Play all: a bingewatcher's notebook

217 Pages·2016·0.649 MB·English

by  James, Clive

Play All
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Clive James
Play All
a bingewatcher’s notebook
New Haven and London
Copyright © 2016 by Clive James.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including il-
lustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections
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Designed by Sonia L. Shannon.
Set in Fournier type by Integrated Publishing Solutions.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016930355
ISBN 978-0-300-21809-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Prue, Lucinda, and Claerwen
watchers of the avalanche
And to Farran Nehme, Alice Gregory, and Meghan O’Rourke
kids from brooklyn
And to Marina Hyde, Hadley Freeman, Catherine Shoard,
and Zoe Williams
shakers of the superflux
And to Simon Schama and Jonathan Meades
kings of the walking talk
And to James Gandolfini and Philip French
ghosts at the feast
And to Jonny Grove, Maia Grove, and Benjamin Beresford
image consultants
And to Steven Bochco, Carl Reiner, Richard Benjamin,
and Peter Bogdanovich
principal elders
Und doch darf ich nicht klagen. Es tut so wohl noch
einmal Ja zu sagen.
—kurt tucholsky
And yet I mustn’t complain. It’s so good to say “Yes”
for once.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
A Note on the Text xi
Title Sequence 1
The Ducks Have Left the Pond 23
Actors Airborne 43
Sorkin on the Racing Line 57
Sweet Faces Speak Poetry 73
City of the Dead 85
Breaking Understandably Bad 95
The Way We Weren’t 121
Displays of Secrecy 135
Game of Depths 151
Ariadne’s Labyrinth 173
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Acknowledgments
for critical advice on my text, I should thank
Claerwen James, Lucinda James, Deirdre Serjeantson, and
David Free. The opinions are still my own, but some of
them have become less intransigent through having been
hauled over the coals.

ix