I’ve decided that I’m going to use Barnes & Noble’s website more often for my book-buying needs.<\/p>\n
Our story begins two nights ago. I’d recently acquired Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story<\/i> on DVD for less than five dollars. When it came out in 2006, I wanted to see it, despite never having read the book nor having any idea who Steve Coogan — who portrays himself, Tristram Shandy, and Tristram’s father Walter in the film — was. The idea of the film, though, appealed to me; it’s as much an adaptation of the novel, which is a strange discursive text by all accounts, as it is a movie about the filming of an adaptation of this unfilmable text. So, it’s a strange, metatextual film — it’s an adaptation, and it’s a documentary (well, mockumentary, really) about the adaptation. And the film is self-aware enough that it knows<\/i> it’s a film; there’s a point where it tells you to watch the DVD extras, for instance.<\/p>\n
I’m getting all Tristram Shandy-like here, going off on tangents.<\/p>\n
So, the DVD! It’s been sitting atop my comics for at least two weeks now, and I finally put it in the DVD player. And it was absolutely hilarious. Maybe not Hot Fuzz<\/i> level hilarious, but it’s right up there. (Note to self: rewatch Hot Fuzz<\/i>.) It’s a smart, sophisticated humor. You really have to pay attention. And you have to be not-grossed-out by enormous, see-through wombs.<\/p>\n
I can’t believe I just typed that. “Enormous, see-through wombs.”<\/p>\n
Moving on.<\/p>\n
The film, by the way has a cast that includes Gillian Anderson (and there’s a whole level of metatext to her final scene), Stephen Fry (who plays himself so well), Jeremy Northam (probably best-known right now as Sir Thomas More from The Tudors<\/i>), and Kelly Macdonald (who is my first choice to play Izzy Sinclair if ever the character makes it from the comics to the screen).<\/p>\n
After watching the film, I decided I wanted to read the novel by 18th-century author Laurence Sterne. I downloaded a text file of it from Project Gutenberg<\/a>, but what I really wanted was something I could hold in my hands, that I could toss in my briefcase and read on the subway next week.<\/p>\n I tried Borders, not expecting them to have it. And, to no surprise at all, they didn’t.<\/p>\n I went to Barnes & Noble, certain that they would have The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman<\/i>. Only they didn’t. At all. I looked hither, thither, and yon. Perhaps, I thought, it was shelved under “Shandy.” Perhaps, I thought, it was shelved in Biography. Maybe it was being used to level a table. Surely it was there! Alas, it was not.<\/p>\n So, my quest unfulfilled, I went to Barnes & Noble’s website. Normally, I do my online book purchasing through Amazon, but not this time. I placed an order this morning.<\/p>\n And it’s already shipped!<\/p>\n The B&N website said it would ship in 24 hours, but I didn’t actually believe<\/i> it. Amazon says that all the time<\/i>, and I end up waiting days and days for them to send me a note that the book has shipped. B&N? More like four hours<\/i> between order and “Your item has shipped.”<\/p>\n So, early next week, I’ll have The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman<\/i> to keep me in stitches. :h2g2:<\/p>\n Thanks, B&N! Screw you, Amazon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve decided that I’m going to use Barnes & Noble’s website more often for my book-buying needs. Our story begins two nights ago. I’d recently acquired Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story on DVD for less than five dollars. When it came out in 2006, I wanted to see it, despite never having readContinue reading “On Tristram Shandy and Book Buying”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[423,561,4101,107],"class_list":["post-2402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading","tag-amazon","tag-barnes-noble","tag-reading","tag-stephen-fry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}