I've heard mixed reviews about Tom Stoppard's three-parter, The Coast of Utopia (Voyage, Part 1, is now playing at Lincoln Center) in papers, on TV, online, in elevators, but I am desperate to see it nonetheless. Herzen, Belinsky, Bakunin--- you don't get a chance to see these superstars of 19th-century Russian intellectual history depicted on the stage every season. You could, of course, have read prior to the play's arrival, A Sportsman's Sketches (recommended under What We're Into) or historiographies such as Orlando Figes' Natasha's Dance to get yourself in the proper "Russian" frame of mind. If you tried hard enough, you may even have been able to get a copy of Isaiah Berlin's 1978 Russian Thinkers, but not any more. An innocuous list of suggested readings in Utopia's playbill has triggered a "Berlin craze" (see the NYT article). Russian Thinkers (a work for which Berlin had "fairly low expectations," according to Wolfson College fellow Henry Hardy) is currently out of stock, and Penguin, its publisher, has ordered two reprintings of 3500 copies. It's come rushing out of the Penguin backlist from nowhere like Chichikov's carriage, destined, I imagine, to return to its modest place in that backlist once the love affair with Utopia fades. Now, if you could only get Russian Thinkers in ebook (can you?). Then, if Stoppard writes something else that pushes Berlin back out of the ivory tower and into the limelight (or there's a Utopia revival in future years), any corresponding rustlings in the backlist can be more promptly managed. Or so, that's the theory.
I've heard mixed reviews about Tom Stoppard's three-parter, The Coast of Utopia (Voyage, Part 1, is now playing at Lincoln Center) in papers, on TV, online, in elevators, but I am desperate to see it nonetheless. Herzen, Belinsky, Bakunin--- you don't get a chance to see these superstars of 19th-century Russian intellectual history depicted on the stage every season. You could, of course, have read prior to the play's arrival, A Sportsman's Sketches (recommended under What We're Into) or historiographies such as Orlando Figes' Natasha's Dance to get yourself in the proper "Russian" frame of mind. If you tried hard enough, you may even have been able to get a copy of Isaiah Berlin's 1978 Russian Thinkers, but not any more. An innocuous list of suggested readings in Utopia's playbill has triggered a "Berlin craze" (see the NYT article). Russian Thinkers (a work for which Berlin had "fairly low expectations," according to Wolfson College fellow Henry Hardy) is currently out of stock, and Penguin, its publisher, has ordered two reprintings of 3500 copies. It's come rushing out of the Penguin backlist from nowhere like Chichikov's carriage, destined, I imagine, to return to its modest place in that backlist once the love affair with Utopia fades. Now, if you could only get Russian Thinkers in ebook (can you?). Then, if Stoppard writes something else that pushes Berlin back out of the ivory tower and into the limelight (or there's a Utopia revival in future years), any corresponding rustlings in the backlist can be more promptly managed. Or so, that's the theory.
From Matt: The scriptwriters made quite a few changes from the book, but they were all for the best - and booklover though I am I have to admit that its better to see magic than to read about it.
From Mina: I adore this film. Monsieur Hulot’s very modern sister and brother-in-law don’t know what to do with Tati’s charmingly untidy and bungling protagonist, who inhabits a world where meaning is still more important than appearances.
From Carey: A must see Hayao Miyazaki’s anime is Laputa: Castle in the Sky, originally released in 1986. A fantasy film that explores the altruistic and compassionate nature of humans, aspects lost through repeated exposure to power, technology, and the complexities brought by the combination of the two. 
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