[continued from previous message]   
      
   symptoms of being a demigod a.k.a. "half-blood," a child conceived   
   by a mortal and a Greek god. From Aphrodite to Zeus, these deities   
   are as powerful, petty, and irresponsible as the myths portray   
   them. They are, to put it mildly, not protective of their   
   children, who tend to die young.   
      
   Percy discovers he's a half-blood. He's attacked and chased by   
   monsters, and finds refuge in a summer camp for young demigods.   
   Once Percy is claimed by his immortal father, he's accused of   
   stealing Zeus's "master bolt." Percy, another demigod (Annabeth   
   Chase), and a satyr (Grover Underwood, who's been entrusted to   
   protect young half-bloods) are sent on a quest to retrieve the   
   missing bolt. Monsters pursue them at every step. They travel   
   across the country before returning, by way of Hades's Underworld,   
   to Olympus (the 600th floor of the Empire State Building). The   
   novel is a good adventure story with a quirky sense of humor.   
   Chapter 1 is titled, "I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra   
   Teacher."   
      
   Riordan, along with producers and writers of the Disney+ show,   
   have carefully adapted the novel into an eight episode series. As   
   with THE PRINCESS BRIDE, the original author trimmed what was   
   unnecessary and expanded what could helpfully be fleshed out. For   
   example, the book's quick trip through a theme park became a   
   longer and much more interesting sequence.   
      
   Again like THE PRINCESS BRIDE, THE LIGHTNING THIEF was improved by   
   giving the creator a second bite at the apple. I watched the   
   series, then read the book. I preferred the series.   
      
   An adaptation of the second novel, SEA OF MONSTERS, will appear in   
   December 2025. Disney has announced a third series, THE TITAN'S   
   CURSE.   
      
   Recommended for fans of kid-friendly fantasy. [-psrc]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
   TOPIC: THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER and Charles Laughton (letter of   
   comment by Kip Williams)   
      
   In response to Evelyn and Mark's comments on THE NIGHT OF THE   
   HUNTER in the 06/30/25 issue of the MT VOID, Kip Williams writes:   
      
   Laughton also directed and starred in a radio play, the "Don Juan   
   in Hell", a stand-alone excerpt from MAN AND SUPERMAN by George   
   Bernard Shaw, with Charles Boyer, Agnes Moorehead, and Cedric   
   Hardwicke rounding out the foursome. I happened upon the LPs, but   
   it's available at Archive.   
      
   THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER is one of the most literal translations   
   from text to screen since they pasted up printed pages of THE   
   MALTESE FALCON. I saw the movie first, and the book and movie feel   
   like two prints from the same negative in many ways, though James   
   Agee's adaptation achieved the effect in ways that, like Raymond   
   Chandler's script for DOUBLE INDEMNITY, worked in the intended   
   medium--and so well, it feels like a clone.   
      
   And the atmosphere! Like you say. To me, it feels like a silent   
   movie because the visuals are so very rich.   
      
   I sure would like to know why he didn't direct another movie! [-kw]   
      
   Evelyn responds:   
      
   Mark really liked the radio play of "Don Juan in hell"; we even   
   bought a copy on LP on eBay before it became available on-line.   
      
   Apparently THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER initially got negative reviews   
   and was a financial failure, which discouraged Laughton from ever   
   directing another. (And, of course, it also probably made it   
   harder to find backers for another.) [-ecl]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
   TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)   
      
   I had thought that DEVIL'S CONTRACT: THE HISTORY OF THE FAUSTIAN   
   BARGAIN by Ed Simon (Melville House Publishing, ISBN   
   978-1-68589-104-6) would be about the Faust legend in literature   
   and the arts through the ages. Instead, it is more a political   
   tract on how people have through the ages made their own "pacts   
   with the Devil" to gain their own ends. So he cites the   
   Molotov-Ribbentropp Pact as not just a Faustian bargain, but a   
   mutual Faustian bargain at that.   
      
   This in itself would not be a problem, just not what I expected.   
   But the copy editing at Melville House is terrible:   
      -  Simon loves sentence fragments ("A biography that was at   
   least rumored to be replete with espionage, torture, sodomy, and   
   blasphemy.") and uses them to excess.   
      -  He sometimes uses the wrong word ("the young Christ fastens a   
   number of clay statues of birds which he then endows with life"   
   when he means "the young Christ fashions a number of clay statues   
   of birds ...").   
      -  He will re-use the same phrase too soon, not for effect, but   
   apparently out of carelessness ("the vagaries of class and gender"   
   appears twice within a page of each other).   
      -  He ignores punctuation rules, leading to confusion. Are   
   "Dido, the Queen of Carthage, The Jew of Malta, Edward the Second,   
   the two parts of Tamburlaine, Dr. Faustus, and the Massacre at   
   Paris" six plays, seven plays, or eight plays?  Only the   
   lower-case "the" in the first title gives a [partial] clue.   
      -  It has no index.   
      
   There is a hint of where Arthur C. Clarke may have gotten   
   Clarkes's Law. Clarke's law is "Any sufficiently advanced   
   technology is indistinguishable from magic." Simon quotes Roger   
   Bacon as saying, "... many secrets of nature and art are thought   
   magical by the unlearned, and the magicians trust foolishly in   
   symbols and incantations to bring them power; pursuing them, they   
   leave behind the work of nature and of art for the sake of the   
   error of incantations and symbols."   
      
   I'll close with Simon's description of the "Faustian bargain" the   
   German conservatives made with Hitler, as true now as it was then:   
      
   "Hitler's rise can be told as a tale of various coinciding   
   Faustian bargains. To begin with, there were the capitulations and   
   concessions given to Hitler and his National Socialists by the   
   mainstream political parties of Weimar Germany, men who believed   
   that Der Fuehrer could be  constrained and used to further their   
   own political aims. Like most conventional conservatives, they   
   were elitists, nationalists, chauvinists, and racists, though not   
   necessarily genocidal. As elitists, they found the buffoonery of a   
   little man like Hitler contemptible, but they felt that his   
   histrionics could be bottled, that he could be deployed as a   
   creature capable of granting them power, but whom they'd   
   steadfastly control. As distasteful as Hitler may have been to   
   them, he was a tool for bashing liberals and labor unions,   
   socialists and communists. They were felled by not taking Hitler   
   seriously, by not understanding the demonic import  of his claims.   
   Nobody signs a contract with Satan and avoids hell."   
      
   [-ecl]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
                                        Evelyn C. Leeper   
                                        evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com   
      
      
              Show me a congenital eavesdropper with the instincts   
              of a Peeping Tom and I will show you the makings   
              of a dramatist.   
                                              --Kenneth Tynan   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)