books of PCA

[calimac]

The Popular Culture Association dealers' room is full of the kind of books that interest me. Last year my best find was The Presidents We Imagine by Jeff Smith (University of Wisconsin Press), a history of what both fictional presidents and the popular images of real presidents say about our idea of the office. This year I found two particularly interesting books at the Rowman & Littlefield table on the last day, so I got them for a nice end-of-con discount.

Classical Music in a Changing Culture: Essays from the American Record Guide by Donald Vroon (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014)
The question that the existence of Donald Vroon poses is: is it possible to profess his admirable and high-minded convictions - in maintaining high standards of culture, in the abiding greatness of the finest classical music - without being a cranky old git about it? Because for Mr. Vroon it certainly isn't. The relentless get-off-my-lawniness of his writing, the sloppy carelessness of his sweeping denunciations of popular culture and contemporary society, the touch of racism with which he acknowledges that classical music isn't for everybody (oh yes he does: see p. 37) - these are enough to make me re-examine my own convictions. A writer who, while sharing your own beliefs and standards, makes you doubt the worthiness of all of them is a rare gift indeed. Could Mr. Vroon be an agent provocateur out to give artistic elitism a bad name? That would be more palatable than the idea that he means it all seriously.

A Book About the Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail by Darl Larsen (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015)
There is a land somewhere on beyond trivia. No, further off ... No, further than that. There you will find this book. Six hundred large pages of small print, all about this one movie. Less focused on writing and production details, though there's plenty of that, than on historical sources and contemporary analogues. If this weren't my favorite movie in all the world, I wouldn't touch this book. As it is, I could hardly live without it.

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

It's interesting what people choose for "favorite movie in all the world." My favorite movie in all the world is Streets of Fire. . . .

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Not a movie I'd ever heard of. Descriptions I've now looked at do not make it sound like something I'd enjoy, but I've been pleasantly surprised before now by such creative mixtures of elements.

My particular fondness for Holy Grail (I mean, I expect I'd have liked it anyway, but maybe not with as much intensity) has much to do with the circumstances of my first viewing. I saw it when it was brand-new, and at the time all I knew about it was that it was by the team that had made the Flying Circus. I'd seen no reviews, no comments, heard not a word. As a result, every one of its now-classic jokes hit me with the force of an exploding bomb. It was the best movie-going experience of my life, and I wouldn't have had it spoiled for anything.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

That sounds very similar to the circumstances of my first viewing. I saw it with a friend, also a Flying Circus fan, and we spent the rest of the school year walking the halls at school, chanting a fake Latin chant, and banging our heads with our textbooks. The funny thing is that my sister, of all people, took us to the movie, but we sat way up front, separate from her. I don't remember what she made of it, but it definitely wasn't her kind of thing. Well, I guess I remember that she did like the hoofbeats made with coconuts, which Don and I also used to mimic with our cupped hands.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I went with four or five friends, all fellow members of my high-school SF club, including sturgeonslawyer who had introduced us to the Flying Circus in the first place (he'd known about them because he'd seen the troupe's sketch compilation movie at the previous year's Worldcon; see, it all hangs together).

That was part of the joy of it. When the bridgekeeper was cast into the Gorge of Eternal Peril, we all spontaneously stood up and applauded.

As for banging my forehead with books, I only stopped doing that when I started wearing a hat all the time.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

My memory is that Don and I were familiar with the TV show but hadn't heard the albums yet, but I may be misremembering that. My friend Reid may have already had the albums.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I've never paid much attention to the albums, or the books aside from the movie script books. I didn't think they were anywhere near as good as the two great movies (Holy Grail and Life of Brian) or the Flying Circus.

[wild-patience.livejournal.com]

The Monty Python book sounds like it could be useful in a paper on Arthuriana for Mythcon.