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the border trilogy Brad Pitt did a good job of reading Cormac McCarthy's Cities of the Plains. Yes, I've already finished listening to it, but it was only a little over three hours in length. Where The Blind Assassin had been eleven cassettes, Cities was a mere two. It was the contrast that I wanted after The Blind Assassin. Once again there was a love story, but this time it was from the male point of view and that was a major difference in how the story was told. In fact I don't think that the love interest said more than a few lines. Personally I have the feeling that the novel itself was more than a love story, but they did the same thing to All the Pretty Horses when they made it into a film. In the book the Penelope Cruz character only appears for about twenty pages, but in the film she is the central focus. Maybe tragic love is more universal than quiet philosophical thought on horseback in the American Southwest shortly after World War II. ... The size of my Monday Wednesday class dwindled to five this afternoon and I think that I know why. First of all this was a review session for the upcoming exam on Monday so for some people that is reason enough not to come to class. Why go when nothing new is going to be said. Of course this also means that one is confident enough in their knowledge of the material. Secondly the professor held another review exactly one hour before class so why stay for a second review if you could make the earlier one. Finally I believe that the devastating grades from the last exam were enough to make a few people drop while they still could. There were only five of us and that was fine with me. I needed the individualized attention. |