police chief is under pressure, as they usually are, to nail the killer–pronto! And so he nails Tibbs without realising who Tibbs is.

Detective Tibbs is let off the hook early on in the film, as the police chief reluctantly calls up his boss in Philadelphia and confirms that he is, indeed, whom he claims to be–a crack homicide sleuth. Gillespie then, equally reluctantly, enlists his help to solve the murder case.

In arresting the detective, Gillespie jumps the gun on two counts: one, to prove he is worthy of his badge, and two, he is prejudiced against blacks. There is an undercurrent of racial tension throughout the film.

But then, racism is a recurring theme in Poitier’s films, notably To Sir, with Love (1967) in which he disciplines an unruly class of largely white students, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) which touches upon the bold subject of interracial marriage at a time when it was outlawed in several US states. In In the Heat of the Night, for instance, Tibbs gets into a lot of trouble, often at the risk of his own life, when he suspects Eric Endicott (Larry Gates), a powerful man in the county.

Tibbs and Gillespie work together and as they make progress, they develop respect for each other, eventually resulting in friendship between the two policemen. Tibbs, of course, hunts down the real killer in the end.

For me, there are two highlights in this movie. One, when Endicott slaps Tibbs for attempting to interrogate him and Tibbs slaps him right back (that one scene sent a powerful message of racial equality during a tumultuous period in US history–the African-American civil rights movement); and two, Detective Tibbs’ unwavering courage in the face of stiff resistance and, more importantly, the manner in which he extracts respect from the very people who were going to incarcerate him.

The Academy Award winning In the Heat of the Night, directed by Norman Jewison in 1967, is based on the book by John Ball. A must-see.


For more overlooked/forgotten films and a few other reviews, visit Todd Mason's blog at http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com

Western Gunfighters: All guns blazing

© Marvel Comics

Western Gunfighters is a one-off special issue published by Marvel Comics in 1980. Presented by Stan Lee, who introduced many such unique issues to readers, WG contains ten action-packed adventures that include seven gripping and crisply written comic strips and three photo features based on western movies.

A movie index on Clint Eastwood, from 1957 to 1976; pin-ups of Eastwood and John Wayne, and a still from Cactus Jack starring Kirk Douglas, Ann-Margaret and Arnold Schwarzenegger are added bonus.

I liked everything about this comic-book magazine starting with the front cover, a previously unpublished work of western action by the legendary British comics artist Frank Bellamy. Apparently, Bellamy presented the illustration, of a cowboy with the raised gun and firing to his right, to Dez Skinn on his 21st birthday and Skinn, who edited this issue, used it without permission. It was his birthday present and I guess he was free to use it.

While reading about this special issue on the internet, I came across Skinn’s story that Bellamy, it seemed, pointed out an error in the way he had drawn the cowboy–one belt buckle drawn correctly and one wrongly! Looking at the picture you wouldn’t buckle under the error.

Many of the stories in Western Gunfighters: A Marvel Special first appeared in the namesake comic book series published by Atlas Comics (1956-1957) and Marvel Comics (1970-1975) written by Stan Lee (who requires no introduction), Jerry Siegel (who needs no introduction either but just in case you forgot, he co-created Superman), and Gary Friedrich (known for Sgt. Fury and Ghost Rider). The stories featured some of the biggest artists in the comic-book industry including Gene Colan, Reed Crandall, Joe Maneely, John Severin, Alex Toth, Al Williamson, Syd Shores, and Wally Wood.

The seven unforgettable comic-book stories reproduced in the special issue of WG include offbeat western tales about cowboys who are as tough as they come. You have The Rawhide Kid (or The Misunderstood Kid if you like) in a story that gives him the famous nickname; Frontier Marshal Wyatt Earp who takes on a bunch of masked rustlers only to discover they are some of the town’s big ranchers plotting to drive out the small ranchers; the Outcast, a half-breed, who struggles to find his origins; the Black Mask, the town’s doctor by day and masked vigilante by night; and the brave Major Brett Sabre who walks into Fort Rango and sets out to tame and train his lawless troopers against Indian renegades.

The three photo-features based on western movies are Cactus Jack starring Kirk Douglas and Ann-Margaret; Tom Horn, one of the last great heroes of the American West, portrayed by David Carradine on TV and Steve McQueen in film; and Film Trends where Benny Aldrich traces the changing face of the western movie star, from the singing cowboy and the noble hero through to the scruffy anti-hero and the comedy cowboy. “A whole new generation turned away from John Wayne’s noble cowboy to a bearded, scruffy mumbler Clint Eastwood,” Aldrich notes in his essay.

Western Gunfighters, which I bought for Rs.10 (about 20 cents) from a secondhand bookstore, is a collector’s issue in more than one way–it has action, adventure and anthology as well as spectacular illustrations. The black-and-white pencil sketches, particularly the detailing, are absolutely fantastic and leave you asking for more.

Jataka Tales Monkey Stories

© Amar Chitra Katha

Do you know why the monkey is laughing at the crocodile? The monkey is telling the hungry croc that he has left his heart behind, on the tree he lives in, and that if the croc wants to give it to his wife, for her midday meal, then he will have to take him back to fetch it. The dumb croc falls for the ploy, turns around, and heads for the mainland. No sooner the croc touches land, the monkey leaps out, climbs the nearest tree, and swinging around, mocks the croc: "You fool, if I had left my heart behind would I be alive and sitting on your back?" The croc, feeling like an idiot, goes back to Mrs Croc, empty handed but wiser.  

This comic strip is part of a popular story in Jataka Tales Monkey Stories published by Amar Chitra Katha (Immortal Picture Stories) from Bombay, India. ACK is one of the oldest comic-books on the subcontinent.

The Fisher of Men and The Rock

© Pan Books Ltd

Christmas is still a month away and I have made up my mind what books I am going to read leading up to my favourite season of the year. Obviously, the two novels I have selected reflect the spirit of Christmas—The Big Fisherman by Lloyd C. Douglas (of The Robe fame) and Upon This Rock by Frank G. Slaughter (who wrote The Thorn of Arimathea).

As the titles suggest, the books tell the story of Christ’s life and teachings through Simon Peter, his foremost disciple and leader of the Apostles. He was the man to whom Christ spoke the twelve famous words that changed history—“Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.”

The Big Fisherman, which is set before The Robe, and Upon This Rock together recreate the life and time of Simon Peter in an age that saw faith and forgiveness on one hand and tyranny and brutality on the other. 

© Pocket Books

I have read a few books by Douglas and Slaughter and each time I have been impressed by the depth, research, and scholarship that has gone into their biblical novels. I have marvelled at the imaginative and lucid prose as well as the superb plot and characterisation. The stories, as far as I can remember since I read the books a long time ago, are truly inspiring. There are few parallels in religious fiction.

Postscript: While I haven’t seen The Big Fisherman (1959) starring Howard Keel as Simon Peter, I have seen The Robe (1953) with Richard Burton as the unforgettable Marcellus Gallio and Michael Rennie (The Day The Earth Stood Still) as the Apostle.