One rotten thing about checking books out of the library is that they have due dates. You have to turn them back in whether or not you're finished with them. Another thing is those little old ladies who come out of the library just as you're going in with smug looks on their faces. You then rush to the shelves and discover that the book you've been looking for has just been checked out.
On topic: the library copy of Bambi vs. Godzilla by David Mamet has been in and out of my hands for the past three months and only now have I been able to finish it. And I have one word for all of you waiting on bated breath for my review: ARG.
The title is amusing, but I didn't think to actually read the thing until after I read a not so favorable review over at Third Level Digression and a comment from an academic refuting Yahmdallah's opinion. Usually, if something strikes extreme opinions, it probably lies somewhere in the middle for me. This time, well...ARG.
I've never seen any of Mamet's plays or movies (they could be pure genius for all I know), but from his writing Mamet strikes me as the kind of guy that arty grad students would put up on a pedestal while everyone else would denounce as full of BS. Some science papers may have atrocious writing, but at least they have graphs which get to the point. Mamet--no. If he prizes getting to the point so much, why does he take such a circuitous way to say so? (Perhaps you'll want to excuse him by saying it's his writing style. Well, if you like having your eyes permanently crossed, go ahead.)
Now this doesn't mean that the book was a total waste. Mamet does have some interesting insights scattered here and there--like the psychology behind certain film genres and his ideas on what storytelling techniques works or falls flat on its face. His philosophy on writing screenplays is quite nihilistic--the writer is viewed as a "thief": if you don't compromise with the producer/director you get fired, but if you compromise too much you get fired anyway. Then again, that's not so surprising since Mamet emphasizes that the movie business is powered by money, not artistic endeavor.
As for Mamet's "writing for women" section, I didn't feel as much outraged as Yahmdallah did as resigned. It reminded me of a post I read a while ago while surfing some sci-fi discussion weblogs about how some editors claim that they only select stories for good writing and not for who wrote them--even though they do not acknowledge that they are selecting their stories through the filter of their own biases. Mamet is the same way. He says:
The question is not can one sex write for the other--if not, are we then to have only unisexual dramas?--but can the individual write? That is, can he (a) see and (b) tell the truth?
I don't doubt that some men can write a women's point of view well, but the assertion about writing the truth being the key to writing well is erroneous. Truth is not the same as fact. Truth is subjective. When a writer develops a character (male or female), the character's motivations and actions are based on the writer's own experiences and ideas that have been selectively distilled by his unconscious from seemingly objective research. Only when the writer realizes that everything is being sifted through his own viewpoint will he start getting anywhere.
I'm heartened and saddened about your experience with "Bambi." Heartened because I'm not the only one who thought the writing was abysmal, but saddened that you had a bad read. Avid readers like you and me know that a bad read is moments of life wasted.
Anywho....
To get the taste out of your mouth, check out William Goldman's wonderful one-two punch of: - Adventures in the Screen Trade - Which Lie Did I Tell?
Not only are they fun, fabulous reads, with lotsa fun gossip on the inside of the Hollywood machine, but he throws in lotsa great stuff about writing itself. (He's a successful novelist, too.)
You might wanna consider ponying up the dough for a used copy of each, because they're big, and they make great reference material.
Bad books aren't total wastes of time--they're learning experiences. (The kind of learning experience that one could equate to going to the dentist for getting one's teeth drilled, but I digress.)
As for William Goldman--he's the same guy who did The Princess Bride, right? I thought the book and the movie were okay. Not great, but okay (probably that's why I never really understood the cult status that my fellow geeks had always accorded it).
Yup. But before he did that, he wrote some great movies. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, for one. And he's been the script doctor for many, many movies.
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