This morning I finished the last of my revisions on the Paul Thomas Anderson manuscript. I added quite a bit to the Magnolia chapter that I had always wanted to get back to, but had set aside in November because I needed a break from that piece (namely, I wanted to flesh out Aimee Mann's role more and reflect on information in the Video Diary). Yesterday, I added a lot of material to the chapter of There Will Be Blood, a few basic points of textual analysis that I had overlooked in the initial mapping of the chapter.
At this point, there will not be any more revisions for the time being. Down the road, as my own perspective shifts, and as other viewpoints enter the process, I will be open to revisions again. But for now I will just concentrate on proofreading, when time permits (!), until the entire manuscript is requested.
In all, it turned out to be about 111K and 358 pages. The introduction is quite long, but I am not sure what can be cut, despite constantly returning to it with that goal in mind. The chapter on Magnolia ended up about as long (approx. 45 pages) as the chapter on his first movie, Hard Eight (despite twice as long the running time). Boogie Nights and Punch-Drunk Love were both a robust 50 some pages. The chapter on There Will Be Blood, finally, turned into a real beast, well over 60 pages long. Much of the material covers the production and critical reception of the films, more so than my own textual interpretations. Though there's some of that as well, its about as different in its historical approach from the heavily theoretical Kubrick book as it could possibly be.
I want to set it aside, but I know I'll also want to keep tinkering with it until someone finally takes it off my hands. Luckily, I am knee-deep in my teaching this quarter, among other things, so I have plenty to keep me focused elsewhere.
On that note, too, stay tuned--I expect to make a very big announcement next month.
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