ive been reading popular '60s paperback One Dimensional Man and what is striking about it so far…
Indeed, what we need is more neoliberals.
This is what I’ve read this half term. Includes @woops latest (very good) novel. Happy to talk about any of them if anyone interested
View attachment 20545This is what I’ve read this half term. Includes @woops latest (very good) novel. Happy to talk about any of them if anyone interested
The Sellars book is remarkable- he’s not really interested in a straightforward birth to death biog - it ranges over time and space but also he soon realised there’s much to dislike as well as admire. It becomes vicious but justifiably so. I’d read the Burton/Taylor joint biog earlier this year so I knew what I was letting myself in for - it’s long, a bit too loquacious but also funny and a perceptive about the pursuit of fame and the cost of being talented.How was the Peter Sellers one?
It’s good because he manages to mix the comedy and tragedy well. It could’ve been a freak show on this weird guy who never made it and lives in a deluded world where he thinks fame is just rounded the corner. He comes across as self absorbed but also charming - Hodgkinson doesn’t shy away from some of the dreadful things Lawrence has done - especially in his relationships with ex girlfriends but also he doesn’t sentimentalise the drugs stuff. Also Pete Astor of The Loft comes out of it very well. There’s also that good film from Heavenly from a few years ago - Lawrence of Belgravia that’s worth a watch.I'm curious about the one about Lawrence from Felt - is it as good as the glowing reviews suggest?
It’s good because he manages to mix the comedy and tragedy well. It could’ve been a freak show on this weird guy who never made it and lives in a deluded world where he thinks fame is just rounded the corner. He comes across as self absorbed but also charming - Hodgkinson doesn’t shy away from some of the dreadful things Lawrence has done - especially in his relationships with ex girlfriends but also he doesn’t sentimentalise the drugs stuff. Also Pete Astor of The Loft comes out of it very well. There’s also that good film from Heavenly from a few years ago - Lawrence of Belgravia that’s worth a watch.
I hope you like it. I must admit I found post Felt Lawrence less interesting. That perverse love of all that cheap 70s tat that those of us who lived through it didn’t want to repeat.Lawrence lost me about Denim, but the first couple of Felt albums are exactly what he wanted, under rated lost classics on a par with the VU ( or how he perceived the VU when "Crumbling The antiseptic Beauty" came out )
but! DRUGS? I should have guessed but I always thought he was too narcissistic to indulge - why chop out lines on a mirror when it would obscure your reflection ( and the refracted image in a burnt spoon is just going to do ever weirder things to your face due to physics, etc ) - I suppose the same goes for girls, I just thought he was too in love with himself to manage relationships
I was going to buy it anyway, although maybe when the paperback came out, but I might order it NOW
I was reading poems by Charles Tomlinson this morning and last night I was reading some old Brian Sewell evening standard columns in which he very entertainingly and quite persuasively savages Lucien Freud, Howard Hodgkin etc. (let alone Damien Hurst et al.).
My ongoing and lately often delayed project is Fellowship of the Ring.
The Sellars book is remarkable- he’s not really interested in a straightforward birth to death biog - it ranges over time and space but also he soon realised there’s much to dislike as well as admire. It becomes vicious but justifiably so. I’d read the Burton/Taylor joint biog earlier this year so I knew what I was letting myself in for - it’s long, a bit too loquacious but also funny and a perceptive about the pursuit of fame and the cost of being talented.
Yep Lewis talks about it a lot - a film that seems to have been too close to the truth. A good overview here: https://wearecult.rocks/reality-betrays-us-all-hoffman-1970A film of his called Hoffman got reissued recently. Apparently Sellers tried to have it destroyed because there was something in his performance that unsettled him.