Philip Roth has no love for movies of his books

September 15, 2008

Film rights for Philip Roth’s new novel, “Indignation,” have already been optioned by Hollywood producer Scott Rudin, whose credits include the Academy Award-winning “No Country for Old Men” and the commercial smash “The Addams Family.”

No movie based on a Roth book has done so well.

In a recent interview, Roth was asked what he thought of some of those adaptations, starting with “Elegy,” a reworking of his novel “The Dying Animal” that came out this year and attracted little attention, even though it starred Penelope Cruz.

“I think Penelope Cruz is very good. That’s what I think,” he says, declining further comment.

What about “The Human Stain,” starring Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins and released in 2003?

“Unwatchable.”

“Portnoy’s Complaint,” a 1972 bomb starring Richard Benjamin and Karen Black?

“Unwatchable.”

He is fond of “Goodbye, Columbus.” Based on his debut novella of the same name, it came out in 1969 and featured a then-little known Ali McGraw, whom he remembers as “a wonderful young actress”

Roth, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning “American Pastoral” is also being made into a film, doesn’t seem bothered by what happens to his books on screen and doesn’t involve himself beyond agreeing to sell the rights. Unlike such fellow writers as Russell Banks, Michael Chabon and John Irving, he isn’t interested in producing or script writing.

“I’m far from the movie world,” he says. “I just see if the people are presentable, if they have table manners, are neatly dressed. I don’t expect anything out of it.”

 

From: Yahoo! News

Authors grieve over Wallace’s apparent suicide

The literary world is in grief for David Foster Wallace, an author of seemingly unstoppable curiosity, imagination and ambition who apparently killed himself last week. Readers are seeking out his work, including his 1,000-page novel “Infinite Jest” and the essay collection “Consider the Lobster.”

Wallace, who wrote with an explosive, ironic, but deeply serious passion about subjects ranging from tennis and politics to mathematics and cruise ships, was found dead by his wife in his home Friday night, according to the Claremont, Calif., police department. The 46-year-old author apparently hanged himself.

“He was the best of our generation, and his death is a loss beyond describing,” Richard Powers, winner of the National Book Award in 2006 for the novel “The Echo Maker,” told The Associated Press on Sunday.

“I am so sad — stunned — it reminds us all of how fragile we are, and how close at hand the darkness is,” said fellow author A.M. Homes, whose books include the novel “The End of Alice” and “The Mistress’s Daughter,” a memoir. “He was a wonderful writer, a generous friend, and a singular talent.”

A native of Ithaca, N.Y., Wallace was often compared to Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo as an avatar of the Information Age, a visionary and eclectic as hip to ancient Greece and British poetry as he was to computers and television and popular culture. He also wrote often about addiction, depression and suicide, a post-1960s Dystopia in which “irony, irreverence, and rebellion come to be not liberating but enfeebling.”

Wallace was far better known to his peers than to the general public, but news of his death led to a quick jump in sales for his books. As of Sunday night, “Infinite Jest” was in the top 20 on Amazon.com and “Consider the Lobster” was in the top 75. Several of his books were out of stock.

His longtime editor, Michael Pietsch, said Sunday that his last contact with Wallace had been a “wonderful exchange of letters” around a month ago. He declined to say what they had written about or offer any comment on the author’s private life.

Pietsch, publisher of Little, Brown and Company, told The Associated Press that from the start he found Wallace’s talent “jaw dropping” and shining with “unexpected hilariousness.”

“From the first paragraph you read of him, you realize he’s biting off more than anybody, taking on gigantic subjects in unexpected ways and delivering undreamed of pleasures and insights, at the largest levels and the most microscopic levels.”

Asked what Wallace had been working on at the time of his death, Pietsch offered no specifics, but said: “He was always writing something. He was always doing something ambitious.”

 

From: Yahoo! News

The 2008 Myx VJ Search Finalists.

September 14, 2008

From left to right: Ezra Lacsamana, Robi Domingo, JC Lingad, Chino Liu Pio, Macky Escalona, Paolo Alino, Sami Pinto, Kai Hocson, Bianca Roque, Jessica Mendoza, Monica Yncierto, Cera Hernandez

 

Personally, I’m rooting for Ezra Lacsamana. He seems fun and quirky, based on how he talks and looks. I don’t think “being real” is really a top concern in the VJ business. It’s more like an overused notion that doesn’t really make anything concrete Whatever we project, whenever we project it, is real. Being fake is more like a language play on suspicions and personal concerns. And aside from that, we all have different views on “being real”.

 

Moreover, I think we can go without reality in this context. It’s television. Anyone with half a mind has the idea that it’s a different world than our social placements. Anne Curtis can’t sprout wings and fly and I’m sure Jestoni Alarconi doesn’t go about shooting anyone off his motorcycle.

 

What’s real is the crappy politics and the Mindanao crisis. TV is a getaway from all that seriousness and for this viewer, I’d like to keep it that way.

 

More information on the aspiring video jockeys on: Supreme.ph

Novelist David Foster Wallace found dead

David Foster Wallace, the author best known for his 1996 novel “Infinite Jest,” was found dead in his home, according to police. He was 46.

Wallace’s wife found her husband had hanged himself when she returned home about 9:30 p.m. Friday, said Jackie Morales, a records clerk with the Claremont Police Department.

Wallace taught creative writing and English at nearby Pomona College.

“He cared deeply for his students and transformed the lives of many young people,” said Dean Gary Kates. “It’s a great loss to our teaching faculty.”

Wallace’s first novel, “The Broom of the System,” gained national attention in 1987 for its ambition and offbeat humor. The New York Times said the 24-year-old author “attempts to give us a portrait, through a combination of Joycean word games, literary parody and zany picaresque adventure, of a contemporary America run amok.”

Published in 1996, “Infinite Jest” cemented Wallace’s reputation as a major American literary figure. The 1,000-plus-page tome, praised for its complexity and dark wit, topped many best-of lists. Time Magazine named “Infinite Jest” in its issue of the “100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.”

Wallace received a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation in 1997.

In 2002, Wallace was hired to teach at Pomona in a tenured English Department position endowed by Roy E. Disney. Kates said when the school began searching for the ideal candidate, Wallace was the first person considered.

“The committee said, ‘we need a person like David Foster Wallace.’ They said that in the abstract,” Kates said. “When he was approached and accepted, they were heads over heels. He was really the ideal person for the position.”

Wallace’s short fiction was published in Esquire, GQ, Harper’s, The New Yorker and the Paris Review. Collections of his short stories were published as “Girl With Curious Hair” and “Brief Interviews With Hideous Men.”

He wrote nonfiction for several publications, including an essay on the U.S. Open for Tennis magazine and a profile of the director David Lynch for Premiere.

Born in Ithaca, N.Y., Wallace attended Amherst College and the University of Arizona.

(Corrects school he attended to Arizona, not Illinois.)

 

From: Yahoo! News

AME 8th Avenue: Taking the Streets of Harajuku!

This November 8^th, the UP Anime Manga Enthusiasts will take their game to the streets of Harajuku. There will be Cosplay Competitions, as well as Fan Art Contests, Novelty Booths and more Ame Cafe. If that’s not enough to drag you in, they’re also promising some J-Rockers to serenade you.

 

This event will be held at Ang Bahay ng Alumni, University of the Philippines Diliman. This event is made possible by the same collegiate anime organization who brought you Una kAME!, kAME Ulit!, AME Matsuri and AME Gakuensai.

 

What’s Harajuku?

 

Well, according to Wikipedia, Harajuku, or meadow lodging, is the common name for the area around Harajuku Station on the Yamanote Line in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo, Japan. The area is known internationally for its youth style and fashion. Harajuku street style is promoted in Japanese and international publications such as Kera, Tune, Gothic & Lolita Bible and Fruits.

 

For more info, go here.