A New Project

I'm listening to a radio play, the legendary 'Mercury Theatre on the Air' adaptation of Gillette's 'Sherlock Holmes'. It's very much an adaptation week, in fact, as Blish's 'Star Trek' prose adaptations sit not too far away. For some time, I thought that perhaps the Blishes were only good in my memory, but no they are good in reality. So is the 'Sherlock Holmes'. Apparently, this week's inclination in blog writing is the phrase 'in fact', which has been pushed to the brink of actualization four more times than it actually appears on the screen so far. Presumably, I picked it up at some point in the day, while struggling with a new proofreading project.

Proofreading or copyediting projects are very difficult jobs to begin, as they require a transition to a different mental mode. Yes, it really is that difficult to dig in, with the first few days only seeing a few minutes of work each, before things begin in earnest (blast, 'in earnest' is clearly a stand-in for today's 'go to' phrase!). The size of the project makes no difference, as it is merely a question of getting the brain into the right frame for rewriting. Rewriting is difficult, worse than editing your own stories, as you have to make far more involved informed and thoughtful choices about what to change and what to leave untoucned. With your own writing, you're free to just throw your replacements and edits around in glee, with other people's work it needs to be justified, and all in the context of understanding just what is being written to begin with. Similar to translation, but different, very different.

As 'The Immortal Sherlock Holmes' rolls on, and 'The Cocoanuts' moves through the postal system to this secret lair deep in Carmarthenshire, you might expect to enter a mini-Groucho season in coming days. It's really too early to say, with seasonal blues creeping in as they always do, and job hunting being the soporific that beats all others. However, Groucho might win out, along with Chico, Harpo and Zeppo. Harpo's weirdness could fill a series all on its own, after all... Yes, the Marx Brothers remain untouched in the Quirky Muffin so far, which is remarkable when it is revealed that they, along with Buster Keaton and a little of Abbott and Costello made almost all of the 'purebred' comedies that I can accept and appreciate. Yes, there are many other funny films, but they all live in the overlaps with other kinds of films. We're talking about 'straight down the line' comedian-led comedies here! Go, Groucho, go!

Oh, and for those curious, Moriarty didn't win out. Thank goodness.

O.