h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi there!

I'm the head of the h2g2 Bookworm Club and we write a regular book review column for the Post Here's a link to the club A745544 and to the archive of our columns A1055134

Having seen your review of Past Mortem in this week's Post and being frankly a bit jealous because it's really very good, I was wondering if you might like to join and write book reviews for the Bookworms.

Also, I'm a Performing Arts student and it was really nice to discover that I'm not the only person on h2g2 whose studied Artaud!

Out of interest, while some of his ideas were undoubtedly valid, do you think he wanted to take things a bit far. This tends to be my view, but maybe I'm just being old-fashioned!

I'm pretty sure he wanted to scare his audience shitless and bring them on the verge of insanity, so yeah, he did wanna go a bit far. Though I have an interest in him I certainly can see why he was commited for some of his life, I much prefer Grotowski's Expressionism, it has meaning, Artaud's seems purely aesthetic and just to be controversial - a type of thinking which has put theatre into somewhat of a vaccuum IMO. I like my theatre to mean something.

Erm well I guess I'll join then, though I don't think my reviews will be limited to books, gonna try my hand at films and music as well, keep a variety going. Thanks for the compliment but I thought it was a pretty poor review personally, I'm gonna aim for a better one next time I give it a go, I was just concerned about the word limit which made it a bit blunt. Then again, compliments are always nice :D

See, I'm with Joan Littlewood: theatre should entertain AND inform.

for saying you'll join, to be honest we just didn't want the competition! Good luck with your other reviews, though there used to be a film review in the Post, not sure if it's still there. We do need a good music column though!

What do you think of my article on Artaud? It was quite hard to find stuff about his life and it was so disjointed I fear my article has come across in the same manner.

A4870299

Very well sectioned. The biographical bits are a little hard to read, but I am quite tired so this might just be me.

Because you have included so much about the Theatre of Cruelty I suggest you re-name the Article to include this.

Put in links to articles or external websites for Arthur Miller and Samuel Beckett.

To get far better advice than this, I suggest you submit this to Peer Review. It's not as scary as it sounds and I've always thought the Edited Guide needed an entry on Artaud. I've just been too lazy to attempt it!! Tell me if you do this and I'll pop along to the thread.

I'm going to add you to my Friends list BTW.

Oh I've already put 3 articles through Peer Review, I'm not scared of its just people aren't commenting on Stan. and Brecht so I doubt they'll comment on Artaud, whose a lot more unusual. Yeah there was a PR argument going on about my Brecht entry but I defended myself as the other one is about him as a writer, mine was more about his style; I linked it in my entry too.

Don't worry I'll do some book reviews for you soon, though my next article is about seeing Donnie Darko in Kensington Gardens outside on the big screen, hopefully be accepted. I think I'll do an American Psycho review next.

Don't feel pressured! I only pretend to whip people if they don't do as they're told

I'll keep an eye out for the DD review. The film sounds really interesting but I'm worried I won't understand it!

Couldn't you say the same about books though? I mean a novel is more than the narrative just like a film is more than just the story (well, not always but in the good ones it is) Its so ambiguous that its impossible to understand it all anyway, it reaches different people in different ways, plus the basic story is good enough to just sit there and watch for fun.

Eek, I feel a lil bad, I've been offered my own column on The Post to do various multimedia reviews: novels, films, albums etc. and I just couldn't turn it down so I'm afraid the bookclub may have a rival but I don't see why we can't offer the people two books at once, plus I will not always be doing books, I'll do a lot of albums too and perhaps some films now and again. Soweee

*growls in what she hopes is a menacing way but probably sounds more like a kitten purring*

Could you not skip the books...or give those ones to us? Pretty please...

Well if I don't do the books then I'll just be doing albums really, and the occasional film. I'm not going to be doing books every week plus I am a bookclub member and they sed they think its clearly fine to have two book reviews so they won't be closing your one down, I won't be a rival, I'll just be another ambassador of the book club fantastiché

Okay....

But what on earth is a fanta whatsit?

Its like a group of fantastic people, a plural of fantastics if you will. Honestly, I didn't make it up, really, seriously

don't believe you. but it sounds like a cool word. I might forgive you yet!

I hope so, I'm only on two ppl's friends list don't wana lose one of them, especially a fellow dramatist.

*heart slowly melts*



You dippy thing!

Looking forward to the DD review.

Good good back, hopefully I'm gonna get a picture up as well so I can finally add my comic book alter-ego pic to my profile. So now that I've been cheeky and forsaken the Post book review, what other things can I do for the book club? Also, my Brecht entry has been scouted, but Stanislavski is still there, I might enter Artaud and Grotowski soon too but I'm thinking I'll leave it a while.

So where do you stude, and what kind of course are you doing? What How many years you into it? Also, what did you think of Oasis' new album 'cos there was some build up to it and then I didn't hear much afterwards, I think once again the boys may have tried to make good music in a new direction and have been slated for it, though its more Definitely Maybe/Morning Glory than Giants was (possibly my fave Oasis album oddly)

This is probably everything you need to know and I might put it up on my PS.

I'm hoping to go to Chichester University in September to study Performing Arts. I started out wanting to concentrate on acting but while I wouldn't give up that idea I also feel (and have been told) that I'd make a really good director (in theatre). My favourite actor is Julie Walters because she can work in any media, she isn't too big for TV and theatre despite being a well-respected film actress. I'm not particularly interested in doing films, unless they were home-grown British Billy Elliott/Full Monty types. I have to confess that my ultimate dream is to be in Eastenders

I LOVE Oasis! I own Definitely Maybe/Morning Glory/Heathen Chemistry and Don't Believe the Truth which is utterly brilliant. Noel's been saying a lot in interviews that he thinks the band have really gelled and I'd agree. Everyone has contributed to writing the songs and while they don't all sound the same they all sound like Oasis songs. Genius!

If you like Oasis that much, which it seems like you do, I'd strongly recomend getting Standing On The Shoulder of Giants, its so Oasis and yet so different, I really don't feel like there's a bad song on there from the instrumental start (which features in Snatch among other things) through to the end, also with the first song Noel didn't write for an album, Little James sung affectionately by its author, Liam. The Masterplan has a few good cracking tunes on it and proves that, like The Beatles, sometimes B-Sides are better than A-Sides, just to make sure I've downloaded every B-Side they've made (except from the new album, harder to find those single B-sides) and there are some hidden gems like As Long As They've Got Cigarettes In Hell, Idler's Dream, Let's All Make Believe and their cover of Bowie's Heroes - don't see how they didn't make Masterplan.

Oooh Chichester, I have some friends who live there who say its pretty grim - then again theyr all depressant pseudo-'alternatives'/emo ppl who'd find a rainbow depressing no doubt. Plus I'm going to Glasgow so what can I say.

Chichester is lovely! You're RL friends are mad!

When I manage to get that 'money' stuff I may well tak your advice. Have to admit that I've never heard of the Masterplan though.

Glasgow. Hmm. never been there myself but it sounds a bit depressing...

There's always highly illegal downloading which I, of course, would never recommend or borrowing off any friends?

The Masterplan was not well-advertised as it was, in essence, a compilation album and I don't think any singles were released. I believe it was released somewhere in the 1997-2000 hiatus to fill up some time when Bonehead and Guigsy left the band and they knew it was gonna take some time to rerecord Giants without them and finding new musicians. A vote was held on their website by the fans to see which 14 B-Side tracks were liked the most, I agree with most but differ with a few. The sleeve is in a classroom with a blackboard, the old (and revived) Oasis logo is at the top centre with the album's title underneath.

Well as I said, they are manic depressent wanna be emo/alternatives. The campus of Glasgow is lovely, I'm rather a traditionalist Briton so I do love it being the 4th oldest university in the country and the redbrick design, with cloisters and all, just speaks to me. Its only the white-tile, 60s flat box geography wing that looks a bit offish, but I'll ignore it from the Arts faculty.