Put the Book Back on the Shelf

Okay, I’m listening to a stream of the new Belle and Sebastian Album, Write About Love, (available here until the 12th of October) It’s too early to say whether or not I like it. In the meantime, I’d like to bring to your attention a few literary links you might not be aware of.

Don’t mention it.

Well, obviously, the first link has to be Cécile Aubry, French actress-turned-author who wrote the novel, Belle et Sébastien, a boy-and-his-dog story set in a village in the French Alps. It was adapted as a television show, also called Belle et Sébastien which ran on French TV from 1965 until 1970. It was reinterpreted in 1981 in the form of Japanese anime, Meiken Jolie before being recycled once again as a Glaswegian indie band.

Their song, Seymour Stein, was featured in the movie, High Fidelity (based of course, on Nick Hornby’s novel of the same name.) You remember the scene, right? Jack Black walks into John Cusack’s store, criticises the song because ‘unfortunately, it sucks ass’, then he puts on Katrina and the Waves instead.

Just to clarify, I have read the novel as well, but only the once and the whole way through, all I could hear in my head was John Cusack trying to do a London accent.

The song in question appears on their ’98 album, The Boy With the Arab Strap which is either their best album or a parody of their previous work, depending on how you look at it. I think it’s a genuine work of art and deserves to be enjoyed by everyone at least once.

The next link is Washington Irving.

If you listen to the end of track six on their 1996 debut, Tigermilk, you can hear Isobel Campbell talking incessantly in a torrent of nonsense. It turns out that it’s not just any nonsense; it’s a passage from Rip Van Winkle, Irving’s famous short story about the man who fell asleep and woke up twenty years later with a beard.

They don’t write them like that anymore.

Anybody like graphic novels? Put the Book Back on the Shelf: A Belle & Sebastian Anthology, is a collection of comic strips based on Belle and Sebastian Songs. I’d say whether it was a good idea or not but, to be honest, I’ve just found out about it – how’s that for preparation! Watch this space, I’ll let you know.

As for the new album...it's growing on me.