I went to see Interstellar at the cinema in Glasgow this weekend. As usual, I have to silence the dry old demon who hisses in my ear, ‘But are they getting the physics right??? How much of this science stuff they’re spouting is true, and how much made up?’ I’m not even sure these are valid questions when you know you’re watching fiction. Novelists have been happily making up it up scientifically for centuries. Nothing gets in the way of a good story. In any case, wildly inaccurate or wildly imaginative, whichever way you choose to see it, the story-telling in Interstellar is great. I wasn’t bored all the time I sat there (not true for Gravity, where the space time continuum dragged remorselessly). Lots of twists in this tale, and really clever building of suspense and tension. I thought the film had ended at least two times before it did. It’s not a lazy film. What’s more, there are a couple of powerful female roles. I won’t say more than that.
And then there’s The Turn of the Screw – what a weird, dark novella to set as a text for AS. I’ve read lots of Henry James before, but nothing quite like this. I was dragged right in, but once I had decided that what we were witnessing were the paranoid delusions of a madwoman, I found it a tad too dark. For me, that’s the only possible reading of the book. Googling around afterwards, I find I’m in good company, but there’s another camp who take a more literal reading. Read it and see what you think – if you like horror or mystery this is the thing for you. Once you’ve got into the swing of the language – and you will – it’s a quick, addictive read.