MRS. PARKER and THE VICIOUS CIRCLE : CHRISTINE TRZYNA FILM REVIEW

"At the center of the circle is a woman ahead of her time," it says on the DVD cover. (I often wonder who wrote the back covers of DVD's and my guess is some promo person who never saw the movie.)

I once got a book out of the library that consisted of Dorothy Parker's witticisms. I read it and thought "You had to be there." I just couldn't get into it. I just didn't find anything she said that witty.

I knew that Mrs. Dorothy Parker and her round table in New York consisted of some of the brightest literary talents of the time so I wanted to know more about her. So, when I saw the DVD at my local library, I borrowed.

This film (which I watched twice) depicted Dorothy Parker as droll - very! Yes, Dorothy Parker, as acted by Jennifer Jason Leigh, was droll, and in context, funny. I actually agree with the term "biting wit," also used on the DVD cover.

The mostly male writers she was surrounded by included playboys and playwrites, poets and screenwriters, in Hollywood and in New York City. She was there at VANITY FAIR magazine, and in the planning for THE NEW YORKER magazine but how? Was she a muse? An inspiration? One more alcoholic?

Rather, I think Dorothy Parker was "a depressive," as they used to call people who were always depressed - very! She had some things to be depressed about too. Raised without a mother,having a husband who abused her back in the day when few women could go without a husband, unrequieted love, an abortion, all these were in her experience.

Somehow she was an inspiration anyway, respected anyway, invited anyway.
Perhaps what impressed me most about Mrs. Dorothy Parker, who appears to have not been able to write in her elder years after so much of a life, was that she left her estate to the civil rights leader Martin Luther King. Her poetry for the film was used with the permission of the NAACP. The film neglected to explain this important fact. It did not reveal what had gone on in her life or her mind that moved her to do so. I think it would have been a better film if it had been explored or even used as the trajectory.
The movie attempted to recreate a scene of friendship in which a great many people who became important and known for their work interacted. None of these characters could really be fleshed out in the time and space of a film.

C Christine Trzyna 2012 All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights

VANITY FAIR ON THE TWITTER PHENOMENA

Queens of Twittering may send up to 1000, one hundred forty word, messages a day, and so far there is no direct financial profit in it. This Vanity Fair article by Vanessa Grigoriadis is about the way some people embrace new technology and hire GHOST TWITTERers to keep their fans updated with the minutia of their lives.

I personally have no time to Twitter and am not that interested in the minutia nor do I imagine anyone at all interested in mine. Really impactful personal "sharing" dates in coffee houses are rare to come by as well. Seems to me the best use of Twitter-like reportage is for purposes of MARKETING.

I believe that some people DO NOT KNOW THEY EXIST IF THEY ARE NOT CONSTANT WITH THE REPORTAGE.

Have you experienced meeting someone for coffee and feeling like you may as well come alone since the person across the table is too busy with their cell phone - texting - to pay much attention?

Christine Trzyna

STOP COMPLAINING START BOASTING!

Have your friends ever complained that you complain too much? Much bemused with last nights conversation with a 180. Try this! Use every occasion to gloat, brag, air positive thoughts about yourself... just how long can your friends stand it ? There is something in our society - most- that deplores the person who dares have too much self confidence and self esteem. Maybe we're all afraid to tempt bad luck or seeming competitive!

I will soon be submitting my first Vanity Fair inspired Proustean questionairre since I began this blog...

ON DOMINICK DUNNE by GRAYDEN CARTER

One of my favorite writers, Dominick Dunne, died in New York City, age 83, after 30 years of writing books and magazine articles, mining society for stories, and focusing on criminal justice and crimes of the century. Although I never read his creative fiction, what I liked about Dunne's writing is the simple clarity of it. It was as if he had taken the advice of the classic book WRITING WELL. His turn of the phrase was never dependent on fanciness.

This is what Grayden Carter, editor of Vanity Fair magazine, had to say about him in the November 2009 Editors Letter:

"Dominick died in his penthouse apartment in Manhattan on August 26, at the age of 83, just having completed his last novel, Too Much Money, which will be published in December. A failed, divorced, alcoholic Hollywood producer at 50, he famously recaptured his life and produced an astonishing body of work in the years left to him. Through his hundreds of articles and diary entries for Vanity Fair, his six novels, and his presence at countless dinner parties and social events in this country and abroad, he became one of the most loved and recognizable writers in the world..."

from VANITY FAIR KILLER@CRAIGSLIST

By Maureen Orth page 158 October 2009 Vanity Fair

LIFE WITHOUT PRIVACY


"Few Americans, even those from the younger, Internet generation, seem to understand how easily their clicks and text messages can be detected, and how little privacy any of us have anymore. Every search, every posting, every text message or Twitter, leaves a cyber footprint. The content of every e0mail sent by any one of us is kept by the Internet service provider and stored for a period of time, usually six to nine months. Google and Gmail used to store e-mails indefinitely; now they claim they're within the same range, but all the e-mail we choose to keep until we delete it can also be accessed by the provider."

JAMES WOLCOTT AUGUST 2009 VANITY FAIR ARTICLE - LITERARY SNOBS and TECHNOLOGY

"Books not only furnish a room, to paraphrase the title of an Anthony Powell novel, but also accessorize our outfits. They help brand our identities. At the rate technology is progressing, however, we may eventually be traipsing around culturally nude in an urban rain forest, androids seamlessly integrated with our devices. As we divest ourselves of once familiar physical objects—digitize and dematerialize—we approach a Star Trek future in which everything can be accessed from the fourth dimension with a few clicks or terse audibles. Reading will forfeit the tactile dimension where memories insinuate themselves, reminding us of where and when D. H. Lawrence entered our lives that meaningful summer. “Darling, remember when we downloaded Sons and Lovers in Napa Valley?” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. The Barnes & Noble bookstore, with its coffee bar and authors’ readings, could go the way of Blockbuster as an iconic institution, depriving readers of the opportunity to mingle with their own kind and paw through magazines for free. Book-jacket design may become a lost art, like album-cover design, without which late-20th-century iconography would have been pauperized.... " James Wolcott writing

FRENEMY - A New Word For Me

I just learned the word FRENEMY reading a Vanity Fair interview with Ivanka Trump. A great newish word for a false, user friend.

A VANITY FAIR INTERVIEW BY ME WITH ME

"Vanity Fair" magazine is one of my long time favorite magazines, outlasting my interest in "Cosmopolitan," which plummeted with that editor Bonnie Whashername, who took over from the essential Helen Gurley Brown, and ruined it. I never met a monthly edition that didn't have at least one really great article. I have a whole personal archive of Vanity Fair articles that I had to rip out and save (the rest of the magazine went to recycling) and it serves my interest in persons of substance better than any People could. I love the interviews at the back, which generally ask various persons about the same questions every month, so you get to compare and contrast and see how the famous wrangle out of the too personal. Now if Vanity Fair called me and asked me to take the quiz, this is how I would answer. (And this is enough information along with my profile for you to ever know about me!) Note that I've made some variations on the questions to better suit this blog.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

What is your greatest fear?
That I'll die before I accomplish everything I hope to.
But then I just know I will die with more to do!


Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Benjamin Franklin.

Which historical figure would you most like to interview? Mark Twain.

Which living person do you most admire? Mata Amritanandamayi - AKA Amma - the Hindu saint, who may be the reincarnation of the Blessed Mother. She was given the 2002 Gandhi-King Award for Non-violence: http://www.amma.org/amma/

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? I hate to give up on someone I love who doesn't love me.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
I hate it when someone goes behind my back, even if they "mean well."

What is your greatest extravagance? The Time to Write, which is also essential.

What is your favorite journey? Point Lobos Seal Reserve near Carmel.http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=571

What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Faith.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
"Great" Like in Chinese it has a dozen or more connotations depending on the tone, from enthusiastic to sarcastic.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Books. They take you outside yourself into other worlds.

Which talent would you most like to have?To speak several languages fluently.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?I'd be a natural comedian.

What is your most treasured possession?My mind.

Where you you like to live?I've had ex-patriot fantacies for several years now, but it has to be somewhere they speak English.

What is your favorite occupation? Fascinating Conversation in Independently Owned coffee houses.

What is the quality you most like in a man?
Compassion.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Wisdom.

How would you like to die?
Satisfied.