inspired by the one-and-only @benjaminjournal ✨ sub to my newsletter: kirangill.beehiiv.com/subscribe ✨ insta: swamikiran ✨ email: kiran@kiran-gill.com
I started reading George Eliot about fifteen years ago when I picked up a hardcover edition of “The Mill on the Floss” at a local secondhand bookstore. I was impressed by the quality of Eliot’s writing, especially her ability to create three-dimensional characters with intense inner lives. I also enjoyed her descriptions of the English countryside, so unlike Jane Austen, whose stories have minimal set decoration. I kept an eye out for Eliot's other novels and, over the next few years, I was able to obtain copies of “Adam Bede”, “Daniel Deronda”, and finally “Middlemarch”, which Virginia Woolf once described as “one of the few English novels written for grownup people.” I recall being very taken by the character of Dorothea Brooke, and feeling very protective of her, especially after she makes that disastrous decision to marry Edward Casaubon, a stuffy old fart old enough to be her father. But it’s not just Dorothea, it’s all the other people living in the town of Middlemarch whose lives and fates we follow. I remember finishing the book with a tremendous sense of satisfaction, but sadness as well. I’m curious why you would refer to “Middlemarch” as a “new hot release”. Is there a new, perhaps annotated edition? Just wondering. “Monkey Man” is playing at the local cineplex. I’ve watched the trailer and see that it’s received good reviews, but I’ll probably take a pass on it, even though it stars Dev Patel, who I enjoyed in “The Green Knight” a couple years ago. Perhaps as you get older you lose your appetite for movies featuring mega-violence and mayhem, or perhaps it’s because these revenge-themed films tend to come across as glorified Popeye cartoons, but as the years go by, such movies become less and less my cuppa tay. However, I agree with your decision to see “Monkey Man” at the cinema, as there is no substitute for seeing a film on the big screen with a theatre sound system surrounded by an audience of fellow movie lovers. Despite what I said above about not caring for films showcasing violence and mayhem, I saw "Abigail" at my local cineplex the other day and quite enjoyed it, While sitting in the theatre, I couldn’t help but think that here was an Irish film with a talented young Irish actress from Dublin, Alisha Weir, in the title role, with the same underlying message to her story as another recent Irish film, “The Quiet Girl”, starring another young Irish actress from Dublin, Catherine Clinch, the message of both films being the importance of parents loving their children and being an active presence in their lives. A few films I’ve seen recently that I would recommend are, “The Peasants”, a Polish film based on a massive four-part Polish novel from the early 20th century, which appeared so beautiful on the screen that I sometimes forgot to keep up with the subtitles; “Perfect Days” a Japanese film directed by Wim Wenders (the trailer for this film is a little misleading as it gives the impression that the movie is a family drama, which it’s not); and finally, “Wicked Little Letters”, a nicely balanced comedy-drama set in England of the early 1920s and based on actual events with a predominantly female cast and a feminist anti-patriarchy subtheme. I really enjoyed this film, plus, it features people using fountain pens to write and mail actual letters! It's odd that carrier pigeons weren’t known in Japan at the time “Shogun” takes place, as the Japanese were quick to pick up on other European practices and technology-such as gunsmithing-as early as the 1540s. A few years ago, I enjoyed reading, “Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World” by Timothy Brook, from which the above information comes. Apparently, carrier pigeons were used in Mesopotamia as early as 2000 BCE. I appreciate the “Dune and Duner” reference and thought it was pretty clever. My son and I saw “Dune: Part Two” at the local IMAX theatre a few weeks ago and quite enjoyed the sound and spectacle. For any film like that, you really have to set aside your rational questioning faculties and just enjoy the (sandworm) ride. Just about any film has its improbabilities. When my son and elder daughter and I saw “Top Gun: Maverick” a couple years ago, the first thing my daughter said when we left the theatre was, “Okay, you’re a single mom, you work in a bar, you’re surrounded by men all day, you look like Jennifer Connolly, and you’re single?!”
oh I was totally joking about middle march being a new release! For the time being, I’ve put middle march on hold but I will def get back to it. Maybe it be a better read in the fall/winter when I’m feeling more contemplative. I find that right now I’m looking for things that are bit quicker, punchier. But, I am eager to see happens to Dorothea and the rest of the townspeople. I can totally understand your desire to abstain from Monkey Man - I still have not had a chance to watch it but hopefully next week I can slip away for a few hours and watch it. I’m going to have to check out Abigail - I haven’t heard much about it! Perfect Days seems absolutely heart warming!! I watched Wicked Little Letters earlier in the year! It was delightful!! Both leads did such a great job and the fountain pen usage was top-tier!! Oh wow!! That is a very interesting fact about carrier pigeons in Mesopotamia!! And, you are very right about Dune - you just gotta enjoy the sandwort ride!!
yes! i remember watching your videos and seeing how you were progressing! i'm curious to see how my feelings towards the characters will change as time progresses
I really like the new style video. Sorry you didn't get on with Shogun as I read it in March and I really enjoyed it. It is neck and neck with The Count of Monte Cristo for my best books of the year so far. I want to binge the series now to see how it compares.
thank you!! i think maybe if i had read the book first? i might have liked the book more. once you watch the show, let me know what you think and which one you prefer!!
read the entire shogun book many many yrs ago and loved it sorry to hear u were put off by the carrier pigeon inaccuracy are u a birder haha also got an absolutely beautiful cloth bound edition of middlemarch a while back but like bleak house don't if I will ever actually read it⚛😀
@@kiranreader It was good. There were some major changes in the final three or four episodes. I'm not sure if I think it's better to read the book or watch the show first. I'm thinking about doing a brief comparison video.
