I figured out what's actually happening around here is a possible relapse of our recent bout of Deadly Bird Vomit Flu. That would be unpleasant, so I decided it was best to stay home from PAFF on Sunday and rest up. My original plan to hit three films today has been scaled back to hitting just one. This really sucks because I've heard raves from other festival attendees about Bab'Aziz: The Prince Who Contemplated His Own Soul, but I seriously doubt I will be awake in time to get to its final screening. Whatever I do end up seeing, that ramble will probably not go up until Tuesday sometime. Sorry.
Spent the day sleeping, lazing and reading. Among the books I picked up to read was the Vertigo adaptation of Neverwhere. That turned out not to be a good idea after all.
If you were thinking of picking up the trade of the Mike Carey/Glenn Fabry adaptation of Neverwhere, be prepared for the Marquis de Carabas to show up in blackface. I was not prepared, let me tell you. I didn't pick up the series when it came out in single issues, and I don't know anyone who did 'cause they would have mentioned it. So when I got to the end of chapter one and there was the Marquis with his jet black face, juciy red lips and flowing white Storm hair, I closed the book and put it down. If I hadn't already been sick I woulda been.
First thought was to put this book onto the pile of things to give away. There's always a pile of something or other to give away around here. Stuff that's not to my taste might be perfect for someone else. I figured I could give this book to people who don't care that the Marquis - a nifty semi-heroic ruffian with a rather significant role in the story who was a black man in the novel and a black man in the BBC series - shows up in fucking blackface in the Vertigo comics adaptation created by Mike Cary and Glenn Fabry.
But as I'm typing, I realize that *I* care. I don't want to pass this along to someone else. What I want is to get this goddamned thing out of my house as soon as possible. Happily, the trash trucks come tomorrow. This book is going into the blue bin tonight. Bye-bye blackface Marquis!
Now, there's wiggle room, of course. Vertigo editorial and/or Carey & Fabry and/or people who made it past chapter one and liked it the book *could* say well, yes ... TECHNICALLY he was a black man in the television show, what with the black actor who played him and all. But in the novel he was described as a DARK man, so we made him DARK. Just like the book says.
Yeah, one could say that. If one is ass.
Jet black face, juicy red lips, brown eyes and Storm white flowing hair. Jesus H. Christ.
