tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8987400789130903662.post7916452649316243794..comments2022-10-07T19:17:35.929-04:00Comments on Reading Richard Rohmer: Brian Busbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04120341319506205062noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8987400789130903662.post-29508822645526267552014-12-20T14:35:55.440-05:002014-12-20T14:35:55.440-05:00The OED - not Webster's - defines "thrill...The OED - not Webster's - defines "thriller" as "an exciting or sensational story or play, etc. esp. one involving crime and espionage."<br /><br /><i>John A.'s Crusade</i> doesn't really fit.<br /><br />Me? I usually think of it as something like a mystery, but with more gunplay and a lot of running around (in both senses of the term). For "political thriller" add the President of the United States. For Canadian, add the PM (but keep the President).<br /><br />But you're right, it means everything and nothing, which explains these lines from the #1 song:<br /><br />Night creatures call and the dead start to walk in their masquerade<br />There's no escaping' the jaws of the alien this time.<br /><br />Aliens, night creatures, demons, ghouls, "the thing with forty eyes"…Shouldn't it be "Horror"? I wonder whether Vincent Price tried to set him right.Brian Busbyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04120341319506205062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8987400789130903662.post-74007765503499139662014-12-20T13:45:07.177-05:002014-12-20T13:45:07.177-05:00"One of the best" does make you wonder w..."One of the best" does make you wonder what the bad ones are. "The Canadian Bomber Contract"? It's a term that means everything and nothing. Like "thriller." Because John A.'s Crusade ain't one.<br /><br />I don't know if you caught this, because Rohmer barely mentioned it 15 times, but "Manifest Destiny," is the American desire to create a nation that reaches "from sea-to-sea." The Fathers of Confederation would also like a dominion "from sea-to-sea" and the Fenians are thinking the right size for a state is roughly "from sea-to-sea." Because anything worth saying is worth saying over and over.<br /><br />Chris Kellyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17925214622987881225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8987400789130903662.post-32045389545731056532014-12-20T13:36:12.076-05:002014-12-20T13:36:12.076-05:00A quickie with the GG! I had no idea.
What with l...A quickie with the GG! I had no idea.<br /><br />What with lifting 31 pages from a <i>W5</i> transcript I suppose there was no space for a dirty weekend. Brian Busbyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04120341319506205062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8987400789130903662.post-78495374305670727932014-12-20T13:16:57.477-05:002014-12-20T13:16:57.477-05:00I hope you get to Death by Deficit in the next cou...I hope you get to Death by Deficit in the next couple weeks. I haven't read it since high school but I remember Rohmer's Mary-Sue Prime Minister character having a quickie with the Governor General in the midst of a budget crisis.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8987400789130903662.post-47644766978731810422014-12-19T16:40:27.159-05:002014-12-19T16:40:27.159-05:00Writes David Skeene-Grant in The Oxford Companion ...Writes David Skeene-Grant in <i>The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature</i>:<br /><br />"Among Rohmer's hack-works, there is one shining nugget: <i>John A.'s Crusade</i> (1995), a historical espionage novel centred on Russia's sale of Alaska to the USA, of which the hero is Canada's first Prime Minister: it is one of the best Canadian political thrillers."<br /><br />Well, it is a nugget of something, but is <i>John A.'s Crusade</i> really one of the best Canadian political thrillers? Seems hard to believe. On the other hand, I've read only thirteen, and twelve of those are by Richard Rohmer. What I can say is that it's not nearly as good as Charles Templeton's <a href="http://brianbusby.blogspot.ca/2012/11/the-kidnapping-of-president-for.html" rel="nofollow"><i>The Kidnapping of the President</i></a>.<br /><br />I have one major complaint about the novel, but because it involves the plot - and I don't want to spoil things for you, Stan - I'll leave it alone for now.<br /><br />Here's a minor complaint instead: Seward may live, breath, dream and masturbate over Manifest Destiny, but why is he "the Manifest Destiny man"? The doctrine pre-dated his birth. That he tries to bring it about doesn't make it "his Manifest Destiny thing." I mean, what the hell?Brian Busbyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04120341319506205062noreply@blogger.com