A Treat For Serious Writers

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dh4tnvx2b8

LeCarre did the screenplay too.

 

[DesEsseintes]

Brilliant indeed, Mr Johnson I found this on Youtube a few months ago, and loved it - I've just finished re-reading the book, too, which is chilly and brilliant. Though it is a shame that the middle book of the trilogy was not filmed because of expenses (filming in Hong Kong, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, etc).

 

[Aynmair]

Brilliant indeed, Mr Johnson I found this on Youtube a few months ago, and loved it - I've just finished re-reading the book, too, which is chilly and brilliant. Though it is a shame that the middle book of the trilogy was not filmed because of expenses (filming in Hong Kong, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, etc).

A treat indeed! Marvelous acting, based on a classic! Le Carre is a marvelous writer, and Alec Guinness a marvelous actor.

The BBC (I believe) filmed Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy as well. I liked that version better than the recent version filmed - although the acting was great in both. One thing I really appreciated in the BBC version is that it left the ending open as it was in the book, whereas Hollywood felt compelled to wrap up the ending nicely, with a bow.

 

[Blind_Justice]

It's stupid, but...

Why so serious?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

It's stupid, but...

Why so serious?

Its the difference between a tent and a Gothic cathedral. le Carre does noir on a huge scale.

 

[DesEsseintes]

That's a good point, Mr Johnson. A reviewer of his early, brilliant work, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (also a much-underrated film) - I think it was JB Priestley - said his writing had 'an atmosphere of chilly hell'. I think that describes it perfectly.

But I am intrigued, given your politics - or apparent politics based on your engagements on other threads - that you like le Carre. Or is it a case of separating the man's ideas from his work? Difficult in his case, I'd have thought, where the two are so intertwined.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

That's a good point, Mr Johnson. A reviewer of his early, brilliant work, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (also a much-underrated film) - I think it was JB Priestley - said his writing had 'an atmosphere of chilly hell'. I think that describes it perfectly.

But I am intrigued, given your politics - or apparent politics based on your engagements on other threads - that you like le Carre. Or is it a case of separating the man's ideas from his work? Difficult in his case, I'd have thought, where the two are so intertwined.

My politics are LEAVE ME ALONE.

I'm no le Carre scholar but find his writing an oasis of sanity in a mad world. I admire Ian Fleming for the same reason; he was an old spook, too.

 

[ishtat]

One of le Carre's less celebrated books, "A small town in Germany." captures almost perfectly the bleak, dark side of Le Carre. Possibly because it was set in Bonn, where Le Carre himself worked as a spook.

For any one who hasn't read Le Carre I would recommend this fairly short book (by his standards) as a starter.

 

[SamScribble]

Funnily enough, I didn't discover le Carre until Smiley's People. And maybe that was a good book with which to start. Since that day (many years ago), I think I have read all of his books and, to a greater or lesser extent, I have enjoyed them all.

In How Fiction Works, James Wood uses a snippet from Smiley's People as an example of 'Efficient contemporary realistic narrative, elegantly finished'. I'll vote for that.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

le Carres's 1st novel, CALL FOR THE DEAD, introduces George Smiley and has maybe the best beginning ever. Its my favorite.

 

[MichaelinChina]

That's a good point, Mr Johnson. A reviewer of his early, brilliant work, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (also a much-underrated film) - I think it was JB Priestley - said his writing had 'an atmosphere of chilly hell'. I think that describes it perfectly.

But I am intrigued, given your politics - or apparent politics based on your engagements on other threads - that you like le Carre. Or is it a case of separating the man's ideas from his work? Difficult in his case, I'd have thought, where the two are so intertwined.

Yeah I am changing my opinion of Mr Johnson too..maybe the other side of him is a racist!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Yeah I am changing my opinion of Mr Johnson too..maybe the other side of him is a racist!

Before I became racist I was addicted to hokey-pokey, but I turned myself around.

 

[MichaelinChina]

Before I became racist I was addicted to hokey-pokey, but I turned myself around.

I've heard going cold turkey from hokey-pokey is bloody horrible.