tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post6041814135421221979..comments2024-03-12T12:38:23.542-04:00Comments on The Kind of Face You Hate: The Kind of Face You SLASH!!! - Day 12: You Don't Really Know Either of Usbill r.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17748572205731857892noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-2587871323466079832009-10-14T16:17:36.978-04:002009-10-14T16:17:36.978-04:00I was surprised to hear some very good things abou...I was surprised to hear some very good things about DUMA KEY. If I weren't reading all these stories and so forth, I'd probably be reading that.<br /><br />I hated CELL and THE COLORADO KID. I don't see how anyone could give either one a passing grade.bill r.https://www.blogger.com/profile/17748572205731857892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-88039912076237467012009-10-14T15:46:02.786-04:002009-10-14T15:46:02.786-04:00King is still worthwhile to read, although I think...King is still worthwhile to read, although I think that he's starting to run out of steam as America's main horrormeister... his latest collection of stories published last year was pretty mediocre - and of the novels, DUMA KEY and the ending of the DARK TOWER series are pretty much the only notable books of late.L. Rob Hubbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11539336724694374785noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-37140914463209175072009-10-14T08:55:17.276-04:002009-10-14T08:55:17.276-04:00Rick - That's all fine, and makes sense, but w...Rick - That's all fine, and makes sense, but where I find myself getting hung up is the idea that certain psychological interpretations of the <i>artist</i>, or the motivations of same, become taken as fact because someone's interpretation of their work can be "backed up". While the audience who is making the interpretation is never willing to look back at themselves, and wonder if it's <i>their</i> psychology that's being exposed.<br /><br />Will - I won't be re-reading <b>It</b>. Don't you worry about that. I was going to read an old and new short story, neither of which I've read before.bill r.https://www.blogger.com/profile/17748572205731857892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-29670089945392876842009-10-13T21:04:51.440-04:002009-10-13T21:04:51.440-04:00I quite enjoyed Hill's short stories--what was...I quite enjoyed Hill's short stories--what was the one about the boy whose friend is a balloon?--but haven't read his novel. <br /><br />As for King himself, man, I just reread <i>It</i> for the first time in 20 years and it was <i>terrible</i>. Maybe a post on whether his stuff holds up? I'm afraid my love of his early work is based not on quality, but on nostalgia for when I first read him when I was a teenager. <i>Danse Macabre</i> however I can still appreciate.Will Erricksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-9299945745680960762009-10-13T15:50:55.315-04:002009-10-13T15:50:55.315-04:00Good question. Of course, anyone can say anything...Good question. Of course, anyone can say anything they want about the meaning of art, but the key is <em>can they back it up?</em> Can they point to concrete features within the work that substantiates their claim? Then, it can be judged as to whether its pure hogwash or not.<br /><br />As John amusingly says, you can say that a film's "really a trenchant critique of contemporary social mores and bourgeois sexual politics", and if you point out the reasons, and they make <i>sense</i> -- more than just because I say so -- then that's what the film's about.<br /><br />There's a model in art theory called the interpretive triangle, or something like that, that views art as a "trialectic" with the artist at one corner of an equilateral triangle, the viewer at another, and the object of art at the third. Meaning is constructed, so the theory goes, by all three. This allows the meaning in art to come from any one of the three nodes.Rick Olsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04846018585978997261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-57916575808328486222009-10-13T14:26:30.539-04:002009-10-13T14:26:30.539-04:00But Rick, who's to say it's the director&#...But Rick, who's to say it's the <i>director's</i> subconscious, and not that of the viewer doing the interpretation?bill r.https://www.blogger.com/profile/17748572205731857892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-13968035815192655932009-10-13T12:24:20.310-04:002009-10-13T12:24:20.310-04:00The saying "trust the art and not the artist,...The saying "trust the art and not the artist," which I've used from time to time, simply acknowledges that there are influences upon the artist -- cultural, familial, etc. -- of which she or he might be unaware, but that nevertheless show up in the art itself. There's nothing mythological about it, it's called the subconscious.Rick Olsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04846018585978997261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-16093041599796474852009-10-13T11:59:53.256-04:002009-10-13T11:59:53.256-04:00John - I don't take that postmodernist view (t...John - I don't take that postmodernist view (the excuse often used for that is "trust the art, not the artist", which, for one thing, is obnoxious inthat it seems to mythologize the creative process) but story's like "My Father's Mask" DO leave things open to all sorts of interpretations. Within reason, of course, since there are specific themes being touched on, but still, you have a lot of room to move in that respect.<br /><br />Rick - I know, right!? I thought that myself, although the father/son relationship in the story doesn't seem to connect very well to what I know about Hill and King. Still, you look at Hill, you take the beard away, you think of the pseudonym...who knows?bill r.https://www.blogger.com/profile/17748572205731857892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-25757445671784615822009-10-13T11:39:37.418-04:002009-10-13T11:39:37.418-04:00Methinks the "mask" thing has some meani...Methinks the "mask" thing has some meaning for Hill ... look at that picture. Without the beard, he'd be the spitting image of dear old dad.Rick Olsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04846018585978997261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-75663153142915982562009-10-12T20:53:57.700-04:002009-10-12T20:53:57.700-04:00...you should never feel comfortable that the mean...<i>...you should never feel comfortable that the meaning you've carved out of the story, or film, is "correct".</i><br /><br />...unless you take the "postmodernist" view that EVERY reading has equal validity, and what the author originally meant has no more weight than the worst reader's least considered interpretation of the material.<br /><br />So if I say the story's really a trenchant critique of contemporary social mores and bourgeois sexual politics disguised as a comical suburban sci-fi satire involving giant rats and cannibal aliens, then damn it, that's what it is, all right.<br /><br />Until I change my mind again, that is.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05364322006357208797noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-61517738742762046762009-10-12T20:11:43.969-04:002009-10-12T20:11:43.969-04:00You're not actually required to you know...
I...<i>You're not actually required to you know</i>...<br /><br />I know. It was a kind of a joke, sort of thing.<br /><br /><i> But anyway, is "Joe Hill" his pseudonym (like Cage instead of Coppola) or was he raised by someone named Hill that King banged and left or what? I mean, why isn't his name Joe King if everyone knows who he is?</i>...<br /><br />Are you saying I should have explained this? I can't do all the research! Whose blog is this, anyway! So the answer is, "Joe Hill" is his pseudonym, as well as half his real name. His full name is "Joe Hillstrom King". First off, "Hillstrom"??? Second off, I can't blame the guy for lopping off the "King" and trying to go it alone. It seems to have paid off, too.<br /><br /><i>And as long as we're discussing names, "Johnny" and "Jack" are both slang for the formal "John" so my question is: Does he ever use another name</i>...<br /><br />Sometimes.<br /><br /><i>Did he find mom and dad naked or in sexy undies with masks on every morning and that inspired his story?</i>...<br /><br />No. The story is much weirder than that. I was worried that by cutting off my synopsis when I did, everyone would think it was some sort of incestuous <b>Eyes Wide Shut</b>...which, okay, <i>would</i> be really weird and upsetting, but "My Father's Mask" is much harder to pin down than that.bill r.https://www.blogger.com/profile/17748572205731857892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-53848889957686508552009-10-12T19:15:05.039-04:002009-10-12T19:15:05.039-04:00In fairness, of its type, "The Black Phone&qu...<i>In fairness, of its type, "The Black Phone" is a decent story, but it's also not the kind of story you're likely to remember, or tell anyone about, unless you're the proprietor of a blog that requires you to</i>.<br /><br />You're not actually required to you know. But anyway, is "Joe Hill" his pseudonym (like Cage instead of Coppola) or was he raised by someone named Hill that King banged and left or what? I mean, why isn't his name Joe King if everyone knows who he is?<br /><br />And as long as we're discussing names, "Johnny" and "Jack" are both slang for the formal "John" so my question is: Does he ever use another name? <br /><br />The mask story sounds quite weird I admit. Did he find mom and dad naked or in sexy undies with masks on every morning and that inspired his story? And if so, considering daddy was Stephen King - Eeeeeeewwww!!!Greghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05730146625671701859noreply@blogger.com