2009-05-21

Books, 41-45 (2009)

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What we got here is a Mormon epic poem followed by four comics: DC, DC, DC, then Cypher which is also reviewed here.

045) Love and the Light: An Idyl of the Westland by Orson Ferguson Whitney, finished May 20
    So I did it! I actually read an Orson Whitney poem all the way through! And a 122-page one, at that! How about me?

    Having spent so much time this year thinking about the premortal romance in Mormon literature, that element of Love and the Light is what struck me first. I have probably about a hundred lines on that subject which I copied out into a notebook, but here's a glimpse of what's here:

      "Dawn of love?" Nay, thus the simple,
      Reckoning not with things eternal...

      All things great have preexistance,
      And a claim on life hereafter.
      Be this true of human being,
      Why not true of human loving?

    Whitney very clearly is teaching that God sealed our protagonists together before time began. Which I find unsettling, frankly. For all its lipservice to agency, this book doesn't seem to really accept it.

    The foreword states that "The reader, while absorbing the romance, will partake necessarily of the instruction." And what instruction it is!

    But let's start with the romance. The tale is told by the fated couple's mutual friend, but he is not much of a character. He's less that Walton in Frankenstein.

    The two major characters (all characters are nameless) are a) Harvard-educated lad, erudite, wise, spiritual; a teacher; converts to Mormonism about halfway through and b) brilliant, atheistic, lovely; a teacher; slips deeper into antigodness; (SPOILER!) miraculous conversion near the end as she lies almost dying.

    For the modern reader (the book is 91 years old --- I had to cut some pages to read the whole thing --- love my library), this book has much more to trouble that the agency question however. The concept of foreordained love drives the man to such a degree that he becomes a borderline stalker. I found him rather creepy in all honesty. He was so distasteful that I found myself rooting for her atheism, which I'm quite sure was not Whitney's intent. And her arguments were not the scary blasphemies the text asked to believe. Yes I live near Berkeley, but I think even to a less desensitized person, her arguments are not chillingly evil or whatever.

    Then there is the jingoistic rahrah depiction of the wars in Cuba and the Philippines as the author accepts that America is on God's side in these battles. Check out this footnote:

      81. Ingrate Rebellion (p. 108) The deliverance of the Philippine Islands from Spanish rule was followed by the rebellion of the Filipinos against the Americans, their deliverers, who succeeded in quelling the insurrection and restoring order.

    Not a lot of nuanced internationalism there.

    Having realized he'll never have his blaspheming love, he mourns the loss of she was supposed to be his eternally. Then, when she is forced to abandon her athiest ways after being converted by a remarkable vision, "a gift from God, he claimed her." What choice did she have? After falling at the feet of Jesus and begging entry to heaven she is told they "[turn] back all imperfection / With thy mate thou mayest pass . . . / But without him never---never!"

    Other stuff:

    The book is written almost entirely in trochaic tetrameter which can get plodding if one reads too much at once but as a whole is fine.

    Even though it made me laugh and gasp for the wrong reasons at times, there are moments of transcendence (cf). I liked, for instance, the first halves of Harvard Boy's talks before he, inevitable, took things too far.

    This is classic Home Lit --- writing intended to instruct one in the ways of faith. I doubt it would work to that end with a Mormon audience, but as an artifact of an era, it is readable, enjoyable and just the right length to carry around for a few days.

    four days



044) Tales Of The Batman: Tim Sale by Tim Sale and some motley group of writers, finished May 17
    So everybody loves Tim Sale's take on Batman enough to take all his pre-Long Halloween work and bundle it all together for consumption.

    I had read one of the stories before and it was pretty good. As are all the stories here. But the art really is good. I can see why Sale's so popular. The cover gallery in back was particularly nice.

    Batman by Time Sale

    about four days



043) Catwoman: The Dark End of the Street by Ed Brubaker et al, finished May 13
    Did you know? Apparently Selina Kyle decided to run for mayor of New York, then bit the big one. Tragically, Catwoman died shortly thereafter. I hadn't heard. Tragic. That they would both die, and so close to each other.

    Or did they?

    Of course not. Let's not kid ourselves.

    Catwoman: The Dark End of the StreetThis volume could be called Return of the Catwoman. It contains two stories. One starring a PI who runs her down but lets her go. The second chronicles her move from thief to vigilante. Although don't let the word "vigilante" put you in mind of, say, Batman. Catwoman is interested in protecting the otherwise neglected (eg streetwalkers), and she has no qualms about stealing to fund her efforts. So she's something different from the Boy Scout.

    Anyway, nice book. I love tales told from nonsuper povs and I love the dancing art of Darwyn Cooke and Mike Allred. So I loved this book. Best of this batch of loans.

    two days



041) Aztek - the Ultimate Man by Grant Morrison), Mark Millar, Keith Champagne, Steven Harris; finished May 11
    Ended totally in media res with a thousand balls in the air. What a pisser. I mean---even with a silly costume and background the creative crew got me involved and caring about this guy and the plot thickened and thickened and then---

    That was it. No more. Goodbye. End of story.

    less than a week



040) Cypher by Brad Teare, finished May 7
    I've been emailing Mr Teare lately for an interview and so i finally got around to reading this book which I think I was vaguely aware of back in the Nineties but which I only really became attracted to last summer when I was working on my Survey of Mormon Comix.

    Mr Teare tells me he has material enough for ten more Cypher volumes and I must say it's a shame their not in print. First, his woodcut (scratchboard?) style is great. Second, his composition style is topnotch. Third, his weirdness is so refreshing. It's not pointless weirdness which we see way too much of. Most things labeled surreal or postmodern or dada or whatever are grade-a crap. Not Cypher. He takes the weirdness of weird comics and turns it to something lovely, of good report, praiseworthy.

    Someone get this man a publisher!

    two days or about twenty-four hours



Previously:


the first five, 1-5
the second five, 6-10
the third five, 11-15
the fourth five, 16-20
the fifth five, 21-25
the sixth five, 26-30
the seventh five, 31-35
the eighth five, 36-40

8 comments:

  1. It its awesome to see somebody roundabout my age into some of the same graphics I am. Or is this all just research for Mormon Comic Artist?

    BATMAN is my third most collected title and I actually quit collecting the Catwoman's right at the point of where your reviewed graphic picks up. Because the stories were getting dumb and they switched artists. Jim Balent was great but I can't keep a recomend and buy, let alone look at anything he does now. He was great for catwoman back in the 90's though. I didn't realize Allred took the helm thereafter.

    As for Whitney, are you saying that he can't find the balance between Agency and Pre-Mortal covenant's convincingly? I straddle that by not thinking everybody nessacarily did make covenants, to me that was a choice, and therefore all about agency. If I missed the boat I need you to tell me.

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  2. .

    As for Whitney, I think as you do. But Whitney seems to be saying that all things of beauty on earth had a premortal origin. And what about when one person wants to fulfill an unremembered premortal covenant and the other doesn't? What then? I'm not sure if that answers your question. If you have time, some of views on the subject shine through in my essay on the premortal romance in Twilight.

    Allred is only the inker, but the artist of record has a similar sense of fun. Definitely a book worth picking up.

    I should point out thought that the reason I've been reading so much DC is because my friend Ben has everything and lends me twice as much as I ask for. Which is okay by me.

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  3. I'm glad you enjoyed Catwoman. I heard a lot of good things about it when it was published, but just got around to reading it recently.

    Aztek's story gets somewhat of a conclusion in the pages of Morrison's JLA, but only to the extent that he fulfills his mission. None of the subplots ever got resolved.

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  4. .

    THEN WHY DID YOU GIVE IT TO ME?!?!?!?!

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  5. Cause it's entertaining? You're creative. You can make up your own ending.

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  6. .

    I'm still trying to find one for "Atheist Girl".....

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  7. I thought the atheistic lovely was born and raised Mormon and so this is also a cautionary tale to those raised in the faith to not get any of those higher learning ideas.

    On the other hand, as you allude to, some of the satire of "higher learning" is hilarious. There's also a great passage that slams stockbrokers and speculators. Hmmm. I should post that bit to AMV.

    I think that the meter is more of a problem than you state -- it's the meter of nursery rhymes and incantation. It's also generally the mark of an unpracticed poet. I wish I knew why Whitney chose it (well, it is often easier to write).

    I agree that the romance is troubling and maudlin and very home literature. It's why I enjoy the Grand Canyon section so much -- it comes as this oddly intriguing thing after your eyes glaze over with the didactic-ness. And you can see Whitney struggling somewhat to prove himself worthy of describing it (which fits in with the Grand Canyon discourse of the time).

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  8. .

    "
    I thought the atheistic lovely was born and raised Mormon and so this is also a cautionary tale to those raised in the faith to not get any of those higher learning ideas."

    She is from the Mountains and so it seems possible she was Mormon at first, but I decided she was not. That her friends and neighbors all prayed she would be some day but that she had never actually been one of them.

    "
    On the other hand, as you allude to, some of the satire of "higher learning" is hilarious. There's also a great passage that slams stockbrokers and speculators. Hmmm. I should post that bit to AMV."

    Oh, I forgot the mention that! It was great how he hit capitalism so hard! And what he put up in its place was a little surprising. I'm not so sure President Benson would have approved of this book....
    "

    "
    I think that the meter is more of a problem than you state -- it's the meter of nursery rhymes and incantation. It's also generally the mark of an unpracticed poet. I wish I knew why Whitney chose it (well, it is often easier to write)."

    I had never really noticed it before, but trochees turn into a heavily metered reading much more quickly than iambs do. I can see why Shakes stuck with the latter.


    "
    I agree that the romance is troubling and maudlin and very home literature. It's why I enjoy the Grand Canyon section so much -- it comes as this oddly intriguing thing after your eyes glaze over with the didactic-ness. And you can see Whitney struggling somewhat to prove himself worthy of describing it (which fits in with the Grand Canyon discourse of the time).
    "

    I want to read that paper when you finish it.

    I remember the first time I saw the Grand Canyon. I know I'm still at a loss all these years later to describe that great absence, like stumbling onto a mountain only instead of rising into the sky, the Grand Canyon is a negation that plunges into the earth. One of the best places on earth.

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