Spent all yesterday here here all day, except for the break, when I attended the Political Theory Colloquium talk.
Adventures in Cultural Consumption:
Die Hard: No, I had never seen it. Yes, it was impressively plotted and structured (even if I did find myself saying "oh, it's Pinch 2"). No desire to watch any other action movies, but I'm glad it was available on Netflix Instant and I took the time to watch it.
Charade: Gave up halfway through. Audrey Hepburn has never worked for me (too much the perpetual girl*), and I apparently don't think much of Cary Grant (apart from The Philadelphia Story and Notorious. And His Girl Friday, but that's really about Rosalind Russell). The sub-Hitchcock plot was too much: it reminded me of After the Thin Man, where the mystery is so convoluted that I lose my interest in its resolution. Give Hitchcock a lot of credit: he was a master of just-complicated-enough. Decided to watch Black Orpheus again. A wise decision.
Soldiers of Salamis: Unhesitatingly recommend. Love any novel that includes a trip to Dijon. I'll let you know how the other novels are when I get to them.
*Mutatis mutandis Grace Kelly. Give me, oh, Barbara Stanwyck any day of the week.
"Thou shalt not extinguish thine anger, but shall master it,
that thy conscience may not be blunted by adjustment
to wrong causes."
-The Dutch Ten Commandments to Foil the Nazis
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