Movie (Wednesday March 10th)

Blog for Wednesday March 10th movie.

I had my doubts about this movie when I started. Wasn’t sure what it was about, there seemed to be no story behind it. But as it went on I began to get into it and kind of enjoy it. This is because it is so different from the typical movie.
Basically Mark, the narrator and main character, is trying to get a better understanding of what has happened to Dow Mossman, the author of “The Stones of Summer”. This book is of interest to him because her first purchased this book in the 70’s after reading a book review by Professor John Sealy in the New York Times. At this time in the 70’s he was in high school and had pneumonia and that is why he was reading this book. But now for some reason he is unable to find very much information on the author, Mossman, and there seem to be very few other readers of this book. He begins to buy up different copies of this book wherever he can find it and give it to some of his friends that he thinks may be interested in it.

One thing that I found interesting is how he kept going back to explain his childhood. This explains his love for books in general and how they shaped his life. Some of the books he mentioned were familiar, such as the Hardy boy books. I used to read these when I was young. And I can still remember some of them. Much more than lots of other things from that long ago. Mark shares how a book called “Catch 22” really was the beginning of his literary love. He quoted how some stated “that one author can turn you into a reader”. This is true, if you find one book that really speaks to you then you will continue to look for more that do the same and it is an unending cycle. This is not something that has happened to me. But at some times I read a book that makes me want to continue reading others that are like it. Such as the “Band of Brothers” I tried to find other books like this one and read them all. Even the Borne series was kind of the same for me. When I was little I used to go to the public library and look at all books that are out there and want to look at all of them.

Back to the movie. Mark wants to have a better understanding of how some authors write an excellent book or novel. And then just stop writing and are never heard of again. This is what seems to have happened to Mossman. Mark visits one of his critic friend at the University of Buffalo to have a conversation about this phenomenon. This critic points out that some writers stop writing because their first book was so successful that they don’t feel that they can top the first one. Or even the other way around. Their book is so bad that they can’t write another one.

Mark then goes to John Sealy’s summer house in Maine to interview him about his literature review of “The Stones of Summer” and other books. Sealy is very receptive to his attempts to learn more about Mossman. But unfortunately he doesn’t know anything more than Mark does. But they have a good time discussing books that they both enjoy. This is the same for anyone that has something that they enjoy. I like to discuss fishing, guns and such with friends that have similar hobbies.

One thing that I didn’t like is how Mark talked about his wife. She seemed to be the one that does all the manual labor around the house and he doesn’t help at all. This is defiantly not how I was brought up and seems kind of backward to me.