Most nights, I watch a bit of TV with the missus before bed. She does not get ready as fast as I do, so I usually have 15 or 20 minutes watching something on my own before we settle on something that works for the two of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, out of curiosity really, I just started watching (in 15 or 20 minute chunks) David Lean\u2019s Lawrence of Arabia<\/em>. I\u2019m not sure how widely known that name is outside of Britain \u2013 but the guy was an Oxford scholar of the Middle East who ended up uniting the \u2013 normally squalling \u2013 Arab tribes in a revolt against their Ottoman overlords. This happened as part of World War I, and since the Turks were allied with the Germans, them bashing the Turks in the Levant was (a bit) helpful to the overall cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n OK, that\u2019s the historical background. The film history is that David Lean \u2013 already a well-known filmmaker \u2013 brought the film out in 1962 and was nominated for 10 Oscars in the 1963 awards, winning 7 of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The film runs for 3\u00bd hours. It\u2019s perfectly willing to have long, long takes that show little more than figures (and camels) moving through a landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It involves a sexually ambiguous hero, who is (it is implied) raped mid-film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story doesn\u2019t have a happy ending, as Lawrence\u2019s dreams of Arab independence collapse as a result of individual greeds and colonial realities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Could the film be made today? I doubt it. A niche historical drama of that length? With no superhero character, no bestselling source material, and not even a well-known lead, I think the film would stand no chance of securing the necessary funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it a masterpiece? Well, don\u2019t ask me; ask the American Film Institute, who have the film ranked #7 in their list of the 100 best ever movies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A masterpiece, that no one would make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And don\u2019t lay the blame on the passage of time. 1962 is not so long ago. We\u2019re not dealing with the cultural distance of Shakespeare. We\u2019re talking about the cultural distance of Bob Dylan and the Beatles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And books?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The same, the same, the same, the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are any number of great and successful books from the past which wouldn\u2019t be bought today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes, it\u2019s just that something has been done to death. (Imagine trying to sell Twilight<\/em> now. Publishers would groan at something so stuffed with genre clich\u00e9, and with so few twists on a theme.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other times, politics would come into play. Part of the problem with making Lawrence of Arabia<\/em> today would be having a white man in a rescuer role. Publishers have become nervous and \u2013 some would say \u2013 oversensitive in their approach to navigating similar issues in the twenty-first century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, perhaps, there\u2019s just a sense that something has dated. So, for example, I don\u2019t think my Fiona Griffiths books will date quickly \u2013 they\u2019re not especially wedded to their period. But my first book, The Money Makers<\/em>, felt dated within years of arrival, because of its setting in the 1999\/2000 financial industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But looking at all the great books that could not be published today misses the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The publishing industry is not in some sort of collapsed state. Old tropes die and new ones are born. If Shakespeare had been reborn in Victorian times, he wouldn\u2019t have written the works of Shakespeare \u2013 he\u2019d have been a Dickens. If Dickens were writing his first book now, it wouldn\u2019t be Bleak House<\/em> or Oliver Twist<\/em>. It would be \u2013 well, we don\u2019t know, because the man was a genius and geniuses aren\u2019t predictable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What about you? Because this email isn\u2019t about Dickens, or Shakespeare or David Lean. It\u2019s about you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And you, my friend, are going to use this glorious great stretch of 2025 \u2013 a whole big, loping, empty year \u2013 to write something wonderful. Or to complete the wonderful thing you\u2019ve already started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And you\u2019re not going to complain about the broken state of publishing because (A) it isn\u2019t broken and (B) there are more ways to find readers than there ever used to be. But also, and mostly, because (C) you are writing your book in the glorious year of 2025, and every sentence you write is embedded in the culture of today \u2013 with all your knowledge of what people are writing about, responding to, watching, getting annoyed by and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Believe in that culture. Be part of it. And, for sure, you can yelp about the stuff that annoys you, or subvert current tropes for something you think is better. Take yesterday\u2019s idea and twist it in a way that makes it shipshape for tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But whatever you do, apply your bum to that seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ***<\/p>\n\n\n\n FEEDBACK FRIDAY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n First up \u2013 apologies. At the end of last year, I asked you for your agent questions and then got too overwhelmed by the onset of Christmas to answer properly. I\u2019ve remedied that now. If you had a question about agents and all that, then check out the forum again, and you\u2019ll find an answer there from me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for this week, it\u2019s a New Year, so let\u2019s make that the theme. Please give me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n