Unbeknownst to me at the time, Michael Herr, whose legendary 1977 novel “Dispatches” will always be the definitive grunt’s-eye, bong-hit chronicle of the Vietnam War — an Elements of Style-defying, darkly poetic, run-of-the-brain masterpiece — died Thursday at an upstate New York hospital, which may have been near his home in Delhi, where he lived for years. I was writing, packing and flying to New York that day (i.e., yesterday) so yeah, I was buried but I still feel a little badly that I didn’t catch the news until tonight. Michael Herr was the King of literary Vietnam, a guy who brought the shit home like no one had ever dared or imagined, who rock-and-rollicized the nightmare and the murdering and the war highs. To me Herr was also the guy who sculpted much of Martin Sheen‘s voiceover narration for Apocalypse Now, although who knows who wrote what on that film? He also did some pinch-hitting on Full Metal Jacket. Herr was 76.

“‘Quakin’ and shakin’, they called it, great balls of fire, contact. Then it was you and the ground: kiss it, eat it, fuck it, plow it through with your whole body, get as close to it as you can without being in it or of it, guess who’s flying around about an inch above your head? Pucker and submit, it’s the ground. Under Fire would take you out of your head and your body too. Amazing, unbelievable, guys who’d played a lot of hard sports said they’d never felt anything like it, the sudden drop and rocket rush of the hit, the reserves of adrenalin you could make available to yourself, pumping it up and putting it out until you were lost floating in it, not afraid, almost open to clear, orgasmic death-by-drowning in it, actually relaxed.

“Unless of course you’d shit your pants or were screaming or praying or giving anything at all to the hundred-channel panic that blew word salad all around you and sometimes clean through you. Maybe you couldn’t love the war and hate it at the same instant, but sometimes those feelings alternated so rapidly that they spun together in a strobic wheel rolling all the way up until you were literally High On War, like it said on all the helmet covers. Coming off a jag like that could really make a mess out of you.” — page 63 of a dog-eared 1978 paperback version of Michael Herr‘s “Dispatches.” — “Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam, We’ve All Been There,” posted 12.29.15.

A friend wrote this morning to remind me that Phillip Roth‘s “American Pastoral” (’97) is “a true masterpiece.” Which is neither here nor there as far as Ewan McGregor’s upcoming film version (Lionsgate, 10.21) is concerned. But the trailer is intriguing. It has me thinking that maybe, just maybe, the film might amount to something. It’s always prudent to adopt a “wait and see” attitude with a first-time director, but every so often a form of beginner’s luck can occur.

The plot is about parental anguish and ’60s terrorism; the theme has something to do with the fact that people (including your best friends and family members) can be obstinate, incomprehensible and disloyal.

Phillip Noyce (Rabbit Proof Fence, The Quiet American, Clear and Present Danger) began developing a script of American Pastoral with writer John Romano in ’03, and he tried to get it made for over a decade. Two years ago Noyce was hired by Lionsgate to direct a film adaptation with Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Connolly and Dakota Fanning in the lead roles. But for whatever reason Noyce decided to bail on the project later that year, and in February ’15 it was announced that McGregor would direct instead. David Strathairn, Peter Riegert, Corey Stoll and Rupert Evans were added to the cast.

I’m guessing that Pastoral will play Telluride and/or Toronto before debuting in late October.

I found this footage (6 minutes, 11 seconds) of Blake Lively performing for the cameras during last year’s shooting of The Shallows more interesting than the film itself. Plus it has better (i.e., longer lasting) bikini footage. Just saying. Here’s my 6.23 review.

I’ve only begin to research yesterday’s allegedly calamitous decision by British voters to withdraw from the European Union. But many Brits who voted to leave the EU apparently did so (a) in a state of some ignorance about the consequences and (b) voted to “leave” more as a protest gesture than in wanting to force a literal withdrawal. To go by some reports, the “leave”-ers were not only surprised but sorry to discover this morning that the measure had passed. The “leave”-ers were mostly 50-plus rube xenophobes — the British equivalent of Trump voters. As with Trump voters, it’s suspected that their sentiments were fed by an element of racial-tribal resentment. I’m not entirely certain how this all fits together or to what extent the UK’s decision to leave the E.U. will impact the U.S. economy, but I read somewhere that Queen Elizabeth has the power to kibbosh the whole thing.

Christ alive.https://t.co/yhJfCfKO84

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 24, 2016