I would imagine that C. Lee was chosen for both roles because of his
memorable past portrayal of another nobleman gone bad, Dracula.
At 06:09 PM 2/18/2004, Charles Butler wrote:
>Beth Quitsland wrote:
>
>But has anyone written about
> > the obvious similarities between Gandalf and Obi Wan Kenobe?
>
>They must have, surely. And in the films they were both played by British
>theatrical knights, too - what does that say about Hollywood iconography?
>Having seen the most recent *Star Wars* and *The Two Towers* films pretty
>close together I was even more struck by the characters played by
>Christopher Lee - Saruman and whatever-his-name-was in *SW*: both trusted
>and powerful Jedis/Wizards who had fallen and turned to the Dark Side/Lord.
>Curious typecasting, but it brought out the partial isomorphism of the two
>plots very neatly.
>
>And Philip K. Dick, I would argue, is a
> > science fiction/fantasy writer worth reading with close, appreciative
> > attention, as are Ursula LeGuin and Doris Lessing
>
>I believe there are many fantasy/SF writers worthy of such study (including
>the mother of a distinguished member of this list), but given that the
>fantasy/SF label effectively means automatic disqualification from the
>literary canon they tend not to receive it outside 'genre' courses, be they
>in fantasy, science fiction or children's literature. Margaret Atwood might
>qualify as another partial exception, although I understand that even she
>recently repudiated the SF label in the case of her otherwise-clearly-SF
>*Oryx and Crake*, perhaps fearing that it would be taken less seriously. As
>one who would like to think that Spenser's work was part of a living and
>respected literary heritage I find all this rather sad.
>
> > For the record, I would also poke fun at the launch of *Fletcher Studies*
> > if its promotional materials claimed that either Giles or Phineas was a
> > "marvellous" poet.
>
>Would cousin John count?
>
>Charlie
Marshall Grossman
Professor of English
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
301 405 9651
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