the was it a ballet dancer is a good example that anne enjoys experiencing different men. different flings. it’s attractive and that JLC allows it to be attractive is to his credit.
― Fizzles, Thursday, 2 November 2023 19:33 (six months ago) link
i say that in response to an interesting article u read recently comparing fleming and le carre and where their lives meet their fiction (wrt to the recent biographical revelations) somewhat in fleming’s favour.
― Fizzles, Thursday, 2 November 2023 19:34 (six months ago) link
i mean i read it. i have no idea if u all read it.
i like the idea of u as singular we should make that happen
it was a ballet dancer, they were iirc a sensation for a season
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Thursday, 2 November 2023 19:42 (six months ago) link
I just started Honorable Schoolboy ("the first few chapters are truly execrable") but it's... quite enjoyable? I'm curious what Le Carre going full 1970s airport novel looks like. It's scarily long, though.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 2 November 2023 21:13 (six months ago) link
its got seriously objectionable aspects and ive recently added another one- the audiobook is read by michael jayston, who does a really brilliant job of TTSS but it soon becomes clear that not having his bbc castmates to imitate (or having a wider range of accents to attempt, perhaps) renders his efforts here absolutely unlistenable
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Thursday, 2 November 2023 23:30 (six months ago) link
I'm going through his books now as audiobooks since I can't sleep at night, and much as I love Le Carre I haven't really liked Micheal Jayston's reading of the Smiley novels. His voice is too constricted, old-sounding and querulous.
I'm now chronologically up to The Little Drummer Girl. I loved that more than any other Le Carre book when I read it in the 80s, it had a romantic aspect that distinguished it, but the prospect of Michael Jayston reading it to me now does not thrill me
The Honorable Schoolboy was the most chaotic Smiley novel in my opinion, it was enjoyable but was really hard to piece all together
― Dan S, Friday, 3 November 2023 00:52 (six months ago) link
You’re all out of your minds. Jayston’s audiobooks are great. (Apart from the American accents)
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, 3 November 2023 03:55 (six months ago) link
not THS- Australian is painful
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Friday, 3 November 2023 04:00 (six months ago) link
Fair. the “Asian” accents in that aren’t great either. Bad audiobook of a bad book.
He can do some non English accents (perfect spy and small town in Germany are full of them).
If you think he’s bad you should listen to the night manager read by David case. Preposterous.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, 3 November 2023 04:16 (six months ago) link
I think this is my fault, as I read The Secret Pilgrim for the first time this week and enjoyed having a few more stories set during the various Smiley eras…
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/10/john-le-carres-son-to-write-new-george-smiley-novel
― carson dial, Friday, 10 November 2023 16:51 (six months ago) link
george groany
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Friday, 10 November 2023 16:57 (six months ago) link
Amazon was pushing his Titanium Noir on me in recommendations but ugh
"A virtuosic mashup of Philip K. Dick and Raymond Chandler by way of Marvel—the story of a detective investigating the murder of a Titan, one of society’s most powerful, medically-enhanced elites. • “Cross-genre brilliance from the superbly talented Nick Harkaway.” —William Gibson, New York Times best-selling author of Agency"
― papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, 10 November 2023 17:32 (six months ago) link
Anyone seen the new morris doc on Apple TV yet?
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, 10 November 2023 19:55 (six months ago) link
rip jerry westerby
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Monday, 20 November 2023 01:43 (five months ago) link
roddy martindale might be among my most bad and hated characters ever
https://media.tenor.com/kRKSXNGI84sAAAAC/what-have-you-been-doing-alec-guinness.gif
'love to ann!'
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 19 December 2023 05:19 (four months ago) link
https://snappishproductions.com/images/gfy/love-to-ann.gif
― carson dial, Tuesday, 19 December 2023 12:07 (four months ago) link
most other characters just give it to her directly
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Tuesday, 19 December 2023 18:04 (four months ago) link
i’ve got the line “Willie Andrewarthur always was the most godawful liar” stuck in my head. Something v earwormy about Nigel Stock’s performance.
― Fizzles, Saturday, 20 January 2024 12:40 (three months ago) link
me confusing nigel stock with nigel bruce (both of course played sherlock's watson, albeit several decades apart) totally made me wtf for a moment there lol -- nigel bruce was NOT in tinker tailor soldier spy
― mark s, Saturday, 20 January 2024 13:47 (three months ago) link
never read sherlock
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Saturday, 20 January 2024 16:48 (three months ago) link
was watching this (again). smiley’s “oh damn! oh damn!” after his meeting with martindale is in the book caused by realising he’s left the volume of grimmelshausen he’s just bought at the club. in the adaptation he has “entrusted it to the postal service” after seeing peter guillam trying to intercept it. makes it a bit of a clumsy or incoherent line, even for alec guinness.
― Fizzles, Saturday, 20 January 2024 16:50 (three months ago) link
he’s left it at the club. he didn’t buy it at the club.
nigel bruce as roddy martindale would have been a thing!
― Fizzles, Saturday, 20 January 2024 16:51 (three months ago) link
this is imo unresolved
in the series it seems a very deliberate detail in the change a d in the timing of the change
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Saturday, 20 January 2024 16:51 (three months ago) link
ann likes smiley bcz he's secretly 1 x GOTH
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Simplicissimus_Cover_page1669.jpg
― mark s, Saturday, 20 January 2024 16:54 (three months ago) link
xpostthe other - obvious - thing is that a) martindale is quite an appealing character and b) that he gets v close with his gossip and surmise to the heart of the problem. expresses what is said at the end of the book - that everyone in some way *knew* it was haydon. it was just impossible to admit - psychologically or organisationally.
― Fizzles, Saturday, 20 January 2024 16:54 (three months ago) link
this is imo unresolvedin the series it seems a very deliberate detail in the change a d in the timing of the change
― Fizzles, Saturday, 20 January 2024 16:57 (three months ago) link
hard to imagine smiley monologuing (word? sp?) so coherently and stagily alright
but i meant, and still mean, the decision to post the book
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Saturday, 20 January 2024 17:15 (three months ago) link
oh yes. i think it’s a decision forced by the dramatisation tbh. too awkward to get it into the club and post club scenes.
― Fizzles, Saturday, 20 January 2024 17:23 (three months ago) link
maybe it shorthands smiley seeing gwilm and changing his plans, gives him an object to explicitly speak to someone about that shows this happening
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Saturday, 20 January 2024 17:50 (three months ago) link
as i noted in the obit thread, now that Michael Jayston has passed away, all of the main cast of the BBC series is now gone. though we've still got Ann Smiley and Karla.
― omar little, Monday, 5 February 2024 19:58 (three months ago) link