Scheherazade by Alberto Vargas
The late, great Roger Ebert once gave me an excellent piece of advice.
When I was a kid, I would sneak into the family living room and wait every Sunday night to watch Ebert and Siskel review movies and argue points of good story telling. Most of the time their debates were more entertaining than many of the movies they recommended. But that was why watching them was so much fun.
On one show Roger was turned sideways in his seat, looked straight at me through the tv and said, "The best way to tell if a movie is a classic is to re-watch it every ten years. When your mounting life experiences have changed your perspective on big, and little, things. If the film brings you the same enjoyment or more, then it is a classic. At least for you." That's what I remember him saying, though my memory may have altered some of the words and emphasis.
Still, Roger gave me a new ritual. One where every few years I go back and revisit books and movies and even songs to see how they measure to my first impressions. Robert K. Massie's Peter The Great remains one of my favorite books and the Master And Commander series by Patrick O'Brian still gets my adrenaline going. However, now that I'm out of college and have to worry about bills and pressures at work, I can appreciate the value of escapism more. So Starship Troopers, a movie I thought was juvenile when I first saw it, is a must see every time it comes on. Funny, but the first thing my father would do after he came home dirty and beat from work, was turn on cartoons. I was embarrassed because he hardly watched the world news like other kids said their dads did. But now I get it, the world is going to spin and the people in it are going to do what they're going to do. You can't make them drive you crazy so whenever you can, grab some laughs and peace. Watch Bugs Bunny, or even space marines fighting giant bugs, and enjoy the ride.
But some things are hard for me to pass over. This weekend I came across a copy of Tales Of The Arabian Knights. as translated by Sir Richard F. Burton. When I was a kid it was the very first big book I ever read. I carried my old copy with me so often that it fell apart and the chapters got lost.
The new book helped me regained most of that love except for one part. Years ago, back in grade school, "The Tale Of Scheherazade." was my introduction to the power of storytelling. Today after rampant fanaticism and beheadings via internet and honor killings and 24 hour coverage of people dying for sexual choices, the magic of Scheherazade is gone. Sinbad, Ali Baba, Aladdin are still old friends. But I wanted something bad and judgmental to happen to the king who beheaded 1000 virgins because he feared they might be unfaithful to him. I don't like that he got the girl in the end and escaped justice
Roger was right. Time adds layers, skews perceptions. Maybe that's why we need to reboot some stories every now and then, or retell them from a different angle. Experience makes us see things we didn't at first. Edgar Allen Poe wrote rich horror stories back when I was in high school. Today, I see that he wasn't a master of horror as much as a master of the psychological thriller by forcing his readers to look through the eyes of mad men. Years after my book report on the Scarlet Letter, I've met a few Hesters that convinced me that the emotions in Hawthorne's novel weren't as sappy as they seemed back in the day.
Also there's a lot going on in the Three Little Pigs, depending on how many voices you use to tell it to your kids.
The late, great Roger Ebert once gave me an excellent piece of advice.
When I was a kid, I would sneak into the family living room and wait every Sunday night to watch Ebert and Siskel review movies and argue points of good story telling. Most of the time their debates were more entertaining than many of the movies they recommended. But that was why watching them was so much fun.
On one show Roger was turned sideways in his seat, looked straight at me through the tv and said, "The best way to tell if a movie is a classic is to re-watch it every ten years. When your mounting life experiences have changed your perspective on big, and little, things. If the film brings you the same enjoyment or more, then it is a classic. At least for you." That's what I remember him saying, though my memory may have altered some of the words and emphasis.
Still, Roger gave me a new ritual. One where every few years I go back and revisit books and movies and even songs to see how they measure to my first impressions. Robert K. Massie's Peter The Great remains one of my favorite books and the Master And Commander series by Patrick O'Brian still gets my adrenaline going. However, now that I'm out of college and have to worry about bills and pressures at work, I can appreciate the value of escapism more. So Starship Troopers, a movie I thought was juvenile when I first saw it, is a must see every time it comes on. Funny, but the first thing my father would do after he came home dirty and beat from work, was turn on cartoons. I was embarrassed because he hardly watched the world news like other kids said their dads did. But now I get it, the world is going to spin and the people in it are going to do what they're going to do. You can't make them drive you crazy so whenever you can, grab some laughs and peace. Watch Bugs Bunny, or even space marines fighting giant bugs, and enjoy the ride.
But some things are hard for me to pass over. This weekend I came across a copy of Tales Of The Arabian Knights. as translated by Sir Richard F. Burton. When I was a kid it was the very first big book I ever read. I carried my old copy with me so often that it fell apart and the chapters got lost.
The new book helped me regained most of that love except for one part. Years ago, back in grade school, "The Tale Of Scheherazade." was my introduction to the power of storytelling. Today after rampant fanaticism and beheadings via internet and honor killings and 24 hour coverage of people dying for sexual choices, the magic of Scheherazade is gone. Sinbad, Ali Baba, Aladdin are still old friends. But I wanted something bad and judgmental to happen to the king who beheaded 1000 virgins because he feared they might be unfaithful to him. I don't like that he got the girl in the end and escaped justice
Roger was right. Time adds layers, skews perceptions. Maybe that's why we need to reboot some stories every now and then, or retell them from a different angle. Experience makes us see things we didn't at first. Edgar Allen Poe wrote rich horror stories back when I was in high school. Today, I see that he wasn't a master of horror as much as a master of the psychological thriller by forcing his readers to look through the eyes of mad men. Years after my book report on the Scarlet Letter, I've met a few Hesters that convinced me that the emotions in Hawthorne's novel weren't as sappy as they seemed back in the day.
Also there's a lot going on in the Three Little Pigs, depending on how many voices you use to tell it to your kids.