Handy Liberal Argument Tool

Here is a handy timeline of the Bush administration's claims about Iraqi WMDs. I find that many conservatives still attempt to claim that Bush et al. never actually claimed that Saddam had WMDs; this should be an adequate response.

Very interesting to watch the story take shape over time, rising from vague assertions to a potent fist of aggression and then slumping into equivocation, all without any sharp discontinuities in rhetoric from day to day. Just a word here and there, refining and shaping.

Hellfire and bloody damnation

I remembering having an argument about this with Chris C. at college. He said it would be impossible, since people wouldn't identify with Muppet giants. But now CGI and Peter Jackson have eliminated that objection. I wanted Harrison Ford to star, but I suppose he's too old now. Maybe not. But anyway.

They're making a movie of Thomas Covenant.

Hellfire.

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever were very significant to me as a lad, more significant even than Lord of the Rings. I was drawn in by Covenant's unrelenting stubbornness, overwhelmed by the beauty of the Land. The prose is explosively purple, but the intensity of the emotion makes a fist in your belly and doesn't let it go. I wonder, will a movie capture any of that? Will the Land make me cry, the way Jackson's Middle Earth did? So much of Covenant is internal, very subtle. Can they make him as unsympathetic as he is in the books? Is there any chance they'll keep the rape? Will he even be a leper?

Mark Gordon is producing, according to the Hollywood Reporter. He was behind Saving Private Ryan—but also The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The blurb worries me, too:

The Hollywood Reporter announced that Revelstone Entertainment and the Mark Gordon Co. will join in the creation of a film version of Stephen Donaldson's fantasy book series The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Revelstone picked up the rights for the first six books in the series, and have picked John Orloff to adapt, while Mark Gordon will produce. The literary story tells of the man (Covenant) transported to a place where he is recognized as a magical hero. Once there he must use his magic talisman to save the world from Saturn and his henchmen.

To which I respond, "Uh, Saturn?" But we can hope this was a misquote somewhere along the line.

There's a small bit of irony here, in that I am, once again, engaged in defending the good name of Peter Jackson on Usenet today, from bookwraiths who believe he utterly failed to understand Tolkien and ruined the books with his clumsy adaptation and should probably be roasted with some kind of tuber inserted somewhere or other. I understand people not liking the movies, that's fine—but the quasi-religious fervor some people display in defense of the ever-polite Professor's words, and the calumny that is heaped upon a guy who made some great movies from some books he obviously loves, turns me off. But I have to admit to myself that I might very well be the same way when and if the Covenant movies get made, unable to see the forest of quality for the trees of interpretation.

Or it might just be a train wreck.

Incidentally, a tip for my would-be stalkers: Since I've mentioned it now, I've been active on Usenet since 1990. Searching Google Groups for "jere7my" turns up thousands of things I've written over the years. (Yes, I used to be quite a prat.)

[N.B.: As of this icon, I'm running out of icon space for my Advent Calendar of Friends' Icons, so I'm deleting the old ones as the new ones are posted. If anybody wants a copy of theirs and missed it, let me know.]