November 14 1995

milan
Coax me, Cajole me... Persuade me

by Peter T. Chattaway

For anyone who’s ever wanted a second chance at the love
of their life, Roger Michell’s lightly comic adaptation of Jane Austen’s
Persuasion is the movie to see.

Single, 26 years old, and living with her cash-strapped family,
Anne Elliot (Amanda Root) still rues the day, some eight years after
the fact, when she turned down one Captain Wentworth (Ciaran
Hinds) on the advice of a family “friend.” She hasn’t seen him since,
but that’s about to change, now that his family is renting her father’s
estate. Will he resent her still? Will she change her mind?

Well, what do you think? From the outset, Persuasion is
such a good-natured film that the final outcome is never in much
doubt. Fortunately; Persuasion is also a lovingly crafted film and
the actors give it their all, evoking every frustrated tic we associate
with that fidgety thing called the heart. What’s important is not who
ends up with who in the end, but how these two souls come to orbit
each other when there are so many distractions along the way.

Everyone in the cast is enjoyable — I quite liked Sophie
Thompson as Anne’s chatty, melancholic sister Mary — but the show
belongs to Root. Even as she listens patiently to everyone else’s
stories, her large, Nermal-esque eyes seem to scan the environs,
looking for a confidant she can call her own. With her mouth set in
a pensive straight line, she seems resigned to her fate on the receiving
end of everyone’s gossip, her own heart’s concerns bottled up for
the time being.

The sets and costumes are the superb work we’ve come to
expect from British period pieces, but not all is smooth and polished
with this show. Persuasion was originally produced for British TV,
and it shows, especially in the relentless close-ups and shaky camera
work (which wouldn’t be nearly so disturbing if you had a living
room wall keeping the universe stable behind your screen). Minor
quibbles, perhaps, but they may affect whether or not one would
prefer to wait for the video.

The film’s true genius lies in its subtle, quiet ability to recreate
that process whereby individuals come to stand out from the sea of
faces surrounding them. At first, Persuasion plays like a typically
English ensemble piece, a maze of nondescript eccentrics darting
about each other on a fairly even playing field. But as the film reaches
its conclusion, something happens: the characters of Anne and
Wentworth begin to stand out in each other’s eyes, and in our own as
well.

It’s like falling in love for the first time all over again.

 

 

 

Which conspiracy
theories should you
believe? For that matter...

which conspiracies
should you join?”
Rev. Stang

The Big Book of
Conspiracies is a comic
book (oops, graphic
reference tool) written by
Doug Moench in
collaboration with dozens
of contributing artists. These include names like Kevin O’Neil and
Harry S. Robbins. Moench is a long time comic writer, and this project
is an impressive addition to the canon of conspiracy theory (move
over Illuminatus!)

Unfamiliar with conspiracies? The basic precepts are that
surface appearances are deceiving, that governments lie endemically,
and great effort goes into concealing this fact. The big show is run
by back room people ( and there always has been backroom people)
and their real plans are acted out in accordance with a secret bad
news agenda. No one knows what is truly going on. Conspiracy
theories draw on unexplainable facts and rely on guilt by association,
strange coincidences and a lot of circumstantial evidence to make
their cases. They may not stand up in a court of law, but they resonate
with a truth.

BB of C begins its joyride in the paranoia fun ride with that
famous patsy Oswald, using the case of Mr. Lee Harvey as a
touchstone to explore the sexiest paranoid theories of the past and
present. Moench is extremely indicative of the CIA (founded by the
way, by ex-Nazi’s eager to fight communism) and those nasty free
masons. He implicates their involvement in the greatest spectator
sport of the late 20th century: the public assassination of public
figures. List them, the Kennedy, MLK, RFK, Wallace, Lennon, and
Reagan shootings. All of these assassinations, involve “brain washed,
lone nut” killers, much like the infamous hash smoking Assassins of
the medieval world. All of these patsys (from Oswald to Sirhan to
Hinckley) had CIA connections. Whatever the truth may be, there

VARIETIES OF WHOLE
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BiG SLICE PIZZA

 

 

Big Book of Conspiracies
Doug Moench

 
      

Factoid

are enough loose facts screwing around screaming cover up to anyone
paying attenton.

BB of C romps on and on, and makes further connections
between topics like LSD, the atom bomb, and the grey aliens who
may abduct you soon. How paranoid do you want to get? Are you
ready for Odessa, the mob, the knights of Malta, the Vatican, and
naval intelligence, not to forget Aleister Crowley, Jim Morrison (yes,
a CIA spook, by one reckoning,) Hassanibn Sabah and the Prieure
de Sion? I shouldn’t forget to mention the Bay of Pigs, Jonestown,
Silkwood, Star Wars, and the “Grey Masters,” or even Manson, the
Process church, Ollie North, and the New World Order. Moench’s
strength is in his research. Everything is here, even Hearst and Hemp.

The book recognizes that any study of conspiracy should
account for the mindfuck factor. That is say, disinformation abounds
to protecting the real information. This whole book could be a pact
of lies, designed to cover up even worse conspiracies. Moench
(through the narrator, a nameless spook drawn wearing black suit,
hat and shades) thoughtfully warns readers not to be gullible, and
not to accept all the information in this book as true (how could
one?) He advises that the best path would be to question any
information, and to always question consensus reality, and not to get
squeamish when it comes to making connections between things.

This is one of the scariest books I have read this year, as it
implicates pretty much every one of the ruling elite of our planet as
being involved in just about everything. But top honour must go to
George Bush having been involved in just about every game of dirty
pool that has been racked up in America this latter part of this century.
Remember, he “doesn’t remember” where he was when Kennedy
was shot.

It’s also one of the funniest books I’ve read this year.

One final note: This book was published by Factoid Books,
an imprint of National Publications, i.e. DC comics, who are owned
by Times -Warner. Now who owns them ?? Another tentacles of the
conspiracy in action. Does the conspiracy even know what it is doing?

by Arthur Hanks

DOUGLAS
COLLEGE

 

CARNARVON ST.

 

 

 

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