Today I learned...

[Also]

There are more important things to be depressed about.

Yeah. I'm depressed about them, too.

 

[Also]

Sophie's Choice is a rare example of me preferring the movie to the book. I generally run out of patience before I run out of Styron.

It's a beautiful film. Pakula's first cut was five hours, and I would watch it if it were available. If I could choose a favorite scene, it might be the one where they're sitting on the roof and the background music is a Mendelssohn Song Without Words in E-flat, the perfect choice of piece and tonality. It's one of those relatively rare scenes where film succeeds in elevating us above a narrative moment to imply a halcyon period, as with Butch Cassidy and Etta Place in that film's bicycle scene.

But even as the fan of the book that I am, I do find myself skipping pages at a stretch when I re-read it.