Teach Me Comics, I'm Willing to Learn

Hello,
Today I decided to take a few hours and dive into my comic stack. It was an enjoyable time I have to say. It solidified my resolve that I need to get rid of things like TV, and make a solid decision to carve out reading time into my schedule. I am a chronic multi-tasker. It's not that I have ADD and can't focus. It's that I just strive to find the most effective way to make use of my time. However I'm slowly coming to the realization that maybe just focusing on one thing for a set amount of time may be more personally fulfilling.

So enough emo-introspection already! I haven't done one of these for awhile but I felt like it today so hell...

Lessons from Comic Literature
(These were curbed from the following comic issues: Amazing Spider-Man 615-617, Buffy the Vampire 31, Action Comics 885, Green Arrow Black Canary 28.)

1. Joe Kelly is the best writer for Spider-Man. He understands the humor, action, and attitude. I will always read a Spider-Man issue where he is the main writer. This is odd since I tried reading his critically-acclaimed series I Kill Giants and couldn't get into it.
2. Joss Whedon should always write Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8. I think one can trace the gradual decline of this series with lack of Whedon writing involvement. Whedon does the best job with characterization and dialogue. If you want to see the difference in quality just check out the difference between #31 & #30. Also I never want to see Jane Espenson write for this book again.

3. I like Action in my Action Comics. I don't know enough about Kryptonian lore to understand any of that hardcore nerdness. I really just like it when they're fighting.

4. Why am I still reading Green Arrow/Black Canary? I don't know.

5. Amazing Spider-Man has the best villian gallery. I really love how they are all getting featured in the latest "The Gauntlet" arc. We've gotten to see Electro, Sandman, and Rhino. Classic Villians are fun.

6. Comics! It's great to read fun superhero comics after reading nearly 50 issues of The Walking Dead. It was just what I needed.

Have a great week! Book Slave.

Teach Me Mr. Joyce, I'm willing to Learn...

Hello,
Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all! How are you all? Good I hope. Lately I've seen a lot of change, it's a little hard to get used to. More time on my hands lately, which is not something I am used to at all. We'll see if I manage to thrive or drive myself mad.

So driven by the holiday today, I'm pushing my usual reviews post a few days. I have a big place in my heart for Irish literature. Every year around this time I try to take some time and reread The Dead by James Joyce. The Dubliners is the only work of his that I have made my way through. Give me time, someday I will tackle Ulysses. Someday. Joyce was the first writer to take stream-of-consciousness writing to it's full potential. His genius lies in the realization that literature can be more than what it was. Joyce gave literature the kick in the pants it needed. I am always amazed by those who realize the next evolution in an art form. In his short story The Dead Joyce sees the potential of post-modernism.

Lessons from Classic Literature: The Dead

1. Human Beings by nature are selfish. Gabriel spends nearly the entire night caught up in his own selfish needs and desires. He worries so much about himself that he is myopic to everyone around him.

2. Traditions are important. I love the aunt's and their family holiday party. When I was a young child my grandmother would have a similiar party every year. Everybody in the family would attend, even extended relatives that I would never know. These sortof get-togethers are essential.

3. When it comes to toasts keep it simple. Gabriel chooses to focus on the hosts of the evening: his aunts. By letting go of "the quote" he puts the focus on them and not himself. It is his first generous act of story.

4. We all need friends like Freddy Malins. Freddy is an easy moral scapegoat, but he's not so bad. Every group needs it's black sheep though.

5. All you need is love. Like the Beatles said Gabriel's epiphany at the end of the story is that love supercedes death. It is a link between the living and the dead.

Have a great couple of days! Book Slave.

Teach Me Charles, I'm willing to learn...

Hello folks,
Hope that you are all having a great weekend. I thought today I would bring back an old feature in honor of the upcoming Dickens series coming up on PBS Masterpiece Theater. Well also because it's his birthday. Happy Birthday Mr. Dickens!


Lessons I've Learned from Classic Lit: Charles Dickens


1. Don't get in debt. Debt is bad, bad, bad. *sigh* If only I'd listened.

2. Hardship in childhood builds amazing character. Look at Nicholas Nickelby, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist etc. These gentlemen are raised and go through terrible circumstances and they become great men.

3. True love often means great sacrifice. "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."

4. Always leave your audience wanting more. The man is the king of the chapter cliff-hanger. He is a pioneer of serialization. Thank god we don't have to wait like those in the 19th century.

5. Don't get sued. Ever. Just ask the two parties in Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce.

6. Adults cannot be trusted. From Oliver Twist to Great Expectations the innocence of childhood is sullied by adults. Fagin creates a band of thieves who do all the work but he reaps the financial benefits. When Oliver Twist is threatened by Fagin you believe he is in serious peril. I always was quite taken aback by the weird psychological games adults play on children in Dickens. That Miss Haversham is a sick twist.

7. Schools/Orphanages/Apprenticeships in the Victorian Era were horrid and deadly. The abuse that is heaped on children in his novels is hard to believe. How can anyone ever admire this era? Of course Dickens wrote from experience so the veracity is undeniable.

8. Redemption is possible. Look at Ebenezar Scrooge. Also, as referenced above, there's Sydney Carton.

9. Sometimes it's the journey, not the destination. Dicken's characters suffer through some crazy twists and turns but they're often the better for it.

10. You're departed mom and/or dad may have been the heir to a vast fortune. And by crazy circumstance you may stumble into a life of love and happiness. Dicken's world is small and full of possibility.

Have a great week! Book Slave.

Stephen King and his It

Hey world,
So you knew it was coming and it is the proper season. As I've mentioned before I picked up It in 8th grade, to read about that click here. As I was blazing through Stephen King's canon this magnum opus became one of my faves. I think it emphasizes what King as a writer does best.

King as a storyteller has two major strengths. He is able to take the fears that we all have and give them a physicality. His monsters are really metaphors for those things that we cannot control in the world and our own selves. I think that King also excels at building a world. In It that world is Derry Maine. Derry is not a real place, but King manages to give it a rich history that goes back 300 years. Whether it is The Barrens or the Black Spot King fills this place with a physical geography that is Tolkienesque. BTW Derry also appears in Insomnia, Dreamcatcher, and Lisey's Story, among others.

Admittedly I fell away from King's writing after The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I think that I either grew out of the genre and Stephen started needing an editor. Yes, the man can churn out the books. I think that he peaked creatively around the mid-80s with The Stand and It. I haven't really seen anything that interested me enough to pick up in his latest offerings. We'll see what comes up in the future. Apparently Stephen's going to die at the typewriter with over a 1000 novels to his name.

So hold on to your seats kids because it's another edition of:

Lessons from Literature: It written by Stephen King


1. Adults cannot be counted on. Each of the members of Loser's Club have either been abandoned by their parents, or their parents are harmful to them. Beverly's father is flat out abusive, while Eddie's mother is overprotective. Ben's single mother tries to overcompensate with food and guilt. In a powerful scene Beverly is being attacked by hoodlums and she watches as multiple adults turn a blind eye. However, ultimately Bev is saved by an elderly woman who stops her car and scares off the boys. In the world of Derry it is the kids who have to step up and fight the monsters.

2. Kids are stronger than we think. King sets up each of his characters with a weakness which makes them a social outcast. Bill is a stutterer, Bev is poor, Mike is black, etc. But also they have a strength which allows them to battle the monster that preys on other children.

3. Good will win over evil. These kids are able to battle unimaginable evil. Later on when they are called back as adults to finish the job some of them are filled with fear. However they rise to the occasion because this evil must be stopped. It's not cool to prey on children.

4. It's valuable to learn a town's history. Mike, the only man who stays behind in Derry, becomes a historian as a result. His research makes up The Interlude chapters in between each Month chapter. It's easy to skip these chapters but if you do so you are missing out. Again here's King doing his patently world-building which makes this story Epic. By knowing the over-arching history of his town, Mike is able to see the bigger picture. He is able to rally the Loser's Club by showing them what heroes they really are.

5. Your local bully may be a budding psychopathic/sociopathic killer. I'm just saying.

6. Being the lone girl in a group of social outcasts means they will all have a crush on you. Yep I'm looking at you Beverly Marsh.

7. Haiku's can be romantic. Ben is able to put all his longing into 17 syllabyls. Man some people can't do that in a hundred pages.

8. 7 is a magical number. Listen to Richie, he knows that you need seven members for The Losers Club: Bill, Richie, Ben, Stan, Eddie, Beverly, and Mike. These kids find friendship in each other over the course of a summer. When you're a kid that stuff can happen and it's awesome.

9. In a fight against evil there will always be noble sacrifices. Not telling who, but at least one loss was shocking.

10. Clowns are damn scary. Seriously folks.

Have a great week! Book Slave.

Teach me Larry, I'm willing to learn...

Greetings and Salutations,
I hope y’all had an excellent weekend. My weekend has been pretty solitary. Sometimes things turn out that way. At least I will always have you, gentle reader, out there in cyber-land. You are out there right? Well I can only assume so. Onward with this month’s feature:

Lesson’s From Classic Lit: Lonesome Dove

First of all some background: As I’ve posted previously I read Lonesome Dove written by Larry McMurtry for the first time when I was 13. You can read about that here. I’ve read it a number of times since then, even read it aloud on a road trip once (to my family’s dismay, I’m sure). Dove is the tale of two old Texas Rangers Captain Woodrow Call and Captain Augustus McCrae who decide to leave their settled existence for one more adventure. Call and McCrae, as well as a whole group of characters, round up some cattle and drive them from Texas to Montana. Past and future collide as these two men see the end of the West as they know it. This book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1985 and is McMurtry’s masterpiece.

Here are some lessons I learned from this great epic:
1. You are never too old for an adventure. Call and McCrae are in their 60s. And they are tough MFers.
2. Men are complicated. Thus begins my love/hate relationship with Woodrow Call. I love his stoicism and toughness. But why can't he tell his son that he loves him? Why do we always want the men we can't have.
3. Whores/Prostitutes have dreams too. I love Lorena and her dream of going to San Francisco. It's unbelievably tragic when she loses it all. Again.
4. A real woman knows when to say No. Even if it hurts. Clara is the most awesome independent strong woman. "She'll cut your throat quicker than a comanche," McCrae says. She's also smart enough to know that Augustus McCrae is not a man to settle down with.
5. Nice guys do win out, eventually. For examples I give you Dish Boggett and Sheriff July Johnson. Poor bastards.
6. A promise is a promise. Even if its crazy. The amazing bond between Call and McCrae is to be admired. These are honorable men all the way to the end.
7. If you are in over your head, get out. Get out now. I'm looking at you Jake Spoon.
8. It's wonderful to be saved. Augustus McCrae's single handed rescue abilities are breath-taking.
9. Some people are not meant to leave Texas. Some are meant for adventures, others are fine just where they are.
10. You can quilt pants. I had no idea. Thank you Joshua Deets.

There are many more. The book is over 1000 pages after all. And worth every word. If you haven't read it check it out. This is so much more than just a western.

Have a great beginning of fall! Book Slave.

Teach me Jane, I'm willing to learn...

Hey World Out There,
How lucky are you? Yes, an extra entry this week. I am introducing a new feature:

Lessons I’ve Learned From Classic Lit: Jane Austen


1. Beware those who speak cleverly. Whether it’s Wickam, Willoughby, or Mr. Elton watch out for men who are dangerously attractive. Let’s not forget the Crawfords as well. Austen throughout her 6 books continuously drills this point home.

2. Sisters are important. Of course in her own life Austen depended upon her sister Cassandra and one can’t help but see parallels between two different sets in her books. The relationship between the sisters Dashwood and Bennett play this out. Both sisters are opposites of each other whether it is sense/sensibility or intellect/beauty. They may disagree with each other from time to time, but when a sister is under attack the other sister is there to defend her.

3. Beware mothers who are focused on wealthy marriages rather than happiness. Mrs. Bennett, Mrs, Farrers, Lady Bertram, Enough said.

4. Watch out for false friends who seem to have your best interests at heart. Throughout all six books the main protagonists have their happiness thwarted by their supposed best friend. Cheekily in Emma the false friend is the main character making it a change up in formula. Be paranoid of your friends folks.

5. Marry for love and happiness, not wealth. This is obvious to us today but back in her day marriage meant security. Without marriage you could end up dying penniless in a cottage with your mom and sister. Considering her own personal situation I find it astounding that her books are relentlessly optimistic.

6. True love takes time to develop. Throughout her books, especially in Persuasion, Austen implies that loving relationships require a certain amount of maturity. Elizabeth Bennett has to turn down Mr. Darcy when she does because they are both not ready. In Persuasion, Anne Eliot and Captain Wentworth prove that love may require a long wait.

Well there’s a few, I know there are many more. Jane Austen managed to cram an immense amount of life into 6 books. I’ve never read Lady Susan or Sanditon because I don’t like reading books not finished by the original author. Hence they are not included her. In the future I’ll feature some more eclectic authors, but I thought I’d start with something easy.

Have a great week. Book Slave.