The Third Policeman - Neuropera

[aeolium]

Not sure if this is of any interest to those keen on the work of Flann O'Brien (ff, there is a performance in Bristol). R3 mounted a radio dramatisation of the novel a while back but there has been precious little to commemorate the centenary of O'Brien's birth - something next month would be good.

Did anyone see the 'neuropera' which was on at the Riverside Studios about 10 days ago? There were some favourable reviews.

[Al R Gando]

Is it about a bicycle?

[Chris Newman]

Another hilarious writer who is woefully neglected, aeolium. I loved At Swim-Two-Birds and The Third Policeman. I first came across Flann O'Brien as a teenager when he died in 1966 and the Guardian printed some bits from The Best of Myles. I was into Spike Milligan and John Lennon at the time and the Irish whimsy was familiar. It is over forty years since I read any O'Brien or Myles na gCopaleen. I must look in some s/h bookshops and taste the waters again. It was reading a few of his books that made me try James Joyce.

[PatrickOD]

Appendix 1

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2011/0622/1224299383314.html

[Anna]

I must get At Swim-Two-Birds out of the bookcase as it's a long time since I've read it and the Pooka really makes me laugh. I see it is to be made into a film directed by Brendan Gleeson and featuring Colin Farrell. The film will be a co-production between the Luxembourg Film Fund and the Irish Film Board, filming starts in Luxembourg next year.

[aeolium]

I love the trial scene in At Swim, and yes, the Pooka. I cannot imagine it being filmed - it is so much a work where the detail in the language feeds the imagination that too much would be lost.

I don't know The Third Policeman as well - it's an aeon since I read it.

[LeMartinPecheur]

...filming starts in Luxembourg next year.

I never twigged that O'Brien's wonderfully comic world is Luxemburg! Maybe that explains the funny names and language he uses

Memo: reread 'The Plain People of Luxembourg'...

[Al R Gando]

A Pint Of Porter Is Your Only Man.

[french frank]

(ff, there is a performance in Bristol).

So there is! Pity it means entering the People's Republic of Stokes Croft, passing Tesco and Telepathic Heights. I think I'll make that my excuse for opting out, though electronica and madcap comedy aren't quite, well, me

I'll read The Third Policeman instead.