Rainey -

You mentioned your appreciation of Edith Wharton -- we have something in common, though I haven't read as much as you have.  "Ethan Frome" was one of my favorite novels in high school, along with the earlier-read "To Kill A Mockingbird" -- both of which I continue to hold in high esteem.

Did you know that Wharton also wrote ghost stories?  A ppbk. volume was published last year I believe -- they are supposed to be excellent!  A little something to add to your reading after E.F. Benson, whom Luciaphil informed us about ...

Also, as to your curious theory about not making movies from books.  (What happened to the smilies?!!?)   I've thought about my own "10 Favorite Movies" list, and it's about evenly divided as to those that are based on existing literature and those that are original as movies.

"Sense and Sensibility" ... J. Austen; "Tom Jones" ... H. Fielding; "Joseph Andrews" ... H. Fielding again; "Rebecca" ... D. du Maurier ...; "Emma" ... J. Austen again ...

But the more I think of it, even those I didn't think about at first as having literary antecedents actually do have literary antecedents ... "Vertigo" was based on a French novel; "Cabaret" was based on stories by C. Isherwood, etc.

In most cases, I agree, the book is better than the movie.  But film is a different medium and has to "translate" one medim to another.  Sometimes the result is alchemy!

-Vlad

It has been fun catching up on the last 2 - 3 weeks of episodes, which I'm seeing for the first time.  These eps have been much better than I expected!  IMO, things greatly improved from the earlier "Adam loves Carolyn hates Barnabas and Julia wants to kill kill kill believes everything Nicholas says" storyline.

Eve had potential, beginning with her name Leticia whatever and Danielle Roget being an anagram, as discovered by Professor Stokes.  That's the kind of DS I like.  An evil woman from 18th century France, and her lover Phillipe whatever.  Very interesting.

How Jeff Clark got involved with her is a mystery.  They don't seem terribly compatible, if you go by what they're like today.

Poor Vicki -- how I wish she'd just dump that damned annoying Jeff Clark.  Who the hell cares if he was Peter Jennings or whatever 200 years ago?  What a drip!  I think she should tell him to piss off and give that nice handsome young lawyer, Frank Garner, a call!

I must have missed something when it was indicated that Maggie was unemployed ... what happened to her job at the coffee shop at the Collinsport Inn?  Loved her cemetary flashbacks and was amazed at the continuity of these recreated scenes.

Still amazed that they seemed to get everything from 1795 right in those flashbacks -- i.e., the year , who had died, who was alive, etc.  They even remembered that Vicki had left the Collins family history book back in 1795!  Considering all the lapses we're treated to in the course of the series, I was pretty impressed with all this accuracy!  

I've even stopped fast-forwarding through the Nicholas Blair scenes now that he's gotten more realistically mean toward Angelique -- I think it was the slap that made me sit up and take note -- or pause the fast-forward button!

Incidentally, I noted that, with respect to Peter Bradford/Jeff Clark, this was another example of what I've previously posted about -- a "resurrection" (rather than a reincarnation).  That is, his physical body seems to have been resurrected, whereas with reincarnation, of course, it's just the spirit that is re-born -- in a different body.  I just think it's curious that DS has so many resurrections -- more than there are reincarnations, I think.  Never having been a sci-fi aficionado, I don't know if this is something unique to DS or not ...

Hmmm... I listened for that line about Roger's cell phone that Julia99 posted about, but all I heard was Vicki say "He must have turned his telephone off."  Julia99 is a very modern gal, so maybe she just substituted her normal environment/vocabulary onto the show?  Actually, I was a bit surprised that Roger would have been able to turn his telephone off in the 60s/70s ...

Will be anxious to learn more about Chris Jenning's sister "Molly" ... is this one of those continuity things I was praising above?  Still waiting to hear him described as Tom Jennings "twin" though ...

Couldn't help but snicker when Angelique's call to the Prince of Fire worked a little too well ...  Loved the bit about the charred stars present at her beginning ... oops, I thought she started out on Martinque ... or was it as the innocent Miranda in the 1600s who was only corrupted by the nefarious Judah Zachary ...

Next week:  My New Theory About DS!

Never read "Wicked", but

I, unfortunately, did read "Wicked."  Being an active devotee of the original Oz books by L. Frank Baum, I detested that book from start to finish, for what it did to the characters, for its "moral" outlook, and for the writing, which I thought was crap.  Sorry to offend fans of "Wicked"; I did have a sci-fi fanatic friend who thought it was great.

It was nice talking with you at the festival!  Happy birthday!

I just got back into town after a week away and noticed tonight's late-night TV schedule:  AMC is re-airing "An Evening of Edgar Allen Poe" (listed as "An Evening With Edgar Allen Poe"), a one-hour, one-man show with Vincent Price dramatizing several stories by Poe.

Airtime is listed as 5:20 a.m. tonight (i.e., early Tuesday morning), but if you set your VCR, allow for some variance in start/end times (say, 10 minutes or so, to be on the safe side).

A must for Poe fans and/or Price fans!

Has the board ever been this hopping?

How does the traffic compare with what it was on the former VantageNet board?

If there has been a major increase in traffic (as it seems there must be), to what might that be attributed?

I agree.  

That is, I think your observations are very sharp, Luciaphil -- as are everyone's followup comments.

I have missed some episodes lately and think I've watched a few others out of order, and was even considering not bothering to tape/watch for a week or so, especially when I saw yesterday's scene where Angelique was writhing on the "operating" table in the makeshift lab.  It made me feel sorry for Lara Parker.  If that's the type of material she was associated with, it's no wonder her career didn't skyrocket.  (However, we know that she typically had much better material on DS.)

So, just as I was considering not bothering to watch the show for a while (especially after reading someone's comment elsewhere that it doesn't get any better in the next week), I discovered one day's eps I hadn't viewed -- the one where Adam is playing chess, discusses Freud with Carolyn, where Elizabeth calls her lawyers and dictates her new will, etc.  And it actually was quite good.  So I'm hoping the eps won't be completely about this stupid life force experiment.

BTW, I agree, Jeff Clark's character has gotten to be extremely irritating.  I've been wishing he'd be killed off completely by vampire bites.

I'm rather confused now with my viewing in that I remember Julia having been bitten by the Don Briscoe character (and yes, those crossed-eyes completely spoiled the scene), but I'm unclear now if she's under a vampire's power or if I've missed something.  Are both she and Jeff Clark currently under vampiric influence?

About Freud:  I admit I was quite disappointed, too, when I learned that Professor Stokes had told Adam that every man of the 20th century should read Freud.  (Now, Jung -- that would have been more interesting for his character, I think.)

It does possibly reinforce my belief, though, that Stokes is a psychologist who branched off into parapsychology.

It's not you, Vlad.  If you logout from "Current Talk", when you log back in again you'll be brought directly to that board

That could have been what happened both last night and on a previous night. It's sometimes necessary for me to "multi-task" when I have computer access, and I do remember logging out soon after logging in and then returning at least one of those times.

but you can get to the main directory from there several different ways-- by clicking "Home" on the horizontal menu, clicking "DS Forums" or "General Discussions", and also through the Forum Jump.

Perhaps temporary insanity is the explanation here --  or rather too much on my mind.  The board looked different and I didn't notice that this would have worked the same as always.

You can highlight and copy again.  That was temporarily down due to some forum tweaking.

Hooray!  There is always so much information here that I want to preserve ...

Hope I didn't sound too testy!