Capote

I've never been a particular fan of Truman Capote. I've read some of his stuff, and yes, he was a very good writer. He could put words to paper in a way that few others, if any, could. But, I wouldn't say I was a fan. I certainly didn't dislike his writing. Of course, the fact that he didn't publish much in my lifetime contributed to this.

When I thought of Truman Capote, I thought of the character I saw on TV, on The Tonight Show and other talk shows. An odd little man with a funny voice but with interesting words.

I remember reading In Cold Blood years ago. It was a fascinating read. Not an easy read, but it was a book that you wanted to keep reading. Capote knew how to put words to paper.

The movie was very good, too. It's not a movie I like to put on and watch very often. In fact, I've seen it twice. Once, a long time ago, and more recently, within the last week or so. I had some downtime wanted to watch a movie. I launched my streaming device, and without looking, started scanning through with the remote. It stopped on In Cold Blood.

"Well, there's the feel-good movie of the year," I thought. But, I pressed Play and started watching. That got me to thinking about that horrific crime and wondering just how true the movie was. Which led me to wonder how true the book was.

Okay, right to it: the book was mostly true. I think Capote filled in some blanks from what he thought was the truth, as best he understood it. As for the movie, it was a fairly faithful adaptation of the book.

The movie was nominated for four Academy Awards -- Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Music -- but didn't win any. The American Film Institute ranked it was one of the top ten courtroom dramas. Which is how it ended up in my library.

While looking into the Clutter murders, I picked up bits and pieces about the case, including finding a copy of the Perry Smith case file. That was an interesting find. Anyway, I ended up later watching the movie Capote.

The movie was good. I enjoyed it. Philip Seymour Hoffman won an Oscar for his performance. But, the whole thing was the relationship between Capote and the killer Smith. And, as much as I liked the movie, I don't like it when "true" movies stretch the truth.

In the movie, Capote visited Smith a lot in prison. But in reality, he didn't. They wrote a lot, but Capote only visited Smith three times.

Capote was there for the execution, though. However, the movie had investigator Alvin Dewey there, and included a scene where Smith thanked Dewey for being there. However, Dewey's name isn't on the list of official witnesses. Capote's was.

Another variance from the truth, more disturbing in my mind, was the method in which the writer's decided to get around this fact: Capote bribing the warden to get access.

It is true that Capote did ask for access, but he didn't do it in person, but rather by letter.

Capote was turned down, by letter.

The idea that what Capote did to get the information from Smith to complete his research into the book was not, in the mind of the writers, good enough, but they had to stretch one bit of truth, then another to make the first stretching happen.

Little things like that bother me when a movie is supposed to be a true story. Of course, I understand little things may be necessary, but these aren't little things. Despite this, I did enjoy the movie. I just with they enjoyed the facts more.

Beyond Belief

I'm not a huge science fiction fan. Oh, I like me some sci-fi, but I'm not like some of the sci-fi fans I've seen.

Star Trek and Star Wars (the 1977-83 movies), of course. I also enjoyed most of the shows or movies I saw that involved space travel or time travel. But, I was never a big reader of science fiction short stories or novels, except for the writings of Isaac Asimov. So, I'd call myself a casual fan of the genre, but I'm probably a little more serious about it than many.

Most of my sci-fi, as I said, was TV or movies. Some of the ones I watched as a child and remember were The Angry Red Planet (not really a good movie, but entertaining to a kid), The Time Tunnel (Irwin Allen junk, but kid-fun), The Thing from Another World (James Arness as a killer vegetable), The War of the Worlds (I still enjoy watching that) ... Oh, I could go on and on.

Reading sci-fi, though, wasn't something I did a lot. Ender's Game (read it a long time ago), Enemy Mine (long before it became a movie), The Andromeda Strain (read the book before I saw the old movie), Who Goes There? (the story that became "The Thing" movies) ... and tons of Isaac Asimov books.

My science fiction reading began in elementary school. Remember Scholastic Books? Those little cheap paperbacks you could order at school? Well, I saw one that I thought I wanted. It was titled Beyond Belief and it was a collection of eight science fiction short stories. So, I shelled out the 45¢ and ordered the book.

While it wasn't the first science fiction I read -- I think I read Asimov's The Fun They Had in class -- it was the first science fiction book I owned.

I loved it. The stories were all pretty good, and, best of all, it was mine! I could read it any time I wanted. And I wanted to a lot. I took it to school every day. I took it everywhere but to church ... because I left it in the car when I went in to Sunday School.

Then, one day, it was gone. I don't know what happened. Maybe I dropped it. Maybe somebody took it. Maybe it fell into another dimension. Whatever happened, it was gone.

I cried. Really. I cried myself to sleep. I was heartbroken.

Eventually, I got over it. Mostly. I bought some other science fiction books along and along. Some novels, but mostly anthologies. Best of the Hugos and such. But I always missed my first science fiction book.

No longer.

I found Beyond Belief on a Website of close-out books. In fact, the Website said its online store was closed, but it still had a link to an email address. I emailed, and inquired, saying that the Website showed it was still available. The operator of the Website answered my query and said if I'd send him the money, he'd send me the book. So, I did.

The book arrived today.

It's the same little book I remember. I've already re-read a couple of the stories, and I'll read the rest soon.

I'm a kid again.

Casual conversations

ME: Find something interesting?

SHE: What?

HE: You stopped reading and were just ... looking. Read something interesting?

SHE: Oh, you! It's a cat fight.

HE: Hmmm?

SHE: sigh

HE: So, there's no vampires? Just were-cats.

SHE: This is Christine Feehan. Carpathian series. They're shape-shifters.

HE: Uh-huh.

SHE: If it was Captain Kirk and a shape-shifter running around outer space ...

HE: Like Odo?

SHE: ... you'd be all over this. You'd be excited about it, and you'd be all mad if someone made fun of you reading it.

HE: Um ... Captain Kirk never met Odo.

And that's why I'm having to sleep on the couch tonight.

WTW: Read Any Good Books Lately?

The other day, my cousin Basil got tagged with that Book Meme that's going around. Sort of like the flu. Anyway, he answered and sent it on.

Thing is, someone else tagged him, too. While that Phin tagged him first, about the time Basil got his response up and posted, Manic Viking turned around and tagged him again. So, since he'd already answered, and since he takes Wednesday mornings off for White Trash Wednesdays, he asked me to take it for him.

Book 'Em, Dan-O!

So, I'm preparing for this Blog War with Sortapundit, when Harvey informs me that I've not followed proper Alliance protocol in regards to declaration of a Blog War. So, while Sortapundit and I regroup, I'm now without a Tuesday morning post. Then phin's blog saves the day.

There's a Book Meme making the rounds, and phin has tagged me with it. phin got it from Oddybobo of Bobo Blogger who got it from Harvey of Bad Example who got it from Contagion of Miasmatic Review who got it from Boudicca of Boudicca's Voice who got it from Eric of Straight White Guy who got it from Reilly of Uptown Girl who got it from Grumpy Bunny who got it from Kandice of Kandy's Dish who got it from Amanda of Human Oddities (and Mishaps) who got it from Barrie from The Pink Bee who swallowed the spider to catch the fly and I don't know why she ...

Wait. That's not right. Well, the history of the Meme is correct. Anyway, it's my first time being tagged or being passed the stick or whatever the right term is. Anyway, it's time for me to answer the questions and such.