From the meaning of life the universe and everything on up

.

A frustrating disappointment from a beloved author. A glorious revelation from a writer I've only known by reputation. An okay book from a famous author. And a book I'm not going to talk about. Let's get started.

045) Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card, finished June 10


In the afterword, Card spends a lot of ink talking about how rushed this book was. Now granted, his rhetoric tries to emphasize that thanks to a lot of awesome people a book he could be proud of was the result of this rush job, but that seems like a distractor. This book was a rushjob and it shows.

In some respects, Ender in Exile is nothing more than an extended epilogue---a seeming attempt to tie up loose ends in Ender's Game and the Shadow series with some fun story mixed in for leaven.

But even worse than the tying-up of loose ends, Ender in Exile is guilty of the epiloguey crime of Making Sure the Stupid Audience Doesn't Miss All These Important Themes I the Author Wish to Teach Them. And that is just obnoxious.

This sin is mostly committed in a bunch of overlong letters (mostly prefacing chapters as we've seen in previous books) as one character or another gives us, the dense readership, lessons in the importance of monogamy, the roles of fathers and mothers, etc. Or, given how dense we are, the letters also provide the opportunity for characters to not only spell out philosophy, but also to sum up The Plot To This Point in case we haven't been able to connect the dots ourselves. This is infuriating.

Speaking of philosophy though, the book also lets various characters shoot wise phrases at us. This is something that drove me nuts about Shadow Puppets as well (easily the weakest of the other Shadow books --- and the first two had been unendingly brilliant!); that Card has apparently reached a point where his desire to preach overcomes his desire to tell his story makes me sad.

But of course this also fits in with an even larger philosophy that is treated bludgeoning clarity in Exile: Great Man Theory. If one takes this book as philosophical tract (and that's easier to do than to take it as a novel), then it is an episodic proof of the theory. History happens because some really smart people made it happen.

This is all but spelled out at the end of the penultimate chapter (reproduced here with spoiler-causing details removed:

"How can I undo this?" . . .

"You can't. . . . If you hadn't . . . somebody else would have. . . . It would have happened without you."

"But it didn't happen without me . . . ."

See what I mean? History doesn't happen without a few smart people making it happen. Good or bad, things of significance only happen when geniuses are around.

And part of the book can be interpreted as comedic episodes which exist purely to let stupid people stand next to smart people thus demonstrating their stupidity. It gets tiresome, this parade of genius and the stupids they must outsmart.

And then there are the characters whose main purpose seems to be either to overexplain former books' loose ends or to provide future sequel opportunities.

Sigh.

When Card is doing his best work, he's one of the best writers in the English language.

And now I know he's capable of opening a book with clunky, emotionless, expository dialogue, and continuing to the end with mere moments of entertainment hidden within philosophical tract. It's rather depressing.

But fans should still read it. I haven't finished a book this quickly in a long time. Even though I was frustrated and disappointed throughout, I still had to keep reading. So there's that.

But if you're looking to read a Card book this year, I suggest revisiting Ender's Game. All the cool kids are doing it.

eleven days (although on the first day I read one page and the next six I read zero)



===========================================================



044) Writings from The New Yorker 1927-1976 by E.B. White (edited by Rebecca M. Dale), finished June 7

This book is entering the rare collection of books Worthy for Permanent Inclusion on the Nightstand. A book made of bitesize pieces of joy and beauty and capable of being read over and over without becoming dull. This book can be read in sips (many of the selections are but a paragraph or two) or in great long draughts and enjoyed either way. This book makes an excellent friend and travel companion. Buy it.

Seriously. This books so filled with bon mots you'll be smacking strangers demanding they listen to this! because man alive but this White fellow knows his way around a sentence!

Don't deny yourself this experience.

long time --- maybe eight months?


===========================================================



043) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, finished May 31


Not at all difficult to see why this book was a big deal in 1969. A sexless alien society receives a representative from our sexist worlds. And while the underlying ideas are still striking, it's also true that many of the books details have not aged well. In just forty years we've moved farther from 1969 than Le Guin expected would happen in over twenty-five hundred years.

My other large complaint about the book is the way it cobbles together primary documents to tell its story. I've nothing against the technique itself (it's as old as the novel as an artform), but she uses Estraven's diary as a way to pass through long boring stretches and to provide us with some philosophy. Not that there's anything wrong with that! Her sin is in making the diary entries drag. They get, you see, boring. And that's not okay.

Other than that, the story's pretty good. It uses a lot of tropes that have become a bit tired (I'm guessing they weren't in 1969 as the novel won both the Hugo and the Nebula, but since there are rather obvious echoes of Asimov's Foundation books written in the '40s and '50s) so I have to recommend getting to the books early in your specfic reading career.

The real question to answer in this review though is will I read more books in the Hainish cycle?

I think I will. At least one more. And then I'll decide whether to read the rest.

under two weeks



===========================================================



042) Unnamed book by unnamed client (MS POLICY),
finished May 27


===========================================================

Previously in 2011 . . . . :

33-41
041) Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
040) Scott Pilgrim Versus The Unverse by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14
039) Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 13
037) The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse, finished May 11
036) Scott Pilgrim Versus The World by Bryan Lee O'Malley
035) Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley
034) The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 by Charles M. Schulz, finished May 1
033) Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli finished approximately April 27

32
032) Golden Gate by Seth Vikram, finished April 20

27-31
031) Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope, finished April 18
030) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, finished April 9
029) iZombie: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred, finished April 2
028) A Sense of Order and Other Stories by Jack Harrell, finished April 1
027) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, finished March 30

26
026) The Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, finished March 21

23-25
025) Stitches by David Small, finished March 20
024) Arkham Asylum: Madness by Sam Kieth, finished January 19 or 20
023) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished March 18

21-22
022) Red Rocket 7 by Mike Allred, finished March 10
021) Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3 by Jake Parker, finished March 10

20
020) The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill, finished February 28

18-19
019) Wonderland by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew, finished February 21
018) Redcoat by Kohl Glass (MS POLICY), finished February 18

14-17
017) Best American Comics 2010 edited by Neil Gaiman, finished February 12
016) Little Bee by Chris Cleave, finished February 10
015) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, finished February 2
014) Cursed Pirate Girl: The Collected Edition Vol. I by Jeremy Bastian, finished January 31

13-9
013) Sweet Tooth: In Captivity by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
012) Sweet Tooth: Out of the Woods by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
011) Essex County: The Country Nurse by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
010) Essex County: Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29
009) Essex County: Tales from the Farm by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29

8
008) Magdalene by Morah Jovan, finished January 27

7-6
007) Knightfall Part Two: Who Rules the Night by a slew of DC folk, finished January 23
006) Bayou by Jeremy Love, finished January 17

5-1
005) Mr. Monster by Dan Wells, finished January 10
004) The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, finished January 6
003) The Mystery of the Dinosaur Graveyard by Mary Adrian, finished January 5
002) Batman - Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham by John Wagner and Alan Grant and Simon Bisley, with lettering by the famous Todd Klein; finished January 4
001) Batman: Venom by Dennis O'Neil et al, finished January 2

Svithing Post-Rapture (what's the point?)

.

Family Radio's website has undergone a major redesign since the Rapture came and went (it didn't use to be this ugly, actually). What stuck me most on this visit however (I haven't been since about May 19 when I listened to a lecture by Gunther von Harringa Sr while fiddling around online) was the Scripture of the Week:

Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; [and] quicken thou me in thy way. (Psalm 119:37)

This choice displays a clear irony, though I wonder if it's intentional. I think it's more likely directed at Rapture-doubters like myself, than at the Rapture-proclaimers. (In case you didn't hear, ends up May 21 was Judgment Day as promised, just the Rapture itself won't occur until October.)

I've mentioned on Twitter and IRL that I actually rather like Family Radio, Harold Camping's show in particular (or did, that is, until it became All Rapture All the Time --- that I found tedious).

But in their defense, I did find some of there arguments about why no-man-knows-the-hour was not a final statement compelling. And obviously I accept the idea of God being free to tell us whatever the heck he wants. So I'm cautious about saying the lesson of May 21 is that these guys are nimrods. Yes, I suspect their vanity and self-importance let them move from the premise We Are Wiser than Other People and the wish I Want to See This Myself to wresting scripture, but let's not lose sight of the hope they brought to this endeavor.

Even people dismissed as cranks have positive things to teach us. Let's look for those things.

And let's try not to laugh. From the right vantage point, we all look a little ridiculous.

===========

Note: I did not start this svithe intending to preach love and reconciliation where no such call is required. However, I tend to suspect that whatever place I end up in a svithe is the place I needed to travel to. If it's an inappropriate destination for you, I apologize. You can get a full refund at the ticket counter.

===========

previous svithe

Katie Herzig

.

Besides the fact that she's a girl and makes a delightful form of folkpop, Katie Herzig has another little trick she pulls that makes her much most singalongable than the average bear.

She sometimes uses phrases we already know --- musically but more often lyrically --- to give us immediate buy-in.

From her best-known example "Forevermore", which borrows straight from an old nursery rhyme to the opening line of "How the West Was Won" to the string of known phrases in "I Will Follow": "One step forward two steps back / So funny I forgot to laugh". But none of this would work if the music didn't make familiar lines not merely familiar, but newly familiar and newly known and newly beloved.

Listen to a couple songs then get the album. See what I mean.

(Note: YouTube's blocked at work, so this first video's actually a Target ad. Sorry. And the second one's just squiggly lines. Sorry.)

Reviewing the fiction in Dialogue

.

I know I know I know. I've gotten terribly behind in my Dialogue-fiction reviews, so I'm just going to declare bankrupcy and start with the new issue edited by Steve Peck, BYU professor, Monsters and Mormons contributor, Dialogues's science editor and guest-editor of this issue themed on the environment.

The stories, however, seemed to have missed the theme memo. We can still talk about them though.

"The Birth of Tragedy" by Hugo Olaiz

This is one of the finest story openings I've read in a long time. A goodly number of characters brought to life in just four pages with depth and complexity and sincerity. And then the protagonist is brought to the crisis we knew must come, and then we are given some artsiness and a quotation from an obscure-to-the-layman German play first performed in 1800, and the story is over with not only no resolution but no climax even. We're cut off before The Good Stuff, plotwise.

Which isn't to say I didn't like it. As I said, this is a terrific bunch of characters (a boy raised both Episcopalian and Mormon, his crazy thespian aunt, his gay RM brother and his academic boyfriend, the surface-oriented bishop-in-waiting) interacting through fun-to-read dialogue and dressed up with the best sort of window dressing (food-based metaphors, fun!facts! on stage blood, useful German vocabulary, visionary episodes) --- all in four pages! So, in fact, I enjoyed the story very much.

I'm merely disappointed it decided to finish up with the most generic of capital-L literary sins: quitting before The Good Stuff.

Pity.

But please: read the first paragraph:

“Is Mormonism still part of your Weltanschauung?” Aunt Doris asks me every time she sees me. She knows that at 2:15 on Sunday afternoons I’m blessing the sacrament like any other Mormon priest, even though I can be found Sunday mornings at St. James Episcopal helping administer the chalice—“the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ keep you in life everlasting”—and sometimes I even help lay out the cups and saucers for coffee hour. When I drive from St. James to Sacramento Second Ward, it’s like reversing the wedding at Cana—the wine becomes water, the priestly robes turn into dark suits, and the emaciated body of Christ, which at St. James is a wafer, miraculously rises to the texture of Wonder Bread. “That’s the way our parents brought us up,” I tell Aunt Doris for the millionth time. Dad is Mormon and Mom is Episcopalian, so my brother Steve and I were born Mormon-Episcopalians. Five years ago, Steve decided he wanted to be only a Mormon, which Mom and Dad said was fine; but after his mission, he moved in with his boyfriend Ramón, and now he says he’s neither.

"American Trinity" by David G. Pace

I realized in the first sentence this was a Three Nephites story and all I can say is brilliant. We should tap into this stuff more often (and Dialogue did it well recently with Roger Terry's "Eternal Misfit"). One great thing about how Pace introduces the Three Nephites is his casualness. He feels no need to beat us over the head with it---just lets us figure it out on our own. (Well, almost, but when he does finally drop the phrase "Three Nephites", the syntax is such not to draw undue attention.)

I couldn't read this story without comparing it to a Johnny Townsend 3N story I recently read (review coming to Motley Vision . . . someday). Like that story, this one makes them humans with human issues and feelings, and not gods---which is sensible, if not how they exist in the popular imagination. Like that story, sometimes the dialogue gets clunky and inelegant. Which is a problem, because as well as the story started, it doesn't quite meet that promise as it progresses.

Here's the issue: The story wants to be two things at once. It wants to be a deeply personal story of an immortal man. And it wants to be a compact series of philosophical, literary, historical and theological arguments. And that's too much. Honestly, I wouldn't mind the arguments if they a) didn't require the stopping of action for long discussions and b) were as beautifully written as the story portions of this story. Because the story is gorgeously written.

Here's another first paragraph for you:

The other two are more patient than I am. They bide their time. What’s worse, Jonas is always telling me that I am shirking my duty. I haven’t talked to him in over a century. Hundred and fifty years the last time I talked to Kumen. Even though I have returned tomy mission of wandering and ministering, both would insist I’ve lost the spirit of the assignment. I avoid them now. I was just coming out of the Empire Theatre in Old New York when I last talked to Jonas. Word must have gotten out. Like myself, Jonas was dressed as a patron in tuxedo and gloves. Courtly old Jonas. “I like the collapsible opera hat,” I told him. “Nice touch.”

CLOSING REMARKS

Even though I have had negative things to say about both stories, my final impression of both stories is very, very favorable. I recommend both. Even the elements I did not care for I can readily recognize may be someone else's favorites. There is certainly room for disagreement here. And I hope you will.

Summertime and the art is breezy

.

The first prompt I gave to the art group I frequent was successful enough that they haven't needed another one since! (Yes, that is the appropriate way to interpret events.) Which means this one I brainstormed tonight won't be needed. So I give it to you. You need something to create around and this should work.

"Summertime" is the name of a number of great songs. Here are two of my favorite (recommendation --- just listen --- don't let the images define what you create):

Larry Adler and Peter Gabriel do Gershwin


The Sundays do the single from the most beautiful album ever

Or, if none of those do it for you, here are some more.

Feeling sad

.

I'm sure you've heard that I devote a goodly amount of my time to the Mormon arts community. I promote folks' work here and at Motley Vision and, newly, at Linescratchers (not to mention frequent tweets on the subject). And if you've paid really close attention, you'll know that I was once burned by another player in the community and so I try to be supertransparent so no one I work with will ever feel burned.

But guess what? I've failed. Now there's a young Mormon artist out there who hates me, who thinks I attempted to take advantage of him, that I mocked him, who thinks I'm pretty much a grade-A bastard. And while I'm used to being thought a grade-A bastard (I teach high school, after all), his final email has really been eating at me. And I think I've figured out why:

What if this interaction has damaged the community?

I don't want out failure to communicate to result in one more hater who thinks Mormons can't succeed in the arts. One more bloke who thinks the community is filled with amateurs and fools and, yes, grade-A bastards. What if this animosity drips into other realms and I end up meeting people (in my community!) who enter their first conversation with a sure and certain knowledge that Theric is a grade-A bastard?

I know that it's impossible to get through life without causing and receiving offense and I don't see much reason to let this bother me, but it is bothering me. It is. But I don't see any possible way for me to fix the breach. If he's decided I'm a snake, no apology will be taken seriously. Add to that the fact that I don't feel much guilt (I thought I was being helpful and forthright, no matter how he interpreted my intentions) and I don't see anyway to solve this problem. A couple more night's sleep and I won't think about it much anymore, and I hope the same is true of him. I don't feel animosity when I think of him or our exchanges. Just sadness.

I just feel sad.

Malcolm X's Death Day

.

It's not racist if I suggest it's true for everybody, right?

I’m speaking from personal experience when I say of any black
man who conks today, or any white-wigged black woman, that if
they gave the brains in their heads just half as much attention
as they do their hair, they would be a thousand times better off.

E. B. White on the White Horse Prophecy?

.

mobettabooks

.

Jeeves! Wooster! Scott Pilgrim! Charlie Brown! Asterios Polyp! What a collection for you today, folks!


041) Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14 while laying down trying to get the kids to nap
040) Scott Pilgrim Versus The Unverse by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 14 two days
039) Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 13 since the last one

I'm happy to say that, in the end, the books (which really form one whole novel together COMBO POWER!) add some complexity and nuance that the movie, excellent though it was, didn't quite have. Don't get me wrong --- the movie was terrific, but compared to what the books pulled off, taken as a unit, well, here's my point: you should really read the books. They're about the most fun I've ever had reading comics and they have so much heart.

And it sells the Twentysomething Culture in a way that, for the first time, made it look good to me, and wish I'd spent a bit more time being a goof in my younger years. Not to the point of having regrets, mind you, but now I see why that life has a pull.

Anyway. They're great books. Check them out.

038) Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 12 end of the day

This is where the books and the movie begin to fully diverge. Still highly enjoyable and the metahumor hit harder. For more on Scott Pilgrim. see below. In the meantime, here's the song that inspired the books:




===========================================================



037) The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse, finished May 11


My second Jeeves and Wooster book (the first --- can you believe Wodehouse wrote over 100 novels?) --- and another bounty of wit. Douglas Adams considered Wodehouse one of English's great geniuses and although I'm not prepared to go that far, I'm happy to argue you won't be disappointed. Pick up one today.

a couple weeks probably



===========================================================



036) Scott Pilgrim Versus The World by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 4
035) Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley, finished May 3

I've really come to grasp the usefulness of some manga techniques (eg, changing a characters total appearance in response to their emotional state) over the last ten years, but Scott Pilgrim really locked me in. As for the movie, which I love, what casting! (Did you know they made cartoons, too? This totally happened in volume two.)

Why oh why did I not ask the library for all six volumes at once? What a fool I was. (Requesting now.....)

about an hour each over two days, the latter while walking to and from jury duty



===========================================================



034) The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 by Charles M. Schulz, finished May 1

I'm moving at a more leisurely pace these days, but that's because I hate not having fresh Peanuts waiting for me on the nightstand. It's such a joy, owning these books. And when I've read the last I'll start again from the beginning.

This time I got to read the strip that ran on my birth day and, I'm sad to say, it wasn't killer.

Also, my reading has been changed by thinking about 3eanuts. Which is pretty great but gets in the way. (Unlike Gw/oG which actaully makes Garfield enjoyable.)

some months



===========================================================



033) Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli finished approximately April 27

I ended this book stunned. Unable to do anything but breathe loudly and not cry. What a beautiful book. So glad the clip in Best American Comics made me library it. But I need to get my own copy to read and read again. This is Jimmy Corrigan-good, folks. Take this one panel:

So much is conveyed here. She how calm she is, yet how much tension is revealed just in her wrist. He's being flippant but we the reader see the emotion in his wife while he flits across the surface in ignorance.

And this is a more realistic panel. What happens next in visual metaphor is just as stunning, as the characters separate into the separate identities they once had.

Mazzucchelli is the artist of the excellent City of Glass adaptation and the famed Batman: Year One (both of which, sadly, I apparently read too long ago to have reviewed; coulda sworn they were here, but I canna find them --- both worth reading and probably I should read them again).

Promise me you'll find and read this book. It's stunning. I don't want to say masterpiece until I've read it a couple more times, but I'm tempted all the same. What a piece of art.

a few days


===========================================================

Previously in 2011 . . . . :

32
032) Golden Gate by Seth Vikram, finished April 20

27-31
031) Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope, finished April 18
030) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, finished April 9
029) iZombie: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred, finished April 2
028) A Sense of Order and Other Stories by Jack Harrell, finished April 1
027) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, finished March 30

26
026) The Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, finished March 21

23-25
025) Stitches by David Small, finished March 20
024) Arkham Asylum: Madness by Sam Kieth, finished January 19 or 20
023) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished March 18

21-22
022) Red Rocket 7 by Mike Allred, finished March 10
021) Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3 by Jake Parker, finished March 10

20
020) The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill, finished February 28

18-19
019) Wonderland by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew, finished February 21
018) Redcoat by Kohl Glass (MS POLICY), finished February 18

14-17
017) Best American Comics 2010 edited by Neil Gaiman, finished February 12
016) Little Bee by Chris Cleave, finished February 10
015) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, finished February 2
014) Cursed Pirate Girl: The Collected Edition Vol. I by Jeremy Bastian, finished January 31

13-9
013) Sweet Tooth: In Captivity by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
012) Sweet Tooth: Out of the Woods by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
011) Essex County: The Country Nurse by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
010) Essex County: Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29
009) Essex County: Tales from the Farm by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29

8
008) Magdalene by Morah Jovan, finished January 27

7-6
007) Knightfall Part Two: Who Rules the Night by a slew of DC folk, finished January 23
006) Bayou by Jeremy Love, finished January 17

5-1
005) Mr. Monster by Dan Wells, finished January 10
004) The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, finished January 6
003) The Mystery of the Dinosaur Graveyard by Mary Adrian, finished January 5
002) Batman - Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham by John Wagner and Alan Grant and Simon Bisley, with lettering by the famous Todd Klein; finished January 4
001) Batman: Venom by Dennis O'Neil et al, finished January 2

Book 32: Golden Gate by Seth Vikram

.

032) Golden Gate by Seth Vikram, finished April 20

nearly three years

When I first started reading this book nearly three years ago, I though I would discuss its scansion and other like litty thoughts, but just click on this and you can do all that yourself:

That's what the whole book looks like. Two to a page, all the way through. Also, the dedication and author bio and the table on contents are in the same form. (Note: i just opened the book randomly and scanned. I still haven't bothered to look and see which two pages I've just given you.)

So, first, the book is an experiment. Reading about how he decided to do it (blame Pushkin) makes me less judgmental, but really, as a whole, he pulled it off so why complain?

It's not, however, that good of a book. It has to wax meta at times as Seth apologizes for the absurdity of the book's form etc etc but as a whole, it's some okay interrelated stories stuck together in 1980s San Francisco (with all the youguessedits that entails). Without the format its simply a subpar novel. So when you pick this up, it has to be because you are inherently interested in the form for its own sake.

(Vikram is a bit gimmicky, of course. His second novel is, by some estimates, the longest book in the English language. Which isn't to say it's not good [it had better be] just that he likes his books to be capital-d Different.)

One thing about this book is that it is much shorter than it appears. With all that white space, you can tear through it pretty quickly (I did most of my reading in just a couple sittings). And the characters occasionally show glimmers of depth and it's not that bad, really, but claiming it's great is, I think, to make an error. I imagine the praise it received upon release was mostly wowery that such a book existed. I doubt many who loved it then would feel the same way now (though I'm ready to be proven wrong).

I would like to love a novel in verse, but it won't be this one. Besides the slightness of the story and the unevenness of the verse, it commits many New York Novel sins (although, of course, this time the City That Cool People Know is San Francisco), is moralistic and preachy, and, in the final analysis, just didn't do it for me. But you may like it. Who knows.



===========================================================

Previously in 2011 . . . . :

27-31
031) Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope, finished April 18
030) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, finished April 9
029) iZombie: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred, finished April 2
028) A Sense of Order and Other Stories by Jack Harrell, finished April 1
027) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, finished March 30

26
026) The Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, finished March 21

23-25
025) Stitches by David Small, finished March 20
024) Arkham Asylum: Madness by Sam Kieth, finished January 19 or 20
023) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished March 18

21-22
022) Red Rocket 7 by Mike Allred, finished March 10
021) Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3 by Jake Parker, finished March 10

20
020) The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill, finished February 28

18-19
019) Wonderland by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew, finished February 21
018) Redcoat by Kohl Glass (MS POLICY), finished February 18

14-17
017) Best American Comics 2010 edited by Neil Gaiman, finished February 12
016) Little Bee by Chris Cleave, finished February 10
015) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, finished February 2
014) Cursed Pirate Girl: The Collected Edition Vol. I by Jeremy Bastian, finished January 31

13-9
013) Sweet Tooth: In Captivity by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
012) Sweet Tooth: Out of the Woods by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
011) Essex County: The Country Nurse by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
010) Essex County: Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29
009) Essex County: Tales from the Farm by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29

8
008) Magdalene by Morah Jovan, finished January 27

7-6
007) Knightfall Part Two: Who Rules the Night by a slew of DC folk, finished January 23
006) Bayou by Jeremy Love, finished January 17

5-1
005) Mr. Monster by Dan Wells, finished January 10
004) The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, finished January 6
003) The Mystery of the Dinosaur Graveyard by Mary Adrian, finished January 5
002) Batman - Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham by John Wagner and Alan Grant and Simon Bisley, with lettering by the famous Todd Klein; finished January 4
001) Batman: Venom by Dennis O'Neil et al, finished January 2

Svithe: On rocking the bow tie

.

Somehow (I think it may be a certain scientist's fault), wearing bow ties has become du jour among my ward's Young Men. Then, last Sunday, at stake priesthood meeting (Holy crap but is this post Mormon-jargon heavy; I apologize.), the stake president spoke of his law school days when his home teachers (there I go again) taught him how to tie a bow tie. In honor of this, he announced he would now wear a bow tie on fast Sunday every month in which he had finished his home teaching the month previous (do you follow?)

Perfect storm.

So now the Young Men are arranging fabric and sewing machines to a) make their own ties and b) actual ties that tie which they will c) learn to tie.

That they may wear them.

Presumably on fast Sunday. Presumably in recognition of having done their home teaching.

This is some pretty sly leadership. Well played. Well played.

previous svithe

Stretching for the famous fish

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Not just any famous fish, of course. I don't want you to think I'm that kind of ichthyophile. I mean the divine fish.

As a diehard ichthyolotrist, when I say stretching I mean it in the theological sense of killing the enemy squid and stretching its innards over coat-hangers that they may rot in the sun sending a sweet succor into the sky. The tricky part is timing it properly so the fumes break free of the atmosphere at the right time of night to pass through Pisces. (It's a religion that requires a lot of physics and math and stuff.)

Stretching for the famous fish is inherently satisfying though. As the fish says, I never said the stench would be worth it, just that it would keep the crazies off your back.

And that's all I've ever really wanted.

On Osama Obliterated

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September 11, 2001 was so long ago that it's hard to define how I feel about some Navy Seals finally taking out the badguy Teancum-style. I'm glad, yes. I feel it was an appropriate use of deadly force.

I heard the news this morning on my clockradio, but then I accidentally turned it off and slept for another thirty or forty minutes and when I woke up I was unsure whether or not it had really happened.

I wonder how Americans celebrating at the White House and Ground Zero is being played on news stations across the world. I wonder if al Qaeda will successfully pull a retaliation in the next couple weeks. I wonder how long till we're all familiar with conspiracy theorists' claims that Osama's Alive! and living in Jamaica! with a hooker!. I wonder if this will help us get our troops out of the Middle East any quicker.

I think it's cool that Obama called Bush before going on tv. I think it's cool all the Bush administration folk are being cool. I hope the positivity lasts a full week.

I hope that the military's efforts to prove that the body was Osama's and the at-sea burial all have more of the desired outcomes than unexpected bad outcomes. I hope he doesn't become The Martyr.

Where will be be in another 116 months?

Senior picnic

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Went to the senior picnic today. Shared food with fellow teachers and many students. Good stuff. Made the last out in the faculty's 8-5 win over the students (I scored both times I was up and now have grass stains all over my last pair of jeans).

But all that oil and running mean now, at the end of the day, I feel nigh unto death.

Oh, the joys of growing older.

I actually started feeling it acutely yesterday, when Randall told me that The Little Mermaid came out closer to the first moon landing than the present day.

Soon we shall die.

REPRINT The Ambiguity of Excellence: Kazu Kibuishi's Daisy Kutter

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As promised, here is the second review no longer available at the Fantasy Magazine website. 

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The first Daisy Kutter book, The Last Train, was pressed into my wife's hands by a good friend and I finally read it yesterday. I knew very little about the book before reading it other than the gushing praise it has inspired For example, on AICN, Superhero described this book as "perfect representation of sequential art . . . . the pinnacle of characterization, storytelling and art" (cite). 

So I liked it. Yes. How could I not? I love Kibuishi's art, I love Daisy --- she's beautiful and spunky and wry. I love steampunk and these are some nice robots. In terms of timeline, it's more future-set Cowboy Bebop than steampunk-retro Wild Wild West(1999), but tonewise it is very near classic westerns--only with robots. The first page is a deliberate nod to one of the greatest old cowboy films,  High Noon. But when the clock hits noon, the eponymous hero is not engaged in battle; instead she sighs.

She's a gunfighter--one of the great train robbers--and she is retired.

The Last Train is the story of how she gets back into the game. 

Daisy's old boyfriend and partner-in-crime is now the sheriff, and he keeps offering her a deputy position to supplement her storekeeper's income, but that's one step to far into respectability. But being stuck in the middle is not a comfortable location for Daisy and when an offer comes to rob a train, then comes again, well, she can only say no so many times. Especially when the man offering the job owns the train. And especially after he wins her store from her in a game of Texas Hold 'em. Preserved integrity and desperation --- hard to fight that.

Daisy's world is peopled with goofy robots and threatening mechs and men in small round glasses and dusty saloons and giant shotguns and steam locomotives. And though Daisy can dodge bullets as well as James Bond, her compatriots are not so lucky. And as the nefarious plot behind the job comes clear, she will have to rely not only on her own stellar skills, but also upon those she cares for, leading her not only to a satisfactory conclusion to the job, but an emotional reconnection to other people as well.

But wherefore all the gushing over The Last Train? Don't get me wrong: I liked this book and I would be happy to read more about Daisy Kutter, but what are people finding in this story that makes them rank it among the greatest comics ever written? I don't see it, can't find it, don't know.

Where is the line between good and great? Is excellence ultimately a matter of personal taste only? Or can it be something more than that? Is there an objective standard to excellence somewhere? When a book like The Last Train garners as much praise as this one has, I feel there must be such a standard, but having finally read the book, from where I stand, the sands of excellence seem purely subjective.

Let's consider other universally praised comics, comics such as Maus or Watchmen. 

Maus I can't quibble with. I find it to be a pure example of comics potential as an artform. Watchmen, however --- I'm back on the fence.

With the release of the movie earlier this year, I reread Watchmen and found it better than my memory regarded it. And it's clear to me why we find it excellent.

Although comics are not a new artform, serious consideration of comics is new. And so we take our standards from the most similar art we see --- that other paper-and-glue art, literature. And Watchmen looks very much like what we want literature to look like.

When Time Magazine selected Watchmen as one of their top 100 novels, the reviewer, Lev Grossman, said this:

Watchmen is a graphic novel—a book-length comic book with ambitions above its station—starring a ragbag of bizarre, damaged, retired superheroes: the paunchy, melancholic Nite Owl; the raving doomsayer Rorschach; the blue, glowing, near-omnipotent, no-longer-human Doctor Manhattan. Though their heyday is past, these former crime-fighters are drawn back into action by the murder of a former teammate, The Comedian, which turns out to be the leading edge of a much wider, more disturbing conspiracy. Told with ruthless psychological realism, in fugal, overlapping plotlines and gorgeous, cinematic panels rich with repeating motifs, Watchmen is a heart-pounding, heartbreaking read and a watershed in the evolution of a young medium.

Ignoring the snide remark "ambitions above its station," note the traits of a great novel --- "ruthless psychological realism . . . overlapping plotlines . . . repeating motifs" --- then take a glance at the other 99 books on the list to see that what Watchmen did right was to taste like Orwell and Heller and Woolf. And, come to think of it, so does Maus. And so does Jimmy Corrigan. And, now that we can step back and look at it as a whole, so does Peanuts.

But the people singing the praises of The Last Train aren't the same people who spend the rest of their time debating whether Lolita or Infinite Jest is the greatest novel ever, then congratulating themselves for letting a four-color superhero comic into their club.

The people who love The Last Train are people who have developed a reply to What Makes Great Comics based on their reading of comics.

Now I love comics, but I must be honest and admit that I'm trained to assign worth in storytelling according to the centuries-long traditions developed in literature.

But maybe that's a mistake. Maybe comics deserves its own set of standards to be judged by. We don't judge Picasso in comparison to Beethoven; why should we judge Kibuishi by the standards of Hemingway?

Maybe it's time we, I, stop.

The cessation of reading (not yet)

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031) Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope, finished April 18


I've been wanting read this since about the time I started wanting to read Joker; this book, I'm happy to report, was not disappointing. Linda Barry wanted to excerpt this book in Best American Comics, but DC wouldn't let her (?!?). A shame. It was good.

Batman in a future dystopia.

And let me tell you, when Chris Nolan finishes his run, I hope they consider adapting this to film. It runs a bit like an origin story, but still works with the character's past. Perfect for the next film.

Think about it, Warner. Just think about it.

The rest of you can read it now.

an afternoon



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030) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby, finished April 9


I've never read Nick Hornby before. I own two of his books (1 and 2) but haven't read either. I thought the movie of High Fidelity was pretty good, while About a Boy is one of my all-time favorite flicks. And yet somehow I had never read him.

But then McSweeney's had a promotion where I could get this book for free and so I did and I read it with great joy. The book is a collection of columns for The Believer and absolute fun to read. Hornby documents the books he buys vs the books he reads --- plus clips from some of his favorites such as David Copperfield.

There's an excellent chance this free book will lead to me subscribing to The Belieiver. So well played, McSweeney's. Well played.

In the meantime, I'm considering the temptation of picking up the remaining volumes of collected columns.

not enough weeks



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029) iZombie: Dead to the World by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred, finished April 2


I love this new take on zombies and vampires and ghosts and so forth. An interesting set of rules, likable characters (sort of like the Scooby-Doo gang, only the heroes are also the monsters in this case). I like Allred's art in any case, but this is a particularly good use of his mad skillz. Like many Volume Ones, I can't really say for sure how this will pan out, but at present it's good and you should give it a shot. Volume Two's expected in September and since I'll be there, you may as well be too.

one day



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028) A Sense of Order and Other Stories by Jack Harrell, finished April 1


Jack's book won an AML Award and I can't say I'm surprised. He's a dandy writer and this is a great book. But not as great as I wanted it to be. I'll say more in my pending AMV review.

maybe three weeks



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027) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, finished March 30


I've not read this since discovering Stoppard while in high school. Since then all I've done is watched the movie several times. How does it hold up? Well enough, though I'm kind of over the whole genre. These days I would rather see the flick (or performed live? I've never had the pleasure) than read it, I'm afraid.

three days



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Previously in 2011 . . . . :

26
026) The Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, finished March 21

23-25
025) Stitches by David Small, finished March 20
024) Arkham Asylum: Madness by Sam Kieth, finished January 19 or 20
023) Hamlet by William Shakespeare, finished March 18

21-22
022) Red Rocket 7 by Mike Allred, finished March 10
021) Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3 by Jake Parker, finished March 10

20
020) The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill, finished February 28

18-19
019) Wonderland by Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew, finished February 21
018) Redcoat by Kohl Glass (MS POLICY), finished February 18

14-17
017) Best American Comics 2010 edited by Neil Gaiman, finished February 12
016) Little Bee by Chris Cleave, finished February 10
015) Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck, finished February 2
014) Cursed Pirate Girl: The Collected Edition Vol. I by Jeremy Bastian, finished January 31

13-9
013) Sweet Tooth: In Captivity by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
012) Sweet Tooth: Out of the Woods by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
011) Essex County: The Country Nurse by Jeff Lemire, finished January 30
010) Essex County: Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29
009) Essex County: Tales from the Farm by Jeff Lemire, finished January 29

8
008) Magdalene by Morah Jovan, finished January 27

7-6
007) Knightfall Part Two: Who Rules the Night by a slew of DC folk, finished January 23
006) Bayou by Jeremy Love, finished January 17

5-1
005) Mr. Monster by Dan Wells, finished January 10
004) The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, finished January 6
003) The Mystery of the Dinosaur Graveyard by Mary Adrian, finished January 5
002) Batman - Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham by John Wagner and Alan Grant and Simon Bisley, with lettering by the famous Todd Klein; finished January 4
001) Batman: Venom by Dennis O'Neil et al, finished January 2

Ancillary happenstance

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I have and I shall and then when I'm done I'll do it again.

Opening doors and pushing drafts and closing the windows too late.

Standing and stretching and stewing.

Fantastic followers in threatening configurations.

Open stance and high holds.

Arguments fall like rain and I started the day already wet.

Typing makes these things happen.

The A's starters are off to a great start, but they're still losing almost everything. (In other news, I've been a Pirates fan waaay too long to take their strong start at all seriously.)

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My boys are incredible baseball nuts (A's fans, to be specific). We don't have tv so I bought an antennae for my laptop and now we get about 50 stations mostly in HD, but you know what? They don't broadcast baseball. Maybe one game a week and those are just the game selected for national play. So maybe two A's games all year. The only way to watch the A's is on Comcast. Which angers me to no small degree. I am burning effigies of Bud Selig nightly.

I figure (since progeny notwithstanding I am not a particularly sporty guy) that there are people within view of this post who may know a hack or other Alternate Path to Baseball.

If so, I beg you to share your wisdom.

Thanks.

Proud Papa

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The Big O played his first Single A game this weekend. This is the level where kids get to start pitching. How it works is the kid pitcher pitches until a) he throws four balls (at which time a coach takes over --- no walks at this level), b) he throws three strikes (at which time the batter is out), or c) he hits the batter (at which point the batter gets to go to first).

Since it was the first game of the season, coaches pitched the first two innings anyway. Then the Big O pitched the third inning (and only the third inning --- the kids rotate to a new position every inning).

The Big O posted some remarkable numbers in his first inning as a pitcher:

0.00 ER

Three strikeouts with three batters

The only little league pitcher of the game never to require the coach taking over

I wasn't counting but probably only about 12 or 15 pitches

The other number are obvious, I suppose. Striking out every batter you face means 0 H, 0 HRA etc etc etc.

Let's just say his pNERD is high, shall we?

Out for GC weekend (maybe)

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It's a good thing I went and saw Questions of the Heart on opening night as I just found out I'll be away from my computer over the weekend. Lady Steed and I will be in Salt Lake of all places (would've rather gone last week to get MY AML AWARD, but so it goes). It being Utah I imagine I'll still be able to catch conference (the person I'm meeting with has to be there anyway, so I'm sure we'll be free and catch it on KSL or something), but my Svithetacular! notes will almost certainly not go up on time this Conference. (But that will be the first time since 2005 that I did not post immediately so I think I've earned some karma on this point. Back off.)

See you next week!