Dickensblog

On amusement

"Thquire, shake handth, firtht and latht! Don't be croth with uth poor vagabondth. People mutht be amuthed. They can't be alwayth a learning, nor yet they can't be alwayth a working, they an't made for it. You muth have uth, Thquire. Do the withe thing and the kind thing too, and make the betht of uth; not the wurtht!"

Hard Times, Book the Third, Chapter 8, "Philosophical"

The truth is out there

Here's a fun exercise: "Top Five Incidents in Charles Dickens Novels that Could Be X-Files Episodes." Can you think of any they left out? (Note: Contains a few spoilers for various novels.)

'I love terrifying children'

This from Jim Carrey. So, again, something you parents might want to take into consideration. :-)

Three spirits

Another day, another Christmas Carol featurette! This one focuses on the ghosts.

Donate Dickens!

This morning I came across an article about the devastation caused by Typhoon Ondoy in the Philippines.

Damaged textbooks and workbooks for public school students will be replaced by the Department of Education, but not all other books. Whether used or new, books don’t stand a chance against mud and water, and had to be all thrown out. Many public schools need donations of story books (series from Scholastics, Adarna, Anvil, Hiyas, Lampara; classics like Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen etc.), reference books (encyclopedia, dictionaries, atlases, charts), SRA kits, wall clocks, bookshelves, copiers, tables and chairs for their libraries.

As you'd expect, the word Dickens got my creative juices flowing!

I've started a campaign to donate classic books -- including Dickens books, but other classic books as well -- to the Filipino schools. My friend Jason, who's from the Philippines and has been helping with the disaster relief there, will take care of buying the books and getting them delivered.

Click here to send an online donation. If you'd prefer to send a check, please send it to Student Christian Movement of the Philippines, c/o Jason Bruce, 6139 Leesburg Pike, Unit 107, Falls Church, VA 22041. Make the check out to Student Christian Movement of the Philippines and put "Classic books donation" in the memo line. (Don't send any actual books; only money will be accepted.)

We thank you -- and, I suspect, so would Mr. Dickens if he were here!

Farewell to Italy

I've finished reading Pictures from Italy, and a pleasant journey it has been.

And let us not remember Italy the less regardfully, because, in every fragment of her fallen Temples, and every stone of her deserted palaces and prisons, she helps to inculcate the lesson that the wheel of Time is rolling for an end, and that the world is, in all great essentials, better, gentler, more forbearing, and more hopeful, as it rolls!

Pictures from Italy, "A Rapid Diorama"

Incidentally, the book also contains an essay from All the Year Round, "The Italian Prisoner," including a lengthy anecdote that I wish I could reprint in full. It's only the story of how Dickens got a bottle of wine from Italy back to England for a friend, but, being Dickens, he has you rolling on the floor by the time he's done telling it. Alas, it's far too long to reprint here -- you'll just have to buy the book!

Scary or merry?

Blogger Jim Hill suggests that the footage from the Christmas Carol train has caused some offense:

Anyway ... Getting back to the Christmas Carol Train Tour ... Those who have been checking out this film's Digital 3D preview in that inflatable theatre have been coming out talking about that Jacob Marley footage. And not necessarily in a good way.

Said one tour insider:

"Yeah, we've been getting a lot of complaints about that sequence. Especially from parents who have taken small children into the theater. They say that there should have been some sort of advance warning about how intense that footage was going to be." 

Truthfully, I don't quite get that -- the footage in question didn't bother me, and I scare extremely easily. (See earlier remark re: gory theme park advertisement.) Of course, I didn't have little kids with me; that probably would have made a difference in my feelings. Although I don't have children, I've spent a good deal of time with children, and I'm pretty sensitive to how things will affect them. And Hill may have a point about the way the film has been promoted in the U.S. and how audiences may not be happy when the film turns out to be "more scary than merry."

But as I've said before, it looks like they're sticking very close to the book, beefed-up action sequences notwithstanding, and Dickens wasn't exactly writing a story about fluffy bunnies and kitties here. You pays your money and you takes your chances, as my dad likes to say -- but hopefully, if you're a parent, you do a little research first, and know what your kids can handle.

Anyway, go check out Hill's piece -- there are quite a few interesting details in it, including a description of yet another movie tie-in book.

'Christmas Carol' clips

AceShowbiz has four short clips from the new movie. (Unfortunately, you have to keep watching what I think is kind of an icky Halloween-themed amusement park ad, which airs before each one.)

"Three Spirits" is from the same Marley's Ghost scene that we've seen before, but it goes on a little longer. "Fezziwigs" looks a bit weird out of context; someone who doesn't know the story will probably wonder why there's so much jumping around going on. I like "I'm Still Here," not just for the fun of Scrooge's awakening but also for some of the cool camera angles they use. Finally, there's "Confronting Mr. Cratchit," which looks okay, though I would have liked to see a little more facial expression in the characters. The site also has eight new images from the film. Take a look!

Who's the most romantic Dickens character?

The Telegraph recently published the results of a poll on the most romantic character in literature. That is, the most romantic male character. I'm told they published one on female characters earlier, but I can't locate it. Anyway, at the top of the male list is Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre. (Not the much-loved Mr. Darcy? Really? Color me surprised.)

Alas, no Dickens characters made the top ten. But all is not lost: When Entertainment Weekly published an article about the poll, writer Tina Jordan took her own informal poll of her friends and colleagues, and two Dickens heroes turned up on it. Sydney Carton got a vote from one of Jordan's co-workers (yippee!!). And one woman named Richard Carstone from Bleak House -- although, given her description (”a man who’ll marry you when you’ve been altered by illness — lovely”), I believe she actually meant to name Allan Woodcourt.

So, considering which blog we happen to be on, let's focus exclusively on Dickens characters. Which of them do you think is the most romantic, and why? You already know my preference, if only from that little spaz attack I had in the previous paragraph, so now I want to hear yours. We'll be more open than the previous poll: You can choose a man or a woman. If you'd like, you can even choose one of each.

New 'Christmas Carol' featurette

Disney has released another behind-the-scenes video, "Perfect Partnership," in which Jim Carrey talks about what it was like to play four characters. (I can tell you, it's tough enough just playing three!)

And as the movie's November 6 release nears, a slew of tie-in books are coming out. You can get them here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.