When I was a boy, I loved to read the TV listings in the newspaper. I especially enjoyed the late-night offerings, which I wasn’t allowed to see. Example: 1 a.m., Channel 5, Scudda-Hee, Scudda Hay! It was something to do with mules.
But even more tantalizing, and listed at least once a month, always for very late at night, was a film called The Adventures of Tartu. Wow! Who was Tartu? Or what was Tartu? I loved speculating about it. The setting seemed to be Rumania–what kind of movie is set in Rumania? How close is that to Transylvania? Was Tartu a vampire-slayer?
Enter the Internet, years and decades later. Now I know!
Schiff.
This was so much more fun as a complete unknown! Looking it up and finding out the whole plot–well, that just ruined everything, didn’t it? The movie couldn’t possibly have lived up to my imaginings.
It’s a lesson in life that one learns again and again: sometimes anticipation is best just left alone. Fulfilling it only depletes it.
Many things in my life have been like this. Sometimes, our imaginations should not be spoiled by reality. 🙂
See also Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”: “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter.”
Also:
“Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!”
My amours turned out more than all right, in the end. In fact, I reckon I dodged a couple bullets, although I didn’t know it at the time.
Anticipation is a wonderful thing. My experience is the movie is never as good as reading the book.