From Shakespeare to Star Trek

Every year West Hollywood pulls out all the stops and holds their annual book fair. Something new and exciting that keeps one enthralled, intrigued or laughing can be found there every year.

Past Book Fairs have featured autograph sessions with political writers such as Gore Vidal who was as out spoken in his younger days as he is today and continue to be controversial with such authors this year as Jordan Elgrably, Mir Tamim  and Reza Aslan.

Last year Ray Bradbury spoke of his early years when another young man by the name of Hugh Hefner published his short stories in an up and coming men’s magazine and Lucile Ball was his landlord. This year Carol Channing and Bruce Vilanch spoke at the Entertainment Pavilion keeping the audience in stitches for an hour. Their frank discussion of back stage antics and promotion of the arts in public schools earned them a standing ovation and left the audience wanting more. Carol sang gospel and a song promoting the arts in schools. She talked of working with Ethel Merman and Ann Miller, Andy Rooney’s Sugar Babies and Love Boat. Carol may have outlived the competition but she certainly never let the parade pass her by.

Nicholas Meyer talked about directing and how, as a child he sat next to Albert Einstein at dinner, found a hair on his food, said so out loud, and was told by Einstein “Shhhhhh… not so loud or everyone will want one.” His works are a combination of different approaches to a common theme, the contrast providing richness and depth that would otherwise be missing. “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution” with Sherlock Holmes visiting Sigmund Freud starring Alan Arkin and Nicol Williamson (a Shakespearian actor who’s version of Hamlet is widely acclaimed to have rivaled that of Richard Burton), has its roots in Meyer’s father being a psychologist and likening his craft to detective work. The subtitle of The Wrath of Khan, “The Undiscovered Country” is Shakespeare’s way of describing death in Hamlet but also references Eden and becomes politically topical for it’s time with the concept of virgin territory corrupted by two massive forces fighting for dominance regardless of the harm done in their wake. All art forms are influenced not only by the past but also by our perception of it. The “what if” aspect of successful fantasy has a basis in actual, literary or artistic history, it has to have a jumping off point to make a connection the audience can relate to. It is influenced by our current body of knowledge combined with present forces and past history then takes a step beyond.

There is a little bit of everything at the West Hollywood Book Fair, from comic books to politics, from poetry to television, from Edgar Allen Poe to the Brady Bunch, mystery, drama, fiction and fact, the influence of women and alternative lifestyles are all represented. Writers are the foundation, the inspiration and the imagination of Hollywood. The Book Fair brings writers, actors, comedians and politicians of all kinds together in one venue that celebrates the arts and imagination originating with the written word.