Lucius Shepard

		Citation : Il regarde souvent des films de Steven Segal, aussi.

NNNOOOOOONNNNNNNNNN!!!


Ce n'est plus du cynisme, ça n'a plus de nom !!!!

En regardant, par épisodes, le film à sketches Kwaïdan , j'ai cherché à en savoir plus sur l'auteur du livre qu'il adapte, Lafcadio Hearn... et je découvre qu'il fait partie des influences de jeunesse de Lucius Shepard :

"Most of my independent reading tended toward non-fiction travel books, mostly old ones, which are definitely weird by any definition, and adventure fiction, but I managed to sneak in a good bit of Jack Vance — with his ornate backdrops and lowlife picaresque heroes, he fired up my imagination. Then there was Lafcadio Hearn, the author of Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things. He was an ex-pat who lived in Japan and even published a good portion of his fiction under a Japanese pseudonym. The exoticism of his stories fascinated me and the awkward baroque-ness of his descriptions frustrated me — even at an early age I could almost see how to make them more precise. My genre reading in childhood and my teens was limited, so these men remained my strongest influences."
(source : weirdfictionreview)

Des nouvelles de l'auteur via le forum du Bélial dont je permets de copier ici les messages :

"Lucius tient la forme. Il vient de finaliser son prochain recueil de nouvelles, intitulé Five Autobiographies... and One Fiction.
[...]
Au sommaire, six nouvelles ou novellas récentes : "Ditch Witch", "Halloween Town", "Dog-eared Paperback of My Life", "Vacancy", "The Flock" et "Rose Street Attractors".
Que du bon.
Plus une postface que Lucius vient de m'envoyer et qui est assez bouleversante."
(Jean-Daniel Brèque)


"[En réponse à la question : Le Belial envisagerait de faire traduire et de publier ce recueil ?]
Oui. Pour 2014...
[...]
Mais si tout va bien, il se pourrait que nous ayons une autre actualité shepardienne avant ce recueil..."
(Olivier Girard)


:-))

		Citation : :-))

+1 :-)).

Dernières nouvelles par Jean-Daniel Brèque sur le forum du Bélial :

" [...] le prochain livre de Lucius Shepard à paraître au Bélial'.
Intitulé Beautiful Blood, ce court roman est un nouvel élément du cycle de Griaule. Il raconte l'histoire de Richard Rossacher, auquel il était fait allusion dans la note page 277 du Dragon Griaule.
Lucius vient de m'envoyer une première ébauche du manuscrit : 40 000 mots sur un total estimé à 55 000 (ce qui devrait donner un vrai roman, plus long que "Le Crâne", le plus long récit du recueil)."

Clin d'œil au traducteur :
"[...] il y a un personnage qui se nomme Breque (ou Brecque, je pense que l'orthographe est encore flottante...). Apparemment, c'est un salaud."

Suite des infos sur Beautiful blood (même source) :

"[...]
L'histoire se déroule sur plusieurs dizaines d'années et chevauche en partie celle de Méric Cattanay, qui fait quelques apparitions. Richard Rossacher, un jeune médecin sans le sou, découvre par hasard qu'on peut extraire du sang de Griaule une drogue aux propriétés extraordinaires : pour le consommateur, tout apparaît mille fois plus beau -- sa compagne, son environnement, la nature...
Rossacher ne tarde pas à se forger un empire, mais il est en butte à l'Eglise et au pouvoir politique local (représenté par le vil conseiller Jean-Daniel Brèque), et, parallèlement, la nature de son entreprise criminelle évolue pour virer vers le religieux...
[...]"

Pour rebondir sur une discussion dans le fil cinéma,
un avis négatif de Lucius Shepard sur The Shawshank redemption (Les évadés) :


"Shawshank was a typical Hollywood product move offering a ultra-sentimentalized view of prison. Here's a white banker, in the 40s, who goes to prison, and his fellow cons, mostly lower middle class or poor, think he's real swell, where in reality he'd likely have had his teeth knocked out, been used for sex, and killed within a week, long before he could impress anyone with his wonderfulness. They speak about him in Gee Whilikers tones one's finds only in comic strips. They become a boy scout fan club. Gosh, that Andy....what a guy! It was fucking hilarious. I thought for much of the movie they intended it to be a comedy. It actually works as a comedy. The old guy, the librarian, James Whitmore, with his pet bird...I thought he was going to do a little song and dance before he hung himself.

Blacks and whites mingle without any sign of prejudice in prison....wrong. Prison is the most highly segregated and racist part of society. Like bonds with like for protection. A friendship between a black and a white in a prison in the forties was about as likely as virgin birth. All Andy's little tricks...like locking himself in the warden's office and piping arias over the PA while the convicts listen in a state of transport, instead of---as surely would have happened--howling for his nuts on a plate. It's an entirely unrealistic portrait of prison life. Then there's that voiceover. That ass-kissing he's-my-hero voiceover. Morgan Freeman has made a career oit of being the black man who explains the actions of white character he admires, acting as a catalyst and interpreter. It's debasing, and unnecessary. The scene on the roof, when Andy gets beer for the cons.
"Andy just sat there with a little smile on his face." Jesus. For one thing, we didn't need to hear about the smile, we saw it. A voiceover should compliment a scene, not repeat it. He does the same thing in Million Dollar Baby, repeating, overexplaining to the audience as if they were a theatre full of dumbshits.

It's been said, Ok, but King and Darabont were telling a fable. Well, it's a stupid fable. Typical Hollywood triumph-of-the-human spirit hoo ha. The little guy rises up and whips the system. It's a pure unadulterated product of the studio system designed to make us feel good about our sorry lot, a fucking act of political oppression, the rich telling the middle class that, in essence, if things weren't so rough, if you weren't under pressure, your coal would never yield any diamonds. You'd never be able to overthrow the evil warden, swindle him out of a fortune, and make your way to paradise in some southern clime. Get it? It's a metaphor for life. Bust your ass in a factory for thirty years, be canny with your savings, and retire to Florida with your best bud. In the interim, you have eat the shit of the oligarchy and maybe get butt-fucked once in a while, but there's a better life awaitin'. You may think, perhaps, I'm reading too deep, but the subtext is there. Republican propaganda at its slimiest.

As for the acting, well, it's really irrelevant, but special note should be made of Tim Robbin's performance. He plays Andy Dufresne as if all the while he is gazing on the face of his savior, deriving strength from some calm prospect. St. Andy. There's no arc to his character, no change. He's as self-possessed from the first moment he steps inside the walls as he is the last day. Showing a little anxiety, a touch of nerves, would have been good. Robbin's is pretty much a sleepwalker as an actor, but we could have used a glimmer of emotion if he was, indeed, innocent. But of course the movie plays better if he's guilty, and he plays the part as if he is guilty. A cold, calculating individual who killed his wife. Just like the prosecutor said. That's why I thought it was a comedy. Then I noticed that no one else in the theater was lauging and I was forced to re-evaluate."

mmmm....
Je devrais peut-être me donner une chance de voir le film avant de lire ça...

http://www.elbakin.net/fantasy/news/19648-Lucius-Shepard-subit-un-AVC

Tenez bon, accrochez-vous, Mr Shepard, nous tenons à vous..!

		Citation : "Shawshank was a typical Hollywood product move offering a ultra-sentimentalized view of prison."

Ouaip, quelque chose comme ça, enfin bon, je vais pas détailler ce serait long, disons que je suis d'accord sauf "view of"... J'avais oublié cette critique, je n'ai pas vu le film pour cela. Je tombais à l'ouverture d'un navigateur sur une liste de "films à voir avant de mourir" un truc comme ça, et j'ai jeté un œil : celui-ci était le seul qui je n'avais pas vu... j'ai vu que c'était tiré de King, alors j'ai regardé...
Bon, bin, maintenant, je peux mourir, tranquille, hein...

		Citation : "... I thought it was a comedy. Then I noticed that no one else in the theater was lauging and I was forced to re-evaluate."

Rôôô ^^ Ca, ca m'est arrivé avec les Doors de Stone, avec encore plus de raison ama ^^