I’m going to say right now that I don’t promise to blog every day.

Three critiques today. On one of them I was the only one who spoke about a particular issue that I thought was pretty serious. I must ponder the significance of this (there may be none). After critique, Kelly Link spoke about the economics of publishing. Much there that I already knew, but it was interesting to get it from the perspective of a small press publisher.

In the evening, a guided viewing of Casablanca which I found out I didn’t know as well as I thought I did. For example, I thought Peter Lorre had a much bigger part. Walter pointed out that most significant characters are prefigured before their first on-screen appearance (the long, long build-up to the first time we see Bogart’s face is delicious and shows you just how important he is). The young Bulgarian couple (for whom Bogart cheats at roulette) appear many times before their first significant appearance; their situation with Renard parallels and inverts Bogart’s situation with Ilsa and Victor. Victor’s super power is that he makes everyone who comes in contact with him a better human being. And the plane in the background during the final scene? Tiny cardboard mock-up, with midgets as aircrew. They just don’t make ’em like that anymore.

I should be writing now…

Tags: taos toolbox