Scrabble!
A documentary about the Scrabble-obsessed.
There is a dedicated community of people for whom SCRABBLE is more than a domestic nicety – it is an obsession. They devote years of their lives to mental and physical preparation and travel the country – some full-time – competing in cutthroat tournaments. The dictionary is studied with religious devotion, each obscure word another weapon for the ultimate battle. For some, the game keeps them teetering on the safe side of sanity. For others, it has pushed them just over. Some scrape by on the meager winnings alone.And here are screening times.
posted by Nicole @ 1:42 PM
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5 Comments:
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I saw the documentary after reading Stefan Fatsis's "Word Freak." Fatsis's writing is better than the filmmakers' filmmaking, but it was a vivid illustration of how words will never be able to paint a picture as well as, uh, pictures.
I recommend seeing the movie and then reading the book.
Thanks for pointing out the error, Bill. It's fixed, and I have no idea why my brain told my fingers to type mock instead of doc. Strange.
Also, do you find that you'd rather read a book first and then see the movie, or the other way around?
With fiction I think I'd rather read the book first, to enjoy whatever suspense there might be and let my imagination paint the picture. I seldom if ever have any desire to read a book version of a movie I've seen.
With nonfiction, where there is a "right" picture to be painted, I'd rather see a movie first to lay the foundation and then read a book to get more details.
As a fairly recent Scrabble recidivist, I'll just keep hammering at this subject.
"The dictionary" isn't quite right, on account of a regrettable episode in which Hasbro bowed to political pressure and decided to remove a bunch of words from the official dictionary as "offensive." So to play the same game the "pros" play, you need to get your hands on something called the "Official Word List."
This is not to mention the SOWPODS situation, which relates to U.S. vs. international play.
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