
Among the many pleasures of reading this work is the persistent pattern that recurs every time Dennis Hopper is involved in an anecdote. It may fairly be said that there are two versions of any anecdote relating to Mr Hopper, these consisting of:
1. The version recalled by Mr Hopper himself ;
2. The version recalled by everybody else.

This blog will maybe take the opportunity, now and then, to examine some of these differences of memory, which - Dennis or Ray could reasonably argue - are inevitable when we are talking about events so long ago, especially when you have taken quite as many drugs as Hopper has, or slept off as many lunches as has Keene. I came across one of these just the other day when perusing, not entirely by chance, the discussion board which accompanies Ray's games on Chessgames.com, which discussion runs to almost three hundred pages, something that you couldn't say of many of his books.
Anyway, I was reading an entry Ray made on the 9th of August, explaining his poor performances in Argentine tournaments in 1978, apparently due to tiredness:
i played badly in the olympiad and also not so well in clarin-esquel i started to recover-i think i was a bit drained by the korchnoi v karpov match which preceded it -where i was korchnois secondHe probably was "a bit drained", yes. But I wonder if he was particularly drained because - as Ray has apparently forgotten, but as others may remember - he spent much time not only working as Korchnoi's second, but writing an instant book on the match. An activity which his contract with Korchnoi, others have recalled, specifically ruled out...
3 comments:
EJH "... which discussion runs to almost three hundred pages, something that you couldn't say of many of his books"
Raymondo's page of games is just a rehash of work he originally undertook many years ago ...
and that IS something you can say about most of his chess books. :-)
Excellent blubbery penguin kicking article in the current KingPin.
PS:
for a Korchnoi comment on Keene, post 1978 world championship match...
http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com/2007/04/who.html
A prolific author, he has written over 140 books, mostly on chess, and still finds time to be the chess correspondent for The Times and The Spectator.
The Times slot must be one of the best paid jobs (in hourly rate) in the country.
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