Joseph K, The Grim Reaper and Huggy Bear

I’m feeling dead intellectual at the moment having just enjoyed a pair of doom-laden European masterpieces. Part of my top 100 book thing was Kafka’s “The Trial”, which I’d always thought was a critique of bureaucracy and faceless authority, a kind of terrifying Guantanamo bay kind of thing. In fact it’s suffused with sex and religion as well as guilt, suggesting it’s a long dream sequence. I’m now on my 85th book (Daniel Deronda), meaning I should hit the century around February or March. I’ll finally allow myself to read some other good stuff, and the Da Vinci bleeding Code.

Film course was ace this week, with a screening of the Seventh Seal by Bergman, the one with a crusader playing death at chess (as opposed to Bill & Ted playing him at Twister). A big tick off my “films I really ought to have seen” list and it’s a mind-blowing movie. Beautifully shot, great acting, excellent use of music, and about Big Themes. Also has a strong contemporary resonance in its depiction of religious extremism and witch-hunts fuelled by fear.

Up to Avoca this weekend for a relax and another intellectual exeprience: Starsky and Hutch.