Books “I’m Charles Baker Harris. I can read. I can read anything you’ve got. Folks call me Dill.”
posted by on September 20 at 11:42 AM
Went to see the opening of To Kill a Mockingbird at Intiman last night. It was okay.
(Good things: Recalling the story; a big cast; Lori Larson as a town floozy. Bad things: Jem, Scout, and Dill were almost impossible to understand, their little-kid voices at a shouty monotone; some guy wandering around playing bar harmonica in a portentous way; the whole production was a little slow, a little flat.)
More importantly—I didn’t know the character of Dill was based on Truman Capote. Dill, the neglected, clever, wimpy one. Dill, the messenger between kidland and adultland, the one who is made most sick by the ignorance and bullshit of the grownups, who leaves the courtroom to cry after watching the prosecuting attorney sneers as he cross-examines Tom Robinson. Dill, the kid who introduces himself to Jem and Scout by bragging about how well he can read and saying: “I’m little but I’m old.”
Of course it’s Truman Capote. How could I have missed that for so many years?
Wait, is like that business with the "Who's Tommy"?
I was there, too. Intiman may as well have killed a whole flock of mockingbirds.
There's been a persistent rumor for years - almost certainly started by Capote himself - that Capote was, in fact, the author. I've never bought it, and I always thought it was a crappy thing to do to one of his most steadfast friends.
How, indeed?
I don't know. I'm pretty embarrassed about it. And I wanted to share my shame with you.
Ummm, for the love of GAWD, Truman Capote wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird".
One of the greatest books of our time written by: one of the greatest authors of our time OR ummmm Harper Lee...
Come ON.
Watch the movie on TCM sometime. The guy introducting the movie will tell you all about Dill/Capote.
Movie Trivia: John Megna, the child actor who played Dill/Capote in the movie of "To Kill a Mockingbird" was gay. He died of AIDS in 1995 at age 42.
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