Romanelli Library

Cosmopolis

2009-08-27T21:39:00.002-04:00

Weird!

The Ethics of Authenticity

2009-08-05T09:30:00.008-04:00

What an amazing book! Written by Canadian Charles Taylor, this book changed the way I look at modernism, individualism, economics, and politics. Taylor is truly an advocate of a Buddha-like middle ground where we acknowledge the struggles that go on around us without feeling elation at the loss of power on one side or despair at our own idealogical losses. Brilliant! I'm back to longer posts now, so please excuse the tome, but I have to remember this for class.

Taylor begins his argument by defining three "malaises" that have gripped us concerning the onset and subsequent success of modernity. These three malaises are interrelated and overlapping, but for the sake of clarity, they are:
1. Individualism that slides into a narcissistic outlook on life.
2. The primacy of instrumental reason that promotes the most efficient and economical means as leading to the best ends.
3. A lack of participation in government resulting from a focus on individual contentment that allows the government to become a tutelary power over which the citizens have no control.
According to Taylor, the way to combat these malaises is to rediscover the moral sources from which these ideas come and work toward the moral ideal without getting caught up in the ears surrounding both sides of each argument. And each argument does have two sides!

Just as a side note, I wonder if the casual drop of "ends" and "means" is meant to remind us of Machiavelli who is most often misquoted as saying, "The ends justify the means." Regardless of whether or not Machiavelli actually says this (he doesn't), his book The Prince does support an outlook in which whatever means one uses to reach a good goal are thereby justified as good because the goal is good. This is an obviously controversial argument, but my concern here is how it can be used to explain the problems with instrumental reason. If for Machiavelli, the goal was of primary significance; then for instrumental reason, the means are of primary significance. However, instead of being a much more moral philosophy, this has degraded into a system in which the most efficient means lead to the best result: there is no justification for doing something the hard way, even if the end result is a higher quality product. This is at the extreme of course.

Teaching Adolescent Writers

2009-07-24T11:43:00.003-04:00

Another book by Kelly Gallagher. I'm using this one to plan my lessons for ENG 080 and 090, which start in a couple of weeks.

The Princess Bride

2009-07-12T20:11:00.003-04:00

I came to this book by way of my dear friend Christy. When we met early in our West Potomac teaching careers, we had plenty in common without discovering that we both loved fantasy and could quote extensively from The Princess Bride film. However, this interesting and probably rather common ability made for great entertainment in the faculty lounge.

Persepolis

2009-07-09T06:24:00.005-04:00

Persepolis is easily one of the best books I have ever read. How a graphic novel like Watchmen got on to the 100 Best Novels of All Time when there are stories like this one in the medium, I'll never know. The story of a villified country as told by a young girl, Persepolis chronicles the Iranian conversion to Islamic extremism in a comprehensible way.

Batman: The Killing Joke

2009-06-27T00:02:00.004-04:00

I wonder why I insist on calling Alan Moore Michael Moore. This is a mystery to me, except that I think both their faces are obnoxious to me. I suppose this is beside the point.

So, why am I reading traditional superhero comics? I am hoping to go to a conference in Wilmington, NC this October and present on terrorism in comic movies and fantasy novels. I picked this graphic novel up because I wanted

Fables: Legends in Exile (Vol. 1)

2009-06-25T20:07:00.002-04:00

Our favorite Grimm characters come to the modern world to escape the adversary who has taken all their lands. Snow White's sister Rose Red fakes her own murder to get out of a pending engagement with Bluebeard.

Whys and Wherefores (Y: The Last Man, Vol. 10)

2009-06-25T12:35:00.003-04:00

When I went to pick up these last four books at Plan 9 Comics in Boone yesterday, the man said he thought Y: The Last Man was the best graphic novel series out there. I am really interested in why this is the case. This series was really quite brilliant, but I thought the ending was a little anticlimactic. I wonder if men really enjoy The Last Man series because Yorick ends up fairly free of women?

Motherland (Y: The Last Man, Vol. 9)

2009-06-25T12:33:00.002-04:00

Kimono Dragons (Y: The Last Man, Vol. 8)

2009-06-25T12:30:00.001-04:00

Yorick and crew spend some time in Japan.

Paper Dolls (Y: The Last Man, Vol. 7)

2009-06-25T12:09:00.001-04:00

Girl on Girl (Y: The Last Man, Vol. 6)

2009-06-24T12:31:00.003-04:00

355, Dr. Mann, and Yorick board a heroin trafficking cruise ship captained by Kilina, a comparative literature major turned sailor. An Australian submarine attacks the ship, killing Kilina and commandeering the last y-chromosome crew. 355 and Dr. Mann give a romantic relationship a first try. We hear from Beth in Australia, but her storyline is still convoluted.

Ring of Truth (Y: The Last Man, Vol. 5)

2009-06-24T12:25:00.003-04:00

Yorick meets Beth, a former flight attendant, who helps get him out of his dry spell. He, 355, and Dr. Mann make it to San Fran where they isolate a possible reason for Yorick's continued existence. For a few moments, they believe it's Beth's engagement ring. Hero rejoins the fold despite her continued internal conversations with Victoria. Flashbacks abound. :)

Hellboy: The Chained Coffin and Others

2009-06-09T14:01:00.002-04:00

Mike Mignola must be an interesting man. I don't have much experience in comics, but I haven't seen any where the artist and the writer are the same person until this one, of course. He seems to have a penchant for European folk tales: almost all of the Hellboy stories in this volume are based on some folk tale. I really enjoy the artwork! It's not cartoony, but it's not realistic either. It's edgy but not gross. I think I could get addicted to it.

Safeworld (Y: The Last Man, Vol. 4)

2009-06-09T07:37:00.004-04:00

Yorick spends some time with Agent 711 in order to overcome his more dangerous shortcomings. A I-40 roadblock in Arizona leads Dr. Mann to admit her true motivation for cloning and leaves yet another friendly woman dead.

One Small Step (Y: The Last Man, Vol. 3)

2009-06-08T18:47:00.005-04:00

The Israelis catch up to Yorick as he attempts to save three astronauts who have been on a space station. Yorick, 355, and Dr. Mann continue to California while their newfound Russian friend cares for the sole survivor from the shuttle crash. A group of actors writes a play about the last man on earth.

Cycles (Y: The Last Man, Vol. 2)

2009-06-08T12:06:00.004-04:00

Yorick finally meets up with his sister, Hero. The Amazons lose their leader, Victoria, and 355 suffers a head injury that leads her to admit her attraction to Yorick.

Lioness Rampant (Song of the Lioness 4)

2009-06-04T07:42:00.001-04:00

The conclusion to the Song of the Lioness quartet.

The Woman Who Rides Like a Man (Song of the Lioness 3)

2009-05-28T08:51:00.002-04:00

The red-headed, purple-eyed knight spends time in the desert with the bedouins.

In the Hand of the Goddess (Song of the Lioness 2)

2009-05-27T10:59:00.003-04:00

In this second installment of the Song of the Lioness quartet, Alanna comes into her own in a big way. The second story is more well structured than the first, but in essence it was a continuation of the first story. Alanna meets the Goddess on her way home from an errand she's running from her overlord (Prince Jonathan). The Goddess tells her she has three fears she must overcome, and the rest of the story details how she overcomes those three fears. Her first fear is of the Ordeal that she must undergo in order to become a knight. The second is her fear of love, and the third fear is her fear of Duke Roger. By the end of the story, Alanna has developed a romantic relationship with Prince Jonathan, undergone the Ordeal for Knighthood, and defeated Duke Roger. It wraps up well.

Alanna The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness 1)

2009-05-26T16:45:00.004-04:00

What is it about the idea of fantasy education that fascinates me so much? I don't know. All I know is that there are innumerable reasons why I think educators can learn from the fictional schools created in fantasy novels. One thing I have learned overall is that we coddle our students way too much. Students appreciate a business-like manner in the classroom. They enjoy a challenge. From Ms. Tamora Pierce I have learned that theoretical education is best done in the mornings and physical activity in the afternoon. Another lesson that echoes what can be learned in Rowling's series is that a theoretical education, not balanced by practical application is evil. I will explain, but not in this post. I'll save this one for why I enjoyed this first installment in the Song of the Lioness series.

Alanna, one of twins born to a nobleman who loves his books more than his children, decides to switch places with her brother Thom. Thom has always wanted to be a sorcerer and Alanna has always wanted to be a knight. Forging their father's signature, Alanna becomes Alan and heads to palace for page training, and Thom heads to the convent to be trained in magic. Alanna experiences great success in her ardous training as a page. She makes friends with the Prince (Jonathan) and one of her better teachers (Myles). She defeats her childhood nemesis Ralon, heals Jonathan from the sweating sickness that has been sapping all the healers of their strength, and eventually helps Jonathan to defeat the Ysandir of the Black City. Along the way, Alanna makes a much more adult enemy in the form of Duke Roger who wants to replace Jonathan as heir to the thrown of Tortall.

Alanna is a very strong character, but much of her strength lies in her youth and naivte. Her belief that she can do things seems to be enough to get them done. Often confused as to why she succeeds at tasks she sets for herself, Alanna is not proud or overly confident. She just does things without thinking about the possibility of failure. She has to be told that she is likable and doesn't need to try so hard to be like everyone else. By the end of the first novel, however, she seems to have grown in to her abilities to some extent, as she admits to Jonathan that she would make the best squire for him. One of the best features of the series is Alanna's fear of her own magic. She has the Gift, as they call it in the book, and instead of using it to her advantage at every opportunity, she shuns it and has to be forced to use it by extenuating circumstances. What Alanna achieves in this novel, she achieves with her own strength and the sweat of her brow.

Jonathan, Raoul, Gary, and Myles are fun background characters full of honor and a willingness to jump in on the side of the righteous and the weak. Myles is my favorite though because he is a teacher who manages to make History come alive for his students. He is also modest, though he drinks too much for the respectable knight. Duke Roger is an understandable villain with realistic motives, but he has yet to seem really evil. Alanna hates him inexplicably, but she follows her gut and steers clear of him as often as she can. I hope that we will find him to be more evil and less sympathetic in future books.

I look forward to finishing the Song of the Lioness quartet and returning them to Christy before I leave for Greensboro next month.

Fantasy Lover

2009-05-21T07:37:00.005-04:00

Okay, so I have to admit the Greek mythology thing was pretty cool. I am not normally a romance novel fan. A few of the conventions in the genre really get under my skin. It's not the predictability that bothers me: as I've been trying to convince my nearest and dearest for ages, there is predictability in every genre, even our coveted "literary fiction." It's just that the predictability in the fantasy genre (namely that it will adhere to the guidelines of the heroic medium) is something I look forward to; whereas, the prediction that somehow the new boyfriend will run into the old boyfriend who mistreated the woman involved and fight him is not something I look forward to. It's a personal preference, but...I digress.

The main plot of Fantasy Lover is that Julian, a Macedonian general son of another general and Aphrodite, is trapped as a love slave for all eternity by his older brother Priapus(?). Grace Alexander and her friend Selena conjure him from his book where he has been imprisoned for over a 100 years. Grace doesn't believe in magic and thinks the whole thing is a joke until Julian actually appears in her house. She is shocked to find the demigod wanting nothing other than to please her, and she rejects him entirely for a bit. A sex therapist by training, Grace insists that Julian tell her about himself. When she realizes how torturous the curse is and how little Julian cares for his lot in life, she can't help but want to help him. The book is the story of their attempt to break Julian's curse in the month he is staying with her. Obviously, they also fall in love.

What did I like about it? I liked the fact that the Greek gods and goddesses we meet were very much like the personalities you find in any other book of mythology. Vain and arrogant, they walk the earth messing with each other and the humans they encounter. It's amusing. I also liked Grace, either because of or despite her ridiculous need to help people and her inexperience in bed (yes, I did say she was a sex therapist). I liked Julian. He was stoic and insanely masculine, but caring and tempered by his imprisonment. I even liked the main plot. The idea that there could possibly be a man sex slave who didn't enjoy it was laughable and yet somehow realistic.

What could I have done without? Rodney Carmichael. One of Grace's temporary patients who stalks her without reason in the middle just to give Julian the chance to act the hero. Peter, or whatever Grace's ex's name was. He was an extraneous feature in a book that should have been about Julian's development.

Would I recommend it? If you like this sort of thing, sure, pick it up. Then get a copy of Jennifer Cruise's Faking It. Now that was a fun romance novel.

Watchmen

2009-05-12T21:08:00.003-04:00

Uh, yeah. So NOT interested in the conventional superhero stuff or its demise. I guess the fact that I don't read superhero comics and never have really jarred my reading of Watchmen. I expected a few things I didn't get out of the reading, namely: a happy ending and a character I liked. Bummer for me.

There is nothing basic about this book, so it's unfair to start a sentence with, "The basic premise here is..." or whatever. I'll just tell you what I got out of it, and you'll have to pick it up if you want to know all the things I missed. Edward Blake, The Comedian is brutally murdered in his home. Rorschach believes there is a plot to kill off masked heroes and tells Daniel (Nite Owl), Dr. Manhattan, Laurie (The Silk Spectre), and Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias) about it. They are fairly unconcerned. Laurie and Dr. Manhattan (Jon) split up, and Dr. Manhattan leaves earth for Mars. Apparently Dr. Manhattan was the only thing keeping the Russians from beginning World War III, and the war threatens to begin. Laurie hooks up with Daniel. Laurie has issues with her mother and Edward Blake, which she attempts to resolve during the course of the book. Rorschach gets arrested, but Daniel and Laurie free him. Together the three of them uncover an awful plot, but no one is really sure what it's all about. At the end, we discover who's behind the awful plot and what it's all about. Jon returns to earth. There is a horrible moral dilemma. A great evil resolves another great evil. Everyone is left dirty, impotent, and evil. The end.

Obviously I haven't told you who the mastermind was behind the plot. Knowing that would make the book not worth reading, and it is really worth reading. I didn't like it, but it's worth reading. I also have not scraped the surface of the complexities of the book. There is a tremendous amount of philosophy in the book, and it does much to demean the superhero medium in a sadistic, make-you-want-to-shoot-yourself kind of way.

I will concede that it is laudable. If you are looking for stories in the graphic medium that are also literary but aren't interested in intensely disliking every character you meet (with the possible exception of Rorschach), read Sandman!

Unmanned (Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1)

2009-05-10T21:24:00.006-04:00

I accidentally got sucked into this at my boyfriend's house this weekend. I'm reading Watchmen, but he gave me Hell Boy and this Unmanned (Y: The Last Man) to entertain me as well. Now, my big priority will be getting my grades done with all this interesting stuff to read. :)

I got "some" grades done today, so I thought I would catch up a bit on my blog. When I say I accidentally got sucked into this book, I mean it. I was lying in bed when my boyfriend brought me a few new books to look at. I flipped through Hell Boy (I really like the artwork in Hell Boy) and then I flipped through Unmanned. Only it wasn't like flipping through at all. The next thing I knew I was done with the first trade. I even stopped a couple of times to talk to Wade about what I was reading.

The first page grabbed me. In the final two frames, a female police officer points out that all the men are dead just before putting her gun to her temple. And I really think that's what my reaction would be to such a catastrophe. I'm not sure I could weather the world with only female company, though I've spent my fair share of time around girls. I went to an all-girls school for two years in Hawaii, and after my husband and I split up, the great majority of my time was spent with my two girls, my mother, and my sister. I hope I would try to keep things together for them, but my gut reaction would be to get out...fast.

This series, while illustrated by a woman, is written by a man (Brian K. Vaughan), and at times this male perspective shows through. Yorick, the last man,

Persuasion

2009-05-06T22:12:00.002-04:00

Persuasion was harder to get into than Sense and Sensibility, but definitely worth the additional effort. The first few chapters deal entirely with Sir Walter Elliot and his eldest daughter Elizabeth, and they are both horrible, annoying people. I was really quite concerned that Austen's focus on the ridiculousness of societal stratification would weed me interest right out of the reading. However, she eventually in the third or fourth chapter begins to focus on Anne, who is a delightful, if slightly confusing, character.

When I was about halfway through Persuasion, I asked a colleague in the lounge (she looked like a Jane Austen fan) if she had read it. I was right; she was a Jane Austen fan, and Persuasion was perhaps her favorite of Austen's works. I was curious about this because Pride and Prejudice has always been mine, but she pointed out some salient facts. Not the least of which is Anne is twenty-seven. I guess I should have attached myself to that earlier, as I am also twenty-seven, but it sort of slipped through my mind. Also, Anne is a middle child in a family where only the youngest is married. All this is rather unusual for the time period, but it seemed quite normal to me until Ms. Summers pointed it out. She also mentioned that this book was the most autobiographical of Austen's works, and she felt that Austen might have been writing the alternative ending to her life. This is, of course, a simultaneously pleasing and depressing thought. How sad that she lived alone, desiring male company, but how wonderful that she could create a world in which her deepest desires were manifest.

In terms of my unadulterated reaction to the book, I worried about Anne throughout. She seemed to read things into Captain Wentworth's actions that I would never have been so bold as to read there. I guess that's why it always came as a surprise to me when a guy was interested in me, I could never read the signals correctly. Still, I spent a great deal of the novel waiting for Anne's arrogance to be toppled by Wentworth's engagement to someone else. Thankfully, this was not the case, and everything ends up okay at the end. I will give Ms. Austen credit for her creation of another dashing male character. Wentworth is a rival for Darcy, to be sure. :)

Sense and Sensibility

2009-04-30T11:49:00.005-04:00

Pride and Prejudice has long been one of my favorite books. As a senior in high school, I read Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and Pride and Prejudice. I can imagine it was a torturous reading list for the average seventeen-year-old boy, but I was in heaven. All this dramatic romance tickled me and, in many ways, rekindled my faith that literature could be fun to read. I had always done well in English, but years of Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest had left me slightly unwilling to take my required reading to bed with me. The texts I read in my senior year did much to make up for the more depressing things we read.

In any case, I digress. I've always loved Pride and Prejudice, but I think I was too young at the time to be concerned with the relentless societal commentary contained within its pages. The utter ridiculousness of Elinor's and Marianne's positions in Sense and Sensibility blind-sided me. I little expected the heavy sarcasm that dripped from the pages describing the two sisters. Having watched Emma Thompson's film but not read the book, I expected to identify as much with Elinor on the page as I did on the screen. This was definitely not the case. I felt very strongly that Marianne was too emotional and Elinor too sensible to be even slightly realistic. Elinor hides every struggle from her family, while Marianne falls physically ill from her severe depression. Everyone was just a bit over the top. However, I can't help but love the language with a passion that approaches Marianne's devotion to Willoughby. I want to make it very clear that none of the these things I have mentioned is a criticism of Austen, only of myself. I found the book delightful, and though I don't think I can approach it with the same naivete that I approached Pride and Prejudice the first time, it was still an engrossing and enlightening read.

The only thing I missed about this story was an engaging male lead. None of the men approach Mr. Darcy in all his dashing glory. Willoughby is obviously the counterpoint to Wickham and was even slightly more sinister, but neither Edward Ferrars nor Colonel Brandon seemed to be the combination of fabulous qualities that Darcy was. While Marianne ends up very well off, Elinor is basically living as a servant on her sister's grounds. I honestly can't remember what happens to Jane by the end of Pride and Prejudice, but I'm sure that she doesn't end up married to Darcy's employee. Still, the girls are both happy, as is their mother. It was a pleasant ending, beautifully written. I heartily wish this was the case more often with our "literary fiction."

J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

2009-04-25T13:09:00.007-04:00

An April post! I'm so excited! I was getting so worried! Now I just need to clean up the mess I left behind last month and then I can write all about what I learned about Ronald Tolkien! :)

Okay, so maybe I can't clean up March as efficiently as I thought I could, so I better write about what's fresh in my mind while it is. I haven't finished a biography since I was in grade school, and I was under the impression that I found the genre rather dry over all. I have a biography of George Washington on CD in my car, but I just couldn't get through it. The long drives to North Carolina and fro necessitate books that catch my interest entirely or else the voices of the actors just lull me into a generally sleepy state. So, I listen to Harry Potter usually. I LOVE Harry Potter, but I digress. I didn't find Tolkien's biography boring at all, and it might be because it's not godawful long. Humphrey Carpenter kept it together well, only giving us the basic sense rather than the full picture of each day, month, or year. At only 260 pages, it was really quite manageable. I even felt myself completely pulled into the latter sections, feeling deep anxiety over his publication woes and his concerns over his ability to finish his great work The Silmarillion.

The deal with Tolkien is that, as a man, he reminds me very much of men that I respect but could never be. He reminds me of my grandfather and especially of one of my professors at Appalachian: one Captain McGowan. Tolkien was born in South Africa (a fact I knew not at all when I wrote my thesis about LOTR last year), and he was orphaned by age thirteen. His father (Arthur Reuel Tolkien) died in South Africa while his mother (Mabel Suffield) and the two brothers (Ronald and Hilary) were visiting England. Tolkien was five. The small family stayed with his mother's family until she decided to get lodgings of her own. She also made the decision to severely displease her Anglican family by converting to the Catholic faith. A widow, with not much income, she risked a great deal by following her heart and allowing her family to disown her. Rather than feel resentful of the position of she had put him and his brother in, Tolkien always idolized her for this choice. Tolkien's devotion to Catholicism was part religious fervor but also a large part respect for his dead mother. She died only a few years later, but Tolkien's ties to the Catholic Church were strong by this time.

A priest, Father Francis, took responsibility for their guardianship so that the Suffield's would not keep the children from going to mass. He moved them around to various lodgings, but while in one of them Tolkien met Edith Bratt, a woman three years his senior who was also orphaned and living in an other's home. They were very close, and at the young age of nineteen, Tolkien had already decided he was going to marry this woman. Father Francis, when he heard about the blossoming romance, moved Tolkien and forbade him from seeing Edith until he turned twenty-one. Tolkien obeyed, but he kept his love for her alive in journals for three years - the same first three years he was at Oxford. When the separation was concluded, he found her and proposed. Edith, though engaged to someone else, accepted. Unfortunately Edith was Anglican too, and Tolkien insisted that she convert even though she too would be without support until their marriage. Honestly, I thought this was rather cruel of him. She did it. They were married during the war, where Tolkien contracted trench fever. He didn't serve for long, but he served as an officer and a signal specialist, losing several of his closest friends in the process.

I'm being too feminine here though. Many other things happened in Tolkien's life as well. He became an expert in Philology. He invented a number of languages from remaining fragments in Finnish, Welsh, and others. He was an expert in Anglo Saxon, Middle English, and Icelandic. He formed a few societies with male friends. His homo social relationships were extremely important to him, and as the war took many of his friends from his first society, the second group of men were increasingly important in his life. He was dear friends with C.S. Lewis (Jack) and Charles Williams, but their relationships were not without conflict. While he was a successful professor and often an administrator of various sorts at Oxford, his life's work was in creating a mythology for England, which was to remain unfinished at his death (The Silmarillion).

He wrote stories for his children as a lark, and The Hobbit was penned in the same vein. It was accidental success for Tolkien. He spent a good deal of time trying to figure out what the sequel would be at the demands of his publishers. Thus The Lord of the Rings was born. He started out trying to write another hobbit story but ended up with some mix of his original children's tale (The Hobbit) and his great mythology. It took him sixteen years to write, and the resulting fame never settled with him well. He and Edith had four children, only one of whom followed in Tolkien's footsteps. Christopher Tolkien, who many Tolkien fans know of as he has control of the rights for all his work, entered Oxford as his father was getting ready to retire. One of his other sons was a priest; the other a teacher. His daughter studied as well but not with the enthusiasm of Christopher. His legacy was left in Christopher's hands.

While I deeply appreciated the knowledge that Tolkien's perfectionism got in the way of his work and his works to a long time to gestate (both facts which bring me hope at the ripe age of twenty-seven that I may still create something of lasting value), the real object lesson in this biography was Tolkien's wife Edith. I almost cried when I read the lines:

"'What were the women doing meanwhile? How should I know? I am a man and never spied on the mysteries of the Bona Dea.' So writes C.S. Lewis in The Four Loves while speculating on the history of male friendship. This is the inevitable corollary of a life that centres on the company of men, and on groups such as the Inklings: women got left out of it." (156)

As a woman, a mother, and an intellectual, the thought that doors are closed in these societies simply because I am such makes it difficult to breath and my heart hurt. I have to continually remind myself that this is a different time, and I have support that these other women didn't have. But the real problem for Edith was that she didn't finish her education. She knew little of her husband's work, and though she was the inspiration for one of his more romantic poems, she couldn't discuss the minutia of philology with him, nor could she help him prepare his lectures or discuss anything other than family matters with him. God I hope this never happens to me. Of course, I always want to be studying my own work, creating my own lectures, engaging others in discussion myself, but I always want to be able to keep up with those around me at the very least. I don't want to be left out, sitting in the play room with the children while the men discuss the hottest topics of the night. The thought is downright painful.

Not that I don't want to spend time with my children too. Maybe I'll get lucky, and my girls will be intellectuals too. :) That would be awesome!

Inkdeath

2009-03-30T16:56:00.003-04:00

What to say about Inkdeath? It's been a month since I read it, and though I should have written on it immediately, I, of course, did not. I still think my earlier criticisms of the books stand. She has too many characters. I feel like she could have spent a lifetime developing the characters in this book into a longer series or even multiple series. She has some wonderful ideas, but they are way too condensed.

On the Road

2009-03-18T19:38:00.005-04:00

A year and a month ago I took off for Savannah, Georgia with two really fabulous people. I didn't really want to go. I didn't have my same sense of adventure at the time that I have now. I had been plotting all week about how to get out of it. I would be leaving my two children with my mom and my sister for three nights and four days. I was fairly recently separated, and I just wasn't in the mood for fun. But for all that, I think I shall never have a similar experience again. I was so shocked to have such an amazing time. Every moment there was new in a way that can probably never be repeated. And 100% honestly I did nothing illegal or even immoral (in my twisted sense of morality anyway) while I was there. No drugs (just a lot of alcohol) and no sex.

In any case, that trip birthed what we now call "the burning roman candle club." It was named a few weeks later by one of our number for the lines in Jack Kerouac's On the Road:

"the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'" (Kerouac 5-6).

Of course we came back from Savannah and dived right back into our normal (or not so normal) lives as graduate students at ASU. I had comprehensive exams to study for and a thesis to write. Kevin was bumming around Boone, much the same way he is now; although, I hear he's quit drinking, and Elitza was busy teaching and studying much the same as I was. My life would never be quite the same, and that was mostly because I decided I deserved a little fun before I got old. But I promised myself I would eventually read the book from which these lines came. And so I have, just tonight.

Amusingly enough, my friend Kamy told me that these lines are immensely popular among the ladies. "They ALL have them on their facebook pages," he tells me. It really doesn't surprise me. The only thing that's unique about any of us is that we are all unique, I suppose. Except when you're reading a book like this where all the characters are both unique and amoral. I say that with the highest sense of regard for Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty.

There isn't much of a plotline in this book, but more ground is covered than in say, Catcher in the Rye. Still, basically Sal hears about a guy named Dean. They meet up when Dean comes to New York with Mary Lou, his first wife. They become good friends and the rest of the novel is the story of Sal and Dean travelling around together and some separately. They go from New York to Denver to San Francisco, back to New York and even to Mexico. Dean is a completely free spirit, and it's hard not to like him, even though by the end of the book he is a virtual pariah in his social group because he leaves impregnated women behind everywhere he goes. He seems to care for people deeply but is too lost in his own little world to take on any responsibility at all. He takes three wives in the book, and he ends up with the second one. He becomes unreasonably angry with the first because she ends up sleeping with a number of other men. I can't imagine why that bothers him, but I guess he feels like these women are really his property once he has them.

Sal, who is a much easier character to get along with, supports Dean until the end, even after being left in Mexico extremely sick. Sal eventually "settles down" in New York, with what he considers a perfect woman for him.

I have seriously mixed reactions to this book. Part of me is soooo jealous that I wasn't born a man or at least hadn't kept myself unburdened long enough to behave like these men did for a while. But, another part of me feels like there is a (yuck) moral in there somewhere about burning the candle at both ends. Their life isn't sustainable. And Dean's biggest problem is that he keeps it up too long. I can totally see why this would be a guy's favorite book though. There is a great freedom in the way the guys behave, and somehow I feel like it should be some people's right. I don't judge Dean as harshly as say Galatea does, but I still feel like his woes were the reasonable consequence for his actions. He lived life hard, which would have been fine, if he could have left women out of it. But once you swear undying love, take marriage vows, and impregnate someone, you're kinda responsible for them. It's a sad truth, and the acceptance of the sad truth is the tragedy of Dean's life. Sal, on the other hand, either does not know who he impregnated along the path or did not actually impregnate anyone, so he escapes the majority of the censure that is heaped upon Dean.

Somehow, though, the whole book feels like an elegy for the way Dean lived his life, as if in some alternate universe it really should have been okay with everyone. And even though Sal settles down in the end, it doesn't feel like some great giving in to societal expectation but rather a rest after a hell of a roller coaster ride. I enjoyed reading this book though. There was relatively no conflict through most of it, but it was really an interesting read, especially for someone trying to understand the male mind.

The Catcher in the Rye

2009-03-12T08:01:00.006-04:00

The Catcher in the Rye is one of those books that sits on your shelf and whenever you told people, "I've never read it," they looked at you with this shocked look, and ask, "Are you really an English major?" So, I caught up with Salinger, and I read The Catcher in the Rye. It was really quite interesting.

When I brought the list of the 100 Best Novels from the Modern Library down to our work room, several of the teachers made the comment that they love J.D. Salinger, but hate Holden Caulfield. They called him "whiny" and "irritating." I do hate ever so much to disagree with my colleagues (they really are excellent people), but I really kinda liked Holden. I felt terribly sorry for him, but I liked him alright. I have to admit that he was overprivileged and spoiled, but he seemed to genuinely dislike cruelty in all its manifestations, and I do too!

My boyfriend is writing his master's thesis on this really depressing film maker and how his films reflect 20th and 21st century masculinity, and I couldn't help but think of all the things he's writing about when I was reading this book. I keep arguing that while the original ideas of what makes a man masculine are really abhorrent and there have been a lot of negative effects on the concept of masculinity because of femininism, there are some genuine positive aspects of the modern man. Holden struggles against a lot of the societal expectations of manhood. The thought of being a "phony" drives him mad, and he would much rather be poor than have to pretend to be something that he's not. Unfortunately, his disgust with the world extends to his academic diligence, and he has failed out of numerous schools in the last few years. He's sixteen, but he's not on his way to graduate any time soon.

The basic plot is ridiculously simple. Holden's been kicked out of Pencey and is to return home when winter break starts on Wednesday. He begins his tale on Saturday night, when he goes to see his professor, fights with his roomates, and leaves the school early on a train. He goes to New York, and he stays in a hotel; he calls up a girl named Sally and takes her to a show. He gets too drunk Sunday night and returns to his old English teacher's house, but not before he visits his sister Phoebe at his parents' place. On Monday, he decides he's going to run away from home, tries to say goodbye to his sister, and when she insists on accompanying him, he changes his mind and goes home. There is no climax or heroic journey: just Holden telling us about a couple of days last winter. But he really does tell us a lot.

One of the reasons I wanted to read this book is because when I worked in the UWC (University Writing Center) last year, one of my clients had written a paper on it for an English course. I'll never forget how she really made me like Holden, even before I had read about him. She kept talking about how he was with the nuns and his thoughts about Jane Gallagher. He really was a sensitive and caring guy, and if any of that was valued by his culture, he might have been alright.

Holden is exactly the kind of guy I wish I could have made friends with when I was younger. He's very intelligent and probably just needs someone fairly intelligent to fawn over him. I was exactly that kind of girl. I always thought I could change somebody's life by making them see their own worth. Anyway, it never worked, but I really do feel bad for Holden.

Inkspell

2009-03-09T10:19:00.005-04:00

I can't say that I am entirely enthralled with Ms. Funke's characters here. Inkspell did take place in another world, which is more my kind of thing than Inkheart, but there was still something missing from its pages. I think it might have too many characters. I know that's a weird criticism, but hear me out.

I've read several books where the narrator changes throughout the work. It was the case with parts of Twilight, and it happens in some really great works like The Member of the Wedding. I like getting a fresh perspective on things from a new character's point of view, but in the Inkheart Trilogy, the story is told in the third person, and the focus shifts from one character to another or one group of characters to another without any rhyme or reason except that we need to know what's going on with other people. It's a sort of spatial organization that I'm not all that into. I also think it's a kind of sloppy narrative technique because there are other ways of finding out what other characters have been up to. Story time, flashbacks, etc. So, I still felt a little lost by the end of this book. I felt like I still didn't know any of the characters as well as I would like to, and thereby hadn't really gotten close enough to anyone to want to run out and buy the third book.

Plot wise, we're dealing with similar issues. Yes, Capricorn is dead, but Meggie decides she wants to read herself into what she has christened the "Inkworld" that her mother has told her so much about. As Dustfinger has already been read back home, Farid brings Meggie the piece of paper that took Dustfinger home, and she reads both herself and Farid into the book. We haven't heard the last from Basta or Mortola (obviously) and these two almost interesting villans show back up to seek revenge on Mo and Resa. They are all read back into the book. So, the major portion of the action takes place in "Inkworld," but it's basically the same deal. Basta and Mortola are after Meggie, Mo, and Theresa (Resa). Dustfinger is trying not to die because he knows the original story dictated his death, and Farid is trying to stay as close to Dustfinger as possible. In the "Inkworld" things have gone awry since Capricorn was read out of the book. The Laughing Prince becomes The Prince of Sighs after his son's death, and the Adderhead is preparing to take over the land. The geography of "Inkworld" doesn't seem too vast, so this is a lot of royalty and a lot of government for such a small place. In any case, Fenoglio (read into the story in Inkheart) is trying to fix things by writing and getting Meggie to read aloud. It all gets jumbled and messy, obviously.

What is great about this book? Dustfinger. In the first book, he was simply a quasi-villain. He had sympathy for the heroes, and he had a good motivation for working with the bad guys, but he was a traitor and rather annoying with his constant drive toward his own world. In this book, he is attractive, daring, loving, inventive, brave...you know, all those great hero traits. He's still slightly Byronic--he hasn't been a good father or husband, he loves fire more than people, but he really does show an amazing capacity for self sacrifice. And the self sacrifice culminates in the final scenes. Farid is stabbed in the back by Basta (this did not upset me, but I would be admitting some rather personal prejudices here to explain), and Dustfinger is crushed. Even though he loves his wife, Roxanne (the most beautiful woman in the land), he gives himself to the "white women" (harbingers of death) in order to restore Farid's life. Farid's a whiny baby. Ugh.

So, as if the whole slightly flat characters, spatial organization, and abundance of government didn't put me off enough, she's now killed off one of the most interesting of the flat characters. Needless to say, I didn't run out to by Inkdeath. I'm reading The Catcher in the Rye now, and I'll pick up Inkdeath when I have more money.

Inkheart

2009-03-02T21:39:00.008-05:00

I was a junior in college when my mother called me and told me she wanted me to watch the first Harry Potter film with her over Thanksgiving break. I laughed and told her that I could not as I had not read the book. "English majors' rule," I said. The next day I found myself begrudgingly buying the book in a local shop. The rest, as they say, is history. I fell in love with Harry Potter and went so far as to write almost forty pages on the series in my master's thesis. The "English majors' rule" has become somewhat of a joke. I know a lot of English majors who appreciate film as much as books, and almost all of them realize that it's a completely separate medium that needs to be viewed differently than the printed word. Still, when my mother asked me recently to see Inkheart with her, I made a mental note to buy the book. I bought it on Thursday evening, and I finished it just now.

It's no Harry Potter, but it was entertaining. The basic premise (as I'm sure we all know by now from movie trailers) is that Mo can read characters out of books. Nine years before the story takes place, he read Capricorn and Basta out of Inkheart, a fantasy novel by a man named Fenoglio. Capricorn and Basta have set up their evil villian camp in our world and have been trying to catch Mo to have him read more villians out of the book. They like money and inspiring fear in the people around them, especially fear that results in their gain. However, the book felt like cops and robbers while I was reading it. When a story is 534 pages long, I should not be able to summarize ALL the major action in two basic compound sentences, but I can. Capricorn and his men capture Mo, Meggie, Dustfinger, and Elinor, but Dustfinger helps them all escape. Capricorn and his men recapture Meggie and Fenoglio (the author), and they make Meggie read a monster out of a book. It dragged a little at times. The second time we were caught by Capricorn's men, I couldn't help but wonder what we needed the previous capture for...plotwise that is.

I am also complaining because I like my fantasy to take me to another world, and this one did not. Several supernatural things happened, but they all happened here in our own world. Speaking of setting, the setting was weird. The book apparently takes place in Italy, but there is no nod to the language at all. It seems as if everyone in Italy is just running around speaking English. I found it a little disconcerting. I thought it was otherwise well written, and I like the characters (Mo and Meggie, especially, but Elinor also), so I have picked up Inkspell in our school library, and it seems as though we might get another world after all, from the maps at the opening at least.

I think my mom will enjoy the movie though, if that counts for anything! :)

Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12

2009-02-26T20:34:00.004-05:00

Touch Base Night at West Po High School is the equivalent of parent conferences speed-dating style. Parents stand in a line in front of their students' teachers and wait their turn for a five minute opportunity to discuss grades, behavior, and attendance. It's a testament to how ridiculous our society has become that many of the parents use the five minutes to haggle with the teachers over a few points here or a few points there. I have so few parents show up for Touch Base that I normally get to read or grade papers during the two hour conference marathon. I decided last night to use the 110 minutes to catch up on my professional development, so I finished reading Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12. This book is by Kelly Gallagher, an English Teacher celebrity! I saw him speak earlier this year, and it was truly humorous how much actual fawning took place around him.

That being said, the man does do everything. After reading his book, I know that he

Teaches high school English full time
Teaches at a primarily Latino school
Runs a faculty book club
coaches softball for this girls
reads voraciously on a variety of topics
writes books - at least three that i know of
gives presentations and workshops around the country

He is also apparently still successfully married, and this is a feat in and of itself. I can see why people admire him so much. He does seem like a totally regular guy though, and while I thought most of his ideas were stellar, I also found myself disagreeing with him from time to time (and I think that's healthy).

His book has 10 chapters in it, and it is not really a sequel to Reading Reasons, but it is definitely about teaching "challenging texts" as opposed to teaching people how to read. This is an important distinction. Almost all high school teachers are trained to help students access texts well above their grade level, but almost NONE of them are trained to help students learn to read. The course that I teach now is supposed to increase reading level, and I've found that I have no idea how to do that...hence reading this book. I plan to read others as well. If I choose to stay in this line of work, I will also probably want to take a few classes as well.

The first chapter, "Why Reading Is Like Baseball," is Gallagher's metaphor for deeper reading. He explains how many people know the basic rules of baseball, but they do not read the game on a sophisticated level. Since I am not a sports fan, I understood this analogy perfectly. Every time I have ever tried to talk sports with anyone who knew the sport, I have come up woefully lacking in knowledge. The second chapter outlines his method for teaching deeper reading, which includes focusing the reader, helping with effective first-draft reading, deepening comprehension through second-draft reading, making time for collaboration with peers, using metaphor to deepen comprehension, and leading students to meaningful reflection. Each of the next six chapters takes one of those topics and goes into it more deeply. In the interest of space and time, I'm just going to share some of the ideas that were most enlightening to me.

The Indigo King

2009-02-22T10:10:00.008-05:00

Incidentally, I also finally finished The Indigo King last night. I started reading this book last month, and put it down when I started The Sandman series. I really, really enjoyed being drawn into a fantasy plot again, and though the plot was often complicated, it was an engrossing read compared with the forced nonfiction I've been battling.

In this book, Jack (C.S. Lewis) and John (J.R.R. Tolkien) meet with their friend Hugo Dyson to investigate a mysterious book delivered to them as Caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica. The book is dated from the 6th century, but it has modern English writing on it in Dyson's hand. Little of this novel actually takes place in the Archipelago, instead the majority of the action takes place in Albion, the catastrophic "would be" England had Mordred been king rather than Arthur. A poorly educated man named Chaz also replaces Charles as the third Caretaker for the bulk of the novel.

The central question the plot seeks to answer is what is Mordred's (who is also the Winter King - see Here, There Be Dragons) true name. Like Paolini's Inheritance Cycle and other fantasy novels of some note, names are extremely powerful and important. They have the power to bind one to the servitude of another. Aided by the absent Jules Verne, the three men (and two badgers) go through time via a special projector with slides into the past. In the first slide, their mission is complicated considerably by the knowledge that Mordred is one of a pair of twins. They also find out that his other twin is the Cartographer of Lost places. Misguided by this knowledge, their journeys through four more slides encompass their efforts to turn the mapmaker against his brother.

As with the other stories, literary references abound. Mordred and his twin (Merlin) are the sons of Odysseus and Calypso, and their line intertwines with that of Jesus (and his mythical -- perhaps it's all mythical -- children). At one point, Chaz mispronounces the Argo as Aragorn, and anyone who is familiar with The Lord of the Rings will see what Owen is playing with there. A huge portion of the complicated plot is so because of the intricacies of time travel. Owen seems to prefer to blend science fiction with fantasy rather than delineate between the two.

I enjoyed this book, but I have discoverd that it is not a trilogy. Owen can continue to write these books indefinitely (although I imagine he is not a young man). I'm not sure that I will be looking for his next release, but if I find it accidentally in my future book buying ventures, I'll pick it up again.

Cracking the GRE Literature Subject Test

2009-02-21T18:06:00.008-05:00

To be fair, I should mention (even though there's a picture) that this book is by The Princeton Review people. :)

I ordered this book yesterday after registering earlier in the week for the April 4th test. I read the entirety of the book, but I did not take the practice exam yet, as reading the book took most of the day (I have a lot of distractions at my place). It was very interesting. I've never used a book to help me study for a test before, and this one really confirmed my suspicions that these books put a lot of emphasis on test taking strategies rather than learning content. However, when one is faced with the whole of Western literature from Beowulf on...

The book is divided into five parts. I read the first three today. The fourth is the practice test, and the fifth is the answer key with explanations. I will take those tomorrow (when I'm fresh--haha), and I'll edit the blog if my opinions change drastically.

I learned in the first part "The Big Picture" that the GRE Literature in English Subject Test is actually designed for students just finishing their undergraduate degree in English. This should be a comforting fact for me, given the fact that I have just finished my Masters degree, but I can't help but feel that there were entire periods of English Literature that I avoided all together. And this is true, but I didn't realize which ones until the third part, so I'll save it. Over all, the test has three types of question (all multiple choice--good news for me as I am not a good writer on tests---maybe I'm never a good writer, but whatever). Only a very few questions are not attached to a passage and are merely identification. There is some grammar on the test, but it's minimal and easy. The three types of questions are standard form, variations on standard form, and super process of elimination questions. It's nice to think of the format that way, as it demystifies the process for people like me who tend to make things harder than they really are.

The second part "Cracking the System" explains how the test is scored. Only 78% of the questions need to be answered correctly to score in the 90th percentile, for example. It also explains their "two pass"system, which involves going through the test at least twice. This second section also emphasizes the limitations the test makers have for creating a test that should conceivably cover what most undergraduates should have learned. Obviously impossible. Anyone who has worked in an English department knows that politics and factions abound, and that they have their effects on reading lists.

The third part contained the actual reading lists. They have an A list, a B list, and a C list. Thankfully I was at least mostly familiar with all the works on all the lists; however, this is where I found my gaps immediately. I know almost nothing about Victorian Literature. Everything after Milton and prior to the Romantics is a big gap for me. It's a mess. I have a lot of surface level reading to do before I go to Winston for the test in six weeks.

I found the summaries of the books I had read to be entertaining. Fun refreshers is what I will call them. I also found the summaries of books I had not read to be very enlightening: I have been reading Pope wrong for YEARS. Haha. Anyway, I will definitely edit to explain how helpful the book was after I take the test and receive my scores. Scores that I hopefully will not need, but alas, that's a blog for another day....

................................................................................

I took the practice test, and (not that I'm likely to forget this humiliating score) I thought I would post before I forget. I got 83 out of 230 questions wrong! My raw score was 126.25, and my scale score was a 530 (YIKES!). This puts me in the 45th percentile. So, I am dejected, obviously. I am going to try to study for the next six weeks, and this blog will probably turn into a GRE Subject Test review :(. However, if I am not doing considerably better by the end of it, I'll call in sick on test day and choose a new career :).

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Just an update: I did not do much other studying for this test, and I scored in the 81st percentile. :)

The Sandman: Endless Nights (11)

2009-02-02T10:29:00.007-05:00

I also finished Endless Nights last night. Two graphic novels in one day! I probably need to get a life, or figure how to get paid to read. :)

Endless Nights is a collection of seven short stories with one short story for each of the Endless. I keep using the horror label for these books, but they've gotten less horrific progressively through the series. However, this book needs another label, and I'm not sure I know what it is. It's a very sexual book. I would normally say "graphic" but since they are graphic novels, that term doesn't seem to apply. Anyway, it's adult fiction.

Death is the focus of the first story, "Death and Venice." It's about a young American who meets Death on an island outside of Venice as a child. When he returns to Venice, he meets her again and travels with her to destroy an enclave of celebrating Venetians who have locked out time for over two hundred years. The man ponders the idea that he has been in love with Death since he first saw her as a child, which seems to be a common theme with Death. She's the cutie that every guy falls in love with. Perhaps if that happened more to Desire, she wouldn't be so bitter. I really liked this story. It was mostly cute, and it seemed like a reasonably favorable depiction of the soldier, despite the fact that he is shown sneaking up on and killing an unarmed man at the end. Life is complicated, and I don't think Gaiman shies away from that fact at all.

The second story, "What I've tasted of Desire," is about a young woman who tames the village playboy. However unrealistic it seems, she manages to fall in love with him after a brief encounter, refuse him for long enough that he wants her, and then marry him. It's pretty impressive. Unfortunately, she does not keep him for long. He leaves on tribe business, and the enemies bring back his head and place it on her table. She is really an impressive figure: she ignores the head and manages to serve the enemies for long enough to wait for her village's men to get back and kill them. I will say that I really think Desire's story is a lot cooler than she is. She is really quite mean, and while I know that the Buddha said that desire was the enemy of nirvana, I just don't think she would be that off putting. Just a theory.

"The Heart of a Star" is the third story, and the story of Dream's first love. In it we see Desire's first attempt to hurt her brother for fun, in which she succeeds amazingly well. Dream is naive and adorable, but he doesn't even come close to Delight. Delight is really cute in this piece. The woman, Killalla of the Glow, is really quite charming until you see how fickle she is. She falls in love with her own sun just moments after she finds out that Dream is in love with her. I felt really, really bad for Dream. I think that can only happen so many times before you swear off for good. It seems Dream's immortality would have been spent much more pleasantly if he had come to my conclusion rather than to keep trying.

"Fifteen Portraits of Despair" was not a story. I have a very obnoxiously structuralist definition of story, and it includes a beginning, a middle, and an end. It may have been poetry. Maybe. I really liked portrait #13 though. It was a test. I think I will take it someday and post it here. It would be interesting to see how I respond to despair.

The fifth story featured Delirium and was as unlike the adorable Delirium that we met as Desire's story was unlike her nasty personality. I'm not sure I said that well, but I know what I mean. In this story, a group of "crazy" people are recruited to help Barnabas and Dream reclaim Delirium who has gone inside herself. Matthew helps too. At least one of the "crazy" girls finds sanity in her efforts. I liked the happy ending, and I liked that the new Dream (Daniel) was helping out with his siblings willingly. Barnabas is a cool dog. I'd like a dog like that, but you have to train it and everything. I just don't know about that.

"On the Peninsula" was a story about an archeolgoical dig of the future. Apparently, Delirium did something that made time do something weird. Destruction was told to look after her. I'm not sure if this story took place after Morpheus's death or before, but I guess it's too much to hope that Destruction returns to his family again, even if he did like the new Dream. I will say that there were some weird wordless panels on page 131 that I wouldn't mind having explained to me.

"Endless Nights" is also NOT a story about Destiny. It's perhaps an illustrated expository essay. I did not feel that it was in any way a satisfactory conclusion. I would have prefered Destiny's "story" came first.

I really enjoyed Endless Nights more than I enjoyed the last three books, I think. It has a simplicity of structure that was found in the earlier books but got slightly lost as the plot thickened. Also, this book could be read at any time. It's not necessary to read Dream's saga first.

The Sandman: The Wake (10)

2009-02-01T19:45:00.010-05:00

I finished The Wake just now. Just this second. I have spoken to no one about its contents. This is an instant reaction, a far cry from the last few posts. I wonder what I thought it would be. No, I don't. I know that I thought I would be introduced to the new Dream, but I was not. He is a minor character in these stories. In many ways it seems these are the stories that didn't fit anywhere else. Gaiman writes on the page after the last of the story that he is good at goodbyes. I am not. I am a little confused. I think there is some sort of memory thing I am supposed to be cherishing with the last tale, but all I can think is: he's dead, let him be.
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The story begins with the actual wake for the Dream who has just died: Morpheus. I truly enjoyed Matthew's journey from denial into acceptance. I really identify with Matthew. The new Dream (Daniel) who we meet briefly is actually quite charming. He is very sympathetic, and his sense of duty seems mingled with doing what is right by others. This is a change from the last Dream who did what was his duty, but did not always seem to consider the well-being of the others around him. Only five of the Endless show up for the wake and funeral. Destruction visits Daniel, but he does not visit his siblings. I like him less for that. Mostly I am disappointed that we don't hear what Death says, only that "her words make sense of everything. She gives you peace. She gives you meaning." I want peace and meaning! I feel a little cheated by that. This story/episode/whatever breaks the fourth wall and makes use of the second person. It's rarely done in modern lit, and it's always disconcerting to me. We were all there, supposedly, but I have no memory of it. It's a strange blending of realities.

After the wake and funeral have concluded, we catch up with our friend Hob Gadling. He has found new love and still does not desire death, even though he knows Morhpeus is dead. He is an interesting character. I like him. I like the fact that when he falls asleep he dreams that Dream and Destruction walk with him on a beach. When his girlfriend asks him how the story ends, he says, "Well, there's only one way to end a story, really." I love the contrasting worldviews here. Amidst this great tragedy, someone random tells us the only way to end a story is happily. It's my kind of worldview for sure.

Gadling's story is followed by a weird Chinese one that seems to have happened in the past, but I think Daniel is the Dream rather than Morpheus. You can't really tell from the artwork, but at one point it says, "Flames flicker in the whiteness of his robe," and that sounds like Daniel to me rather than Morpheus. Besides, Daniel gives the man an open invitation, which does not seem like something Morpheus would do. Once rejected, Morpheus seems to be incapable of renewing the offer. Daniel is much more human, as one of the introductions pointed out (not this one because I haven't read it). I think though, that the ability to retain one's humanity once you become a god might diminish with age. Death is very cool, but not everyone can have her upbeat personality. Definitely most people would be jaded by immortality. I think even my boyfriend, but who knows.

The final story returns to Shakespeare, and it is about the writing of The Tempest rather than A Midsummer Night's Dream. We meet Judith and Anne. Anne is horrible, but at one point Judith points out that she was really heartbroken when her husband left for London. She at least allows him to sleep in his house and see his daughter. It is, perhaps, more than I could have done. I can't harbor ill will towards her. Shakespeare is a little whiny in this piece, and I wonder what critics have made of that. He is very concerned with his afterlife in a way that upsets me a little. I guess one of the coolest things about Shakespeare is that we know so damned little about him. We can make him whatever we like. There is also some amazing hubris in the idea that Gaiman's Morpheus inspires Shakespeare. Shakespeare admits to borrowing tales and speeches. Isn't that enough?

I am keenly aware now of the fact that I have finished the series. I felt like I had finished it with Worlds' End. By the time, I got to The Kindly Ones, I had already accepted Dream's death. Now, I feel like I have mourned him and am ready for a new distraction/fascination. As far as book exchanges go though, this one was way more my thing than Stephen King's Dark Tower series, although I enjoyed that too in my own way. I find more and more that reading is a way for me to get through hard times. I know I am probably escaping rather than dealing, but I don't see a need to fight every battle. Lonliness and disappointment need not be thought about so much; there isn't really much one can do about them anyway. Lesson planning is necessary, however, and I must think on that now. :) Blessed with work and blessed with children. That I am.

I forgot to mention that in this book we figure out who Dream has been brooding over! It's Thessaly/Larissa the witch!!! I hate to sound gossipy (kind of), but I just can't believe she's his type. How could he ever be fooled into thinking she had a heart? Okay, I'm done now.

The Sandman: The Kindly Ones (9)

2009-01-30T19:42:00.006-05:00

Yes, yes. I'm behind. I finished The Kindly Ones this evening, and I still need to write about the last three books. Yikes! Maybe Sunday afternoon I'll have time to catch up.

So, it's Sunday afternoon, and I'm catching up. :) The Kindly Ones was a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, and I truly believe it will someday be regarded as such by people much more important than myself. Our basic plot: Dream has killed his son, Orpheus, and the Kindly Ones (the Furies) are now at liberty to pursue him because they are "allowed" to avenge blood debts. Hippolyta Hall (mother to Daniel) has her son stolen, and she blames Dream, despite the fact that Dream does not steal her son initially. She is the one who awakens the furies wrath against dream, and it only spirals downward from there. We also discover in this volume that Nuala is in love with Dream, and we see the reappearance of Thessaly as Larissa. She kind of falls in love with Dream too. Dream is one of those tortured souls that attracts women apparently. I wouldn't say I'm in love with him, but I can certainly see the attraction. So Dream dies, but Death spares him being tortured further by the furies. My favorite characters were definitely Matthew (the raven), Rose Walker, and Delirium. In some ways, Dream ceases to be a character in this book, but I'm not sure I could explain why. He just reacts to things rather than actually initiating action himself.

This book was definitely less sad than it might have been without the preparation of the previous two books. Still, the end of a myth is sad no matter what, even if it's a myth we've only known briefly (just this month, in fact). I did keep hoping throughout that Dream wouldn't die. I know that's childish, but I don't think it's fair to expect my readings to be that different than the average person. I'm sad when Romeo and Juliet die too. I keep wishing that they will work it out differently no matter how many times I read the tale.

Okay, so all that being said, I want to mention artwork. This volume was very "cartoony." I'm sure there's a technical word for this style of artwork, but I don't know what it is. The best way I know to describe is that the curves are more emphasized than the lines. It makes everyone seem less sinister and more innocent. There's nothing really hideous here: even the scene where "A makeshift barge made of dead flesh is slowly poled down a river of cold semen" becomes more about the words than the image this way. I normally really like cartoons, and I like that style of artwork. But, it definitely does not do the horror genre as well as some others. For the first time since reading this series (a pitfall of having several different artists), I felt like I was reading an illustrated story rather than a graphic novel. However, this is also the first book I've read in which I've found panels that I would blow up and hang in my bedroom...actually, I might just do that. It could be my next art project :).

I'm thinking about writing a longer blog on the series as a whole. I want to discuss this issue of dying mythologies at length, and it doesn't really fit with the purpose of these individual "reviews," if that's even what they can be called. We'll have to see if I make time to do it.

The Sandman: Worlds' End (8)

2009-01-28T16:39:00.008-05:00

So much for quitting Sandman for a while. I was in a weird mood last night, so I picked up World's End, and I finished it today after I exported my grades. I have a bad feeling about this one, and I want to remind myself to talk about the artwork again. But, quite obviously, I still need to finish my blog on Brief Lives, so one thing at a time, eh?

Oh the perils of blogging out of order once the plot thickens! My first thought about this book is that it is out of order! Haha, what I mean to say is that the events in this book take place after the events in the next book. One of the introductions mentions that Gaiman is meticulous about time, but I really beg to differ. Perhaps he knows when all the events take place, but it would take a thesis to figure out the timeline for The Sandman.

Worlds' End is another collection of stories. I guess it's a function of the medium. They were produced monthly, and every once in a while, it must be nice to buy your comic once a month and have the story actually be self-contained. Dream is in most of the stories, but not all. Still the book is about him, and that becomes clear at the end of The Kindly Ones. No matter. The basic plotline is that a large group of travelers are stuck in an inn at the Worlds' End (a place where all the worlds end) because there is a reality storm. We don't know why there is a reality storm, but if we read Brief Lives (and we did), we can surmise that the reality storm might have something to do with Dream having killed Orpheus. The main characters are: Charlene Mooney, Brant Tucker, Klaproth, Cluracain, Jim (only he's really a girl named Peggy), and Petrefax. I say these are the main characters because we learn their names, but really they are only fleeting characters in the greater drama. In any case, much like The Canterbury Tales, each traveler must tell a tale to pass the time at the inn. Actually I think this makes it more like The Decameron.

Mister Gaheris tells a tale of a dreaming city and the man who roamed its streets. Cluracain tells a story of envoy to Aurelian, a city where the position of Lord Carnal and Psychopomp have been usurped by one individual. Cluracain's story is interesting because the climactic moment occurs when he decides to tell the truth about something. He says of his species, "Sometimes we will say true things. And these things we say are neither glamour nor magic, neither prediction nor curse: But sometimes what we say is true." Again, we come back to that recurring theme in Sandman about truth being something other than what has really happened. It's different from reality. Anyway, Jim tells a story titled "Hob's Leviathan," which features our friend Hob Gadling. This story was kind of interesting because of the possibilities for gender analysis. Hob tells Peggy that he is "Old enough to hae learned to keep my mouth shut about seeing a bloody great snake in the middle of the ocean," and somehow this is evidence that Peggy can trust him with her secret as well. The idea of the great submerged snake and the great submerged secret have some possibilities. The next story is told by an unknown slightly Asian looking man, and it is about Prez Rickard, the boy President. There was something very cool about the folding of mythologies, but other than that the story was a little weird. I might have to give it some more thought. The final story was told by Petrefax, and it was about Litharge, the Necropolis. There were a few tales imbedded within this one, and I enjoyed it. There is an interesting foreshadowing/warning about having the tale about the Necropolis in this book. The citizens of the Necropolis are supposed to respect the dead, respect the passing of life, and it is certainly placed so that we heed their beliefs.

The ending of the book is the part most worth writing home about, however, at least in terms of the larger Sandman plot. At the end of the book you see a funeral procession where the Endless are pallbearers. I admit to having read the wikipedia page on The Sandman early in the series, so I had a pretty good guess who was in the casket. I won't say more about it now, but it will come up again in The Kindly Ones.

The Sandman: Brief Lives (7)

2009-01-25T13:55:00.007-05:00

These blogs are getting terribly long. I don't suppose that's the function of a blog. I better learn to keep it short! :) This is a problem with me with everything. I talk too much and I write too much! I'll try to keep this one shorter.

Wow! Sad! I really liked this book, but the ending was sad and the introduction (it came at the end--haha) was really, really sad. The conclusion Peter Straub gleans from the book is that the Endless "are merely mythic patterns, and as such do not have the authority to interfere in human lives." Having read so far ahead at this point, I have realized that is Brief Lives that sets up this simple fact as Dream's hamartia (not hubris--people are always getting these confused). Dream's whole existence is based on his responsibility, for the dreamworld, for the dreamers, for the dreams and nightmares. He justifies his actions according to the rules he has created or inherited and set up as his purpose in life. And in many ways he needs Delirium to show him this truth, both literally and figuratively. The character Delirium with her childlike innocence can ask questions and make statements that Dream's rather left brained mind cannot fathom. She tries to lead him to a greater freedom by leaving his beaten path. There is definitely something to be said about the fact that Dream apologizes to Delirium on at least two occassions in this book, but he never manages to apologize for what he needs to apologize for.

The plot of this book is quite unified and quite simple. Delirium decides she needs a change, so she goes to ask her siblings if they will help her seek Destruction, the prodigal brother. Destiny and Desire flat out refuse. Despair refuses slightly more gently. Death manages somehow not to get involved (she does have a job to do), and Dream ends up being the only of the Endless who is willing at all to help Delirium. The quest is multifaceted. Dream needs to get out of his morose mood; another lover has left him in mourning for his humanity (he cannot keep a lover because no woman (or man) can compete with his sense of responsibility as a quasi-god). As the story progresses he is also seeking some closure to the deaths the beginning of the quest incurs. Again he feels beholden to the mortals he has hurt. Finally the quest brings him back to unfinished business with his son Orpheus who he abandoned earlier in life. Orpheus manages to barter his death (which he has been seeking for a thousand years) for information about where Destruction is. Delirium gains Destruction's dog, Barnabus, and Dream returns to his castle to brood over his son's death.

The story is very circular. It begins with Orpheus's guardian's cheerful acceptance and Dream's brooding, and it ends the same way. The highlight seems to be on the two different mindsets. When Dream returns to the Dreaming, he tells Lucien, "For the rest of today I will be retiring to my quarters. I do not wish to be disturbed." While he is dying, Andros muses, "It is going to be a beautiful day." Andros appreciates and accepts his brief life, while Dream has spent the majority of his (much less) brief life feeling sorry for himself. Dream is an interesting character. He always tries to do the right thing. Whenever one of his siblings tells him he has made a mistake, he sets off to correct it. But he never seems to get the point that the real joy comes from treating people (and gods or whatever) the right way the first time. I really like him. I like that he seems to have a sense of honor. When I said he behaves in a godlike fashion, I meant it. He definitely has a code of behavior that surpases that of the mortal world. It just doesn't seem to be enough, and it bothers me that even our gods are saddled with these eternal questions of responsibility to others versus responsibility to self, too much work versus too much play, the constant struggle for balance. Can't life be simple for anyone? It's very frustrating, but it must be a truth. I believe that truth comes from our representations. Truth does come to light with the creation of art. Sometimes though it doesn't make it any easier to swallow.

On a happier note, I adore Delirium. I don't know if she is my favorite character, but I really, really like her. She is so cute about her "milk chocolate people:" "Have you got any little milk chocolate people? About threee inches high? Men AND women? I'd like some of them filled with raspberry cream." And when she drives: "I'm good at this, aren't I? I'm really good. I knew I'd be good at driving. Bzuum. Bzuum. Dream? Look at me! Look at me driving!" And, probably most importantly, she accepts truth in a way that Dream cannot. When they finally find Destruction and he explains that he will not return to his realm and make things as they were before, she simply says, "I thought you would," and it's over. She doesn't beg and she doesn't plead. It's simple for her. Perhaps craziness does make things simple.

I'm finding it harder and harder to write frivilously about these books. Straub says, "If this isn't literature, nothing is," and he nails it. Of course, I am getting further and further from my "near instant reaction too." It's hard to find time to write AND read, but still, the themes are just too weighty. What started out simply has become a quagmire of great ideas, and I suppose that is what literature is: a quagmire of great ideas. Still, I must try (it is my passion after all).

The Sandman: Fables and Reflections (6)

2009-01-23T10:28:00.010-05:00

Like Dream Country, Fables & Reflections is a series of short stories in which Dream appears. There are nine stories, and many of them deal with historical figures. The stories are well organized; while many will have their favorites, they build from somewhat cute to serious to rather mind-boggling. I was especially fond of "Three Septembers and a January" and "The Parliament of Rooks." I enjoyed "Orpheus" as well, but just as in the story about A Midsummer Night's Dream, the actual story is not all that original, only the telling is original. I'm going to go through them in order though because I think I have something I wanted to say about each.

I have never seen a book do what Fables & Reflections did with"Fear of Falling." The story starts right on the first page. I wasn't sure that my book wasn't damaged. The copyright page, the table of contents, and the introduction all come after "Fear of Falling." The story itself was kinda cute, but it was fairly predictable. What intrigued me was the artwork. I am way out of my league discussing comic book artwork. I am only now starting to understand how many different people are required to make the artwork: there's an illustrator or person who draws the pictures, then there's an inker who puts the color in, and there's even a person who just does lettering. That's what I'm gathering from the credits and bio pages anyway. The styles are really different between different artists. It's kinda like the difference between the animation in Sleeping Beauty and Aladdin. It's just got a different feel. Okay, so back to "Fear of Falling." The faces were shaded very differently. Everyone seemed a little shady, and I'm not sure that that was consistent really with the story or even the spirit of the story, but it was interesting. Also, the characters looked stretched. Everyone was just a little overly tall and thin. It kinda reminded me of a Hellboy comic my boyfriend showed me. I wonder if there's a name for this style of artwork. There was a lot of shadow, and the shadow was black, not gray or deeper colored. It was black. And, as a side note, Morpheus was a little less attractive that way.

I found Gene Wolfe's introduction interesting. He writes, "Do you read introductions? I do, and after having read a good many of them, I am sadly aware that most of us who write them do not know what they are supposed to accomplish, which is to enable you to start the stories without embarassment." I hadn't thought about how rarely people actually use introductions to introduce stories, but it's true, hardly anyone does. However, when Wolfe does get around to introducing the characters, he does it in a strange way. He gives us the literary/historical context behind the main characters, but he does not tell us anything that would enable us to have a conversation with the characters. He definitely leaves the human interest for Gaiman. He tells us that Caius is Emperor Augustus, but he doesn't tell us, "Hey, that's Caius, he's an okay guy, but don't mention Caesar; they had a sticky relationship." But I'm really glad I read this introduction. If I ever have to write an introduction of my own someday, I'll be sure to remember Wolfe's advice. Though I can't imagine why I would need to write an introduction.

"Three Septembers and a January" is a story about a challenge between Despair, Desire, and Dream. I liked it a lot. I liked Joshua, and I loved the fact that Dream was able to defeat his Despair by giving him the dream that he was someone. Some of it was obviously unrealistic: a newspaper would never really publish a letter claiming that one was emperor of the United States, for example. But the storyline was a hopeful one, and the minor appearances of Delirium and Death were fun. The scene between Dr. Pain and Joshua was a priceless little bit of Buddhist philosophy. I will eventually share this story with my mother. I may get her to read all the stories, but I definitely want her to read this one.

"Thermidor" is about the French Revolution, which I incidentally just learned about this past summer during my Romantic Poetry class. The main character is Lady Johanna Constantine, who I guess is in some way related to the other Constantines. Trying to protect the head of Orpheus she attempts to get it out of France, but she is waylaid by Louis-Antoine St. Just and Monsieur Robespierre. In the spirit of their revolution, they don't want any religious artifacts roaming around France. When the two are finally confronted with the head of Orpheus, they crack and can no longer run their country. The message seems to be that the way to end a bloody, misguided revolution is to bring a magic head to sing of liberty and freedom. This is, of course, a less than satisfactory answer to one of life's great questions, but...there you have it.

"The Hunt" is a story about a family of werewolves, but you don't know this until thirteen pages into the story. It was kind of romantic, but tales about vampires and werewolves often are these days. I still want to know why the werewolf man walks away from the sleeping "princess" figure toward the end. I guess true love conquers all? The grandfather telling the story was really pretty cute, and I think there are a variety of messages the young girl could take away from the story.

"August" is about Caius Agustus the Roman Emperor after Caesar spending a day each year as a beggar. I think I understood the message of the story. A lot of these stories are about boundaries, this one perhaps more than most. Caius says, "Firstly, Terminus, the god of boundaries. Jupiter must bow to him; boundaries are the most important of things, Lycius." In many ways, the boundaries Caius sets up for Rome are his way to rebel against Caesar, but in other ways, they are boundaries of morality and behavior. After telling Lycius that the number of men he has killed is countless, Caius seems to need a definite end, both physical and temporal, for the empire and its repercussions. I realize that I am talking about these stories like they all have morals, but the book is titled Fables & Reflections, so I don't feel too bad about it. Normally, I try not to talk about literature that way.

Fiddler's Green reappears in "Soft Places" (see The Doll's House), and we meet Marco Polo and Rustichello. The story is reallyabout the soft places in memory and dream where we can get stuck. That is a little obvious, but you know what I mean. Marco Polo almost did not exist because he travelled to a soft place. Dream tells him, "You come in, you do not go out again," but he eventually gets him out. Good ole Dream, huh? Time is an interesting construct in this story. Structurally the layers are interesting. Marco Polo meets a man he will not meet in his life for many years, Fiddler's Green shows up to escape one of Dream's romantic moods, and Dream himself shows up just after his captivity. We are sucked into the time portal as well because we read about Dream's release from captivity five books ago. It's all quite strange, but as I said, the stories get progressively more mind-boggling as the collection continues.

Ah, "Orpheus." What to say about this sad tale? The Endless are inserted in an interesting way. Destruction helps Orpheus seek Death, but Dream is really a horrible father. Death is adorable as ever. It's nice to see Calliope again, but unfortunate to find out that she's not sure she ever really loved Dream. Dream's lovelife is really his own fault, but it's still fairly pathetic. The way he treats his son is unforgivable though. I am not extremely well steeped in Greek myth, but I never really thought of Orpheus as regretting his immortality as much as he does in this story. Of course, he is reduced to a head, so that might have something to do with it. But I really thought he went on trips with Hercules and Jason and stuff even after he lost Euridyce. Oh well.

"The Parliament of Rooks" was one of my favorite stories. Believe it or not, I like Cain and Abel as characters. I also really liked Eve! She is so...over it all. I think it's funny and realistic. She tells Cain, "I've stopped telling stories," and "I'm NOT your mother, Cain" in a way that makes it seem like she's bitter, but handling it. The story is really about Daniel's trip to "The Dreaming," which I think foreshadows a greater role he will have to play. He ends up with Matthew, the talking raven, Eve, Cain, and Abel all telling stories. Abel's story is absolutely adorable! The drawings are so, so cute! Eve's story is pragmatic and actually I think has a basis in other mythology. I've definitely heard of Lilith before.The whole storytelling is framed by some interesting bird talk. I really enjoyed it.

The story "Ramadan" was really interesting until the political protest became too transparent. Dream is all god-like again, and the Caliph is really quite rude to him, but the ending on the streets of Bagdhad was a little too much. I guess I would not have got the point on my own, but I'm really not sure I would be happy to replace Bagdhad the way it is now with what it was in the beginning of the story. It was just too allegorical. Not enough was left up to the imagination.

Okay, so now I have finally finished my thoughts on book 6, finished book 7, and I think I'm going to take a break soon. I started a blog on The Indigo King, and I would hate to see February come along with January's reading unfinished, but we'll see. There are other reasons for giving Sandman a break right now, but I'll talk about those in the next blog.

The Sandman: A Game of You (5)

2009-01-21T22:17:00.008-05:00

I wrote myself a note last night to remind myself that the introduction to A Game of You really irritated me. I wish I had not. Though Samuel R. Delany did initially irritate me because he writes in his introduction to move on and finish the story before reading his thoughts (why on earth don't you put it at the end then!), when I did get back to his thoughts this morning, I found them to be really on point and fabulously written. Once again I find a short but extremely poignant bit of fantasy criticism at the beginning of a graphic novel! Delany writes, "the key to this particular fantasy world is precisely that it is a fantasy world where the natural forces, stated and unstated, whether of myth or of chance, enforce the dominant ideology." It seems like he is truly disparaging Gaiman's work until he says, "And it remains just a nasty fantasy unless, in our reading of it, we can find some irony, something that subverts it, something that resists that fantasy," and this is precisely what we find. Irony is definitely the dominant characteristic of A Game of You.

I was most struck by the idea that Barbie (yes, Barbie formerly married to Ken--yuck!) is our protagonist. I am one of those short, plump, annoying moms who really doesn't want her daughters to play with Barbie because she represents unnatural and unhealthy standards for beauty. They say that if she were alive, she would be seven feet tall with a whopping thirty-eight inch bust (haha---smaller than mine), but it towers over an eighteen inch waist (definitely smaller than mine). A "perfectly proportioned female" would have ten inches difference between bust, waist, and hips (34, 24, 34) supposedly. Barbie, on the other hand, would not be able to stand or walk; she'd fall over at the waist, weighed down not by her expansive intellect, but her crazy long blond hair. Obviously, she is an ideal role model for young children. But, for Gaiman, Barbie is actually only consistent with her childhood toy theme on the surface. The first panel in which she appears shows her half naked in bed, but we learn that she has an interesting group of friends. She is the sweet Barbie the doll makers want her to be, but she is also best friends with a transsexual, strangely insecure about her face (she's always drawing on it), and she is obviously repressed in many ways.

It's hard for me to write a sentence summary of what this story was really about because I'm not sure exactly what happened. Barbie's dreamworld was in trouble from the Cuckoo, but this trouble had something to do with Barbie and Rose Walker (see A Doll's House). I was initially frustrated that Barbie was the princess of her realm (don't we get enough of Barbie's awesomeness in the pink aisle of Toys R Us?) but it wore off as the subtle hints showed how powerless and ridiculous she was in that function. Her realm is icy cold, and she has nothing on but a ball gown. She is also at the mercy of her friends/subjects because she has no idea where she is going. After losing, or being betrayed by, all her friends, she is eventually taken to the Cuckoo who turns out to be.........I don't know. I still don't know and I finished the book. There were some really cool parts of this confrontation though. As Barbie approaches the Cuckoo's Citadel, she realizes that it's her old house in Florida. I have to admit that I was really afraid to find out who the Cuckoo was at this point; I have this idea for a book of my own. But I need not have worried, the Lacanian/Freudian psychoanalysis was really quite straight forward. At least in appearance alone, the Cuckoo was Barbie's younger self. I could go on about her public self versus her private self, but I am more interested in the type of analysis Delany did in his introduction than the individual psychoses of a character based off of a plastic goddess. There was some part of her that she repressed and that part took over her dreamworld. But, that's not all there is to it. The Cuckoo was also something outside of Barbie, something like an actual cuckoo...a possessing force or something. When Dream shows up at the end, he speaks of her "kind," but no one ever really says what her "kind" was. The same is true for Thessaly, who is apparently some sort of witch but we never find out which coven or clan she belonged to or anything.

I could spend a great deal of time talking about Wanda, Hazel, Foxglove, and Thessaly too, but I really wanted to mention how interesting Dream's reaction to the whole ordeal is at the end. I think there is something very attractive about Dream. He acts like a god. I know that sounds weird because we really don't have many references for what a god acts like except what we get from mythology and religion and he really doesn't act like any of those gods. He has his own sense of morality and it's so logical that it is hard to resist. Barbie wants him to punish the Cuckoo, but he seems to feel sorry for her. Dream offers her one "boon," but she obviously has to get herself and her friends home, so she can't recreate her dreamworld or anything. I need to think more about how to explain this, but Dream is just so calm and detached. I don't understand why what the Cuckoo has done is not evil, but what Thessaly, Hazel, and Foxglove have done is evil, and yet, I feel like if I asked Dream, he could explain it. Don't get me wrong, this isn't some religious fantasy. I don't feel safe because the world is in Dream's hands or anything. I just think he's cool and godlike. I like Death for a lot of the same reasons, but Death is really nice. I always look forward to her showing up because she's sweet to the other characters. You never really know if Dream is going to be nice or not. He wasn't very sympathetic to Barbie, but he doesn't lose his temper, and he's not mean really. I'm not doing a good job of this. The point is I think Dream is kinda attractive as an Endless...thingy. :)

Best part of this book was the sheer femininity of the whole thing. I really enjoyed one of the last scenes where Barbie tells Wanda what it was like to go into a comic book store. I've only ever been into a comic book store once, and the people there were super nice! But, I thought it was cute that the guys weren't nice to Barbie at all. They made fun of her breasts, and she said they must have taken "unhelpfulness lessons." It makes me wonder if I just got lucky. I would have been more nervous the first time, but I had my kids with me. Luckily though, if I need to go into a comic book store, I can take someone with me to show me the ropes. The really funny part was when Barbie told Wanda she wished she was there because Wanda would have said something to the guys. I have mixed feelings about this. It seems like it would be nice to have someone stick up for you when guys pick on you, but on the other hand, is it really worth it? What was hurt? Her pride. Besides, the guys in the comic book store probably wanted her. Immature way of showing though.

For a guy, Gaiman really does capture women pretty well. Barbie is fairly complex, as are Hazel and Foxglove. Thessaly is cool (weird and scary, but cool), but I don't think she's really human, so I don't think she counts. Gaiman seems like he would be a really cool person to talk to. Perhaps.

The Sandman: Season of Mists (4)

2009-01-21T08:05:00.004-05:00

Okay, I am royally pissed now because I wrote a whole blog for this book, and I thought it was quite cute if not really good, and now it is lost! So, I am going to try to remember what I wrote and recreate it, but who knows how that will go. It will probably sound forced and annoying. Blah.

I really see the value of writing these blogs right after I finish the books because I finished Season of Mists last night, and already it is getting confused in my head with A Game of You, which I started today. And that’s no good because Season of Mists was my favorite of The Sandman series so far, although I really liked the first book as well.

So yeah...I finished Season of Mists last night. Let’s start with the introduction this time just for variety’s sake and because…well, it’s at the beginning. When I sat down to read the book, my boyfriend told me that Harlan Ellison was a jerk, and on the second page I knew he was right. I don’t admit this often, so something must have triggered it. Ellison’s comments, like “if you’re one of the few surviving atavists who still read for the pure pleasure of intellectual invigoration,” were really condescending. As I am one of those “atavists,” I can only imagine how an Average Joe would feel when he picks up this book for pleasure and finds the introduction chocked with smatterings of Latin and French. Who needs it? Not me. And furthermore, the introduction seemed to do little besides stroke both Ellison’s and Gaiman’s egos. I failed to see a message besides the fact that Ellison thinks Gaiman is as brilliant, or almost as brilliant, as he finds himself.

Enough though, because I really liked this book, and I really don’t want to get stuck being snarky about the introduction. The overarching storyline (I believe it’s called an arc, for whatever reason) is that Dream has to return to Hell after a family meeting because his siblings feel he was unjust to a former lover, Nada (which he WAS). Nada means “nothing” in Spanish, and it means “dew” in Arabic, but this is totally useless and unrelated knowledge that only makes me more like Ellison. Anyway…apparently, Dream pissed off Lucifer in book one (I don’t remember him being pissed off and I haven’t gone back to check), and Lucifer has a very original way of getting revenge. He abdicates. He kicks everybody out of Hell and gives Dream the key. So the story really ends up being about the groups of beings that travel to “The Dreaming” to obtain the key to Hell from Dream.

The factions are: Thor, Odin, and Loki; Anubis, Bast, and Bes; Susano-O-No-Mikoto; Azazel, the Merkin, and Choronzon; Lord Kilderkin (the manifestation of order); Shivering Jemmy of the Shallow Brigade (a princess of Chaos); and Remiel and Duma (angels). Remiel and Duma are just there to observe (haha). Hopefully at least some of these names are familiar as all of the characters are famous mythological deities/creatures from around the world. The borrowed characters aren’t really a problem though, possibly this is because of the medium (I’ve already come to expect that some of the characters will be visitors from other stories). But mostly, I think it’s because like most good artists, Gaiman creates his own mythology as he goes along. This particular story is the mythology of how the war between Heaven and Hell ends. I won’t tell you how it ends, but I will say that I was not happy about who obtained the keys to Hell. Gaiman may be a religious man after all, despite the “r” rated nature of his books.

To return to the beginning (this is becoming an issue for me I fear—this circular writing thing), the family meeting affords the opportunity to meet all the Endless, except Destruction, who is on holiday. I am looking forward to getting to know Delirium better, but she’ll be hard pressed to replace Death or Dream as my favorite character. Death is great! I really hope Gaiman is divinely inspired in this mythology so that when I die an adorable brunette shows up to take me on.

Oh, and did I mention this was my favorite so far? Thank goodness I have seven more to read! :)

The Sandman: Dream Country (3)

2009-01-19T19:51:00.004-05:00

I caught a lot of crap this weekend reading my graphic novel around a bunch of veteran comic book readers. Apparently, I am not to read the introductions, and it is absolutely ludicrous that I would read the published script at the end of Volume 3. It was an interesting reading environment; I am a very vocal reader, and when something is funny, I laugh out loud. When something is strange, I read it aloud to make sure it makes sense to me. The guys were quite amused I'm sure. In any case, I digress.

Dream Country was unlike the previous two Sandman books because it was really a collection of short stories in which Dream makes an appearance rather than chapters in a story about Dream. The first story, "Calliope" was about a muse that had been captured by one famous author and given to another in order to inspire further best sellers. I enjoyed this story because I aspire to write, and I can certainly sympathize with the frustration the authors feel when they have no ideas. However, the really sad part of the story is the complete lack of respect both authors have for the muse. The one who captured her refers to her as a cow, and the one who obtains possession during the story rapes her and doesn't even feel guilty about it. Dream rescues her by cursing the latter author with a plethora of ideas, which he finds so all encompassing that he has to write them on the walls with his own blood in order to get them out.

Incidentally, this is also the story for which the script is provided in the back of the book. It was really interesting to see how the artist, Kelley Jones, interpreted Gaiman's words. Gaiman's comments were really amusing too. At some point, he randomly apologized for being too tired to finish a certain number of pages in a night. He also makes several wry comments mid explanations. The script was quite long: several pages longer than the actual story. My boyfriend made the comment that perhaps the bloated scripts were one reason The Sandman series has a new artist for every book. I think not, but whatever.

The second story features felines as the main characters, and it left me a little cold. I wanted the cats to change the world with their dream, as the afflicted cat promised their concurrent dreaming would. However, I guess I see the validity in the idea that cats cannot agree on anything and are therefore incapable of community action. Still, I think from the fantasy aspect, the story would be more subversive if the cats actually did manage to change the world. A theme that seems to be running through the books is that though things never happened, they can still be true. And in this case, our imaginations simply have to make the alternate universe true for the cats.

The third story is the one about Shakespeare that seems to have attracted a great deal of critical attention. The writing was actually mostly Shakespeare's, and the twist to the story was that the actual characters were the audience. Once again, Gaiman seems to be playing with the idea of truth. The truth of the actual characters validates the truth of Shakespeare's version of human nature. It was interesting. I like the completely fictional idea that Shakespeare's son Hamnet hangs out with him for a while though. It increases my respect for Shakespeare as a man, even though I know it is completely untrue.

The fourth story featured a character that I knew nothing about, and I really didn't find it that interesting, except that Death showed back up, and I like her. Rainie, or Element Girl (?), longs for death because she can no longer function in society. She goes out to lunch with a friend and loses her fake face she has put on for the occasion. Death leads her in the right direction for suicide, and it was a little touching maybe. But mostly, I was just interested in what her body was made of. I am sure that there is a running theme through traditional comics about the inconveniences and difficulties of being superhuman, but this story really didn't wrench my heart the way it could have.

So, back to introductions (I'm tacking this on at the end--can you tell?) I did not enjoy the introduction to The Sandman: Dream Country as much as I enjoyed the previous intro (The Doll's House), but Steve Erickson did provide a nice anecdote about a dream he had about his father shortly after his death. I liked the previous intro because it was all about fantasy, and that is really my thing. And, so far, Dream Country is my least favorite of The Sandman series because I like Dream, and I missed him. Thank goodness I have another seven to read.

The Sandman: The Doll's House (2)

2009-01-11T09:04:00.004-05:00

I finished the second book in The Sandman series this morning, and it was easily as weird as the first only with a less well-defined plot. I still haven't met Delirium, and supposedly she is one of the major reasons I'm reading the series...because she is somehow like Luna Lovegood (whom I have decided is half my personality = half Luna half Hermione). I did meet Desire though and that was interesting. I guess I need to back up. Overall, the series is apparently about the Endless, those who are not gods because they cannot die. And their names all start with D: Death, Dream, Desire, Delirium, Destiny...I don't know many of them yet. The series focuses on Dream, but the other characters, like the Greek gods of myth, interfere a lot.

In this book, Rose and Miranda Walker are reunited with their grandmother/mother, Unity Kincaid. Unity is a character from the first book who was infected with the Sleepy Sickness that went around while Dream was incarcerated by the cult. While she was asleep, someone or something raped her, and the child (Miranda) was put up for adoption and taken to the states. This story really begins when Unity summons Miranda and Rose to England to tell them the truth. For whatever reason, Rose and Miranda decide that they need to find Miranda's son, Jed. Jed seems to have become the plaything for a lot of horrific dreams and humans alike. His mind has been blocked off by Brute and Glob in order to recreate the dreamworld that was lost during Dream's imprisonment. His foster parents lock him in the basement so that they can collect the foster money for taking care of him. Then he is picked up when he tries to run away by Corinthian, an escaped nightmare turned serial killer.

Proctected by Fiddler's Green (who ends up being a place personified), his sister Rose rescues him and returns him to her new home where she is staying awaiting more information from her mother and her dying grandmother. He is lost in a world of dreams. But the big plot line is that supposedly Desire and his/her sibling have conspired to make Rose the new dream vortex, which means that she has to be destroyed by Dream himself. When Rose eventually does fall asleep the dreams of all the occupants of her buidling fold together to become one. Dream picks her up and takes her to the dreamworld where she is to be killed, but she is rescued by an unexpected person.

Yes, weird. The weirdest part by far was the convention of serial killers that Corinthian attends with Jed in his trunk. BUT it was balanced out by a nicer diversion about a man who is granted immortality so that Dream can meet with him every one hundred years in a tavern. Dream is still my favorite character, and I expect it is supposed to be that way. Death was very cool, but she only showed for a moment in this book. And like I've said, I haven't met many more of the Endless. I'll have to pick up the rest of the series soon, but I also have one of those pesky mid-year evaluations tomorrow that I need to prepare for, and the quarter ends in just two weeks. Bummer! Less reading. :(

The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes (1)

2009-01-09T11:59:00.008-05:00

This is my first graphic novel. I am reading it as part of a book exchange with my boyfriend. I am very nervous about understanding everything since I am not used to all the pictures. Just looking through it has me a little overwhelmed, but I am going to jump in and try today.

...................................................................................

It's been a while since I finished a book in a day (since DH, I think), and I don't know that I've ever done it in a workday. BUT, the graphic novel thing turned out to be a little easier than I anticipated. So, I read the first book in The Sandman series today, and my first thought is that I am definitely putting an extra label in for this one: horror!

The basic premise of the story is that the Sandman, Dream, has been imprisoned for almost a century before he is accidentally released to seek revenge. The revenge is quick though (over on page 52), and the real horror doesn't really come into play until Dream decides he needs to reclaim his lost objects of power: a pouch of sand, his mask, and a ruby.

In order to reclaim his pouch, he needs to venture into the realm of traditional superheroes. This left me cold because I'm really unfamiliar with the traditional DC stuff. However the death of Constantine's beau Rachel was moving and disturbing despite the fact that I have no idea who either character is outside the story. The drawings are pretty incredible though. I was fairly disgusted by the half dead woman living off of dreams. I certainly understand the image of the addict; hits a little too close to home perhaps.

Dream ventures into Hell to reclaim his mask from a demon in the service of Beelzebub. I enjoyed this chapter(?) because it smacked of Dante and other classic works I've read. In fact, the battle between Dream and Choronzon was quite a bit like T.H. White's battle between Merlin and Madam Mim. The object of the game is to change yourself into a creature that can defeat the opponent's creature, but in this case they just drew the creatures. The battle quickly turns cosmic though, and Dream eventually turns himself into hope and defeats Choronzon's absence of being/absolute destruction.

Dr. Dee or Dr. Destiny's appearance at the end of the book was one of the more disturbing things I've ever read. I really don't know whether or not this character is a DC frequent or not, but he was extremely psychotic. His character is one that changes from pitiable to repulsive so quickly my head spins. In any case, he has obtained Dream's ruby and is ready to use it for world domination, but he enjoys the horrific effects so much that he decides to simply wallow in the destruction rather than rule the world. The chapter (?) "24 Hours" was such that my stomach churned thorughout the reading. It made me glad that I am not truly crazy. Perhaps this is a function of true villians: to draw the lines between eccentricity and genuine madness. Dream's true nobility shows when he gains the upper hand and decides to return Dr. Dee to the asylum rather than kill him slowly as I would have.

Overall, the plot was simple to follow and I enjoyed reading it, if one can enjoy things that make you feel genuinely ill. I'm not sure I'll put it in the classroom library, but I would recommend it to others interested in trying out a graphic novel for a change of pace.

The Crystal Cave

2009-01-05T17:15:00.006-05:00

Having finished The Crystal Cave last night, I woke up upset this morning. There is something about the Arthur/Merlin story that always depresses me. Today I woke up angry at Uther. Although the story contains all the elements needed for it to be my favorite kind of reading (history, magic, strong women, heroic men), the order throws me off. For Arthur enthusiasts, there is no such thing as a happy ending.

Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave is a fictionalized account of young Merlin's life based on Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain. Stewart admits that Geoffrey's reputation is "mud" with real historians, but explains that "as a story it is tremendous stuff" (523). Though the History and many of the other accounts of Arthur were written in the twelfth century, Merlin and Arther were thought to have possibly existed in the fifth century AD. In many ways, this is a great time to write about because so little is known of its actual history. My mother, who recommended this book to me, mentioned that she was fascinated by all the magic in the book, but it is not magic but religious cult and ritual that drives the fantasy aspect of this book.

In this incarnation, Merlin is the "bastard" grandson of the King of Wales. His mother Niniane refuses to disclose the name of his father, and for this reason, he is always treated poorly around the castle. Rumours spread that he is the son of the "Prince of Darkness," and Merlin does not dispute them. Merlin is eventually given a tutor, and he learns secretly from Galapas, a local magician. The political machinations that drive the plot are detailed and feel realistic, as though Stewart had read quite a bit about the period. The main players, the Saxons, the Welsh, and the Britons are fighting over control of the whole of England, Wales, and Ireland. When Merlin's uncle returns home, he immediately considers Merlin a threat. When Merlin's grandfather dies and Merlin's own slave is punished for it, he flees the country.

In Cornwall, Merlin meets up with his father Ambrosius, a man destined to unite England and leave it to his brother, Uther. Merlin's time living and learning from Ambrosius is the happiest period in the book. It is widely acknowledged that Merlin has the power of prophecy, and this is the only magic worked throughout. When the time comes for Ambrosius to attack Greater Brittan, Merlin goes before him and is captured by the old High King Vortigern. In a deft display self-preservation, Merlin expands his reputation and becomes known as Vortigern's prophet. Ambrosius does take England and rules well but only for a short time. Merlin's father is only in the picture for a short time.

The relationship with Uther is much more strained. Perhaps Merlin's royal blood destines him to his life as a feared outcast, but those circumstances does not make it any more comfortable for me. In any case, by the end of the story, Merlin has agreed to help Uther obtain Ygraine, another man's wife. He lies with her, and she conceives, but the chaos that ensues causes Uther to resent the fulfillment of his wishes. He severs ties with Merlin and exclaims that he will not claim the son. Even though I knew what was coming as soon as a love-sick Uther begged Merlin for his help, I was not prepared for the humiliation and anger I felt on Merlin's behalf. Stewart makes Merlin very real, despite his power. I felt for him deeply at the end of the book.

The more I think about it, the more I realize the two things that bother me most about this story. First of all, Merlin's gift as a prophet seems to truly curb self determination. There is no free will once Merlin has spoken. Things may come about in an unusual or surprising fashion, but they will come about nonetheless. There is something frustrating and emasculating about this theory of prophecy. The second thing that really bothers me about Uther's and Arthur's stories is that it always seems to be women that bring them down. They become types to Adam's Anti type. It's very frustrating to read over and over again as a woman.

On a more structural note, this story is also told in the first person. Merlin is our narrator. He is an interesting narrator for the story because, at least at this point, he is a major player. It will be interesting to see (if I decide to continue the series) how his perspective colors the fall of Uther and the rise of Arthur. Already, Stewart has given him some interesting lines. Pondering Ygraine, he states, "I shall never cease to wonder at women. Even with power, it is not possible to read their minds. Duchess and slut alike, they need not even study to deceive. I suppose it is the same with slaves, who live with fear, and with those animals who disguise themselves by instinct to save their lives" (478). These are very intriguing lines as written by a woman. I wonder if they were closely related to something else she had read about Merlin; she does make him celibate as have many others, for example, or if these lines are protestations to the whole theory behind the story. Steward does an excellent job of staying out of the story herself, so my efforts to decode her ideology will require a great deal of analysis. I just hope the benefits of the challenge outweigh the depression.

The Search for the Red Dragon

2009-01-05T17:12:00.003-05:00

The second in the series featuring J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis as fictional characters picked up much more quickly than the first. Despite the fact that the premise remains the same, I enjoyed the second book more than the first. Perhaps this is because I am less familiar with the literary premises for the work.

The Search for the Red Dragon weaves Dante's Inferno and James Barrie's Peter Pan together in a tale about using abducted children to form an army. I will say that the sheer amount of time travel at the end of the novel was slightly disconcerting. I looked up from the book and said aloud, "What? I just missed something big." Still the return of the Winter King's shadow and the possibility of his continued existence makes me curious about the next book. Owen drops hints in his end notes that we may know the cartographer of lost places, but I still have no idea who he is. I have a feeling that these books are going to be more fun with each reread, especially if I have the opportunity to read more classics between readings.

On the femininity front, Aven becomes a mother but not a wife. This second book also introduces a second female lead Laura Glue. Laura Glue is a "Lost Boy" and the granddaughter of Peter Pan. Her character is a little annoying. I can't tell if she is meant to be annoying or if she is just poorly written. I am really pulling for a more well rounded female before the series ends.

Here, There Be Dragons

2009-01-05T17:11:00.004-05:00

This series was recommended to me by a good friend and colleague. I started reading it on December 22nd because I had left Breaking Dawn in the car. It started out well but immediately started to feel like the fantasy novel version of Copycat.

The premise for the series is a book that contains maps of all the imaginary lands ever written, depicted, etc. The series is called The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica. I liked the "wendigo" in the first chapter, and I was intrigued by the death of the professor that begins the series. However, the book does go through a 'let's show off how many fantasy novels we've read' stage, and it seemed unoriginal at times.

My second issue with the book was its utter maleness. People complain about Tolkien's treatment of women all the time and I love Tolkien, but this was rather silly. The one female character, while strong, was just so underdone. Aven is the captain of the Indigo Dragon, and she is fiesty, but she is also one dimensional until at least the second book. Even then her added characterization feels hollow like Owen tacks on feminine qualities that he pulled out of a fifties self-help book. But, on to more pleasant things.

The ending of the book really picks up, and by the time John, Jack, Charles, and Bert manage to defeat if not destroy the Winter King, I was really engrossed in the story. I liked the bit about the "ring of power," and I loved the fact that John is really J.R.R. Tolkien and Jack is C.S. Lewis. Charles is somebody too, but I am not well read enough to know him that well. Jack's character almost betrays the group to the Winter King just like Edmund betrays his brother and sisters to the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The smattering of literary history and philosophy in the book that becomes so much more important by the time we figure out the true identities of the caretakers makes this book one I will definitely reread. I am really looking forward to rereading to see more of how John's character relates to Tolkien's works.

Breaking Dawn

2009-01-05T17:07:00.002-05:00

The conclusion really shocked me.

I'm not sure if there is a limit on how "happy" an ending can be before it becomes sickening, but this book pushes the limits. My mentor mentioned that the ending smacked of deus ex machina, and I mistakenly believed that Edward was going to become human somehow. I had these vague notions running through my head while reading about the Volturi having found an antidote to vampire venom and releasing Edward from his eternal sleepless bondage. However, it turns out that Bella does become a vampire. She has a half-human child, which you would think would make her grow up some but does not. In fact, the thing about Bella is that she is a dynamic character in the eyes of other characters, but she is really quite static in her own head. And, since the story is told from her point of view, she is really quite static for the reader. I grew to like her though, and I maintain that she has an 'everywoman' quality that sets her apart from other heroines of fantasy novels at least. This characterization may be more common in the Romance genre.

What a climax though! Meyer builds the suspense extremely well in this book, and the ending was like something right out of X-Men. All the gifted vampires standing around ready to take on the vampire establishment reminded me of a scene right out of a superhero action flick. I was impressed with the eventual blending of genres. The series really was one of a kind. Over all, I still can't see how I could ever work it into my studies, but I would recommend it to other women. It's an interesting read.

Eclipse

2009-01-05T17:05:00.003-05:00

I am fascinated by Ms. Meyer's titles. This one was particularly apt. I like the way she uses the title to combine the lunar (werewolf aspect) and the (solar - Jacob's affect on Bella aspect). However, the real story here is that Jacob just can't compete with the Greek god Edward: he is eclipsed.

The third book of a four book series should be extremely climatic, and this one was not really. As I am writing, I am having a hard time remembering what the major suspense is in the story, and the book itself is upstairs on the shelf of my captain's bed. Oh yes, newborns. Meyer does do a good job of tying plotlines together (not nearly as good at it as Rowling, but certainly a satisfactory job). The hunter James's mate Victoria makes a reappearance that conveniently gives Meyer the opportunity to discuss the history of vampire warfare. Newborn vampires are extra-strong and easily distractable, making them seriously dangerous. Victoria's creation of a small army of newborns to destroy Bella provides the major action for this book.

Still, the main plotline revolves around Bella's attempts to keep both Edward and Jacob in her life without crushing either of them. She fails, of course, and ends up crushing both men in her own way. Her remorse is slightly satisfying, but overall, I really wish Bella would grow up a little.

As I write, I am starting to realize how cynical and negative I sound. I must reiterate at this point that I had a very hard time putting these books down. For sheer entertainment value, they are quite remarkable. I enjoyed them immensely.

New Moon

2009-01-05T11:25:00.009-05:00

I had heard that this was the worst book in the series, but I actually really enjoyed it.

I think a lot of readers are understandably put off by Bella's depression. Pages eighty-five through ninety-two are simply months passing without note because Bella is completely blanked. She can't feel or think; she simply exists. I found this to be rather brilliant, perhaps because I can unfortunately understand it completely. On the other hand, the deep depression is an indication of Bella's youth, which undermines the validity of her decision to return to Edward.

I have also heard others say this was their favorite book because of Jacob. Jacob is a pretty cool character, but he does not carry the book. The raw honesty of Bella's condition is what really carries this book. Meyer, a mother and a wife, has obviously kept in touch with her teenage self quite well. I remember feeling like my life revolved around social situations, like there was nothing inside me that didn't relate to others. People are always complaining of the egocentricity of youth, but in many ways, it is egocentricity that saves us from youth. It is the understanding that we are with or without others that makes us grow up. Bella never achieves this, and I feel for her because she is rescued rather than fighting her way out. Still, her evolving relationship with Jacob and her desire for danger are entertaining.

The climax of this book is not as suspenseful or entertaining as the first. Bella leaves Forks to save Edward from his own suicidal tendencies in Italy. Once again it is their relationship's lack of realistic foundation that makes the whole thing seem hollow. On the other hand, I was grateful Edward reappeared because Jacob deserved better than Bella's half-hearted admiration. Also, Charlie is a great character. He is well written and realistic, more so than Bella, Edward, or Jacob.

I really enjoyed the philosophical argument between Edward and Carlisle about whether or not vampires have an afterlife or even a soul. This was the one interesting part about the climax. Edward mistakenly believes he is already dead when Bella rushes into his arms. This was both amusing and thought provoking, but it was not really enough to pull off a 563 page novel.

Twilight

2009-01-05T11:24:00.006-05:00

Yes, me too. I have been taken in by Twilight. My friend John recently posted the following message on my facebook:

"haha...you're probably the only PhD applicant in the world to spend her Christmas break reading _Twilight_ books :)"

I suppose that the smiley was meant to placate my easily provoked wrath, but I find his statement especially amusing because I was at a Christmas party on the 26th and found not one but two other PhD students reading the book. It's the new 'girly' phenomenon. My Twilight journey started around midnight on December 12th (13th if you count midnight as the start of a new day). I picked up the book at a Barnes and Noble stop for the classroom library. A few of my female students had been caught reading it during their grammar lessons, so I thought it would be a good choice for Focused Silent Reading. I started reading because I was bored and couldn't sleep. I spent most of the weekend reading and consequently moved on quite quickly. I bought the rest of the series at Books-A-Million on Wednesday the 17th, and I finished the fourth on the 29th.

The series has some notable features. I continually refer to the books as 'vampire romance,' rather than fantasy, but I can argue for their placement in the fantasy genre. Unlike the other popular fantasy novels currently being read, the series is written in the first person. The protagonist Bella is the narrator. The first book probably fits most closely into Tzvetan Todorov's definition of "the fantastic." Bella is kept in suspense for a great majority of the novel as to whether or not the supernatural can really exist. This is only possible with a first person narrator, and I am impressed that it has regained its popularity as a literary technique in this genre. Bella's transition from Phoenix, AR to Forks, WA was extremely well written, almost literary in its detail. That alone is what kept me reading for the first hundred pages. After her arrival in Forks, the book takes on a distinctly Romance genre feel. I rarely read Romance, but Bella's "everywoman" qualities were enough to pull me through.

My major problem with the book, and really the series, is that Bella loves Edward because he is classically beautiful and can read minds and Edward loves Bella because he cannot read her mind and she smells good. This does not a lasting relationship make, and throughout, the depth of their love seemed unrealistic to me. However, the suspense at the end of the novel made it worth the read. Meyer's changes to classic vampire mythology were innovative on the whole. I liked the idea that the "good" vampires hunted animals, but as my ever sarcastic boyfriend pointed out, the killing of large predatory animals on the North American continent is really quite criminal. The first book was definitely not my favorite in the series, but it was an entertaining read.