14 書香人物 P E R S O N A L I T Y & B O O K S SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2009 • TAIPEI TIMES

[ HARDCOVER: US ] SUNDAY PROFILE King of horror reveals little of himself Though she failed to land an interview with the novelist, L�isa������������������������� Rogak does a thorough job of excavating Stephen King’s life

By ERICA NOONAN NY Times news service, Boston

While reading Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King, you may get the feeling that the book’s subject is somewhere nearby, gently approving, but out of sight. Your Spidey sense would Clockwise from above: , chief creative officer for Walt Disney and Animation Studios, at the premiere ofBolt be tingling for good reason. in Hollywood in November; a scene from the Pixar’s animated feature Wall-E; Lasseter with his wife, Nancy. photos: Agencies King never had a one-on-one interview with biographer Lisa Rogak. The author’s closest encounter with King came during a 2007 interview in Bangor with his longtime assistant, Marsha DeFilippo, while “the man himself hovered just outside the doorway, John Lasseter, the man listening in on our conversation but never once stepping inside,” Rogak recalls in the book’s introduction. This makes Haunted Heart HAUNTED HEART: The Life and behind the marvel technically unauthorized, but Times of Stephen King in the most friendly of ways — King did give permission to By Lisa Rogak his friends and family members 320 pages A pioneer in , the Pixar co-founder is still pushing to speak, and scores of them St Martin’s technological boundaries — this time in 3D enthusiastically weigh in at length about one of America’s most prolific and popular authors. success with the novel and film By Stuart O’Connor Rogak, the gatekeeper Carrie, drug and alcohol abuse, The guardian, London for this flood of information, recovery, and being struck by a cheerfully goes about her work, car and almost killed in 1999. All ou may not recognize his face, but [Finding] Nemo. There was a tremendous “Like — we couldn’t do been investing heavily in it.” consolidating hundreds of hours of this is recounted and dissected you’d certainly recognize John amount of complexity in Wall-E. humans very well, so we kept them in Bolt was made from the beginning of interviews and the millions of thoughtfully, but not in any Y Lasseter’s work: Toy Story, A Bug’s “But what we’ve always done, since the background, you just see feet and as a . It’s also the first computer- words written by and about King especially surprising or revelatory Life, , Ratatouille and Wall-E, to the very beginning, is we have studied hands and stuff like that. But we could animated film from Walt Disney Animation into a readable, well-researched way for folks who are familiar name just some of his writing, directing what is that unique limitation of the way do plastic well, so making a film where Studios, of which Lasseter was appointed character study. with King’s life. and producing output. things look, and we’ve modeled that into the main characters were made of plastic chief creative officer in 2006, when Disney But without a fresh, Rogak does find fresh material Lasseter was a co-founder of Pixar the computer. was perfect.” bought Pixar. groundbreaking interview with with her exploration into the Animation Studios, and a pioneer of “That’s why Pixar films have always The next film technology with which “There’s one technological advance King, much of her analysis smaller, more obscure corners of computer animation. In fact, Pixar pretty had this movie feeling about them. For Pixar is leading the way is 3D, which has in Bolt that Pixar’s never done before: is limited to older interviews King’s life. His phobias — airline much invented computer-animated movies instance, we invented motion blur for seen a huge resurgence in the past 18 there is a softness and an interesting and his own 30-year body of travel, spiders, and the number — developing from scratch the process computer animation. This was on the first months. Pixar’s next release, Up, has been quality to the backgrounds,” he says. “The work, including the heavily 13 — are also examined as is his that almost every Hollywood studio now short I created in 1984, The Adventures of made in 3D — as will all its features from artists at Disney said: ‘Is there a way in autobiographical On Writing. obsessive work ethic, including uses. It refined its craft with a series of Andre and Wally B. It looked so real, even now on — and there will be 3D versions of computer animation that we can make Rogak — the author of 40 a little-known anecdote in which award-winning short films throughout to myself. But it’s not real because our the first two Toy Story films in advance of the backgrounds look more like they’ve books, including biographies King, during a writing session, the 1980s, and broke into features with eyes don’t see motion blur. It’s a limitation next year’s sequel. been painted?’ of The Da Vinci Code author had a surgical incision from a Toy Story in 1995 — the first full-length of the [film camera’s] lens. “We’ve been interested in 3D for a very “This new technology in Bolt makes Dan Brown and Shel Silverstein recent vasectomy burst and fill computer-animated movie. “This understanding of the limitations long time,” Lasseter says. “In 1989, Pixar the world believable — not really real, — certainly did her due his lap with blood, yet refused “It began way back when I first started, of how films are actually made, and then made a called Knick Knack but believable. When you stop a frame diligence, unearthing ancient to get up or seek help until he’d in 1983, working with the modeling that within the computer, is in 3D. I realized very early on that what and study the backgrounds, you realize interviews, reading all of King’s finished his chapter. computer division, which became Pixar,” classic Pixar. In live action, you get that you’re creating inside the computer is a wow, that’s pretty painterly — and you 60-plus books, and watching just King’s very normal family Lasseter says. “There inevitably comes a for free, but we had to create it.” three-dimensional environment. And I’ve have never seen that before in computer about every movie version made life finally gets its due in this time when they say: ‘Hey, we have this new Pixar’s visual creativity has developed always felt sad that you could only see a animation. There is a beautiful, rich of them. biography, which details his computer and it’s 10 times faster than the over the years, from the simple geometric two-dimensional window into that three- quality to Bolt that no one’s seen before in Too many other writers marriage to a beloved wife, ones you’re using.’ So everybody logically shapes used in early shorts such as Luxo dimensional space. computer animation.” have unfairly painted King as Tabitha, and his views on thinks: ‘OK, that means you can do what Jr (the lamp that became Pixar’s mascot) “We did quite a bit of research in With technology still advancing, what everything from nutcase to hack parenting his now-grown children: you’re doing, only 10 times faster.’ and the Oscar-winning , to the holography, in lenticular imagery, to try to does Lasseter think Pixar will be able to and shamelessly exploited his Owen and Joseph, both published “[But actually] what happens is that more advanced character renderings in get a true three-dimensional view of the do five or 10 years from now? dark themes for maximum gross- authors, and Naomi, a minister. it takes the same amount of time, but Toy Story, Monsters Inc and Ratatouille. world and objects we were creating. I was “It’s hard to say,” he says. “It’s getting out effect instead of thoughtful Rogak, an experienced it becomes 10 times more complex. We Yet, as computers become more doing a lot of amateur 3D photography to the point where the limitation is in the insight and analysis. In contrast, journalist, gripes a bit about have more computer power than you can powerful, and Hollywood relies more on — in 1988, when I got married to my wife imagination of the filmmaker: if he can Haunted Heart is a thoroughly King’s factual inconsistencies; imagine now, and still our movies take the CGI special effects, does the technology Nancy, we took 3D wedding pictures. But imagine it, chances are that he can make respectful overview of King’s life, his mother’s date of death is same amount of time to create.” ever get in the way of telling the story? there were no theaters you could see 3D it. Which early on in computer animation and a great starter biography for given incorrectly in On Writing, Each feature is a four-year process, Lasseter thinks that sometimes, it does in — you have to do a special setup with a was not the case. new fans. for example. and the animators have to lock down — but for others, not for Pixar. silver screen and polarized projectors and “Clearly, the most difficult thing to Devotees, however, may But her complaints are minor, the technology about two years before “One of the things from the beginning all that stuff — and it was a pain that no create is a human being. That’s why, when not find much terribly new and she does not seem to take completion. “That’s when you have to that we recognized is that these are just one got to see [Knick Knack] in 3D.” we’ve created human characters such as here. Most of the time Rogak personally her subject’s lack of say: ‘We don’t know how to do this, or the tools,” he says. “That the technology never “Theaters started recognizing that with those in , we’ve kept them is reworking territory King has enthusiasm for her book. In fact, movie really requires us to do this,’” he entertains an audience by itself. And for digital they could do 3D far more easily fairly stylized. To create a character that’s already spoken or written about: Rogak seems as fond of King on says. “In Cars, it was the reflections on the us, since we invented much of computer than with film. And what’s exciting about totally believable and realistic is always his fatherlessness, childhood the last page of Haunted Heart as cars and windows; in Monsters Inc, it was animation, we have a pretty good sense of that right now is that you can’t get it at going to be the challenge. But it depends and early-adult poverty, sudden on the first. the fur; and there’s the underwater stuff in what our tools can do. home. That’s why theater owners have on the story you’re trying to tell.”

[ HARDCOVER: U S ] ‘Bob of Arabia’ explores the ills of our troubled times In a timely collection of essays, veteran reporter Robert Fisk of the ‘Independent’ casts an unsparing look at the people and institutions who define our reality

By J. Michael Cole through a decade or so of editorials Pervez Musharraf, Yasser Arafat, to bits while making a bomb as who has paid attention to his long had the UK not participated in STAFF REPORTER he wrote for the Independent, of a Hafez al-Assad, Mahmoud dying from “work accidents.” career will know that Fisk sides the invasion of Iraq. And yet, to How does one review a book by a man who probably has seen more Ahmadinejad, Muamar Qadaffi And so on, language that once with justice, which in our world this day, an unrepentant Blair man who has spent the past three dead bodies than any reporter and King Abdullah of Jordan. His again reared its ugly head during often means siding with those (a favorite villain of Fisk) and a decades reporting on the world’s alive today. The 116 entries can skewering of these individuals will Israel’s 22-day pounding of Gaza in who ended up on the wrong side complicit media claim there was no bloodiest conflicts, who has be read as hiatuses, “a foreign be nothing new to anyone who has December and January. of history. In fact, his detractors connection between the two events, interviewed Osama bin Laden and correspondent’s thoughts amid war, followed Fisk’s reporting over the Later, Fisk explains why (Zionists and others) will find in as will those who continue to who, by Air France calculations, a corner of the journalist’s brain past three decades or has waded journalists should not be forced this volume many instances of argue, against all evidence, that 9/11 travels more frequently than that usually goes unrecorded,” through his immense The Great to testify at war crimes tribunals, Fisk at his most unsparing in his was the result of Muslim “hatred” any Air France crew member? recorded here for our benefit. War for Civilization. But here at least not until courts abandon criticism of Holocaust revisionists for Western democracy, that it had Robert Fisk’s journalistic resume Some entries, such as “The Fisk, aware of the failings and their double standards and or individuals, such as Maurice nothing do to with racism, support is impressive, from the Soviet forgotten art of handwriting” or limitations of his own profession, become equally intent on trying Papon, Marshal Philippe Petain and for or indifference to the Apartheid- invasion of Afghanistan to Israel’s “The cat who ate missile wire takes a step back and turns to war criminals in the Middle East, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand like conditions Israel imposes on own invasion of Lebanon, Iran after for breakfast” — a true story, by equally important subjects such as the perpetrators of Sabra and Mufti of Jerusalem, who had a Palestinians, catastrophic sanctions the overthrow of the Shah to the the way — are light in tone, but our collective forgetting of history Chatila, Hama and the countless hand in it. He is equally implacable against Iraq that resulted in US-led invasion of Iraq, as well as underlying the whole volume is and how movies have come to other massacres that have written in his call for recognition of hundreds of thousands of deaths, the killing fields of Algeria, Syria, the same anger we have come to define reality. the history of the region in blood. the Armenian Genocide and support for Saddam as he used the Occupied Territories and other expect from Fisk in the face of Especially useful is the Until then, journalists testifying in his criticism of the Turkish poison gas against Iran and support trouble spots in the Arab world. injustice, double standards and section “Words, words, words,” court or providing evidence would government, which to this day for repressive regimes that are The sum total of his death-defy- Western complicity in the suffering a modern-day version of George risk being complici������������������������t��������������� in that system continues to deny it took place. allies in the “war on terrorism.” ing forays into the Middle East is that finds such fertile ground Orwell’s famous essay Politics The Age of the Warrior: of double standards, he argues. History conveniently distorted There is much, much more to contained in his excellent Pity the throughout the Middle East. and the English language, in Selected Essays Fisk, who makes Lebanon his or altogether effaced by opinion Fisk’s rich volume, which, as with Nation, which covers the Leba- As in his reporting, Fisk which Fisk confronts the insidious home, has often been accused makers and governments, Fisk his other publications, should nese civil war, and The Great War spares no one, and his cast of manipulation of language (starting By Robert Fisk by Western media and various argues, is a dangerous instrument come with the warning “danger, for Civilization, a monumental, characters is a rogues’ gallery from his own training as a 522 pages Israeli groups of sympathizing too that, over time, will come back no light subjects therein.” But 1,300-plus page catalogue of man’s of the architects of catastrophe journalist) that characterizes most much with Muslims, criticism that to haunt us, as it did on Sept. 11, then again, what should we expect inhumanity to man which, Fisk — former US president George W. reporting — especially when it Nation Books has bordered on accusations he 2001. Though Fisk clearly calls the from a book that concludes on tells us, will eventually be followed Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, former comes to the Israeli-Palestinian suffers from Stockholm syndrome attacks a “crime against humanity,” such a note: “I wake each morning by a second volume. British prime minister Tony “Kut conflict. Here Fisk draws our occupied land becomes “disputed,” — especially after he was attacked he insists that they did not occur in Beirut and hear the wind in the The Age of the Warrior departs al-Amara” Blair, Jack Straw, Ariel attention to the catchwords, Palestinian attacks invariably by Afghan refugees in Pakistan in isolation, that they were a result palm trees outside my bedroom from the blood-soaked pages of his Sharon and other symbols of the euphemisms and “hygienic “terrorist” while Israeli “retaliation” on Dec. 10, 2001, whose anger of our actions in the Middle East. window and ask myself what we previous books and offers more West at its worst. Equally targeted metaphors” used to distort reality, is self-defense,” killed civilians at Westerners he said could be There is no doubt, he argues, that all ask ourselves these days — or personal insights into Fisk the are “our” dictators, ally-turned-foe how illegal Jewish settlements become “collateral damage” and rationalized. Such accusations, the London bombings of July 7, should ask ourselves: what horror man. In it we find the ponderings, Saddam Hussein, Hosni Mubarak, become “Jewish neighborhoods,” Palestinians who blow themselves however, are nonsense, and anyone 2005, would not have happened waits for us today?”