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Anything with beautiful, even sublime, writing – and
by beautiful I don’t mean flowery phrases. I think that
beauty in writing can be found in many things – a good
turn of phrase, a particularly vivid description (whether
detailed or spare), dialog that sparkles and seems real, images
that haunt, a plot that you can’t resist. Beauty is,
of course, subjective and my choices will resonate with some
and repel others. But the choices I’ve made have moved
me in many ways. Their work has stayed with me in some way
or other. There is a lingering feeling that what I’ve
read is something lasting, something that is so fully human
that it lives on its own after haven been breathed into existence
by the author.
So, some of the writers who have made their mark for me are:
Raymond Chandler, Graham Greene, Shakespeare, LeGuin, Stoppard, Lawrence
Block, Joseph Conrad, Lillian Hellman, the Greek playwrights, and many more...
Just a few and in no particular order (and always growing):
The Mouse and His Child
The Keys of the Kingdom
The Foundation trilogy
Time travel books
Alternate history books
Entries From a Hot Pink Notebook
Dancer from the Dance
The Front Runner (and sequels)
Vampires Anonymous
Crystal Boys
LeGuin’s Earthsea trilogy
The Elegant Universe (B. Greene)
Silver Kiss
Books by Lawrence Block, Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hammett, Michael Nava, Elizabeth George
I love ‘em all but if I had to choose the crème
de la crème, these would be among them
(and, again,
this is only a partial list):
All About Eve
Boys in the Band
Bringing Up Baby
Casablanca
Chinatown
Deconstructing Harry
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Fellini films
Godfather – all three
His Secret Life
In Harm’s Way
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
La Cage aux Folles, I and II (and the more I see it, The Birdcage is a decent American remake)
LA Confidential
Lord of the Rings – all three (just wonderful)
Maltese Falcon
Man Who Knew Too Much
Manchurian Candidate (original version)
Pink Panther Movies
Sunset Boulevard
The “Thin Man” films
Trading Places
Unfaithfully Yours (original version and new version)
I suppose there are a few main attractions. Not all the films
have all the elements, all have some combination.
1) good writing – sparkling dialog
2) good plot
3) a sense of place or an ability for the movie to put me
into another world for a while
4) the construction of that “dream” which Gardner
spoke of, a dream which remains unbroken because there are
few flaws in the movies
5) characters which transport me, win my sympathy, move me
6) pretty guys (yes, this has made me sit through some flawed
[to be charitable] films)
7) competent film-making skill
(This list is necessarily incomplete. It will continually
be updated and titles left off unintentionally will be added.)
Cold Case … every episode I’ve seen has been wonderful,
but there was on in particular about a gay bashing that was
truly the best TV I’ve seen so far bar none.
Bayblon 5 – the whole amazing thing; some of the finest
moments in TV history and one of the best, maybe the absolute
best SF series so far on TV.
Battlestar Gallactica -- the new version -- this is among the finest TV has to offer and ranks with B5
Law & Order, especially the years with Jerry Orbach
Third Rock from the Sun
Alf – I love the guy
M Butterfly
All My Sons
Victoria Regina
Arsenic and Old Lace
An Inspector Calls
Angels in America
Plays of Terence McNally
Plays of Charles Ludlum
Plays of Ibsen, Chekov, and others
(more to come…)
Movie soundtracks would be among the types at the top of the
list – it’s a crowded field. Soundtracks tend
to be the modern symphonies – at least the good ones
– by John Barry, Elfman, Horner, Williams, and others.
I’m a finicky collector; collecting only those movies
I enjoyed or composers whose music I like even if I didn’t
(or will not) see the movie.
After this I like classical, world music, pop and rock, the
old standards (Rosemary Cluney and Peggy Lee are unsurpassed).
Mystery
Alternate History
Science Fiction (especially time travel)
Fantasy
Gay fiction
I don’t believe in heroes who stand head and shoulders
above the rest of us. The heroes I’ve had the honor
to know and who’ve inspired me are people who find the
courage to do what might paralyze others, people who find
it in themselves to act kindly in the face of evil, people
who never let the world change who they are deep down.
My amazing late partner William – a man who faced incredible
handicaps in his life and yet was able to live an independent,
self-sufficient life. He dealt with adversity by grabbing
it by the hair and dragging it where he wanted to go. Sure,
things weighed him down, slowed him up, and caused him great
distress – but he never gave in, never gave up. Even
in the face of ALS, he fought, wrote lectures for a brilliant
online course, made peace with fate, and did all he could
to make life as good as it could be for as long as he could.
My wonderful best friend Eric who faced adversity, brought himself
by himself to a totally foreign culture at 19 and
made himself a part of it. Things were as strange to him as
any alien planet would be to any of us, but he triumphed.
Leaving family and friends and everything he knew and loved
thousands of miles behind, he began carving out a new life
in a culture and society which can be a combination meat grinder
and steam roller. And he makes headway.
Both these people have displayed courage that humbles me and
has me feeling awestruck.
Those are heroes in my book. No one can touch the hem of their
garments when it comes to heroism.
Villains – yes there are villains. Cowards who send
people off to war without a second thought; brainless fools
who deride and ignore intelligence in favor of lies and
deceit; venal, little people who bolster and enrich their
friends despite the pain, suffering, and loss those actions
may cause others; people who dismiss suffering, deprivation,
and fear in favor of their own greedy goals; people who
wear their religion on their sleeve; people who encourage
hatred, bigotry, and violence and never give it a second
thought. I don’t need to name names when the faces
of these villains are clearly written in those words.
I’ve always loved the theater. From the moment I played
the American Flag (yes in grammar school you do stupid things
like that) to the times when I scripted and wrote variety
shows that traveled from class to class at St. Nicks entertaining
the other kids – we were like the USO for shell shocked
Catholic student prisoners of war, held hostage by nuns in
black. Then it went on to an abortive film-making stint in
the last year or two of grammar school to smaller things in
High School and in the Boy Scouts (yeah, they let in a homosexual
in those days. Matter of fact, as I recall, they let in quite
a few homosexuals, thank goodness.)
I didn’t truly get back to theater until after college
when I began writing plays. Some of them did well, others
are still waiting to hear the appreciation of happy audiences.
But, writing fiction (and some nonfiction) has always been
my first love. When I realized just how much time theater
takes – writing, pitching it, helping with productions
and more – I decided that I wanted to spend my time
writing other things.
There are still a few plays I want to see mounted, still a
few I want to revise and have produced – so if anyone
out there is interested. Call me. I’m easy.
(Of course, I’m also interested in film these days and
would love someone to make a film of one of my plays, stories
or books – I’ll do the screenplay, you do the
rest.)
If you’ve got questions you’d like to
pose, please send them to me: joseph at josephdemarco.com
and I’ll add them to the list.
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