Quote:
Originally Posted by Cleopatra
This thread is far more addictive than Scrubs now, I would even go so far as to say COMEDY GOLD. 
BTW, Frith, wasn't Charles Dickens infact a soap script writer? When he wrote for example Oliver Twist, I'm pretty sure I remember reading that he published weekly or monthly editions of his stories in either newspapers or journals so as to keep public interest and changed the plots depending on public demand. Is this right or have I believed a load of waffle for a long time?
Anyway, apparently his stories became addictive in this way, ending on a cliffhanger at each issue...... but without the da da da da da Eastenders theme music of course. |
Well, he was foremostly a socially conscious writer and did what he did to highlight the sad state of affairs among the workers in the factory system. So, yes, he put a lot of humour in and a lot of soapy type drama. I got addicted to him in my first year. The scenes from Great Expectations of Wemmick (and his mouth like a postbox slot) and his dad who used to fire a ceremonial gun from his cottage roof or some such thing, were terrific. And the lawyer Jaggers who began everything with "take the case ..." and had a maid who was a murderess client of his and had wrists that could strangle a man (in fact she had strangled a man). It is hyperbole and soap operatic comedy for Victorians. Underneath runs the serious hatred Dickens harboured for snobbery and cash consciousness and the plight of the workers, the debtors prison and those who come unstuck by skulduggery.
There are two endings for Great Expectations.
Dickens did write one serious book (the name escapes me at the moment) which they filmed for TV. About the murky dealings of the dead body transporters on the Thames. That was interesting. Glasses on and no smiling in that one.
Jane Austin's one of my favourites. Shakespeare's wonderful, devious and has escaped without anyone really fathoming him. And Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, although a classic sh*t is still one of our literature's sexiest demon men. His opposite is Mr Knightly from Jane Austin's "Emma". An English gentleman. Yummy. (Please can we have both to tea, Mummy, and they can fight and we can take bets ...)
This is the education thread so it's okay to go ga-ga about our literary heritage, which is so crammed full of fantastic things, characters and situations as well as choc full of social commentary and plain in your face criticism that you can spend your whole life going from book to book and from poet to poet (the poet's are a veritable can of worms) and still not have scratched the surface. And the mastery of metaphor among them is breathtaking. And our women started the genre of the novel.
But that is just for adults, the children's literature is just as wonderful. In fact it's my favourite genre. Wind in the Willows, Alice, Watership Down ... And the superb artwork that accompanies it.
I got lost in the funhouse of English for 22 years.
Officially. Privately, I'm still in there and won't be coming out. Instead, I became a writer myself.
