I was wrong: Sondheim's book is sublime.

[chekkyjr]

Posted: 1/5/11 at 9:20pm

I mean, I bought the thing, finally, after having surfed somebody else's copy at Xmas, and I do make snap judgements, and this is probably a snap judgment, too, because all I've read so far is the Introduction, but the Introduction is delightful.

There aren't so many profoundly gifted artists still alive and floating around NYC, if you ask me, and it's our luck that Sondheim is still on the planet and living in Manhattan. I hope that continues to be true for a long time.

[After Eight]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 12:38am

How could you judge a book to be sublime if all you've read is the introduction?

You readily admit to making snap judgments. This could be one of them.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 12:42am

In a downward curve reminiscent of the audience for Sarah Palin's Alaska, even fewer people care about your opinions this week than last chekky.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 12:44am

Didn't there used to be a button that blocked certain people from showing up? Maybe I'm thinking of a different site. I wish I could magically invoke that power right now.

[After Eight]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 12:51am

I think chekky's all right. He's outrageous, and revels in being so, but he has interesting things to say, and offers food for thought.

I find it a refreshing change from party-line thinking, and this board can use the kind of zip he brings to the table.

[chekkyjr]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 1:20am

Wow, you posters are a bunch of snarkmeisters, aren't you? Except for After 8. I said something NICE. Okay? What the hell? And, I don't know, can't I get excited by a book after reading its Introduction? Don't you ever get all pumped by the first 5 minutes of a movie? Am I to confine my topics to the weather and your health? And Streisand's GYPSY? How do you ever enjoy yourselves at the theater?

[chekkyjr]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 1:28am

PS: FindingNamo, your post could use a strategically placed comma.

I mean if it's sense that you want to make.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 1:53am

And, I don't know, can't I get excited by a book after reading its Introduction? Don't you ever get all pumped by the first 5 minutes of a movie?

Sure, but we don't start threads about it.

[sparrman]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 9:17am

But you do respond to them, don't you?

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 9:46am

It really is.

And, chekky, you're the tops.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 10:17am

Your shallowness and superficiality is exceeded only by your narcissism.

Posted: 1/6/11 at 10:47am

So you slammed the book based on -- what? A review? A synopsis? The back cover? Now you favor us with a rave review based on the forward? Why do you think anyone would care- especially now?

[tazber]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 12:02pm

.......

Updated On: 1/6/11 at 12:02 PM

[chekkyjr]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 3:23pm

You guys are hilarious! And you clearly think you're all Addison DeWitt! I won't deprive you of your illusions. I like illusions! PS: I'm not the lead book reviewer for the *NYTimes*, dudes, I'm just a schmuck posting something entirely dispensable on a message board thread. It seems to me ethically sound, in this forum, to fling out a snap response on the basis of having read a chapter of a book! I don't understand your rage. I guess it's a good thing you're snarking at me instead of, like, beating your wives and girlfriends on Superbowl Sunday. Kisses all around.

As for Sondheim: *Is* it in fact true, as SS claims, that a working class Puerto Rican girl from NYC would be incapable in 1957 of rhyming like Noel Coward? Do you think SS had any idea what pretty working class Puerto Rican girls were like in 1957? Or ever? This I wonder.

His book is great, though, it should be assigned in undergrad creative writing courses all over the USA.

[newintown]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 4:32pm

As I posted elsewhere today, that "I Feel Pretty" saw makes no sense.

They're singing a song in a musical. As with any musical, what comes out of their mouths is heightened, stylized - it's not naturalistic speech.

If you were a waiter in a restaurant and saw a favorite old customer come in the door, would you say, "Hello, Dolly! Well, hello, Dolly! It's so nice to have you back where you belong?" If you were riding your horse on the prairie, would you shout, "Oh, what a beautiful mornin'! Oh, what a beautiful day! I got a beautiful feelin' everything's goin' my way?"

Maria and pals are singing a song that expresses a feeling and situation. imagine that they're singing in Spanish, but we lucky English speakers are hearing a translation. It makes as much sense as is needed in the theatre.

By the way, I love that book, too - I'm on my second pass through it already.

[Almira]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 7:02pm

I love the book too. My single problem however is Sondheim doesn't include the "simplified" I FEEL PRETTY lyric.

I've always been curious how he had re-written it.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 8:55pm

"I'm just a schmuck posting something entirely dispensable on a message board thread"

Exactly

[chekkyjr]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 3:20am

FindingNamo! I am holding you in all your tender places!