Still Alive

It's been such a while that I nearly forgot the password to sign in to my own blog. I've had thoughts, many thoughts, sometimes even cogent, clear, good thoughts. Ones that happen to me while I'm in Adoration, at Mass, taking a long shower, doing dishes, driving, brushing a shedding dog... Then they would just fade out, as the days worn on. Then new thoughts, broken, not very good ones surge in, piling over the previous, good ones. Then it would be just a mess, an indifferent, autistic mess.

There's at this moment only one jutting fact which I can report easily: I've finished reading Robert Penn Warren's All The King's Men, and I haven't been able to put it out of my mind. I have one word for it: Wow.

I've looked up movies made after the book, both the 1949 and 2006 versions. I've dismissed the 2006 version: it stars Sean Penn. I saw the trailer, can't stomach the Willie Stark under Sean Penn's skin. It won't cut it for me. The Willie Stark I envisioned in Penn Warren's dense prose didn't have a thin face like Sean Penn's. The thin face robs of Cousin Willie protein in both literal and metaphorical sense. I have a feeling that I would not keep from feeling sorry for Sean Penn through the watching. It just won't cut it for me. Jude Law as Jack Burden made me wince too. He looks alright messing around and steaming it all up with Kate Winslet in that trailer. I just don't see enough shades in that pretty face to mask a cynical soul dancing with the notion of the Great Twitch, as Jack Burden of the book surely was.

That leaves only the 1949 version. I don't remember the actor's name, but he has a round face, with both protein and shades made for Cousin Willie Stark.

I am very waywardly like that, when it comes to movies made of books I like.

That's all I got today.