I liked the idea of doing five things as only images, just five pictures of what I’ve been loving this week.
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five things. [12.10.10]
The first 2010 list should be up tomorrow. It’s almost entirely ready to go up now, but Brian is working like a million hours today, so we will have to wait until tomorrow for his finishing touches on his portion.
So, today, in lieu of that post, and in the hopes that this lets Jeff take a breath and keeps him from passing out for another day, here are five random things I’ve been enjoying lately.
1. Doctor Who
I’ve been watching the reboot, and as evidenced by its appearance in my “What to Buy Me For Christmas” post, I’m totally hooked now. Series Two is what did it. David Tennant is so awesome as The Doctor. I totally plan on coming up with a Tenth Doctor Halloween Costume for next year.
Also, my default ringtone is now the TARDIS taking off. Yep, that’s right, I’m awesome.
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2. Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
This is going to end up on a list of its own, so I won’t say anything other than the fact that this book was brilliant. China Miéville is a genius. This story was so brutal and imaginative. I’m looking forward to reading more of Miéville’s work.
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3. Conan O’Brien
Conan is back, and that is most definitely a good thing. Now we can watch something genuinely funny, instead of watching Jay Leno punch comedy in the dick every night.
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4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One
We’ve seen it twice now. It was as fantastic as it should have been. Ever since Yates took over, the movies have been so sharp and well balanced. And wasn’t that animated short that told the story of the Deathly Hallows amazing?
The only downside is having to wait so very long for Part Two.
Seeing it here at Cinerama, I was surprised (based on reactions to certain moments in the story) how many Seattleites went to see the movie opening weekend, but have never read the books. I’ve just never thought of the movies from the standpoint of a purely cinematic event. I certainly think the movies are good enough to warrant that, but I’ve just always thought about the movies and the books joined.
I really wonder how I will feel after the final movie ends. Either way, come this summer, shits about to get real.
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5. Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
So, let’s see here. An action packed steampunk story, set in an alternate history, Civil War era Seattle, in which the city has been cordoned off because of the release of a dangerous subterranean gas which kills those who inhale it, only to revive them as zombies?
Umm, yes, please.
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fragile things. [books.]
If you read this blog regularly, then you’ve probably guessed I’m a sucker for an imagination that intrigues me. The reason I can’t get enough of folks like Guillermo del Toro, C.S. Lewis, Susanna Clarke, J.K. Rowling, Alan Moore or Hayao Miyazaki, is because their imaginations are so rich and beautiful. Their ability to dream up new worlds, creatures, and magics don’t provide mere escapism, they actually help us deal with, understand, and engage our world better. In their stories, we can learn to ask better questions. Their curiosity, which manifests in fantastical worlds of wonder and adventure, can stimulate our own curiosity, that is, if we are looking closely. I love so many imaginations, and I am so happy that our ability to share information at this point in history means I can enter into their dreamworlds with the turn of a page or the click of a few computer keys.
Yet, of all the creators whose imaginations stoke my own fires of curiosity and wonder, there is one who stands above the rest. Mr. Neil Gaiman, writer of so very many wonderful things, including The Sandman graphic novels, Coraline, Stardust, American Gods,and MirrorMask.
Gaiman’s work is dark and beautiful, most often a macabre dance between death and redemption, horror and joy, all the time helping the reader discover that these things are never opposites or enemies, but siblings, or even lovers. At times, his work is adults only, while much of his work is actually “children’s literature.” Yet, the themes and questions that seem to fascinate Gaiman remain consistent throughout, and he has a masterful grasp on the reality that, when written well, children’s literature can be as meaningful and formative for adults as for kids. Gaiman understands his craft well, not just using story toward powerful ends, but also writing about story, and how storytelling changes both the storyteller and the hearer/reader in profound and mysterious ways.
If you’ve never read Gaiman, his collection of short stories, Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders
probably wouldn’t be a bad place to start. I just finished it last week, and at the end of each story or poem, I would be physically unable to put the book down. I simply had to move on to the next offering.
Sherlock Holmes, the Harlequin, teenage alien tourists, some sort of zombie/vampire hybrid, sabertooth tigers, hell, ghost kids, and a world in which fantasy and reality is reversed… this book has it all. Part of me wants to start a book club just to go through this book, to ruminate over all the brilliant moments and hold all the ideas and questions up to the light.
If you are in the mood for some wonderfully dark and imaginative storytelling, then you should most definitely give this book a try.
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never let me go. [books.]
“A good book is never exhausted. It goes on whispering to you from the wall.” – Anatole Broyard
That quote is on a bookmark I just got with the purchase of a book at the lovely Elliott Bay Book Co. I include it here because of how well it describes Kazuo Ishiguro’s remarkable novel, Never Let Me Go
There are simply some books that haunt me long after I put them down, the feelings and the characters take root deep inside and refuse to be finished with me when I’ve read the last page. This is the epitome of one of those books. I find myself, at random points in my day, feeling again the tragedy and profundity of this bizarre and ordinary story.
It was a book I purchased as a result of my attempt to find the best books of the last decade, which I describe in more detail here. It’s been on my ‘to read’ shelf for a while, but then my friend Kj saw the new movie adaptation and recommended via twitter that everyone go see it. Thus, wanting to read the book first, I pulled it off the shelf. It was the best decision I’ve made in some time, thanks to Kj for the assist.
The story is narrated by Kathy H., who refers to her occupation as a ‘carer,’ and relates to the reader the story of growing up at a secluded boarding school, Hailsham, in Great Britain. The novel follows the coming of age of Kathy H., and the two people closest to her, Tommy and Ruth.
Ishiguro takes a science fiction premise and makes it painfully commonplace, if you absolutely detest sci-fi, you’ll still love this book. I don’t want to spoil what the premise is, although you’ll probably figure out what’s going on pretty early on in the novel. It’s not some sort of twist that enjoyment of the novel hinges on or something, I just don’t want to ruin anyone’s ability to go in fresh.
You really should read this book. It ripped my heart out, but quietly, without melodrama or fanfare.
This was my first encounter with Ishiguro, I assure you it will not be the last.
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five things, 11.4.10.
Five non-Halloween related things I’ve been enjoying recently.
1. Dark City
This is a film I’d intended to see for some time. When detractors kept saying Inception was basically a remake of Dark City that pretended not to be, it moved higher up my queue. I wanted to see what the fuss was about.
This movie is pretty fantastic. A sci-fi noir story where a man wakes up in a strange city where it is always night and people are having memory issues. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that when he wakes up he’s in a hotel bathtub, there is a dead hooker in the other room, and he has no memory whatsoever.
The idea that Inception ripped this movie off is stupid. The similarities here aren’t any more pronounced than they would be if you compared any other films in the same genre or subgenre, to be honest there is probably even less. Yet, have a movie where reality isn’t exactly what it seems and memories are being stolen and you must be a straight copycat right? The Matrix is actually influenced by this film far, far more than Inception was. Also, David Goyer was one of the writers for Dark City and he is a friend and collaborator with Chris Nolan, so if he ripped it off completely I’m surprised Goyer never said anything. Although, their friendship is most probably responsible for the fact that they both write about similar themes.
The film does find a creative way to tell a noir story with totally different rules, much the way Inception did the same thing to create a completely different sort of heist film.
But anyway, Dark City really was quite good. As I said, lots of common themes and ideas with The Matrix, but much, much smarter. Also, the noir aspect of the whole thing was delightful. If you haven’t seen it, you should check it out. If you have, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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2. Fable III
The first game from my ‘ten things’ video game post to be released, and I even got to pre-order it. Yay!
Nothing deep or profound, just a fun story played out through silly, enjoyable gameplay. Fun times.
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3. RED
I like good action movies, I just have a really small pool of action films that I actually consider ‘good.’ I’ll never even bother seeing films like The Expendables, or The Transporter: Parts 1-1,000, or anything that feels remotely like those films.
It’s sad that there are so few films from this genre that I like, because I have such a great time watching the ones that, to use a decidedly non-action phrase, tickle my fancy. What is a fancy anyway? Do I actually have a one?
Anyway, RED is definitely in the category of action films, or action comedies, that I really enjoyed. Great cast, fun uses of the genre standards, certainly nothing awe-inspiring, but for the genre, it’s smart, funny, and sharp. Plus, it has the wonderfully sexy Mary-Louise Parker.
If you’re looking for a fun way to spend two hours, you could do a whole lot worse.
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4. The Social Network
The Social Network is a brilliant film. The acting is impeccable, the direction is really tight all the way through, and screen-writing doesn’t get better than this. In the words of Josué Blanco, “God, I love Aaron Sorkin.”
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5. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
I should probably dedicate an entire ‘Graphic Content’ post to this once I’ve read the whole series, because this shit is for real.
The movie adaptation was a special kind of horrid in literally every way imaginable, and this is made all the worse now that I’ve read the first volume of the graphic novels. Alan Moore is a fucking genius. An homage/satire/commentary on Victorian literature and culture, Moore takes public domain literary figures and imagines a steam punk sort of alternate version of Victorian London in which Alan Quartermain, Captain Nemo, Mina Harker, The Invisible Man, and Dr. Jekyll are assembled to thwart a plan which threatens all of England. The literary references abound, I spent probably four times as much time on the internet looking up what all the more vague references meant than I spent simply reading the book. I mention that because it was really fun, not because I’m complaining.
I can’t wait to get my greedy little hands on volume two!
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i kill giants. [graphic content.]
It’s really hard to explain why you need to read this book, but you do.
It is absolutely stunning. I literally knew nothing about it going into it, I saw it on a list of great graphic novels, the art looked intriguing, so I gave it a try. I am so very glad I did.
This story is heartbreakingly beautiful. It’s officially the first comic or graphic novel I cried reading.
Kelly and Niimura’s story is about a 5th grade girl determined to kill giants. I don’t want to give away any more details than that, but trust me when I say this is powerful storytelling about the real world.
It’s not hyperbole to say that stories like this make the world a better place. You should read this as soon as you can.
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the walking dead. [graphic content.]
Have you read The Walking Dead yet? If not, you are in for a big treat my friend. It’s a fantastic comic series
written by Robert Kirkman about life after the zombie apocalypse. The main character is a police officer named Rick Grimes who gets shot in the line of duty, goes into a coma, and wakes up after the proverbial shit has hit the fan (a la 28 Days Later). It is the perfect way to introduce the series, because it’s about life after the zombie apocalypse, so using the coma technique is a clean way of allowing us to adjust to the post zombie world along with our hero.
The comic book/graphic novel medium is perfect for exploring this subject matter, because the story goes on and on, and thus it can take us so much deeper into the questions and metaphors inherent in the zombie genre.
There are tons of reasons why zombie stuff is great, but one of the more important reasons is that it is rife with metaphor at the heart of American culture. It wasn’t an accident that Romero set the sequel to Night of the Living Dead at a shopping mall.
At the moment, our culture is in the midst of this bizarre war where a huge portion of the population refuses to let go of American mythology from the 50’s. We have these ideas of what it means to be American, of what “real America” looks like, and while that ideal never existed, it is even more dangerous now because it should have died a long time ago, it’s alive and kicking even though it shouldn’t be, it is undead now. Actually, Bill Willingham used this as a tiny portion of his Fables storyline, and it was utterly brilliant, but Fables must be left for another post.
Zombies represent something terrifying because they are us. They are our fear of death, our fear of our appetites, our fear of the nagging thought in the back of our minds that we are our own worst enemy, that we will bring about our own destruction.
Yet, what are we left with on the other side of that? We play with the zombie genre, and lets say we make it to the other side of the cataclysm, doing our best to survive long term in a world overrun with a horde of the undead. Then what? Well, that’s what The Walking Dead offers a potential answer to. It’s a band of survivors trying to make life work, trying to keep their children safe, trying to fall in love and find a reason to wake up each day. If everything that we think makes up our world is taken from us, where do we go from there?
Kirkman’s writing is fantastic; tense, well paced, and constantly engaging. I almost always buy what characters are doing, how they are treating each other, etc. That’s rare.
Also, it just may be the best panel work I’ve seen. The art is all black and white, and the way Kirkman and Tony Moore, followed by Charlie Adlard, lay out the panels is perfect. It’s sparse, often with very little going on within each page, creating a great relationship between the story and the art. Also, they avoid the common pitfall of accidently giving away a big moment by placing a full panel event on the right page. What I mean is that so often I accidently learn something I don’t want to know when I turn the page, because as your turn a page you see page 35 on your right before you look back to 34 on your left. If there is this huge, full color death scene (or whatever) before my eyes as I turn the page, I can’t help but see it, so even though I haven’t read the stuff on the left, I know what happens on the next page. In The Walking Dead I am consistently impressed that they build up the big moment, and then make you turn the page to see what happened. It seems like it would be a simple, obvious thing to make work, but it is rare in my experience. They take the medium seriously, and realize what the reading experience will be like.
I really love this series. In the coming world, post Z-Day, the undead won’t be our only enemies. Other humans in the world, people in our own group of survivors, even our own sanity and grip on reality becomes tenuous and dangerous. Kirkman engages the potential for story in this realm with great attention to detail, honesty, impressive character psychologies, and gifted artistic help. You should read these! (And watch the show on AMC when it finally arrives in October).
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The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, penned by Carson McCullers in 1940, is a book I just happened to cherry pick off of The Modern Library’s 100 Best novel list. I had no previous knowledge of the book aside from the title. I had no clue who Carson McCullers was. If you had mentioned the name, I would think she were a man. I found her to be a brilliant writer.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is equal parts bright and dim, uplifting and wrenching, healing and wounding. The story follows five characters living in a small city in Georgia in the 1930s. It explores human relationships. Friendships, marriages, parent/child relationships, racial and social tensions of the time. How people interact with each other. It is a jarring narrative full of very real people and real conversations. Richard Wright, black author whose works include Black Boy and Native Son, reviewed Ms. McCullers book, and had this to say in the August 1940 issue of the New Republic,
“To me the most impressive aspect of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is the astonishing humanity that enables a white writer, for the first time in Southern fiction, to handle Negro characters with as much ease and justice as those of her own race. This cannot be accounted for stylistically or politcally; it seems to stem from an attitude toward life which enables Miss McCullers to rise above the pressures of her environment and embrace white and black humanity in one sweep of apprehension and tenderness.”
At first, most of the attention is given to the first character we are introduced to, a deaf-mute named John Singer. Soon thereafter, we are introduced to Mr. Singer’s best friend, another deaf-mute by the name of Spiros Antonapoulos. Slowly, we are introduced to a small cast of main characters, all from different walks of life, that all feel drawn to Mr. Singer for one reason or another.
The plot takes a few turns that I did not necessarily see coming, and that if mentioned here, would ruin the story, so I will keep this short and sweet. The themes in the story resonated intensely with me. The lonely heart will always be hungry for understanding … for companionship. We all long to be understood. We all yearn for people to listen to our heart’s concerns and love us. But not everyone can understand us. This is sad, but the truth. We can just try our best to live with one another, and love one another. Because when it really comes down to it, we are all on the same boat.
Alan Arkin starred in the big screen adaptation in 1968, which garnered a handful of nominations, including one for Arkin (Best Actor in a Leading Role). I would certainly give the movie a try after reading the book … and I certainly recommend the book.
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runaways, vol. 1-3. [graphic content.]
Six teens find out their parents are super-villains, then go on the run to thwart their ‘rents evil plan to destroy the world. That’s about the gist of what gets things rolling in Runaways.
I just finished the initial story arc, written by Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina) which is covered in the first three volumes of the graphic novel form of the comics.
These books are really fun and original. It all takes place in the main Marvel universe, but does so with entirely new characters. Among other things, this makes it more exciting than normal when characters from the main universe cross over into the Runaways title, because we get to slowly see these kids become part of the fabric of the rest of this world of superheroes and villains.
Having only read the first three volumes, I’m not sure exactly how often this happens, but the first characters to show up in their book are Cloak and Dagger, so I wonder if writers continue to use the title as a place to play with fun B-List characters.
If the initial arc is any indication, they aren’t afraid to kill off major characters, but who knows if it will be the typical comic book/soap opera ‘no one is ever really dead,’ sort of thing.
The initial arc was great, but I’m curious to see what happened when other writers took over. Brian K. Vaughan is kind of a big deal, so he could probably make anything good. Vaughan wrote the first seven volumes, then #8 was written by none other than JOSS WHEDON!!!! After that, I’ll be interested to see how the series holds up when it transitioned from writer to writer. Either way, I am damned sure looking forward to what is in store for me over the next four volumes.
For those interested in a quick intro to the team, you’ve got Alex Rider, a tactical prodigy who leads the group; Nico (a.k.a. Sister Grimm), she has a staff which gives her magical powers; Chase (a.k.a. Talkback), he is a dumb jock, and he has x-ray goggles and gauntlets that manipulate fire; Gert (a.k.a. Arsenic), she has a telepathic velociraptor named Old Lace, Karolina (a.k.a. Lucy in the Sky), she is an alien and she has all sorts of powers; and Molly, (a.k.a Bruiser, a.k.a., Princess Powerful), she is a super-strong mutant who is also, well, an eleven-year-old girl.
If you’re in the market for a graphic novel to read, you could do a hell of a lot worse than this one. Fun times!
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carter beats the devil. [books.]
I’ve been utterly spoiled by great books lately.
The trick was, late last year and early this year I took the time I always waste on the interweb and put it to better use by surfing around, finding as many “Best Books of the Decade” lists as I could get my greedy little hands on.
My desire was to find great fiction. I scoured the lists; anything that looked remotely interesting got added to my own meta-list. Books that kept showing up on list after list got added whether they looked interesting to me or not. It’s called expanding your horizons people, try it some time.
The next step was waiting until we made a lovely little trip down to Portland, where I could visit Powell’s.
Have you heard of Powell’s?
If not, here is the gist.
It is the world’s largest new and used book store. It is called Powell’s City of Books, and that isn’t even hyperbole. I’m pretty sure they have a mayor, and not a Foursquare Mayor, like a real elected official.
You know that part in the Bible when it says Eden was hidden and blocked by a flaming sword so no one could get there? Bullshit. God just moved Eden to Oregon and renamed it Powell’s City of Books. However, that is for another post.
So, anyway, I’ve been reaping the benefits of the project described above all year. First was Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Most recently I finished Carter Beats the Devil
“‘You know what the hardest thing is?’ Phoebe said, as the first pair of fireworks went up. ‘The hardest thing is to know everything you know so far and still have faith.'”
It was pretty wonderful. It’s about a magician, Carter the Great, from San Francisco during the American Prohibition era. Carter beat the Devil is the name of one of his magic tricks (they’re called illusions Michael!).
Anyway, in the story, President Harding attends one of Carter’s shows, then mysteriously dies the next day. That is when our adventure begins.
The story jumps back to Carter’s beginnings as a magician, and offer really satisfying characters and three great acts, each of which stands alone pretty well.
All of the characters in the book were real people. Carter the Great, President Harding, inventor and television pioneer Philo Farnsworth, BMW engineering genius Max Friz, etc. etc. etc. Glen David Gold then takes said real life characters, uses real life events as touchstones, then makes up everything that happens in the middle, always muddying the lines between fiction and reality.
“Faith was a choice. So, it followed, was wonder.”
For me, the book helped me remember that without wonder, curiosity, and community, we die. The story was also a really great playground for thoughts about chaos and order, meaning and meaninglessness, loneliness, love and grief, and most of all the fact that when you figure out where the world is carefully put together, it is the cracks and spaces where mystery and magic live, where God lives.
“even he had to admit that God’s plan was infinitely odd — the most mysterious element of them all, joy, could enter this life profanely.”
Great read! I add my endorsement to those that led me to read it to begin with.
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