+ It’s so often the case that people who learned English as adults speak and write it more gracefully than native speakers? Look at Conrad, who published his first novel only 10 years after teaching himself English. No one has written more complex or elegant sentences.
+ Speaking of Conrad, some people continue to argue that David Lean’s plan to film Nostromo is one of the greatest unmade films. Having just re-read Nostromo, I voice my dissent. When it comes to novels that are driven by language and ideas, the best films are the ones that remain unmade. Moreover, Lean’s grasp of the consequences of the imperial project is primitive at best and indulgent at worst. Would he have cast Alec Guiness (who’d already played a Saudi in Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia and an Indian scholar in Passage to India) in brownface once again for the role of Avellanos, Hernandez or Montero?
+ In any event, there’s an excellent Italo-English miniseries with a multi-racial and ethnic cast to fill the gap, which is, typically, only available on YouTube. (It enjoys the additional allure of a propulsive score by Morricone the Great.)
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