追劇集

新居的電視可以看到很多不同的頻道,想不到竟然可以看到那套我很想看的《又見一簾幽夢》(不過也剛好大結局了)。不過,台詞果真是不能搬上電視劇的……實在是太「難頂」了。尤其是剛好說到最後女主角在兩人生活的地方找不到男主角的時候,竟然聽從以前男主角那一句「如果找不到我,可以喊我的名字,我會聽到的」,在外地街頭像個傻子般喊著男主角的名字;對不起,我真的不覺得感動,只是覺得有

不過最經典還是一眾廣告,例如說有種甚麼婦科病都能醫治還能補身的,「神丹」乎?還有「誰知女兒心,XX衛生巾」,實在是哭笑不得。

播完《幽夢》以後,竟然是更難受的「從今天開始,你就是我的公主了」……

有眼無珠

今天讀報看到這篇報導,只能說句,編輯確實是有眼無珠。(我倒是不會說 Jane Austen 的作品不入流吧……)

Jane Austen fan submits her work anonymously to publishers… and receives a dozen rejections

18th July 2007 Daily Mail, UK

It is a truth universally acknowledged that many of us who claim to have read a classic novel are telling porkies. Or have simply watched the film version instead. This even applies, it seems, to literary agents and publishers.

For when a budding author sent typed chapters of Jane Austen’s novels to 18 of them, changing just the titles and characters’ names, only one recognised her words.

Another managed to recognise they were ‘a really original read’. But the rest simply rejected them or never responded, according to the man who posted the manuscripts, David Lassman.

“It was unbelievable,” he said. “If the major publishers can’t recognise great literature, who knows what might be slipping through the net?

“Here is one of the greatest writers that has lived, with her oeuvre securely fixed in the English canon and yet only one recipient recognised them as Austen’s work.”

Mr Lassman, 43, submitted opening chapters of three of Austen’s classic works – Northanger Abbey, first published in 1798, Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Persuasion (1818).

He typed them out himself, and signed them Alison Laydee after Austen’s early pseudonym A Lady.

To offer a few more hints, he called Pride and Prejudice ‘First Impressions’, the original title for the story, and wrote a return address of the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, where he works as the director of the Jane Austen Festival.

In response, the literary agency Christopher Little, which represents JK Rowling, said it was ‘not confident of placing this material with a publisher’.

Penguin, which currently publishes Pride and Prejudice, responded that First Impressions ‘seems like a really original and interesting read’. But there was no request to see the rest of the book.

Others to turn the works down included Bloomsbury, Random House, Harper Collins and Hodder; Stoughton. The only one who emerged with any credit was Alex Bowler, assistant editor at Jonathan Cape publishers.

His reply read: “I suggest you reach for your copy of Pride and Prejudice, which I’d guess lives in close proximity to your typewriter and make sure that your opening pages don’t too closely mimic the book’s opening. After all, there is such a thing as plagiarism.”

Mr Lassman came up with the experiment when struggling to have his own novel published.

He said it highlighted the flaws in the publishing process.

“Getting a novel accepted is very difficult today unless you have an agent first, but I had no idea of the scale of rejection poor old Jane suffered.

又令我想起某天同學 W 發現我很喜歡 P&P 時意圖考驗我記得第一句與否。 “It’s a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” 雖然每次談及時總會差一兩個字,倒是不會完全忘記的。

騎牆

都說人愈大愈懂得「騎牆」。

維尼今天談及重播的《清宮秘檔》,說到康熙皇帝打算立皇十四子胤禎為嗣一事。老實說,從前的我是「正史派」,相信康熙的確意欲傳位雍正,除了康熙晚期不止一次付以重任(雖說皇十四子西征看來更意義重大,畢竟是個武將而已,但雍親王的工作卻是祭陵),還有乾隆受寵一事作旁證(明成祖亦曾以媳婦賢惠和長孫聰慧為由不廢太子);如今倒是不敢實說,皆因世事實在不可預料。

此不同彼

MC 仁快要從荷蘭回歸,想起之前曾經囑咐他買一本奧蘭治王子(正確來說他不太算是王子)的傳記回來(康更有趣,她想要的手信是荷蘭的 Miffy),可是他說荷蘭的歷史傳記都是以荷蘭文寫作的,買來我也看不懂;算吧,倒也沒所謂。

至於為甚麼說起這件事嘛,想必跟狄娜姐姐今天在《大國崛起》談及荷蘭不無關係--可是「荷蘭的威廉三世」卻不是那個 Glorious Revolution 後應邀前往英國與妻子同時即位的 William III 啊。

無休止的喜歡

新工作剛開始,懶人卻不想讀書。心思思找 DVD 來看,發現 Showtime 的 “The Tudors” DVD 已售罄,反而 2007 年版的 Jane Austen 三部曲(”Emma”, “Mansfield Park” 和 “Northanger Abbey”)已發行 DVD,剛好想起之前屢尋不獲的 “The Daughter of Time” 的原著,便來一次過訂購以省郵費(雖然免不了多少)。

The Tudors

“The Tudors” 是美國電視劇集,一反傳統找來了年輕力壯的 Jonathan Rhys Meyers 飾演 Henry VIII(大眾對 Henry VIII 的印象也是個變態弒妻的大肥佬,卻總想不起年青時他是歐洲一眾君主中最著名的美男子),反而出演 Catherine of Aragon 的 Maria Doyle Kennedy 比男主角年長十三年(史實兩人只差六年而已),是名副其實的姊弟戀。Natalie Dormer 飾演 Anne Boleyn,看來造型是不錯的,倒是她能否塑造顛覆政壇的一代名后要看過後才有分曉了。唯一美中不足的是,劇集裡把 Henry VIII 的姊姊 Princess Margaret(嫁給蘇格蘭皇帝 James IV 為妻,是 Mary Queen of Scots 的祖母)和 Princess Mary(先下嫁年老的法國皇帝 Louis XII 寡居後再嫁 Charles Brandon,是九天女皇 Lady Jane Grey 的外祖母)合併了,心裡有點戚戚然。

The Jane Austen Season

Jane Austen 三部曲只有 “Northanger Abbey” 已看畢原著,打算在 DVD 到達前完成餘下兩本,意外發現是 2005 P&P 中飾演四妹 Kitty 的 Carey Mulligan 會演 Isabella Thorpe,佔戲看來不少。當然也想看 1996 年 Gwyneth Paltrow 版的 “Emma” 和由 Frances O’Connor(也就是 “The Importance of Being Earnest” 裡讓 John Worthing 神魂顛倒的 Gwendolen)主演的 “Mansfield Park“。

突然想看 “Kingdom of Heaven“,不是因為曾在 “Pirates of the Caribbean” 系列當上看來笨笨的 Will Turner 的 Orlando Bloom,也不是新一代 Bond Girl 的 Eva Green,而是傳說中出場只有二十分鐘卻搶盡鏡頭的 Edward Norton (King Baldwin)。

在爸爸從伯父家借回來的一堆 CD 中竟然找到一張鄭秀文的《鄭秀文的快樂迷宮》,記得小時候曾經買過盒帶的,不過丟了……於是如今毫不客氣據為己有了。

回歸

終於回到網上世界。

由於升職加薪的關係--沒錯,人工一天之內三級跳--決定遠離老家遷居工作地點附近的居所,可是正因新居未入伙,只好暫居於可容許短期住宿的 Apartment。而我這個人,一天不查閱電郵便老是心癢癢的,結果今天安裝了上網服務,終於不用再捧著手提電腦到大堂去(當然也就每月盛惠幾百了)。

環境不錯,上班也不費時。只是沒有洗衣機,要積極想辦法把污衣處理。

工作嘛,依舊混沌,寄望多讀點書下星期表現會好一點。 

***

我有個算是談得來的朋友 L,由於我的手提電話壞掉了於是失去了聯絡--偶然也會想起要打個電話給 L,可是卻對此毫無頭緒。今天竟然讓我在久違了的 ICQ 看見了 L(實際上應該說,我已有好一段日子不開 ICQ 了),於是打算捎個訊息道明來意也囑咐對方來電。豈料電話號碼是有了,卻原來 L 壓根兒想不起是我(是的,確然可以從訊息中的模稜兩可看出來的)。可惜,我原來連跟朋友保持聯絡也不懂。

Restart

由決定到一個從沒工作過的地方工作開始,我就知道,我是打算重新開始的了。 

過去不是不值得留戀的,只是,太多的回憶讓人感到太沉重,無論是快樂的還是悲傷的,老實說我不想讓我的記憶成為包袱。

好的,期待新一天。

Reboot and Restart.

(雖然第一天上班便被問得口啞啞,我還是讀點書好了。)

***

Becoming Jane終於等到 “Becoming Jane”,雖然我不是太喜歡 Anne Hathaway 飾演文靜優雅的 Jane Austen(她看起來現代感太強,而且眼睛太大了),比英國上映期也足足遲了七個月--上次 P&P 也教人等了五個月,結果心思思上網訂 DVD--最終還是等到香港上映,打算有銀兩時找本原著小說來看(還是應該看完手頭上的 Jane Austen 才好?我還差 “Emma”, “Mansfield Park” 和半部 “Sense and Sensibility” 未看)。反而 F 先生那齣 “The Last Legion” 公映無期,雖然我重申我比較喜歡「青靚白淨」的 F 先生。