Klonor
22-07-2006, 06:55
Within Syrup, Max's debut novel, a large portion of the closing end deals with the creation of Backlash, a feature-length Hollywood film production designed to advertise Coca-Cola. Not a simple thirty-second TV advertisement, Backlash has a budget of 140 million dollars and stars such Hollywood bigwigs as Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Winona Ryder. Unfortunately, Scat (The protagonist) and 6 (The sexy female lead) are being set up to fail, and the oversight committee is just one of many traps laid for them. The committee, composed of individuals who know absolutely nothing about marketing (Seriously, they think "Babe-A-Licious" is a good name to give one of the unusually attractive female redshirts), does nothing beyond give bad advice and hamper the dynamic duo when they come up with any good ideas. However, for some reason, I remember them doing more than they did.
I just finished re-reading Syrup again (I decided to collect all three Barry books together and, looking at the three of them, realised that I'd re-read Company and Jennifer Government a whole bunch without going back to Syrup and thought it would only be fair) and, though the committee certainly isn't helpful, I remember my first time reading the book as having even more sabotage. Specifically, I remember Vanilla Ice. Unfortunately, I didn't seem to meet him this time through the book, which is odd. Quite odd, in fact, since I remember his involvement quite clearly.
Apparently, the first time I read the book one of the committee members has a child who is a fan of ol' Ice and, either because of his complete lack of knowledge relating to current music trends or because of purposeful ill-will, the committee member believes that means Ice is a huge hit amongst todays youth, and his music would be perfect for the soundtrack of Backlash (Backlash, by the way, is a sci-fi action thriller). The committee puts it to a vote, passes it, and now Scat needs to ring up Vanilla and get him to sign off on the movie. Sadly, since Scat is more "hip", he doesn't treat Vanilla's agent with the proper delicacy and is promptly hung up on, prompting a rather scornful remark from Gwyneth.
I remember it all quite clearly, evidenced by my having just written it down, but I completely missed it when I just read the book. Now, normally I'd think I just skipped a page for some reason (I've done that on occasion), but, even though it's not exactly a major plot point, this wasn't exactly a single paragraph either, and I think I would have noticed such a large jump from one part of the book to the next. So, where did it go?
I'm wondering if this was ever in the book at all. Maybe I read some other book and, for some reason, dropped that scene into this one. Maybe I made the whole thing up. Maybe I was in an altered state of mind (Either then or now) and and I just can't tell which memory is the clean one. Whatever it is, it's driving me nuts.
Tell me, does anybody else remember this scene? Was it actually in Syrup? Have I completely lost it? A little help would be greatly appreciated.
I just finished re-reading Syrup again (I decided to collect all three Barry books together and, looking at the three of them, realised that I'd re-read Company and Jennifer Government a whole bunch without going back to Syrup and thought it would only be fair) and, though the committee certainly isn't helpful, I remember my first time reading the book as having even more sabotage. Specifically, I remember Vanilla Ice. Unfortunately, I didn't seem to meet him this time through the book, which is odd. Quite odd, in fact, since I remember his involvement quite clearly.
Apparently, the first time I read the book one of the committee members has a child who is a fan of ol' Ice and, either because of his complete lack of knowledge relating to current music trends or because of purposeful ill-will, the committee member believes that means Ice is a huge hit amongst todays youth, and his music would be perfect for the soundtrack of Backlash (Backlash, by the way, is a sci-fi action thriller). The committee puts it to a vote, passes it, and now Scat needs to ring up Vanilla and get him to sign off on the movie. Sadly, since Scat is more "hip", he doesn't treat Vanilla's agent with the proper delicacy and is promptly hung up on, prompting a rather scornful remark from Gwyneth.
I remember it all quite clearly, evidenced by my having just written it down, but I completely missed it when I just read the book. Now, normally I'd think I just skipped a page for some reason (I've done that on occasion), but, even though it's not exactly a major plot point, this wasn't exactly a single paragraph either, and I think I would have noticed such a large jump from one part of the book to the next. So, where did it go?
I'm wondering if this was ever in the book at all. Maybe I read some other book and, for some reason, dropped that scene into this one. Maybe I made the whole thing up. Maybe I was in an altered state of mind (Either then or now) and and I just can't tell which memory is the clean one. Whatever it is, it's driving me nuts.
Tell me, does anybody else remember this scene? Was it actually in Syrup? Have I completely lost it? A little help would be greatly appreciated.