Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

Truthyness — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:07:12 +0000

lifeonmarsfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> re: OMF CD ...
> I know he railed
> against social injustice throughout his life, but
> the message was very blunt in OMF. It can almost
> speak to today's society in a way. We haven't
> changed all that much in one hundred and fifty
> years.

The very same struck me throughout the adaptation. It was very "in your face" if you'll pardon the expression. Still, now and again, it does ya good hearing a spade tagged a spade ...

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

lifeonmarsfan — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:06:17 +0000

The netbook isn't for everyone, I had one for a week to play with and I never found a way to do things I do on a laptop. I think they all have USB connections so you could attach external hard drives and dvd drives, but it will never replace a computer. It reminded me of the old computer terminals we had at the school library way back when. Kudos to you for putting up with it all.

re: OMF CD did throw everything in including the kitchen sink, didn't he? I was watching a bit of the BBC miniseries of this book last night and it's probably the first time I've really heard criticism of society from CD. I know he railed against social injustice throughout his life, but the message was very blunt in OMF. It can almost speak to today's society in a way. We haven't changed all that much in one hundred and fifty years.

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

Truthyness — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 22:27:11 +0000

The last two episodes seemed a bit over the top even by CD's standards LOM!

Yes Mac books are cool.
Still I bitterly regret my dirt cheap (but very powerful) desk top XP has folded... switching to the netbook is turning into an expensive farce. Wifi doesn't work properly (tho that's likely an ISP issue) so who do you shout at to fix it? The blame will surely be attributed to Thin Air or Concrete Walls! Bluetooth is a joke, and about as seamless as a straight jacket Houdini might have got into. The bod migrating data and systems from the dying XP desktop to the Windows7 portable has dragged out the exercise over 6 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Umpteen softs and functions never requested have been dumped on what was a pristine hard disc. In answer to "get em off". I'm told there is software to contain and minimize software! The plan now is : throw out the entirely messed up netbook, configured to suit a total stranger's purpose rather than the user/owner's, or uninstall it and go to school so that, step by step, every single stage and detail of the process can be mastered and the end user become empowered to configure things up to suit himself. Time is the issue though, and no sooner than you'd have finished mastering that than everything will have morphed to the touch pad era ... though, hopefully (chance would be a fine thing), by then, things reallywill have been simplilfied (I don't think)

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

lifeonmarsfan — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 04:33:42 +0000

Nearly got a netbook last year, but it couldn't do what my laptop does so I stuck with a laptop. My dream it to be able to afford a Macbook (drool, drool) and all that goes with it. One day...I used to work on a Mac so the transition won't be too bad when the time comes.

Had a problem with iPlayer again today so I had to go through Beebotron. My theory of things going wrong with iPlayer on odd numbered days was shot today. Good thing I don't have too many things to catch up with, just OMF and Pilgrim.

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

Truthyness — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 02:32:09 +0000

Thanks LOM, I guessed it, only listening lately has been really problematic for a variety of reasons: it's like a war zone at home as migration from a worthy old desk top to a mini, fiddly, if nifty (or so I am told) new netbook is underway. Listen Again streams are plagued w/constant interruptions, add to that a PC techie strolling around the house these past weeks shifting data and softs to the netbook ... fiddling about with blue tooth, wifi, repeaters, extenders, adapters, dongles none of which seem to deliver very well ... the upshot has been FOLLOWING OMF with serenity HAS BEEN ALL BUT IMPOSSIBLE, constant interruptions dog me at every step of the way . . . It's been tough staying on top of the schedule.!

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

lifeonmarsfan — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:03:55 +0000

Truthyness Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> To me at least, that was "worse" than hearing
> Dickens itself. So he is at times cumbersome and
> to satirise the that aspect gets accentuated.
> Yikes! The result is grotesque. Sigh! Not my cuppa
> Teepee, not at all.
>
> Back to OMF, Episode 8 ... couldn't (though
> perhaps wasn't concentrating hard enough) for the
> life of me work out that neckerchief swapping
> incident towards the end ... I got to feeling
> positively dizzy! Gonna take a Listen Again
> tonight, but worry I may end up no further
> enlightened! Can't Google for fear of spoilers ...
> Clasps aching head between hands and rocks to and
> fro ...#-o

Rogue Riderhood was just trying to see if Bradley Headstone would change the neckerchief. Headstone is trying to look like Riderhood, but the question is why. I think I have avoided spoilers for you. But today's episode might clarify things anyway.

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

tepeethetroll — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:00:48 +0000

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

IvorThirst — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:45:22 +0000

Quote
the best Dickens adaptation has got to be "Bleak Expectations

Well said, Harry Biscuit!

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

Truthyness — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:14:09 +0000

To me at least, that was "worse" than hearing Dickens itself. So he is at times cumbersome and to satirise the that aspect gets accentuated. Yikes! The result is grotesque. Sigh! Not my cuppa Teepee, not at all.

Back to OMF, Episode 8 ... couldn't (though perhaps wasn't concentrating hard enough) for the life of me work out that neckerchief swapping incident towards the end ... I got to feeling positively dizzy! Gonna take a Listen Again tonight, but worry I may end up no further enlightened! Can't Google for fear of spoilers ... Clasps aching head between hands and rocks to and fro ...#-o

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

tepeethetroll — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:55:27 +0000

Call me a Philistine, but for me the best Dickens adaption has got to be "Bleak Expectations".;)

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

Truthyness — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:44:52 +0000

Sorry for being unclear ... by "other one" up thread ... I meant Conan Doyle.

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

lifeonmarsfan — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 23:39:21 +0000

Well sort of. Whatever the adapter (or is it adaptor) chose to include in the miniseries is what I know of the story. I've never read the book. I liked the tv adaptation, but I think they left out a lot of the side story with the couple who married eachother thinking the other was rich (were they the Lamleys?). So that's what I am getting from the radio adaptation. The tv adaptation was 4 hours total, this radio adaptation is about 10 hours. The other OMF radio adaptation I have was the Woman's Hour Drama from a couple of years ago and that one seemed heavily edited as well, it was a 5 hour adaption...

The tv adaptation is worth the time, it has some wonderful performances, Peter Vaughn as Mr. Boffin and David Morrissey as Mr. Headstone to name a couple. Keeley Hawes and Anna Friel are pretty Dickens heroines, although Keeley stayed her fair haired self rather than becoming the dark haired Lizzie Hexam (Anna F plays Bella). Other noteworthy performances by Kenneth Cranham and Timothy Spall.

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

Truthyness — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:29:52 +0000

Huh! Ya mean you already KNOW WHAT HAPPENS? Don't tempt me!
Just what I always maintained about CD's writing (and the other one come to think of it), amazing story lines!

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

lifeonmarsfan — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:04:20 +0000

DON'T DO IT TRU! Anticipation is part of the pleasure of the story. I know the tv miniseries backwards and forwards, this version has thrown me a couple of curve balls.

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

Truthyness — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:46:38 +0000

Can't settle to anything else on radio, it's obsessive!

May even Google to find out what happens next!!!

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

Truthyness — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:18:47 +0000

Post episode 7 ...

Yikes ... the plot thickens ... won't sleep now till tomorrow ...

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

Truthyness — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:48:28 +0000

OMF ... is driving me NUTS! Am consumed w/anticipation WILLING clock hands forward to next installment. Sad to hear the caretaker turns miser ... what comes next? How does it END! Eeeeeeek! Will it be a llittle Dorrit end with no dosh but everyone happy ... Dickens often does that!!!! (Of course it was all right for him, by then he'd acquired mountains of the stuff!)

BTW Hope no one answers my questions before the adventure has been aired.(:P)

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

lifeonmarsfan — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:24:34 +0000

I love Phil Daniels, he can play good guy or bad guy equally well. When he's cast you never know if he's playing a goodie or a baddie. I've never heard him do a reading of anything. I don't even think I've heard him do radio drama. Maybe an engaging interpretation of OCS would change my mind.

My problem with Great Expectations was the beginning also. The problem I had with the latest tv version other than Gillian, was the actor they got to play Pip, I thought he was just too pretty. He was even better looking than Estella. I had to find my copy of The House of Mirth to remind me how good an actress Gillian Anderson is. Am I being too critical? I am looking forward to The Mystery of Edwin Drood though.

I really like the the currently running series of Our Mutual Friend. This is an older production, right? Tom Wilkinson sounds very young in this and the style of acting isn't too dissimilar to that of Lord of the Rings (with Ian Holm playing Frodo). If I had to make a critique, I would say the woman who plays Bella sounds too old for the role or if not old, too world weary.

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

Truthyness — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:42:09 +0000

cats22 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That's it! I have quite enjoyed some of the radio
> dramatisations and the grime and the grotesque are
> not evident. The tv dramatisations do go all out
> for both of those and they overshadow the story.
>
>
> I never got the hang of Dickens when I was young
> (perhaps an unfortunate start with Great
> Expectations - I hated the opening scenes) and I
> struggle to work out why the books are so admired.
> I am trying though.

Isn't it for sheer originality, suspense and yarn? Often times I find myself thinking of Wilkie Collings and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The difference being, apparently, that no one edited Dickens before putting him in print, more's the pity. The strong moral code, the irony, the milk of human kindness. Thank god intellectuals have seen fit to paraphrase the man! As a child I'd have given up on reading had anyone forced me into ploughing through his work.

LOM, Curiosity shop and Great Expectations were not favourites of mine either, though Phil Daniels as Quilp
stood out as quite remarkable. He goes down as a favourite ever since his brazen reading of Jack Carter's Law which, unusually, I took the trouble to record and cannot tire of listening to again and again.

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

tepeethetroll — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 19:23:31 +0000

I have to confess to not being much of a Dickens fan. The only novel of his that I found to be a passably enjoyable read was "A Christmas Carol".

There was a radio adaption of "David Copperfield" produced sometime in the early seventies that I found enjoyable, but that also stands alone.

Of the film adaptions, the only two I can think of that I have watched all the way through were the monochrome versions of "Great Expectations" and "Oliver Twist".

For me, there is one major problem with the books, and that is Dickens tendency to place certain words into the mouths of what would then have been called The Lower Classes; words which I feel sure they would probably never have encountered, let alone been able to use in context.

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

cats22 — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:08:02 +0000

Truthyness Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's the profound humanity in Dickens' writing,
> not to mention the romance and the thrill of a
> cracking good yarn that hits it for me. I can't be
> doing w/any of the gloomy visuals. Radio focuses
> on just such somehow dodging the drudge. The only
> visual that struck home was Lean's Great
> Expectations. Atmosphere is omnipresent there not
> to mention fear, suspense and the devil of a good
> story line. Somehow, it seems to me we are spared
> the poverty and the tawdriness.

That's it! I have quite enjoyed some of the radio dramatisations and the grime and the grotesque are not evident. The tv dramatisations do go all out for both of those and they overshadow the story.

I never got the hang of Dickens when I was young (perhaps an unfortunate start with Great Expectations - I hated the opening scenes) and I struggle to work out why the books are so admired. I am trying though.

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

lifeonmarsfan — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:25:21 +0000

Dickens was an early favorite, especially with the movie musical Oliver! Copperfield was probably the first hefty book I ever read and I went through the book in a few weeks during our first summer in Ohio. It was a memorable time cos my mom found out Dickens actually stayed in a hotel not far from Cincinnati and we were able to visit the hotel to see the registry book Dickens signed. I think the inn was called The Golden Lamb and was located in Lebanon, Ohio. That was a thrill for me as a 9 or 10 year old, to really connect with someone from history or literature. It was almost like meeting a rock star or something.

I have the latest adaptation of Great Expectation and I can't say I can recommend it. Like I said before, I was dragged through the book so maybe that's part of the reason I don't enjoy the story (I have a similar problem with Wuthering Heights and Anna Karenina). It didn't help that Gillian Anderson was a bit OTT as Miss Havisham although trying to imagine Gillian as part of a romantic couple with Ray Winstone boggles the mind a little...sorry for the spoiler. I didn't like The Old Curiosity Shop either (with Derek Jacobi).

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

Truthyness — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 23:42:36 +0000

It's the profound humanity in Dickens' writing, not to mention the romance and the thrill of a cracking good yarn that hits it for me. I can't be doing w/any of the gloomy visuals. Radio focuses on just such somehow dodging the drudge. The only visual that struck home was Lean's Great Expectations. Atmosphere is omnipresent there not to mention fear, suspense and the devil of a good story line. Somehow, it seems to me we are spared the poverty and the tawdriness.

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

Janaru — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:23:27 +0000

Sorry you're buggy, Tru. Hope you feel better soon.

I found that part of Little Dorritt confusing, as well. I had to listen three times before I finally got it. I loved the television version. Andy Sirkis scared the h*ll outta me!

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

lifeonmarsfan — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:52:44 +0000

Personally I was dragged through Great Expectations as a high schooler (it was one of the books we studied), but by the end of book, I kinda liked it.
I've never read nor seen any adaptation of Tale of Two Cities, so the radio adaptation will be a treat whenever I get a chance to listen to it. But sometimes Dickens can be a rather convoluted writer, can't he? I think it was the program about the writing of Edwin Drood on Radio 4 where I am proved wrong in that last statement, that Dickens did plan out his stories. I liked the radio adaptation of Drood (Ian Holm played John Jasper like all his other creepy characterizations i.e. JM Barrie in The Lost Boys, but he kicked it up a notch with this one). I am looking forward to seeing the series (it will be on PBS since one of the producers of Drood was the Masterpiece trust).

I am a radioholic too, I panic when I lose access. I can live without my analog radio, tv or my dvds, but don't take away my BBC radio.

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

Truthyness — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:00:00 +0000

Aha! My TV consumption is taken in homeopathic doses! My - albeit cursory - glances at recent Dickens productions failed to draw me in. Radio is my life-blood and I seriously believe I could not live w/out it.

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

PAW — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:46:19 +0000

It was a two part TV adaptation, broadcast over christmas. So probably going to be on PBS sometime.

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

Truthyness — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:39:36 +0000

Aha, is an airing in the pipeline Paul, or have I missed it?

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

PAW — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:20:40 +0000

The adaptation of Edwin Drood was interesting, good to see something which hasn't been done to death. Though it does have people with silly names and odd ways of speaking.

Re: Little Dorrit - (warning spoilers!)

Truthyness — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:17:01 +0000

Mars, Aloha!
From a flu-ridden bed, it could have been my foggy brain! Auntie is to be blessed of course for having rendered Dickens "digestible"* to the "masses". As a kid I was only able to plough through one or two of his epics; Christmas Carol, Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. Nickleby got abandoned in mid flow along with Bleak House which, in terms of radio productions, qualifies (to me at least) possibly as the greatest BBC effort of all time (... cries of "No No No!" with countless other efforts coming to challenge my bold statement are heard!!! ... Nonetheless I'll stick to my guns!)

Okay back to bed, at least now the latest addition of computers is coming into its own ... nifty enough to take to bed ... even if the most important software STILL has not been installed ...

*Nay! Not merely digestible but rather, essential!