Dead Famous
December 26th 2006 03:33
I love Ben Elton. He can take a subject like reality television, which I think is boring and pointless, and really bring out it's ugly side.
I loved this book, and I didn't have to stay up to insanely late hours in order to read it. I finished it a few seconds ago. I loved it, not because I watch shows like Big Brother, or Australian Idol or anything like that, but because it was well written, classy, funny and intelligent. Ben Elton isn't just someone writing funny stuff to score points, he's writing in order to show us something.
The plot of the book is brilliant. 10 people in one house in which is committed a murder. For most of the book, you don't know who gets murdered. For all of the book, until the end that is, Ben Elton throws hints about everyone into the mix. Every single housemate has a reason to kill the victim, and Mr Elton is certainly generous in handing them out.
The housemates are like all of us. They have their problems, their faults, flaws, secrets and yearnings. They want recognition, adulation and success. The producers of the show are also like us, but they've taken these wants and yearnings and gone professional with them. They've also done the first thing where sin begins and treated people like things. There isn't much worth writing about them.
The main character however, Inspector Coleridge (Elton should keep writing these books, he has a flair for writing mysteries) is an anachronism. He is a man almost completely out of his time. He hates the new jargon, lingo, attitudes and values of society. But he is a lover of good literature, poetry and fine things. What is interesting to consider is that by hating the new slang terms that erupt but loving the works of Shakespeare he is a wonderful contradiction. He has only a few great lines though, but my favourite is this one. "It is also what every single philosopher and seeker after truth in every culture has believed since the dawn of time, constable! It has always been commonly supposed that faith requires some element of humility on the part of the worshipper. Some sense of awe in the smallness of oneself and the vastness of creation! But not any more! Your is a generation that sees God as some kind of vague counsellor! There to tell you what you want to hear, when you want to hear it, and to be entirely forgotten about inbetween times! You have invented a junk faith and you ask it to justify your junk culture!" Heavy words, but worth reflecting over.
JZ
I loved this book, and I didn't have to stay up to insanely late hours in order to read it. I finished it a few seconds ago. I loved it, not because I watch shows like Big Brother, or Australian Idol or anything like that, but because it was well written, classy, funny and intelligent. Ben Elton isn't just someone writing funny stuff to score points, he's writing in order to show us something.
The plot of the book is brilliant. 10 people in one house in which is committed a murder. For most of the book, you don't know who gets murdered. For all of the book, until the end that is, Ben Elton throws hints about everyone into the mix. Every single housemate has a reason to kill the victim, and Mr Elton is certainly generous in handing them out.
The housemates are like all of us. They have their problems, their faults, flaws, secrets and yearnings. They want recognition, adulation and success. The producers of the show are also like us, but they've taken these wants and yearnings and gone professional with them. They've also done the first thing where sin begins and treated people like things. There isn't much worth writing about them.
The main character however, Inspector Coleridge (Elton should keep writing these books, he has a flair for writing mysteries) is an anachronism. He is a man almost completely out of his time. He hates the new jargon, lingo, attitudes and values of society. But he is a lover of good literature, poetry and fine things. What is interesting to consider is that by hating the new slang terms that erupt but loving the works of Shakespeare he is a wonderful contradiction. He has only a few great lines though, but my favourite is this one. "It is also what every single philosopher and seeker after truth in every culture has believed since the dawn of time, constable! It has always been commonly supposed that faith requires some element of humility on the part of the worshipper. Some sense of awe in the smallness of oneself and the vastness of creation! But not any more! Your is a generation that sees God as some kind of vague counsellor! There to tell you what you want to hear, when you want to hear it, and to be entirely forgotten about inbetween times! You have invented a junk faith and you ask it to justify your junk culture!" Heavy words, but worth reflecting over.
JZ
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Comment by The Daily Sonnet
The Daily Sonnet
Lots of Sonnets
Comment by JoshZ
A Simple Christian
It is brilliant though.
JZ
Comment by DuskDevi
Rucks and Rolls
Rugby World Cup 2007
Everything okay? Hope you're well my friend.
Dusk
Comment by JoshZ
A Simple Christian
Yeah everything is going great.
How are you doing? I haven't seen you around for awhile.
It's good to hear from you.
JZ
Comment by DuskDevi
Rucks and Rolls
Rugby World Cup 2007
Busy being lazy with my beautiful husband and beautiful children.
Hope you had a great Christmas and are looking forward to another year of plenty...to read, to write about, to laugh about, to be thankful about.
Hope Nata and your family are well.
Dusk
Comment by Ash
Australian Traveller
Flashes of memories
Comment by JoshZ
A Simple Christian
JZ
Comment by Ash
Australian Traveller
Flashes of memories
Nah I`m sure there are loads more! I have a few given as Christmas presents to get through, plus some titles on here that have caught my eye and I always have to make time for another read of "Pillars of the Earth" at least once a year!
Ash