As part of my weekend of relaxation and recovery from finishing the revisions on my dissertation, I watched Bubba Ho Tep.  I'd read the Joe Lansdale story years ago, and saw the film in the theatre and on DVD, but my lady was very good to me and bought me my own copy.

I know many people didn't like this film.

I love it.

Its absurd, wild, sad, and redemptive all at the same time. How could it not be? Its about a geriatric Elvis Presley and an old black man who thinks he's JFK fighting a soul sucking mummy in a rest home. And it has Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis! The story is one of my favorites from Lansdale. Its the best of his skills burning at all cylinders. And the soundtrack is awesome.

So, I thought I would include an excerpt from an essay Lansdale wrote on Bubba Ho Tep from his great collection Writer of the Purple Rage. Apparently, he wrote the story during one of the hardest years of his professional life, when people of good intentions were telling him to stop writing what he loved and make the leap into writing bestseller fiction. The results were rotten. But as soon as he started writing for himself again, he started to produce, at a very fast pace, some of his very best work. Bubba Ho Tep was an example. Here's a the quote I keep on my wall. Hope you enjoy it.

“I don’t want to live in a Pollyanna universe, but I do know this. Love and enthusiasm for what I do has always carried me through, and I hope to goodness it continues to do so. And, hey, if that love and enthusiasm lead me to a Bestseller, I can deal with that. So my motto is the same as always. Be true to yourself. Do what you love and the good things in life will come to you. But don’t ask me for a loan.” Joe R. Lansdale, Writer of the Purple Rage Story Notes.

Cheers,

JSR

Trackback URI | Comments RSS