I Do Not Have O.C.D.

Quotation of the day ~ Jilly Cooper: Never drink black coffee at lunch; it will keep you awake in the afternoon.

I do not have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, contrary to rumour. Nor do i have A.D.D. or P.M.S., and i haven't touched L.S.D. in forty years. So much for acronyms....

I do get obsessed occasionally, though.  Once every couple of years or so.  The last time, it was with the music of Seether.  I heard their album "Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray," (which i still think is a stupid title, btw) and loved it so much that i simply had to have their entire output on CD.

Prior to that, it was the writing of Ian Rankin, and particularly his novels about the cantankerous Inspector Rebus of the Lothian & Borders Police.  I read "Exit Music" -- which was, at that time, the last book in the Rebus series -- and simply had to have every book he'd ever written. There are a lot! And i'm still, now, missing one title. I have it on order at my favourite local bookshop, but they seem to be having some trouble getting it (it's a very early one which Mr Rankin is not particularly proud of, but i don't care, i want it).

Now, today -- actually, since December -- it is this:

www.stieglarsson.com

Quite a few months ago, a friend, whose opinions i generally trust (in spite of his devotion to Dr Who) recommended to me -- in fact raved about -- a film called "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo." I wasn't convinced, i'd heard of it but it didn't seem like my type of thing at all and besides, i don't like tattoos on women. But i downloaded it anyway.  (There were two versions, an American one and a Swedish one. I downloaded the American one.)

In December, i finally got around to watching it, and had the top of my head blown off.

Starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. I was so impressed, i was compelled to download the Swedish version, from two years earlier:

What does it say there? Magnificent, dazzling, heart-stopping?

Well, yes, it is. All of these.







So -- and who says that illegal downloads hurt business? -- i simply had to have the DVDs. I bought the American one first, watched it again, and decided that it was marginally superior to the Swedish version. But then, went to my favourite local DVD shop and discovered that the Swedish version was available as part of a box set called "The Millennium Trilogy." And i bought the box. And when i watched the Swedish version for the second time, i decided that it was marginally superior to the American version.

Then i watched the second film in the series:

I was hooked. No question. "The Girl Who Played With Fire" is even better. (A number of people have said to me that they thought that "Dragon Tattoo" started too slowly. That certainly isn't a problem with "Played With Fire"!) An American version is in the works. Well, of course, i'll have to have that, too....











And then the third:

Yes, like it says there to the left. Breathtaking and incredible.














So, yes, of course, then i had to start reading the books, and am, as i write, about half-way into vol. 2 in the trilogy and it's compelling stuff, un-put-downable, and the books expand on many things that were, of necessity, omitted from the films.

Lisbeth Salander is such a magnificent creation -- a societally dysfunctional left-brained genius, an expert researcher and computer hacker. Apparently, Stieg Larsson's inspiration was Pippi Longstocking. No, really! Pippi was also dysfunctional ... and immensely strong. (I've never read any of Astrid Lindgren's books about Pippi, but i will.)

I'm also working on a theory.  The Millennium Trilogy may in fact be a love story. In "Dragon Tattoo," Lisbeth and the journalist Mikael Blomqvist -- whose nickname is Kalle Blomqvist, after the character in the Pippi Longstocking books -- work together very closely. I don't want to give anything away here....

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT

She literally saves his life.

In part two, they haven't seen each other or had any contact at all in a couple of years, in fact she seems to have deliberately removed him from her life. But at the end of the film, Mikael finds her -- at a scene of much violence, she is half-dead, covered with dirt and blood, and he holds her and says words that rip my heart out. He embraces her and says, "I'm here. I'm here." Devastating in its simplicity.

So, where was i? Oh, yes, affirming that i don't have A.D.D.

Here's the most recent playlist, just a short one:

Curved Air - Second Album
The Kinks - Live At Kelvin Hall
Richard Thompson - Cabaret Of Souls
Black Country Communion - Afterglow