tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post5422825232976546434..comments2024-03-18T16:41:34.785+00:00Comments on Vapour Trails: Revolutionary RoadSéamus Dugganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00574186409184247059noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-22153649965968011352014-08-07T22:39:20.333+01:002014-08-07T22:39:20.333+01:00Thanks Jacqui. I have a copy of Eleven Kinds.. as ...Thanks Jacqui. I have a copy of Eleven Kinds.. as well. I'll dip into it sometime soon. Séamus Dugganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00574186409184247059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-63514044433336003292014-08-07T18:27:41.849+01:002014-08-07T18:27:41.849+01:00Brilliant review, Seamus, I just noticed it as I w...Brilliant review, Seamus, I just noticed it as I was browsing through your recent posts. I agree there's a real sense of lives cast adrift and lacking meaning in a consumerist society, a kind of crumbling of the American Dream. Yates exposes the futility of it all.<br /><br />I much preferred the book to the film, but the latter is worth a look. <br /><br />It's been a good five years since I read anything by Yates, so I should revisit him sometime soon. I have a copy of Eleven Kinds of Loneliness in the pile. JacquiWinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16220597283351925721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-32678572841608191822014-04-29T19:19:01.499+01:002014-04-29T19:19:01.499+01:00It's worth reading Guy, as long as you're ...It's worth reading Guy, as long as you're not looking to be convinced of the wonders of modern civilisation.Séamus Dugganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00574186409184247059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-59497187259295400222014-04-29T19:17:54.667+01:002014-04-29T19:17:54.667+01:00He doesn't go in for the comforting lie alrigh...He doesn't go in for the comforting lie alright Trevor.Séamus Dugganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00574186409184247059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-62653889379542724352014-04-29T19:16:46.653+01:002014-04-29T19:16:46.653+01:00There doesn't really seem to be an author surr...There doesn't really seem to be an author surrogate in the book, or at least not the one who actually wrote, perhaps one who didn't quite get around to it. That gives the book a certain distancing effect. However as a very definite "half-empty" person when it comes to our species I guess I feel a certain empathy with Yates' viewpoint.Séamus Dugganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00574186409184247059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-33774788052762817902014-04-26T03:16:46.315+01:002014-04-26T03:16:46.315+01:00I wasn't that keen on the film to be honest, b...I wasn't that keen on the film to be honest, but I've been meaning to pull the book off the shelf. Guy Savagehttp://www.swiftlytiltingplanet.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-14198481331417523172014-04-25T21:37:07.282+01:002014-04-25T21:37:07.282+01:00What's missing is heart David. And his heartle...What's missing is heart David. And his heartlessness is heartbreaking. Yates's vision was unerring; he keeps prodding mercilessly at the wounds. Makes his writing true and clinical. I imagine that he wasn't the best of huggers…<br />"No one forgets the truth; they just get better at lying."Hissyfithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06865300919319235353noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-4249665372503329352014-04-25T18:58:52.199+01:002014-04-25T18:58:52.199+01:00I really struggled with this. One of those that I ...I really struggled with this. One of those that I read realising it was a great piece of writing but not really enjoying the experience. The empathy that Trev mentioned is exactly why I will keep going back to Ford and Carver but found RR just left me too cold and I think the book suffers a bit for me because of it. It is a cruel unrelenting eye, and because of that there was something that doesn't ring quite true I realise that this is a personal truth and a need for a bit of warmth nnd fuzziness round the edges of the fiction I read. I ended up feeling closest to the character who retreats into his own world by turning down his hearing aid.!<br />The film left me feeling the same way ,the performances were spot on , it was beautifully shot etc but it still felt like there was something missingAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-41062394259804805622014-04-25T13:52:18.256+01:002014-04-25T13:52:18.256+01:00"And where are the windows? Where does the li..."And where are the windows? Where does the light come in?" pretty much sums up his outlook.<br />There's a song to two in there.Hissyfithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06865300919319235353noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-81799413842045202642014-04-25T13:32:39.685+01:002014-04-25T13:32:39.685+01:00http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/feb/17/biogr...http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/feb/17/biography.fiction<br /><br />On the above link there's a great piece on Yates from The Guardian where the writer talks about his focus: "'My characters all rush around trying to do their best, trying to live well within their known and unknown limitations,' Yates explains. 'Doing what they can't help doing, ultimately and inevitably failing because they can't help being the people they are.' <br />'If my work has a theme, I suspect it is a simple one: that most human beings are inescapably alone, and therein lies their tragedy.' <br />Not a lot of laughs then…<br /><br />The Collected Stories of Richard Yates brings together '11 Kinds of Loneliness' and 'Liars in Love' plus a couple of rogue tales. Do not read in one sitting or in the vicinity of Beachy Head…<br /><br />http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collected-Stories-Richard-Yates-ebook/dp/B004QOA3CQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398428926&sr=1-1&keywords=the+collected+stories+of+richard+yatesHissyfithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06865300919319235353noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-40765474848812329412014-04-25T11:26:54.688+01:002014-04-25T11:26:54.688+01:00A friend (Thanks Brendan) sent me this link which ...A friend (Thanks Brendan) sent me this link which concerns Richard Yates' phantom appearance in an episode of Seinfield - http://www.theawl.com/2011/12/larry-davids-rough-night-out-with-the-aging-literary-lionSéamus Dugganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00574186409184247059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-30132993603556283812014-04-25T11:25:37.704+01:002014-04-25T11:25:37.704+01:00Great comment Trevor - more prescient than the ori...Great comment Trevor - more prescient than the original post, I think! Yes, there is soothing cold, but disconcertingly truthful, at the centre of this book. I must chase down his short stories if they bear comparison with Ford and Carver. Indeed just realised I have one in Ford's brilliant Granta Book of the American Short Story. Séamus Dugganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00574186409184247059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-89626270446382133582014-04-25T11:12:20.656+01:002014-04-25T11:12:20.656+01:00Thanks Brian. This had slipped under my radar unti...Thanks Brian. This had slipped under my radar until a few years back but I'm glad I became aware of it. Well worth reading.Séamus Dugganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00574186409184247059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-26515405145865753712014-04-25T11:03:44.530+01:002014-04-25T11:03:44.530+01:00Spot on with this Seamus. I came to Yates through ...Spot on with this Seamus. I came to Yates through his short stories, 'Easter Parade' and the usual connections with those other writers who fix on the minutiae of disappointment and tired lives; Raymond Carver and Richard Ford. I always found those two to be keen eyed but empathetic; their writing a recognition of 'All of Us'. Yates seemed different; a crueler, dispassionate disinterest; an Ethologist's detached focus, 'the 'spastic haste', 'the 'cunning' the 'shapes of hatred' the 'tactics' that deflect the disappointments. This made for a compelling but uncomfortable read. There was no relief from the recognitions. And Paris as a refuge was close to home for me; Corsica had become a kind of 'Sidcup' to Di and I; the place where everything would pan out… It took two solo albums and a lot of belly button gazing to work that one out… <br />That post war period when folk had time to stand and stare, to consider their own lives; have thoughts of controlling that brakeless cart…the idea that identity, ambition and destiny were somehow controllable after the uncontrollable horrors of two great wars… These were big subjects laid bare in small lives. Folk had time to indulge themselves, to look too closely at lives that were probably better unexamined; hence the inevitable unravellings. Look then stare, then look away from the recognitions. If you can control everything you end up with Michael Jackson's face… The moral for me? The need to trust in hazard and not look too closely at your nose or your ears; the harder you stare the uglier they get.<br />I liked the film; Winslet is fabulous, always keen to reveal all; an emotional honest actress, it deconstructed DiCaprio's chutzpa and vanity; he seemed spot on as as the balloon about to be pricked. No BANG, just a slow farting sound as he deflated...Hissyfithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06865300919319235353noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-500794647428701667.post-3178958413957745972014-04-25T10:21:52.498+01:002014-04-25T10:21:52.498+01:00Suberb commentary on this one.
Both the book and...Suberb commentary on this one.<br /><br /><br />Both the book and the film have been on my radar for years but I have neither seen or read. I like thoughtful and incisive character studies especially when they center upon relationships.<br /><br />I have heard that the film was good.Brian Josephhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15139559400312336791noreply@blogger.com