Interesting

One of my co-workers went to a meeting last night where Connie Willis spoke. This co-worker hadn't read any of Willis's books, so I recommended To Say Nothing of the Dog if she liked humorous but still science fiction and Doomsday Book if she didn't mind getting depressed. The test I've usually given people when I recommend Doomsday is to ask if they liked the movie "It's a Wonderful Life". If they did, then I say Doomsday is all for them. If they didn't, I point them toward Dog. Well, when I mentioned this to the co-worker, she said that Connie herself hates the movie and had written Doomsday "in a snit" about how she hated that movie. I really wish I had known this before I read the book.

I hate "It's a Wonderful Life". It's one of the most depressing things I've ever watched, and I really don't think the few minutes at the end where Jimmy Stewart decides not to take his life aren't all that uplifting after ninety minutes of watching a man's life get ruined in so many fun and delightful ways. When everyone's all smiling and happy saying, "Everytime a bell rings, an angel gets his wings," I'm still sobbing and aching for all the problems that are still going to be there for this man and everything he's suffered. Doesn't put me in the holiday spirit at all. I haven't watched the movie since I was in elementary school, I think. It left that bad a taste in my mouth. I catch snippets of it on TV during the holidays and gag. I get the same way about "Casablanca".

This is why I didn't care for Doomsday all that much. Now, had I known the book was a parody of Capra's Classic, I probably would've enjoyed the experience a bit more. I just think it's funny that there's someone out there who feels the same about this flick! Haters of IAWL, unite!