Feedback, Comments, Love Letters
Feedback, Comments, Love Letters: 1998
From: abra-ken@post4.tele.dk (Tindall, Kenneth)
Date: Sun, 4 Jan 1998
To: rking@indian.vinu.edu
Subject: Paris
Thanks for the great James Jones home page. I knew Jim and Gloria in Paris
in '58-60. You can find me at http://www.amazon.com, search under Author:
Tindall, Kenneth.
With best wishes for the New Year.
Subject: Re: Paris
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998
From: abra-ken@post4.tele.dk (Tindall, Kenneth)
To: rking@indian.vinu.edu
Dear Richard,
Thanks for the invitation to write something about my memories of Jim and
Gloria Jones. I shall do so.
I'm sending below an article which is to appear in a little magazine in the
U.S. Jim and Gloria are mentioned. Also, a novel of mine is listed on
Dalkey Archive Press's home page:
http://www.cas.ilstu.edu/english/dalkey/dalkey.html
Best,
Kenneth Tindall
The Humanity of the Machine (By Kenneth Tindall)
One day Piero Heliczer and I got jobs selling The Paris Review. It was
Nelson Aldrich's idea. They went like hotcakes. We'd sell out the current
issue, then sell out the stock of back issues. He and his girl Olivia
d'Hauleville and I would work the cafes on the Boulevard St.Germain and now
and then spend an evening doing the Champs Elysees and Montmartre, and
suddenly I had money. Instead of sleeping on benches and under bridges I
was able to rent a room at 9 rue Git-le-Coeur. That was in 1958, and I was
twenty-one. Soon Tove and I found each other in the Rue de Seine. The night
she and I took a blanket and lay on the old city wall of Paris in the light
of the full moon and courted Gregory Corso wrote on my door, "All's twig
smear and cordury eggs." Later he used the twig smear in his poem
"Marriage."
Living in Paris was definitely low-tech, but with a lot of often
protracted use of the simple mechanical system of a piston sliding in a
lubricated cylinder. Tove and I moved into No. 28 where we lived for about
a year and a half. The room was larger but dank, only a brief stripe of
sunlight on the tile floor in the summer. We lived on my G.I. Bill and
Tove's earnings cleaning house for an American SHAPE major who called his
wife Pickle Puss. During the summer vacation months we'd sell The Paris
Review and the New York Herald Tribune, and earn money making chalk
drawings on the Pont des Arts. Tove was pregnant.
All of the Americans involved in the scene at the hotel had come from
backgrounds having all of the technical amenities twentieth-century
American society could offer. Yet we were happy with the conditions we had
settled into in Paris. An artist is never poor, as they say. But not many
Americans who haven't experienced it know what French thrift is, and Madame
Rachou was frugal. In the rooms there was lukewarm water in the faucets
three times a week, and only a single dim light bulb. The first time Tove
and I started our little portable record player the light went out. We had
to pay more in rent for the slightly higher wattage Madame Rachou installed
in the open-filament fuse on her switchboard downstairs. But we had
unlimited, gratis use of the piston sliding in a lubricated cylinder.
There were typewriters to be heard at the hotel, mine was an Olivetti
portable that belonged to Suzy Shawn, one of painter Ben Shawn's toothsome
daughters. But Bill Burroughs had the only tape recorder. I was living at
the hotel when Naked Lunch was published by Olympia Press. He had written
this novel, which was a sensation, using the tape recorder for his
cut-and-paste technique. I remember his machine, the battered leatherette.
I think he bought it at the fleamarket. I don't know if the Burroughs
Corporation ever manufactured dictation devices. Be that as it may, in 1958
William Burroughs was not an old guy, the man was forty-four years old and
there was nothing ginger-gimcrack about his using a tape recorder. It was
advanced stuff. The device was a tool he required to do the kind of writing
he wanted to do.
Meanwhile Naked Lunch has a leitmotif that may have been overlooked in
the assessments, and that is the distancing from the anatomical human
organism. This phenomenon was examined in a book by the German writer Paul
Alsberg: Das Menschkeitsrätsel (Dresden 1922), quoted by Otto Rank. It
concerns the development of man characterized as ever increasing
elimination of the body, eliminated parts being replaced by a tool, a
process affecting spiritual as well as technical achievements, the
development of language, etc. This effort to eliminate the organism, to
circumvent its functions through the use of drugs, for example, or through
a machine, permeates Naked Lunch with an apotheosis in the housewife who
objects when the kitchen appliance starts "getting physical." Many people,
including many women, find it hard to believe that human beings procreate
themselves the way they necessarily do, just like animals. This reluctance
to accept the sloppy facts of human reproduction is part of our culture.
It's in the first chapters of Genesis, and it's in Naked Lunch in the
afterbirths and the trafficking in slunks, not to mention "Lucy
Brandshinkel's cunt saignant" (note the masculine ending).
I wonder how many people who have read Naked Lunch are aware that Clem and
Jody, the couple of characters who sell defective U.S. military gear to
Third World governments, are persons Burroughs knew.
It's said that Francois Villon lived at 9 rue Git-le-Coeur. Up in the
garret of the hotel, like a starving inventor making something that would
go bang, Gregory Corso was writing BOMB. He had a few folio sheets of paper
spread out on the floor and was putting the lines down mushroom
cloud-shaped. It may be that in New York every Lower East Side apartment
has a bathtub, two chickens in the pot, and cheap electric power, but on
the Left Bank in Paris the streets are plangent with philosophy. After
writing BOMB Gregory split for Lappland, and Jonathan Kozol took over the
garret. He had published The Fume of Poppies and was working on another
novel. He and Herb Kohl arrived from Oxford, where they had done the
unprecedented and dumped their Rhodes Scholarships for ideological reasons.
That winter a couple of nights a week Herb Kohl, constantly combatting his
asthma, would hold forth on Ludvig Wittgenstein up in Jon's room. We sat
around on the floor under blankets as he read from the Tractatus and the
blue and brown books, as the wind howled in the roofs and chimneys of
Paris.
Now and then Tove and I would visit Jim and Gloria Jones in their nearby
apartment. He was writing The Thin Red Line. It was interesting to see how
this famous writer worked. He sat at the typewriter in a bare room for
three hours every morning without brooking interruptions or touching drink
and wrote finished copy. Later, when they were moving into their spread on
Isle St. Louis, Gloria showed me the mammoth electric hot water heater in
the bathroom, and explained that Jim wanted it because when he was writing
From Here to Eternity he lived in a trailer and he had never had enough hot
water.
There are some inventions that are remarkable for their humanity. One of
them is the telephone. Another is the bicycle. William S. Burroughs's use
of the tape recorder to create literature was a remarkably human
application of the machine. Recently, so as to process my typewritten notes
on the computer I bought a Hewlett Packard flatbed scanner with OCR
software. The damned thing can read.
--Kenneth Tindall
Subject: page
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 17:52:50 -0500
From: MIAMA99@aol.com
To: rking@indian.vinu.edu
would you please update your page. you're still listing 1997 guidelines,
and there's no information on the 1997 winner. and it's getting old to read
about the "upcoming" 1997 symposium, which of course happened months ago. maybe
there's some info on this year's symposium?
Subject: Visit Jones Birthplace?
Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 16:10:41 -0500
From: "Srdjan Marjanovic"
To: rking@indian.vinu.edu
Greetings,
James Jones is my favourite writer, and I have read most of his
fiction work, in English (although many novels were translated),
while still living in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Now I live in
Ottawa, Canada, where I have managed to get hold of "The Pistol"
and "Some Came Running" (unfortunately only in a New American
Library "Special Abridged Edition" - was it at least abridged by
Jones himself?). The latter is a superb novel, better than his
later work with non-war themes. I would suggest that Jones has
actually written a WW II tetralogy, because "Some Came Running"
follows the lives of much the same types of characters as "From
Here to Eternity", "The Thin Red Line" and "Whistle". It is a
shame that a full-length version of this novel is not available
in print; the only one I can actually see in print is "The Thin
Red Line" - no doubt because of the new movie.
In a few weeks I plan to visit Urbana, Illinois, where my
brother lives, and I would like to ask him to take me to
Robinson. What would be the address of the James Jones
childhood home, please? Is it a tourist attraction yet? Are
there any other Jones related places of interest in eastern
Illinois?
Thank you for an excellent Web site. I hope it contributes to
revive interest in a great American author.
Regards,
Srdjan Marjanovic
srdjan@nortel.ca
Subject: Visit Jones sites
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 19:08:25 -0500
From: "Srdjan Marjanovic"
To: rking@indian.vinu.edu
Dear Mr. King,
Thank you very much for your prompt reply about James Jones
houses in eastern Illinois. Since they are not officially open
to the public, I will not bother the present owners, but will
visit both Robinson and Marshall and get a feel of the places.
Also Charleston: my sister-in-law works at Eastern Illinois
University, which I suspect might have been a model for Parkman
College in "Some Came Running". Yes, this novel made a strong
impression on me. I had a feeling Dave Hirsh could have been
Prewitt returning from the war he never fought, only to meet a
very similar fate.
Although I am pleased that "The Thin Red Line" is being remade,
I would have preferred the completion of the trilogy with a film
version of "Whistle".
Feel free to forward my mail if you find it of interest to other
members of the Society. Once again, thank you for the excellent
Web site.
Regards,
Srdjan Marjanovic
srdjan@nortel.ca
Subject: FW: James Jones Literary Society web site
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 11:42:47 -0500
From: Robert McMahon
To: rking@indian.vinu.edu
Richard:
The folks I sent this off to are the "Costume Outfitters" for SAVING
PRIVATE RYAN. Their web address is:
http://www.wgn.net/~ww2imp/index.html
Wait till you see the stuff that these folks have. You may want to contact
them to put on a display (borrow) at the Symposium in November. under
their "Links" site they have links to Vendors and History Groups.
What do you think?
Best,
Bob McMahon
Oh.... another you may want to check out - http://mvpa.org/links.html
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert McMahon [SMTP:rmcmahon@iddis.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 1998 11:20 AM
To: 'wwiiimpressions@email.msn.com'
Subject: James Jones Literary Society web site
Importance: High
Gentlemen:
Please add a link to the "James Jones Literary Society" web page:
http://rking.vinu.edu/j.htm
James Jones was the author of "From Here To Eternity", "The Thin Red Line",
"Whistle", "Some Came Running", "WWII" (a book of World War II art - Tom
Lea, Kerr Eby, Bill Mauldin, et al....
Very good link for WWII history types......
Best,
Bob McMahon
P.S. Oh.....www.iwojima.com as well for information on the Five Marines and
One Navy Corpsman who put the flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima. Another
good site for history types.
Semper Fi!
Subject: From Here to Eternity
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1998 21:08:04 -0500
From: "Joe G. Ranger"
To: rking@indian.vinu.edu
Dear James Jones Literary Society,
James Jones is easily one of my favorite writers. For about six
years, I've been reading his novels and your web site is a great reference for me.
I've always felt that 'Some Came Running' is one of the most overlooked books of its
time. What I am really writing about, though, is to ask you if you know how or where I
could get my hands on a good used hardcover copy of 'From Here to Eternity' with a
very good dust jacket. I can't afford a first edition, but anything printed after
that will suit me just fine. If you have a copy or if you know where I can find one I would
appreciate it very much. Thanks.
Joe Ranger
Editor's Note: I suggested that Joe search the used book dealer databases I have collected
on my library reference pages at http://rking.vinu.edu/ref.htm.
From: Robert McMahon [SMTP:rmcmahon@iddis.com]
Sent: Friday, July 10, 1998 8:02 AM
To: 'Richard King'
Subject: RE: JJLS web site
Importance: High
Richard,
Thanks for the note....back to the salt-mine again? Was up in Waltham, MA
yesterday, but checked site last-night when I got home; it was up and all is well in America (?). Notice the
"hits"? Good deal, huh?
Have a good weekend, hope your weather's better and I will talk to you
soon. Oh, if you haven't examined the "Saving Private Ryan" COUNTDOWN site, by all means do.
http://countdown.8i.com/c2spr
There's some recent stuff there about "The Thin Red Line".
Best,
Bob McMahon
Subject: james jones
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 08:58:21 -0500
From: boy wonder
To: rking@indian.vinu.edu
when is the next meeting of the JJLS and where? thanks
--
Daniel F. Ring Internet: ring@vela.acs.oakland.edu
Kresge Library Phone: 810-370-2498
Oakland University
Rochester, MI 48309-4401
Subject: Jones on the Top 100 list
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 15:52:34 -0500
From: Thomas J Wood
To: rking@indian.vinu.edu
Did you notice that Jones' From Here to Eternity was #62 on the list of
100 Greatest Novels in English put out by the Modern Library? Of course
there's lots of debate about the merit of those rankings, but I thought
it was good that Jones was not forgotten.
Tom
Subject: Modern Library 100....bogus list
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1998 15:30:31 -0500
From: Robert McMahon
To: rking@indian.vinu.edu
Richard,
Here's the verbiage regarding the trashing of the Modern Library List as
Reported in Monday's (8/10/98) Wall Street Journal:
ASIDES COLUMN -
ROOM FOR ONE MORE?
"So the Modern Library's 100 best books list turns out to be a hoax, or
something close to it. The widely publicized ranking, which puts James
Joyce's Ulysses in first place, was allegedly compiled by Edmund Morris,
William Styron and other distinguished men and women of letters. When
first released, wags noted that both lists - judges and authors - were
heavy with names from Random House, which just happens to own the Modern
Library. Now it seems there's less to the list than meets the eye.
"Some enterprising reporting by the Washington Post last week
discovered that rather than having 'selected and ranked' the 100 books the Modern
Library claimed, the judges simply were asked to check off selections on a
list of 440 titles without putting them in order. Some judges were
mystified by the final rankings. Turns out the project was a marketing
ploy by then - Random House president Harry Evans, who hoped to cut deals
to publish every book on the list once it was made public.
"What's more, we seem to be in an age when it's no big deal if such
a scheme is represented as a serious intellectual enterprise. Christopher
Cerf, the Modern Library's board chairman, was quite up front. 'It's got
everyone talking about books, and it's books they usually don't talk about.
This has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams,' he said. It's 'to some
degree a scam, but it's a good scam. I mean that in the best sense of the
word.' Mr. Cerf should know. With Victor Navasky, he is the author of a
book called The Experts Speak: The Definitive Compendium of Authoritative
Misinformation."
End
There you have it.....
Best,
Bob McMahon
Subject: Two Questions
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1998 09:13:51 -0500
From: Seth Notes
To: rking@indian.vinu.edu
Sir,
I have two questions. *From Here to Eternity* is out of print. Do you
know if and when it will be put back in print. Second, do you know
which war literature James Jones read. *The Thin Red Line* has all the
disillusion of the best of the First World War's literature (Sassoon,
Graves, etc.), but it feels much less like the disillusion of a deflated
optimism than a disillusion qua disillusion.
Seth Notes
Subject: james jones
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1998 11:26:03 -0500
From: currents
To: rking@indian.vinu.edu
Richard,
As I recall (and I haven't looked in my files yet), the James Jones
Literary Society's "event" is coming up late this fall. November?
Anyway, I would like to put together a Currents cover story about
Jones, the Society and the upcoming event. It would likely be published
in late October or early November - depending on the date of the
gathering in Robinson.
Perhaps you can help me in gathering information (the web site is a
great help) and finding sources for this story. Most important, is
locating photographs (the one of Jones getting out of the car - on the
web site - is great) of the author for publication. Whatever old
photographs we can find, I can scan into our computer system and return
them quickly. Or, people who have pics in their possession can wait
while I scan them, so the photos won't have to be left here.
Any way you can help?
I'd appreciate anything you can do.
Thanks.
Bernie Schmitt
Currents magazine
Vincennes (Ind.) Sun-Commercial
812-886-9955
Subject: Needed an on-line version of From Here to Eternity
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 05:27:47 -0500
From: Manisha Yadav
Dear Sir,
I am a student of M Phil. in English Literature. Since I am having
difficulty in procuring the book, 'From Here to Eternity' by James
Jones, I was wondering if you could guide me and help me procure a soft
copy of the book.
You can contact me at the e-mail address m.yadav@mailcity.com.
Thanks in advance for your cooperation,
Best Regards,
Manisha.
Subject: RE: [Fwd: Needed an on-line version of From Here to Eternity]
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 16:41:52 -0500
From: "Wood, Thomas"
I don't think there has been a hard-cover edition of the book in print for
a long time. And strangely enough, it looks like it may be completely
out-of-print at the moment...Barnes & Noble doesn't list it at all, and
Amazon shows it as back ordered. Hopefully the publisher is just between
printings. Hopefully.
I bet that student could find a copy in a used book store. I gave away my
paperbound copy.
Thomas J. Wood
Archivist
Archives/Special Collections LIB 144
University of Illinois at Springfield
PO Box 19243
Springfield IL 62794-9243
217/206-6520 ~ wood@uis.edu ~ http://www.uis.edu/~lib-arch
Subject: RE: Needed an on-line version of From Here to Eternity
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 23:17:30 -0500
From: Manisha Yadav
Good Morning Sir,
Thanks a lot for your help. Your list is really useful. I am trying to
get a few books on special request from my library.
Best Regards,
Manisha.
Manisha Yadav
Technical Writer
MTC (India) Pvt Ltd
#C-5, Noida Export Processing Zone,
Noida (UP)
PIN: 201305
Ph: (91) 567729,30. Ext:230
Anything worth achieving is worth working for!
Subject: Jones
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 17:09:42 -0500
From: Elsa Benjaminsdóttir
No memories of Jones dear friend except how great it was to read
Eternity twenty years ago. Began it again last night and felt the tears
come when I read that fine first paragraph of the first chapter.
a reader in Reyjavík Iceland.
Subject: Re: Jones
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 16:31:51 -0500
From: Elsa Benjamínsdóttir
Thanks for yours. I´m now up to page 130. It´s all very fine. What I find
surprising after twenty years is the flowing almost musical quality of the
prose. I didnt notice that on first reading. Also the wisdom of the man,
Its strange that the writer of this book is only 30 years of age. The
Warden also strikes me more forceful than I remembered him. You might be
interested to know that Jones has many fans in Iceland. His books almost
never appear at antiquarian delars. People hold on to them.
I´ll keep you up to date with my rereading of the work.
Subject: searching...
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1998 17:15:39 -0500
Dear R. King: I have been searching for the name of the non fiction book
about the Handy Writer's Colony and James Jones. The book was written by
an attendee and on the whole is uncomplimentary about his experience -
the politics involved, whatever.
Would you happen to know the title of this book which I read twenty
years ago????
So it goes,
Charles Therminy
nvelez@thevine.net
Editor's Note: I told Charles it sounds like THE COLONY, by John Bowers.
Subject: Inventory of Handy Colony Collection
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1998 16:29:57 -0500
From: "Wood, Thomas"
Richard:
I can't remember if I told you that a condensed inventory of the Handy
Colony Collection is now available at the UIS Archives web page, to be
precise: http://www.uis.edu/~lib-arch/handy.html You might want to have
a link to this at the page that gives a summary description of the
collection.
I also noticed that you have the captions switched on the first two photos
in the Jones photo gallery.
The Thin Red Line isn't included in some lists of fall movie releases I've
seen -- has its release been moved back to early 1999?
There was a very positive review of the reprint of the book The Thin Red
Line on National Public Radio a few weeks ago. An audio file of it is
available in the archive of the NPR web site (www.npr.org)
Thomas J. Wood
Archivist
Archives/Special Collections LIB 144
University of Illinois at Springfield
PO Box 19243
Springfield IL 62794-9243
217/206-6520 ~ wood@uis.edu ~ http://www.uis.edu/~lib-arch
Subject: Re: Colony book
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 21:22:15 -0500
From: B
Greetings, Richard: Thank you again for your reply. No, I have only
appreciated Jones' work on the written page - in particular Some Came
Running which I felt to be about one of the best depictions of American
small-town life I have encourntered. My own literary rubbing-of-elbows
is with the Beat Generation. Not lucky enough to have met Kerouac either
on his way up or down, but have met some peripheral figures - John
Montgomery for example who was the model of Morley in the Dharma Bums.
Did you ever meet Jones?
Thanks again for writing.
So it goes,
Charles
Subject: Re: Colony book
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 17:48:27 -0500
From: B
Hi, Richard. Good to see you have a regional connection with what Jones
was all about.
I was corresponding with John Montgomery who self-published some great
material on the Beats, and Kerouac in particular. Which led to my
video-filming a one man play about Kerouac in 1987, in SF. We stayed at
John's house but for only one night as the guy was (almost) crackers -
gave us a small washcloth to be used for our shared towel for the
shower. But we ended up filming him reading his poetry and I later
became friends with his married daughter who inherited John's legacy.
The Kerouac playwrite didn't give permission to market our video as he
felt that a subsequent taping had a better personal performance. Just
another tree falling in the forest.
I used to subscribe to Moody Irregulars as well having heard , by
chance, Joy Walsh.
Have collected a pretty good collection of Beat material through the
years.Some first editions of Kerouac except for the elusive first of
Road.
Small grotto above bookcase with framed autograph matted alongside
covers of paperback Dharma Bums, which had fallen apart.
Thanks again for writing.
So it goes,
Charles
Subject: Eternity
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 13:43:19 -0500
From: Elsa Benjaminsdóttir
Dear Richard! I had some trouble with the computer when I tried to send
this to you so if this is a dublicate message, just erase it. I´m now
onto about page 300. Prew has just met Lorene. There is one thing now
that stares me in the face and that is: this is as well a novel about
the whole of the human race as about the army. The scene with Prew
playing taps is as beautiful as anything Thomas Wolfe ever wrote. You
asked about translations into Icelandic. I dont think there are any.
Never the less I know that Jones´es work has been very popular her for
years and years and has been written about occasionaly. Yes I agree with
you that James Jones is undervalued. He is a great writer I think. But
so is Wolfe and he too is undervalued. But remeber the mills of God.
They do their work, slowly, but the works get done eventually.
Subject: Re: Eternity
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998 13:45:19 -0500
From: Elsa Benjamínsdóttir
Dear Richard,
Please feel free to use my comments. The greatest american writers have
always been very popular over here, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Jones. That may
be connected somehow to the tradition, the realism of the Icelandic sagas
although Im not sure. I wish I had saved some of those articles I mentioned
but I did not. An anecdote now pops up in the mind. A good friend of mine,
an admierer of Jones was once in Paris, this must have been around or
before 1960, he walked into a pub and wonder of wonders who would be
sitting there except James Jones all alone by himself in deep meditation
hunched over a cup of coffee and one single schnapps. My friend sat down
with an eye on Jones and slowly began working up confidence to address him
and when he had more or less reached that point in walked James Baldwin and
that was the end of that conversation. But if its true that Jones´ es work
is going out of print in the States it is a very sad thing because his
talent when best expressed, is the very real thing which is so very rare
indeed.
I have one question; Are there any plans to publish his as of yet
unpublished first novel?
Subject: Re: Eternity
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 13:39:08 -0500
From: Elsa Benjamínsdóttir
Dear Richard!
Im now through the whores and general Sam Slater, all that stuff was
masterful and then came Prew and Maggio with the queers and Antonio is now
in the Stockade, so its half the book done in my rereading. It suddenly
struck me: Jones could have written great plays if he had ever put his hand
to it but he did write some movies didnt he? I feel now that the book is
collecting all its threads slowly and with steadly more force, the grip is
realy extraordinary. I was in pain when Prew was loosing all his money to
the Warden on payday. There is a great deal of humor to it that I missed
all these years back; on page 330, my edition happens to be the english
one, published by Collins;"You steer clear of them queers", the taxi driver
said. ( To Prew & Maggio). I dont quite know why this strikes me as
deliriously funny but it does.
We spoke a bit about the Icelandic sagas. They were written in the
years 1250-1400 so far as is known. They read very modern. I read some time
ago that Hammett was quite influenced by them, and he is not miles away
from Hemingway and the others so perhaps there is some bases to it all.
Subject: Re: Eternity
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 07:35:00 -0500
From: Elsa Benjamínsdóttir
Dear Richard,
About the sagas and oral tradition, no one knows to much about that realy,
but scholars have been arguing for years. Beowulf is more of an epich poem,
but the sagas are novels strangly modern except for the family tree that
begins most of them. I think the writers of the sagas worked more or less
like a novelist today, they would owerhear something and so on. Most likely
they lifted stuff more freely than writers today. No, I have never read "A
touch of Danger", but have it on order.
Subject: Re: Eternity
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1998 06:34:54 -0500
From: Elsa Benjamínsdóttir
Dear Richard!
I have now finished "The Stockade", and have reached the last section of
the book;"The Re-enlistment Blues". Until now I had but one minor complaint
to make, I thought there was a tiny element of sentimentality in the affair
of The Warden and Karen Holmes but I take that back although I never
mentioned it; It works later one to deepen the person of Milt and makes him
work as a much more complicated person. There is a very old saying in
Icelandic: "Sjón er sögu ríkari." It means; There is more to vitnessing an
event than hearing it described later on. "The Stockade", pages are visual
enough to make nonsense of that old visdom. The suicide of Bloom works
totally. The book is greater, much greater than I remembered it and in the
person of Jack Malloy Jones takes the greates risk I have ever seen a
writer take; To say that someone is a great person and a great man and then
go on to describe him, nothing could be more difficult when it comes to
convince and Jones pulls it of as far as possible. But let me keep my final
comments until after "The Re-enlistment Blues". As for now in some way I am
reminded of another novel, so totally different, yet so much alike
Eternity; Dostoevskys; The Possessed.
Subject: Re: Eternity
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 07:45:50 -0500
From: Elsa Benjamínsdóttir
Dear Richard,
Yes Im aware of the movie and have browsed some of the reviews on the
web-site. Congratulations on the web-site. It is great! By the way are you
aware of the recording Jones made? Selections from The Thin Red Line and
>From Here To Eternity. It was published by CMS Records in 1968.
best, Elsa.
I´ll be in touch soon vith my final comments.
Subject: Re: Eternity
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 13:03:51 -0500
From: Elsa Benjamínsdóttir
Dear Richard,
My rereading of "From Here To Eternity", is done. I had a strange empty
feeling when it was all over, blended with pain frankly, it somhow
recreated for me long gone summers of my childhood, when members of my
family, now dead were alive, and the summers were bathed in sunshine and
the evenings long and the movie was running in the local theater.
The rereading turned out different from what I had expected. When I
read the book the first time it was the love story of Karen Holmes and The
Warden that most completely held my attention, back then I felt that
Dynamite got all he deserved but now I felt sorry for him as he was doing
the dishes when Karen as good as walked out on him. The last chapter was
still the poetic beautiful blend I remembered it.
But my attention did shift to Prew and his tragedy this second time
around. I found the tension almost unberable in the Stockade section and
the killing of Fatso was now the towering moment of the novel. All this for
me was worthy of the great Russian writers who as we all know are the
greatest of world writers.
But FHTE, is not sentimental. And Jones does not fail with his women.
Eternity is the most flawless, in conception, long novel I have ever read,
the Russians included. All in all I would not have wanted to see any cuts
in it except for two words. When Bloom shoots himself; it goes like this;
What a silly thing to do, he tought. What a goddam silly thing to do. You
wont even be here to watch their faces.
Bloom died.
I would have cut the last two words:"Bloom died." And would you not
agree that that is a minor complaint to make about a novel totaling most
likely some 350 thousand?
Subject: good job
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 19:11:45 -0500
From: Damon Rarey
Thanks for the JJ home page! I joined the society fairly recently and
appreciate the resources. I especially appreciate hearing about peoples'
response to "Some Came Running" as it's always been one of my favorite
books.
I paid a small homage to it on my page - you might find it amusing:
http://www.rarey.com/sites/paperback/index.html
Thanks again.
Damon
Damon Rarey
2355 Alvarado Avenue
Santa Rosa CA 95404
Voice:(707)577-8331
Fax:(707)577-8863
http://www.rarey.com
"When a dog runs at you, whistle for him".
- Thoreau
Subject: link/story
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 21:51:15 -0500
From: Paul Clayton
Hello,
I'm a new member. I'm also a published writer with one (my first) novel
never published. It is based on my experiences in Vietnam, and it is a
novel I am sure Mr. Jones would have liked for its honesty. Would you
please look at a story excerpted from that novel at:
http://grunt.space.swri.edu/river.htm
If you like that and you think that it is an honest effort, please look
at what a local writer had to say about my unpublished Nam novel at:
http://www.metroactive.com/metro/cover/lit-clayton-9839.html
And, finally, I am attaching a letter recommending that novel from Dr.
Douglas Pike, head of the Southeast Asia Studies department at Texas
Tech, Formerly at UC Berkeley.
The question: Do you know anybody, any publisher who would like to see
some sample chapters from a published writer, whose first, heartfelt
novel about war never found a publisher?
thanks for your time,
Paul Clayton
- Dr.Pike'sltter.doc
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
INSTITUTE OF FAST ASIAN STUDIES BERKELEY. CALIFORNIA 9C2O
June 18, 1990
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
This is a letter of recommendation for Paul Clayton's novel, Where The Shadows Run From Themselves.
In my opinion, it can be called a classic type war novel, reminiscent of Red Badge of Courage, All's Quiet On
The Western Front, and From Here to Eternity.
The writing style is forceful, straight forward, much in the manner of Hemingway -- a kind of writing that is
all too rare in Vietnam War fiction.
The plot is very much a front slope view, war at the firebase level -- the isolated worm's eye view of the
Vietnam War. It has a bit of everything: the low grade cold-war that goes on endlessly among comrades
in arms; the heat; the weather; the jungle; the rain; the bloated dead PAVN medic; the arrow booby trap;
attempt at GI unionizing; military politics; uneasy race relations; experimentation with sex and drugs; the
sudden flashes of combat; the hollow empty feeling left by unexpected death.
It conveys well the Vietnam War at the grunt level, in the spirit of waiting for Charlie, looking for Charlie.
The counterpoint note of anxiety that runs underneath adds verisimilitude. The hero Melcher is reminiscent
of Private Pruett in From Here To Eternity, something of an intellectual (his favorite book is a
biography of young Buddha).
All in all this is a first rate manuscript which I believe would sell well, particularly if promoted.
I commend the work.
Sincerely,
Douglas Pike
Director
Subject: James Jones Photographs
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 14:16:13 -0500
From: "Carol Lowery"
I work for Random House, and this fall we are releasing The Thin Red Line
on audio. I am interested in using some of the photographs from your
webpage for our audiobook. Could you tell me what source you used to find
them? Some of the photographs look like they could be from a private
library, and since you are the reference guru, I thought you might be able
to help me. If so, please email me at: clowery@randomhouse.com
Thanks for your help.
Subject: James Jones
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 11:43:07 -0500
From: Craig Towns
Richard L. King
Reference Librarian
Shake Library
Vincennes (IN) University
Dear Mr. King,
I received your response to my inquiry and thank you for the
information. The individual in the photo who is listed as "unknown" is
indeed Daniel Towns, my father, who died in 1996. My father left many boxes
of personal papers, which I have been going through in my spare time. I
recently discovered some items pertaining to James Jones, prompting an
Internet search that led me to your web site.
My father was born in Fort Worth in 1924 and led a rather interesting
life. Although he kept diaries of his life experiences, I have been unable
to locate any writings describing his time at the colony. I have been
searching since I first wrote you, with no success.
What I do know is that in 1950 my father had organized an expedition to
be the first to travel by land roundtrip from the northern tip of Alaska to
the southern tip of South America. It was to be called the Towns
Tri-American Expedition. At the time there were no highways or bridges in
most of South America so the adventure would have required off road travel
through jungles, rivers and mountains and by literally cutting their way
through. His endeavor had received national publicity. There was also a
nationally publicized search for a female member of the expedition team.
After reviewing hundreds of responses, he chose Elizabeth Smith, a fellow
Texan. (Ms. Smith now goes by the name Liz Smith and is a celebrity gossip
columnist.) Sponsorship was arranged and the Jeep Corporation was to
donate specially designed Jeeps for off road travel. Unfortunately, the
dream all ended with the advent of the Korean War and Jeep had all the
orders they could fill and cancelled their sponsorship. It was during this
time that he apparently became acquainted with Lowney Handy and James
Jones.
Although I have not, as of yet, found any diaries from 1950, I will tell
you what I have found. There are two letters written and signed by James
Jones addressed to my father. One is dated May 28, 1950 with return
address of 70 Archer Ave., Marshall, Illinois. It is one page long and Mr.
Jones discusses the expedition, how he is looking forward to meeting my
father and then goes on to compare my father's apprehension of the pending
trip to writing a novel.
The second letter is dated April 1, 1951 with a return address of 202 W
Mulberry, Robinson, Illinois. This letter discusses a bayonet that my
father sent to Mr. Jones. He then relates a story about losing his
"fighting knife when I was hit" and how he improvised a new one out of a
"Jap bayonet". He then goes on to talk about his upcoming trip to
Hollywood to advise on the movie for $1000 per week and how that day Life
is coming to take pictures of him and the colony.
My father also had collected first edition copies of all of James Jones
books. His copy of From Here to Eternity is a presentation edition #104
with a personal inscription and signature.
Additionally, I was able to locate a total of forty-two photographs.
These include eight 8x10 publicity type photos that Mr. Jones sent to my
dad. These eight photos are of Mr. Jones and Mr. Jones with Lowney Handy.
The scenes vary; some are in Tucson. All have annotations written by Mr.
Jones.
Two other photos appear to be copies of Mr. Jones personal photographs.
One is of Jones and Lowney in the desert. The other is of Willard Lindsay
and Lowney on some sort of stone wall.
Then there are thirty-two photographs which my father took at the
colony. These are of James Jones, Lowney, Mary Ann Jones and everyone else
who was there in 1951. The photos offer extensive pictoral account of life
at the colony.
I hope that this information is of interest to you. I have attached
three JPEG images taken from the photos that my father took. I would assume
no one has ever seen these photographs, unless my father sent copies to Mr.
Jones. I have the negatives to most of them. This is the reason that I
asked about the photo on your website, I was curious if these thirty-two
photographs are a rare find of historical value to you or other James Jones
aficionados.
Thanks again and please feel free to contact me if you have any
questions or if you do not receive the attachments. I do not have much
experience e-mailing photographs, although I believe it should work. I
will send you more if you are interested.
Sincerely,
Craig Towns
PO Box 49211
Austin, Texas 78765
(512) 499-0076
E-mail: catseye@prismnet.com - jones1c.JPG - jones2b.JPG - jones3b.JPG
Subject: first hit
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 17:12:51 -0500
From: Robert Thobaben
Just got home from the symposium and was able to pull up the JJLS web
page right away. Looks very good to me.
My problem is I started reading some of the "love letters" and spent all
my time doing that. I thought the one from the French citizen who wrote
a preface for the Thin Red Line was superb. I'm going to start reading
that again so I can make better judgments of the film when it comes out.
Good to see you at the conference. Let's stay in touch on email..
Regards Bob
Subject: Web knowledge about file "The Thin Red Line"
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 16:29:52 -0500
From: Robert McMahon
Richard, Got this off the web today...Perhaps a posting.....Bob
The Thin Red Line
*RELEASE DATE: December 25th, 1998 (LA/NY)
*CAST: Sean Penn, Bill Pullman, John Travolta, George Clooney, John
Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Nick Nolte, Lukas Haas, Adrien Brody, Ben Chaplin, Elias
Koteas, Jim Caviezel, Will Wallace
*DIRECTOR: Terrence Malick (this is his first film in 20 years, after
making his mark in the 70's with Badlands and Days of Heaven)
*WHAT'S IT BASED ON?: The novel by James Jones, author of From Here To
Eternity and screenwriter of The Longest Day. There was also a 1964 film
version of the book.
*WHAT'S IT ABOUT?: This is the story of an army battalion (led by a
colonel played by Nolte) that is preparing to invade a Japanese stronghold on the
jungle island of Guadalcanal against tremendous odds. As they wade through
the terrain towards their objective, the soldiers are plagued by fear and
dread. This is the true story of one of the greatest battles of World War
II.
*GREG'S THOUGHTS: (8/17/98) When Terrence Malick announced that he was
returning from retirement to film this movie, many of Hollywood's biggest
stars flocked to this project, for the chance to be in one of Malick's
movies. Most of them agreed to take their parts for fractions of their
normal salaries (most took home less than $1 million), which undoubtedly
kept the budget of the movie down. Though all of the above actors are in
the movie, some of their parts are longer than others, and from what I've
seen, it appears that Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, and Bill Pullman have
more screen time than Clooney, Travolta, and Cusack; and that a large part of
the story follows the younger actors (Haas, Brody, Chaplin, Koteas, Caviezel).
The Thin Red Line and Saving Private Ryan proceeded through development and
into production about the same time, and although these two films will
doubtlessly attract much comparison, I think the two movies will stand on
their own merits, and may even complement each other as pieces of film art.
Where Saving Private Ryan chronicles D-Day and the Normandy operation from
the viewpoint of a hanful of soldiers, The Thin Red Line follows a larger
group of soldiers at Guadalcanal, including the viewpoints of several
officers (most of the big name actors here play officers or sergeants).
One of the biggest differences will doubtlessly be the visual differences
between Guadalcanal and Normandy. Where Normandy was overcast, murky,
damp, and depressingly smoky; the island of Guadalcanal is a setting more like
Vietnam and the visuals will most likely be sweltering, steamy, swampy, and
mucky. Fifty years after the events, Hollywood is now returning its eye to
World War II without the nostalgia and clear-cut heroic sland it cast in
the late 40's, 50's, and 60's; and The Thin Red Line appears to be one of the
movies that people will remember when they think of war movies years from
now. This is one of the movies most likely to sweep year's Academy
Awards, and more than that, should be a movie that few will forget.
Subject: James Jones
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 21:04:37 -0500
From: Paul Clayton
Hello Richard,
I just thought I'd tell you that I read James Jones, A Friendship, and
then immediately followed that up with A Soldier's Daughter Never
Cries. They're both wonderful books. It was interesting that in Willie
Morris's, the children are off camera most of the time, and the opposite
in Kaylie's novel. Kaylie's novel makes me look forward to my kids'
teenage years with a feeling somewhere between trepidation and dread.
The teen years are really fraught with danger. Especially in this
society. The Pop culture is really corrosive and kids are going throgh
som much already. I'm glad mine are still young. Her novel really
makes me appreciate my little ones more. An added bonus, my son is also
adopted, so it was very interesting to read about sibling rivalry such
as she had with her brother.
Well, Bye for now,
Paul Clayton
Subject: Re: James Jones Mailing List
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998 09:12:32 -0500
From: "Jim R."
Mr. King,
I have recently been searching the web for sites containing
information on James Jones, and yours was the only one I could find.
The mailing list is a place where people can discuss their thoughts on
Jones' books, movies based on the books, any news on "The Thin Red
Line" movie, and virtually any other Jones-related topic.
There is also the message board at:
http://www.messagezone.com/message.asp?BoardName=103880
The message board can be used for the same purposes, but I know that
people sometimes get on the net, check their e-mail, and get off, so
the mailing list provides an ideal forum for discussion among Jones
fans.
Jim
Subject: VFW
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998 17:24:35 -0500
From: Robert Thobaben
Richard:
I'm sure you saw the essay by Ray Elliott in the VFW magazine. Pretty
good PR for James Jones and the Society.
Bob
Subject: Aloha!
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1998 17:58:33 -0500
From: "Ed Rampell"
Dear JJLS,
Aloha from Hawaii! Please feel free to include my review of
"Soldier's Daughter" in the Oct. 14-20, 1998 issue of Honolulu Weekly. If you are
unable to access it at: http://www.honoluluweekly.com , provide me with a mailing
address so I can snail mail you a copy.
Also, check the May 7-13, 1997 HW for my piece commemorating 20th
anniversary of Jones' death in Hawaii, w/screening of 1964 "Thin Red Line",
etc. Story is called: "From Hawaii to Eternity". Feel free to post.
I have also done other "Soldier's Daughter", Jones, etc., stories
for Radio Australia, Hawaii Public Radio, et al. And about 20 pages of the
movie history book I co-authored - "Made In Paradise, Hollywood's Films of
Hawaii and the South Seas" - is devoted to Jones.
I have been trying to be placed on the list for the press junket to
Hollywood organized by 20th Century Fox re: "The Thin Red Line", wherein
journalists, reviewers, etc., are flown in from around the country to
preview the film, and interview the talent involved. Apparently, Meredith
Lipsky, Western Regional Manager of Publicity for Fox, did not receive or
lost my Nov. 5 letter requesting my participation in the press junket, sent
at Fox's request. Follow-up phone calls led to my faxing Meredith circa
Dec. 2. I still have not received confirmation as of Dec. 5 for the Dec. 12
junket.
I have informed Kaylie & Kevin of this situation via voice mail on
their answering machine. However, if anyone else at the Society can contact
Meredith Lipsky or another relevant Fox/"Thin Red Line" contact to request
that I be included in the press junket, it'd be greatly appreciated. I
think that it'd be helpful for somebody who has joined the Society, read
"Thin Red Line", screened the original film version of it, been to
Guadalcanal, is from Hawaii, knows Kaylie, etc., to get the word out re:
"Thin Red".
Meredith Lipsky can be reached at: PH: (310)369-2440; FAX:
(310)969-1600. You may reach her assistant Lizette. Their e-mail addresses are:
meredithl@fox.com and lizetteg@fox.com.
Mahalo Nui Loa,
Ed Rampell
PH/FAX: (808)696-8996
Subject: Making of "The Thin Red Line"
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 21:09:39 -0500
From: "Robert L. McMahon"
HBO will be airing, on 17 December, an HBO exclusive - The Making of "The
Thin Red Line". Dale - perhaps you can pass on this one given your current
qualifications and skill-sets (Yawn - "Yep, that's how we do it... Anyone
see my coffee?") All others on this list - if you have HBO I would suggest
tuning in as an FYI.....
Jones book is a grunt's eye view of close combat with one of the most
tenacious fighters American servicemen ever connected with - Japanese
Infantry. If "Saving Private Ryan" were a bare-knuckled fight to the
death, consider "The Thin Red Line" a knife-fight in a dark, locked coat
closet.
Best to All,
Bob McMahon
Subject: James Jones Message Board
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1998 11:57:18 -0500
From: "Wood, Thomas"
Richard:
I received the following from the originator of the Jones message board.
>From his e-mail address I would guess his name is Jim R. Zorn, but since he
didn't sign his message, I really don't know. He's a new Jones convert,
plain and simple (which is great!):
"I am aware of the Literary Society and Mr. King is now advertising
the message board on his site.
I actually became interested in James Jones only three months ago.
I have always been a Sinatra fan, and loved the films "From Here to
Eternity" and "Some Came Running".
I am a freshman at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. Upon
entering college, I thought I should read "From Here to Eternity",
since I had heard it was an excellent book. I then went on to read
"Some Came Running", "The Thin Red Line", "Go to the Widow-Maker",
"The Merry Month of May", and, currently, "Whistle".
The day after I started reading "The Thin Red Line", I came upon
the James Jones Literary Society web page. This is where I found out
about the upcoming movie. I also hope this renews interest in
Jones' books. I will probably have read them all by the end of my second
semester.
Hope to hear from you on the message board and the mailing list!"
I heard a rumor on Usenet that John Travolta has suddenly been removed from
the Thin Red Line, and that his name will not be in any further publicity.
Yesterday I saw a new trailer for TRL, and indeed Travolta isn't pictured
or listed in the credits. Also, the new trailer no longer gives the release
date as "Christmas," but merely says "Coming Soon." I heard the movie had
been shown to test audiences -- perhaps this compelled extensive last
minute changes?
Thomas J. Wood
Archivist
Archives/Special Collections LIB 144
University of Illinois at Springfield
PO Box 19243
Springfield IL 62794-9243
217/206-6520 ~ wood@uis.edu ~ http://www.uis.edu/~lib-arch
Subject: Thin Red Line Review
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1998 12:18:06 -0500
From: "Wood, Thomas"
Richard:
Well this must be the first review of Thin Red Line -- the guy claims he
attended the test screening. This was in rec.arts.movies.current-films:
The Thin Red Line
(c)1998 eric lurio
Written and Directed
by Terrence Malick
The film begins very slowly. happy Melanesian children playing in
the forest.
Pvt. Witt (James Caviezel) wanders among the children and their
parents, taking in the peace, calm and love. Then comes the troop ship to pick him
up from AWOL. Sgt. Welsh (Sean Penn) bawls him out, demoting Witt to
stretcher detail.
Up topside, Lt. Colonel Tall (Nick Nolte) muses to himself as he
listens to General Barr(John Travolta) pontificate as to why the heck they had
to invade an island as insignificant as Guadalcanal.
Down in the bowls of the ship, Corporal Bell (Ben Chaplin) dreams
of his beautiful wife (Miranda Otto), while he and the others get ready for
that thing they dread most: battle. We can almost feel the desperation.
C company gets on the landing craft, and heads toward the beach.
The carnage begins off screen. We see nothing and hear nothing until one
soldier points out a couple of dead bodies. Then we begin to hear shots.
Nolte's colonel has a great time chewing the scenery as he calls
Captain Staros(Elias Koteas) on the walkie-talkie and orders charlie
company to attack the Japanese troops head on. It is only then that we hear the
bullets and see men fall. We do not see the Japanese except at a distance, for much
of the film. It all builds to a crescendo, and when it is reached all hell
breaks loose.
This is a film of cameos. Dozens of stars have been allotted a few
minutes each for the most part these are golden. Woody Harrelson leads
his men up the ridge, only to accidentally blow himself up with a hand
grenade. John Cusack leads the attack on the Japanese bunker. If you blink,
you'll miss George Clooney, but that's okay, you won't be able to take your
eyes off the screen.
Non stars give great performances too. Adrien Brody is great as
the initially timid Corporal Fife, John C. Reilly, Arie Verveen, Dash Mihok and
John Savage also acquit themselves very nicely.
But it's Nolte, Chaplin, Koteas, Penn and Caviezel who shine the
brightest, the conflict between the various characters is as much a part of this
as the conflict against the Japanese.
The only drawback is the time. At almost three hours, one's butt
begins to throb around twenty minutes before the end. It's a perfect bookend to
Steven Speilberg's "Saving Private Ryan." Better, too.
Apparently Travolta IS in it, but his name is being removed from publicity
for some (contractual?) reason....
Thomas J. Wood
Archivist
Archives/Special Collections LIB 144
University of Illinois at Springfield
PO Box 19243
Springfield IL 62794-9243
217/206-6520 ~ wood@uis.edu ~ http://www.uis.edu/~lib-arch
Subject: Col. David H. Hackworth reviews TTRL.......for Dec. 9 1998
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 13:26:05 -0500
From: Robert McMahon
ARTICLE 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
***HACK NOTES***
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Writing a new book. This one is nonfiction and deals with my 9th
Division experience in Vietnam. It's working title is: HACK'S PACK:
HOPELESS TO HARDCORE. Shooting to have it wrapped by mid '99. Would like to hear
from all former HARDCORE members or any members of outfits that supported the
HARDCORE and especially members of the 9th Division LRRPs (subsequently
designated E/75th Rangers) plucked out of a bad scene in February 1969 by
the HARDCORE when Charlie was about to do a number on them.
Saw an early showing of the new film THE THIN RED LINE yesterday.
Was not impressed. Mr Spielberg doesn't have to sweat losing his title of
having produced the best war film I've seen. To begin with, TTRL is a
technical disappointment. I understand that the military advisor was
over-ruled some by the producer/director due to budget and, what they
call, "creative vision". Man, I have never seen more errors or a worse
presentation of grunts in combat. Every violation of military tactics was
in this movie, beginning with the company Top Kick (Sean Penn) in an Elvis
Presley haircut down to the grunts ammo pouches closed-up during and after
firefights. Sadly, the story is about the Company I was commissioned in
while in the Wolfhounds, Company G, 27th Infantry. Cannot understand how
Hollywood can spend millions of bucks making a war film and still get
things so wrong.
Save your money and give it a miss when it comes to town. Vets will
be so distracted at all the basic mistakes that a bad corporal would have
fixed in an Army minute that they'll be to busy fuming about wasting the
price of admission to ever focus on the story. Which is probably okay since
it's hard to follow, slow and in too many instances pushes toward
caricature. Boring. Looked at my watch three times and wanted out of the
filming room. Seems Hollywood included a bunch of name actors to add to the
box-office draw. Truth is the big box-office names are on screen for only
seconds. Also heard through our Editor, that copies of James Jones novel
could have been sold "on location" for big bucks. Many members of the cast
and crew had not read the book before filming and were scrambling to find
copies in Australia.
Got hundreds of emails on the Aviano crash SPECIAL. So many I
couldn't personally answer them all. The grunts who responded felt like I
did and the pilots were about divided right down the middle with 50 percent
wanting to nail the crew and the other half wanting to hammer the brass.
Have a good week.
*Keep five yards.
(*Means spread out so one round won't get us all.)
Subject:
Interesting Thin Red Line page
Date:
Wed, 9 Dec 1998 14:47:08 -0500
From:
"Wood, Thomas"
To:
rking
Take a look:
http://countingdown.com/thinredline/
Thomas J. Wood
Archivist
Archives/Special Collections LIB 144
University of Illinois at Springfield
PO Box 19243
Springfield IL 62794-9243
217/206-6520 ~ wood@uis.edu ~ http://www.uis.edu/~lib-arch
Subject: 1964 release: The Thin Red Line
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 00:24:03 -0500
From: d harris <"multifof@bellsouth.net"@bellsouth.net>
I can't find this movie anywhere and I remember it being one of the best
Hollywood movies about WWII. The new version doesn't seem to be as good,
but maybe I should see the whole film first. Can you tell me where to
purchase it.
Subject: [jamesjones] James Jones-related programming in January
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 13:14:52 -0500
From: "Jim R."
To: jamesjones@onelist.com
From: "Jim R."
The Thin Red Line: HBO First Look
1/3 HBO Plus 8:45 AM
1/4 HBO 2:45 PM 1/5 HBO 12:30 AM
1/8 HBO 6:45 AM 1/10 HBO 6:15 PM
1/14 HBO 6 PM 1/19 HBO 8:15 PM
The Longest Day
1/8 FXM 11:30 AM 1/9 FXM 1:35 AM
1/27 FXM 11:30 AM 1/28 FXM 1:30 AM
==
Jim Revello
"We feel sorry for people who don't drink, because when you get up in the
morning that's as good as you're gonna feel the rest of the day." -Frank
Sinatra
"Gentleman-rankers off on a spree,
Damned From Here to eternity,
God ha' mercy on such as we,
Bah! Bah! Bah!" -Rudyard Kipling
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Subject: TTRL over the weekend - 3 days receipts......
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1998 10:47:24 -0500
From: Robert McMahon
Tuesday December 29 8:22 AM ET
Audiences line up for 'Red Line'
By Monica Roman
NEW YORK (Variety) - ``The Thin Red Line'' conquered the exclusives roster
in its first sortie at the weekend.
Terrence Malick's lyrical World War II story detonated an explosive
$182,639 on a total of three battlefields in New York and Los Angeles.
The second most popular limited-release picture was fellow newcomer
``Hurlyburly,'' which bedded $105,096 in six bachelor pads in Gotham and
L.A.
Third-ranked ``Life is Beautiful,'' Roberto Benigni's Holocaust-era
tragicomedy, liberated $100,981 from five screens in New York and Los
Angeles.
The Christmas weekend saw many specialized releases reporting box office
gains, including the Gotham runs of ``Dancing at Lughnasa,'' ``Central
Station,'' ``Gods and Monsters,'' ``Little Voice'' and ``Life is
Beautiful.''
In Los Angeles, ``Central Station,'' ``Dancing at Lughnasa,'' ``Life is
Beautiful'' and ``The Celebration'' picked up momentum.
Reuters/Variety
Subject: Kaylie Jones Interview
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 15:47:08 -0500
From: "Dan Lybarger"
My name is Dan Lybarger, and I am a reporter for Pitch Weekly
(www.pitch.com) in Kansas City.
I am preparing to interview Kaylie Jones about the movie of her novel and
the new adaptation of "The Thin Red Line". If it works out, I will send you
a link to the article when it is published.
Your site is a good primer to Mr. Jones' work. I am in the middle of "The
Thin Red Line" and am really enjoying it.
I knew little about his novels and stories before I started this project,
so I am grateful for your willingness to put up this site.
If you have any tips on interviewing Ms. Jones, I'd be grateful. If not,
thanks for providing a valuable resource.
Dan
Subject: Kaylie Jones interview update
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 15:43:18 -0500
From: danl@alpha-1.bankline.net
I am scheduled to talk with Ms. Jones tonight at 7:30.
As you told me, she is quite busy. Fortunately, I caught her at a good
time.
If it would not be an imposition, could I use the picture of James Jones
sitting at the typewriter for the article? The piece will run next
Thursday (1-14-99), and the photo is ideal for our paper.
The article will be on my web page (www.tipjar.com/dan) the next day,
when "The Thin Red Line" goes into wide release.
To return the favor, I will provide a link to your James Jones site and
will also provide Amazon.com links so that people can purchase the books
discussed in the article.
Dan Lybarger
