Bedtime

[dxmachina]

Falling asleep. Actually, I've been like this most of the day, the result of staying up until way after midnight to watch the game, and my usual post-volleyball tossing and turning due to the loud complaining of my muscles, until I finally dragged myself out of bed at quarter to six. Last night only twenty people showed up(many decided to watch the entire game instead), so we split into 4 five person teams. The five person teams meant we had more ground to cover, and only four teams meant that we never had any breaks. Normally, with six teams and only two courts, we'd play two games then sit one out. I was tres tired when we were done. Played okay. Had fun.

I finished The Thin Man, and liked it a lot. Even figured out whodunnit. Still can't quite believe the amount of alcohol Nick consumes in a day, but otherwise it's good. As noted previously, I think maybe it'll be Ball Four next.

And now to sleep, per chance to dream...

Comments

[veejane.livejournal.com]

> I finished The Thin Man, and liked it a lot. Even figured out
> whodunnit. Still can't quite believe the amount of alcohol Nick
> consumes in a day

It's sort of disturbing, no? It took me till about page 100 to realize that they were able to stay up till like 4am every single night because they had never gotten *out* of bed in their lives before the hour of noon.

What's sad is that it's pretty much based on Hammett's own life, only made funny. I don't think he particularly liked himself as an alcoholic, and as I read it I could feel the strain of him making his own life over into something glamorous.

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

>It's sort of disturbing, no?

Oh yeah. I figured the scene where he and Nora are pounding down scotch and sodas in the middle of the night *in bed* could only have been written by somebody who's actually done it.

As you say, he's writing glamorous, but you can see the strain because there's no empathy for any of the characters. The other thing (besides the drinking) about the book that surprised me is just how corrupt, in one way or another, every single character is (okay, maybe not Asta). Even Nora is borderline alcoholic.

Part of it is that it's been so long since I saw the movie (which I'm sure probably toned things down) that my recollections are mostly of the suave and sophisticated, and nothing else. The definition of "sophisticated" as used in the book is much more akin to the one Tom Lehrer uses in his introduction to "Smut." The other is that I've read so much Nero Wolfe that it's hard for me not to see Nick as a sort of Bizarro Archie Goodwin. They sound exactly alike, but are opposite in almost every way.