Epistemysics

Saw I’m Your Man at Belvoir tonight.  Rather good.  Rather perfect, in fact, for that type of theatre.  Not sure if I’d give it five stars or not…  Usually if you have any doubts then you don’t give it five stars…  Hmm…  Guess I’ll have to make a decision at some point.

Finished reading, after however long it took me (at least a month, probably more than two), The Leopard.  Rather great book, that is.  Definitely a classic, though probably only a one-hit wonder (well, it was).  Wasn’t the author a prince himself?  I have a theory about one hit wonders – indeed, there’s a draft blog post in the WordPress software that I haven’t written a word of, but it was entitled something along the lines of “Genius, Form, and One-Hit Wonders”.  The theory goes that one-hit wonders come from the happy coincidence of a form with content, the writer only being able to pull off one form or one content in particular (and thus everything else they write that doesn’t include them will be lacking).  The genius can change the form or the content and still have a mastery over them, and thus produces a worthwhile oeuvre.  The bad writers have no worthwhile content or form, and so they don’t get any lasting value.

Something like that, anyway.  It’s been a while since I had the initial theoretical thoughts, and I’ve all but forgotten what I was going to write now.

Jeff Fenech was at the play tonight.  Took a bow at the end; did a little speech.  (Was that the correct use of a semicolon?  I feel, after reading The Leopard, that I know how to use a semicolon much more effectively now.)  Said “love youse all”.  I know of him, though I know nothing about him apart from the fact that he was a boxer.

Went to ze cheap bookstore, bought myself some cheap books.  Smut by Alan Bennett, which has one of the most irresistible first lines I’ve read in quite some time (“I gather you’re my wife,” said the main in the waiting room.  ”I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure.  Might one know your name?”), and London Journal 1762-1763 by James Boswell.  Curiously, as I picked up the Boswell, I was thinking, “do I want to read the diaries?  It only spans two years – is it an extract?  After reading that biography of him by Claire Tomalin, I planned to read all the six or seven volumes that have been published – the full work…  Do I really want to read these extracts?  Or rather, pay for them?”

Then I realised that I was thinking of Samuel Pepys, and promptly remembered who Boswell was.  (Duh.)  Hence I bought the book.  20% off sale too.  At an already ridiculously cheap bookshop.  Life is good.

1/2 page on the review today.  2 reviews written.  2 to go.