The Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman, is quite an odd book. I have enjoyed some of Gaiman's other work including Sandman, but I never really found much of an attachment to this one in particular. I suppose this is the result of several different aspects. I didn't hate the book by any means, but I certainly wouldn't read it again, as it's merely an alright book as far as I'm concerned.
The book is not without it's good points and charms, most characters in the story are pretty well fleshed out and believable to the point where the reader will have an opinion of that person's personality entirely based on Gaiman's development through words. I, for instance, really hated Graham Coats, with a passion and that's exactly what the author intended. Also, the story was pretty imaginative, as I've never read or watched anything I would really call that similar in most aspects. Another enjoyable aspect of the story is that all of the characters seem to come from different aspects of the plot and then weave together in someway or another, and sometimes they exit and then happen to come back into the story at specific times making it pretty interesting to read. The imaginary world, though there is hardly any of it in this book which I'll complain about in a bit, is pretty interesting. My reasoning for not loving the book certainly doesn't stem from it being written poorly either. Gaiman, is definitely at the top of his craft in terms of writing. The story flows quite nicely and it's pretty easy to read with little confusion. I like how the book is serious at times, but at the same time not so serious and has little humorous parts and odd character quirks that will make the reader laugh to themselves while they're reading.
There aren't really any glaring things that make the book an alright one rather than an excellent one but, overall there is a reasoning for it. The story itself though interesting in how it connects the characters is pretty lacking other than that. Gaiman's story isn't hardly as grand or fantastic as I was expecting, the reader is basically just following Fat Charlie from one odd event to another as he tries to get his life back to normal, which is pretty boring in my opinion. The books world does seem pretty realistic most of the time which I realize is what Gaiman was going for, but the fantastical elements are way too mellowed down to where they don't even seem fantastic in comparison to the real world. There were characters I liked in the story but the main protagonist, Fat Charlie, I thought was terrible. He seemed really ignorant to everything in a dumb sort of way, and when something crazy happened around or to him, his reaction was almost as if it were normal, which it shouldn't be in comparison to his mundane office worker life. The idea of weak and boring gods with only the ability of persuasion wasn't very exciting to me either to be honest, even though I think it could be interesting if used in a less selfish and more extravagant way.
Overall, I guess though it was well written and had a sort of different approach, The Anansi Boys just wasn't to my cup of tea, it's hard to read a book where you don't even like the main character. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find that copy of Sandman...
-Dan
Monday, February 28, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
The Golden Compass
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman was a fantastic fantasy novel. The story started off a bit slow, using almost a third of the novel showing Lyra and Roger's journeys through out Oxford and Jordan College and at length explains the child rivalries and seemingly inconsequential activities that take place in Lyra's “normal” life; To the impatient reader this could be conceived as tiresome. But, actually in retrospect turns out to be a very fun literary device by the end of the novel. Pullman reveals several of Lyra's key character traits in this “Oxford” chapter, showing how she's very much a liar, rough, adventurous, and not really one for learning, unless it's to her particular interests. Most importantly, the beginning sets up the very strong bond between Lyra and Roger, which really comes in to play in this book's epic climax where Lord Asriel severs Roger's daemon, killing him and releasing the energy he needed to complete the opening to the parallel world in the sky.
The book, though it's published with children as a target, has quite an intricate plot with many twists and turns and some surprisingly violent and entertaining subject matter. Once the story picked up and got out of it's Oxford scene I was at the edge of my seat with every plot twist from the discovery of the “General Oblation Board” to the deception of Lord Asriel and the action packed battles between armored bears. Which brings me to my favorite character, Lorek Byrnison, is by far one of my favorite characters in a fantasy novel ever. Almost all of the story elements that are driven by Lorek or that he plays a main role in the segment were definitely the most enjoyable to read. His nobility and sense of righteousness later on in the story make him like-able and his brutal nature as an armored bear is very appealing to people that like action and fantasy, I mean what could be more completely amazing than a huge polar bear that can talk and is clad in rusty battle-worn armor. Undoubtedly my favorite scene is when, Lorek despite being seemingly outmatched, destroys Lofur Raknison in a bloody match, ripping his lower jaw off and slicing open his fur and devouring his heart, regaining his rightful throne.
Lyra wasn't one of my favorite fantasy main characters as she is basically just a small girl that isn't really the image of a hero in my mind, and is often times dependent on many of the other characters to help her in every point of her journey. She isn't without merit however, she has an interesting ability to be convincingly deceptive, a skill often times reserved for the villain. In addition to her sly talking abilities she is armed with a not so conventional tool as well, the alethiometer. She alone knows how to interpret it and by the end of the book she definitely knows how to use it well, taking advantage of it's ability to tell basically any truth, she whittles her way through several situations such as her imprisonment with Lofur.
Before reading The Golden Compass I had heard about it being anti-catholic or just anti-religious altogether and it was met with a lot of scorn especially after the movie came out. I honestly wasn't sure what it was really talking about until the end when most of the theory about dust and the parallel worlds are discussed at length between Lyra and Lord Asriel, and then I understood what it was they were talking about in a way. But, really it could be conceived as a novel about religion in ways, so I'm still unsure as to why it was met with so much disdain. Being agnostic, I don't particularly care if it's religious or not, just as long it's a still a great novel, and Pullman's novel is just that.
I'm glad I didn't give up on this novel as I almost did in the beginning Oxford chapters, because I really ended up enjoying the novel as a whole and appreciating the bountiful and subtle foreshadowing that riddled the beginning of the story by the time I got to suspenseful ending. In the end, the Pullman's novel really impressed me and just as reading The Hobbit last week made me want to read the Lord of the Rings, I'm now compelled to embark on a journey through the rest of the His Dark Materials trilogy.
-Dan
The book, though it's published with children as a target, has quite an intricate plot with many twists and turns and some surprisingly violent and entertaining subject matter. Once the story picked up and got out of it's Oxford scene I was at the edge of my seat with every plot twist from the discovery of the “General Oblation Board” to the deception of Lord Asriel and the action packed battles between armored bears. Which brings me to my favorite character, Lorek Byrnison, is by far one of my favorite characters in a fantasy novel ever. Almost all of the story elements that are driven by Lorek or that he plays a main role in the segment were definitely the most enjoyable to read. His nobility and sense of righteousness later on in the story make him like-able and his brutal nature as an armored bear is very appealing to people that like action and fantasy, I mean what could be more completely amazing than a huge polar bear that can talk and is clad in rusty battle-worn armor. Undoubtedly my favorite scene is when, Lorek despite being seemingly outmatched, destroys Lofur Raknison in a bloody match, ripping his lower jaw off and slicing open his fur and devouring his heart, regaining his rightful throne.
Lyra wasn't one of my favorite fantasy main characters as she is basically just a small girl that isn't really the image of a hero in my mind, and is often times dependent on many of the other characters to help her in every point of her journey. She isn't without merit however, she has an interesting ability to be convincingly deceptive, a skill often times reserved for the villain. In addition to her sly talking abilities she is armed with a not so conventional tool as well, the alethiometer. She alone knows how to interpret it and by the end of the book she definitely knows how to use it well, taking advantage of it's ability to tell basically any truth, she whittles her way through several situations such as her imprisonment with Lofur.
Before reading The Golden Compass I had heard about it being anti-catholic or just anti-religious altogether and it was met with a lot of scorn especially after the movie came out. I honestly wasn't sure what it was really talking about until the end when most of the theory about dust and the parallel worlds are discussed at length between Lyra and Lord Asriel, and then I understood what it was they were talking about in a way. But, really it could be conceived as a novel about religion in ways, so I'm still unsure as to why it was met with so much disdain. Being agnostic, I don't particularly care if it's religious or not, just as long it's a still a great novel, and Pullman's novel is just that.
I'm glad I didn't give up on this novel as I almost did in the beginning Oxford chapters, because I really ended up enjoying the novel as a whole and appreciating the bountiful and subtle foreshadowing that riddled the beginning of the story by the time I got to suspenseful ending. In the end, the Pullman's novel really impressed me and just as reading The Hobbit last week made me want to read the Lord of the Rings, I'm now compelled to embark on a journey through the rest of the His Dark Materials trilogy.
-Dan
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Hobbit
Finally! I've fulfilled my long awaited desire to read the fantasy classic, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. I've always punished myself for having not read nearly any of the essential fantasy novels as I am a fan of the genre, but sadly have been deprived of much reading all together. The Hobbit is a great novel for anyone to read, wether they're a fan of the genre or not, I personally enjoyed it quite a bit.
I've never read The Lord of the Rings (though I intend to soon), but I am very much a fan of the movie adaptations by Peter Jackson. Probably the biggest difference I can see between the two is that Tolkien seemingly wrote The Hobbit as a children's book rather as an epic fantasy novel, which is obviously the category to which LOTR would fit. Being not just a normal children's piece, but rather a masterpiece of children's fiction in my mind and in the minds of many others, The Hobbit can be read by both children and adults and both will find an enriching and entertaining experience.
The Hobbit is often touted as being a prequel to LOTR, but I see them as a separate pieces that correlate in a few interesting ways, but neither is essential to the other. This is mainly because of the jump in genre from children's fiction in The Hobbit to epic fantasy in LOTR. It is interesting though, that both of Tolkien's tales are the definitive masterpieces of their own genre thus making them of the same importance, just in different ways entirely.
Though the similarities between the two aren't of real consequence or importance I did find many of them very enjoyable especially if you've read or seen LOTR before you read The Hobbit and you find yourself thinking: “That's where Bilbo got the coat of mithril and his trusty sword “Sting” that he handed over to Frodo after his move to Rivendale!” or “Here come the eagles to save Gandalf and the other “good” guys just in the nick of time!”
I found the story to be very inventive for it's time especially, as this is no doubt the source to which almost all fantasy derives. I found myself happily flipping the digital pages of my ePub document to read about Mr. Baggins and his dwarf companions, never getting bored of their adventure. The adventure is an extremely streamlined one and we find our protagonists never caught up by their obstacles for very long. I feel like this makes it for a more captivating read for children but this quality is not without it's downside.
The one thing that was a little lacking for my tastes was character development; Bilbo was a very fleshed out character, Tolkien cleverly and subtly informs the reader of every aspect of the hobbit's personality throughout the story, and how he changes from a regular timid unmotivated creature to a great burglar that learns to trust his instincts and lucky nature. Few other characters have even close to this amount of depth however, even the second most important character, Thorin, isn't really included that much until near the end of the novel. This fault certainly isn't a large one because it is obvious that it's purposely intended to be a concise tale, with not a lot of room for each character to have all of their back history and thoughts to be put on display. This is apparent in many scenes where Tolkien will push the story forward when a character leaves such as Gandalf, giving the reader a “you don't need to know where he's going, that's not part of this tale.”
All and all I think The Hobbit is not only a children's masterpiece, but also a great work of fiction. I was so inspired by this book actually, that I've begun doing several character concepts and environments based on Tolkien's introduction to Middle-Earth. I look forward exploring Tolkien's universe with the LOTR and possibly even The Silmarillion.
-Dan
... EPIC Fantasy metal... a must! Opposed to the Japanese metal from last week I'm actually a fan of the folk/fantasy metal genre, however cheesy it maybe! ENJOY~~!
Equilibrium - Blut Im Auge
I've never read The Lord of the Rings (though I intend to soon), but I am very much a fan of the movie adaptations by Peter Jackson. Probably the biggest difference I can see between the two is that Tolkien seemingly wrote The Hobbit as a children's book rather as an epic fantasy novel, which is obviously the category to which LOTR would fit. Being not just a normal children's piece, but rather a masterpiece of children's fiction in my mind and in the minds of many others, The Hobbit can be read by both children and adults and both will find an enriching and entertaining experience.
The Hobbit is often touted as being a prequel to LOTR, but I see them as a separate pieces that correlate in a few interesting ways, but neither is essential to the other. This is mainly because of the jump in genre from children's fiction in The Hobbit to epic fantasy in LOTR. It is interesting though, that both of Tolkien's tales are the definitive masterpieces of their own genre thus making them of the same importance, just in different ways entirely.
Though the similarities between the two aren't of real consequence or importance I did find many of them very enjoyable especially if you've read or seen LOTR before you read The Hobbit and you find yourself thinking: “That's where Bilbo got the coat of mithril and his trusty sword “Sting” that he handed over to Frodo after his move to Rivendale!” or “Here come the eagles to save Gandalf and the other “good” guys just in the nick of time!”
I found the story to be very inventive for it's time especially, as this is no doubt the source to which almost all fantasy derives. I found myself happily flipping the digital pages of my ePub document to read about Mr. Baggins and his dwarf companions, never getting bored of their adventure. The adventure is an extremely streamlined one and we find our protagonists never caught up by their obstacles for very long. I feel like this makes it for a more captivating read for children but this quality is not without it's downside.
The one thing that was a little lacking for my tastes was character development; Bilbo was a very fleshed out character, Tolkien cleverly and subtly informs the reader of every aspect of the hobbit's personality throughout the story, and how he changes from a regular timid unmotivated creature to a great burglar that learns to trust his instincts and lucky nature. Few other characters have even close to this amount of depth however, even the second most important character, Thorin, isn't really included that much until near the end of the novel. This fault certainly isn't a large one because it is obvious that it's purposely intended to be a concise tale, with not a lot of room for each character to have all of their back history and thoughts to be put on display. This is apparent in many scenes where Tolkien will push the story forward when a character leaves such as Gandalf, giving the reader a “you don't need to know where he's going, that's not part of this tale.”
All and all I think The Hobbit is not only a children's masterpiece, but also a great work of fiction. I was so inspired by this book actually, that I've begun doing several character concepts and environments based on Tolkien's introduction to Middle-Earth. I look forward exploring Tolkien's universe with the LOTR and possibly even The Silmarillion.
-Dan
... EPIC Fantasy metal... a must! Opposed to the Japanese metal from last week I'm actually a fan of the folk/fantasy metal genre, however cheesy it maybe! ENJOY~~!
Equilibrium - Blut Im Auge
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things
J-Horror is a relatively new genre of literature to me, previous to taking this class I was pretty ignorant to it's existence all together. Even in the movies I've been primarily in the dark, having not even seen the american remakes such as The Grudge, just because I didn't feel very interested at the time they were released.
I began reading A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami and it was pretty cool in the way the author describes things and really gives his characters a believability but, the plot was so abrupt and quick that I was getting overly confused at the time I tried to read it. So, I put the book down and decided to read Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things which was collected and translated by Lafcadio Hearn. I would like to eventually try reading A Wild Sheep Chase again when my mind isn't so attentive to other things because I do think it would be an interesting read.
On to the Kwaidan, the stories ranged from musicians singing to ghost, to corpse devouring former priests, to snow white feminine specters. Overall they were interesting to the point that I couldn't wait to hear the climax of each story and then hop right into the next one. Some of them felt a bit obvious in a way, but I presume that's because they're derived from century old mythology that always seems to have that feeling of simplicity to them. The first story in the Kwaidan, “The Story of Mimi-nashi Hoichi,” was probably my favorite of the bunch and was coincidentally the story we watched in film version at the beginning of class. I enjoyed the correlation between the original story and how it was adapted to the film, many of the phrases seemed to be directly ripped from the source material and put into the movie.
I also enjoyed the story of the “Jikininki” because I liked the idea of a selfish or greedy individual in life being morphed into a specter, cursed to seek out and eat the corpses of the recently deceased. The spirit does this not because they're evil, but because it's actually a punishment and the jikininki is disgusted by their condition and hate their abhorrent lust for decaying human flesh. Also interesting, is the fact that in this story and most other Japanese “ghost” stories the spirit is often given a human physical appearance and is perceived as such, leading to some interesting story devices. For instance in this story the main character priest actually comes across the jikininki first and is tricked into believing that he is a priest as well, but finds out later in conversation with the jikininki himself that he's actually a cursed specter.
These stories are interesting because they show how closely religion and ancestry is to the way the Japanese conduct their daily lives. As opposed to most other country's ghosts who are believed to hold an ill-will towards the living and literally haunt them. In Japan the “ghost stories” are intended to comfort and inspire their audience and to strengthen their social and religious ideas. Also, I feel that in manly it's supernatural and gothic tales the japanese seem to bring a sort of performance feeling to their writing and theatrical efforts much more so than most other countries that seem to go for more of a representational or believable quality. The stories are often perceived as strange when read by outside sources, but it isn't in reality because this quality is something that has been ingrained in Japanese society since the culture has existed and is more of a natural progression.
The Kwaidan has definitely opened up my mind to the differences in Japanese culture to our own and how it makes their writing and film much different, I look forward to exploring this genre more in the future because of it's unique approach.
Also, because I found it funny, Here's my Japanese Metal Pick!! I don't listen to anything japanese in terms of music, but I figured I'd give it a shot. Almost what I'd expect to hear from Japan... Pop+Metal, haha it's well done but definitely not my style.
Blood Stain Child - Freedom
I began reading A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami and it was pretty cool in the way the author describes things and really gives his characters a believability but, the plot was so abrupt and quick that I was getting overly confused at the time I tried to read it. So, I put the book down and decided to read Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things which was collected and translated by Lafcadio Hearn. I would like to eventually try reading A Wild Sheep Chase again when my mind isn't so attentive to other things because I do think it would be an interesting read.
On to the Kwaidan, the stories ranged from musicians singing to ghost, to corpse devouring former priests, to snow white feminine specters. Overall they were interesting to the point that I couldn't wait to hear the climax of each story and then hop right into the next one. Some of them felt a bit obvious in a way, but I presume that's because they're derived from century old mythology that always seems to have that feeling of simplicity to them. The first story in the Kwaidan, “The Story of Mimi-nashi Hoichi,” was probably my favorite of the bunch and was coincidentally the story we watched in film version at the beginning of class. I enjoyed the correlation between the original story and how it was adapted to the film, many of the phrases seemed to be directly ripped from the source material and put into the movie.
I also enjoyed the story of the “Jikininki” because I liked the idea of a selfish or greedy individual in life being morphed into a specter, cursed to seek out and eat the corpses of the recently deceased. The spirit does this not because they're evil, but because it's actually a punishment and the jikininki is disgusted by their condition and hate their abhorrent lust for decaying human flesh. Also interesting, is the fact that in this story and most other Japanese “ghost” stories the spirit is often given a human physical appearance and is perceived as such, leading to some interesting story devices. For instance in this story the main character priest actually comes across the jikininki first and is tricked into believing that he is a priest as well, but finds out later in conversation with the jikininki himself that he's actually a cursed specter.
These stories are interesting because they show how closely religion and ancestry is to the way the Japanese conduct their daily lives. As opposed to most other country's ghosts who are believed to hold an ill-will towards the living and literally haunt them. In Japan the “ghost stories” are intended to comfort and inspire their audience and to strengthen their social and religious ideas. Also, I feel that in manly it's supernatural and gothic tales the japanese seem to bring a sort of performance feeling to their writing and theatrical efforts much more so than most other countries that seem to go for more of a representational or believable quality. The stories are often perceived as strange when read by outside sources, but it isn't in reality because this quality is something that has been ingrained in Japanese society since the culture has existed and is more of a natural progression.
The Kwaidan has definitely opened up my mind to the differences in Japanese culture to our own and how it makes their writing and film much different, I look forward to exploring this genre more in the future because of it's unique approach.
Also, because I found it funny, Here's my Japanese Metal Pick!! I don't listen to anything japanese in terms of music, but I figured I'd give it a shot. Almost what I'd expect to hear from Japan... Pop+Metal, haha it's well done but definitely not my style.
Blood Stain Child - Freedom
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Interview with a Vampire
This was the week of the vampire, one that I wasn't so much looking forward to, because unlike almost all of the other genre's that we are to cover during the semester, the vampire genre isn't one I've ever been very fond of. Interview with a Vampire, by Anne Rice certainly didn't make me want to go out and buy a fake pair of sharp canines or a coffin to sleep in. Not only do I dislike vampires, but Rice's writing style (not that it wasn't written well) is definitely not one that could easily hold my attention. The story often felt to be dragging severely with large amounts of description when it wasn't even needed. Maybe if the book was about half as long it would be sufficient.
The more I think about it however, I don't really dislike the idea of a vampire. The thought of a ghoulish phantom that attacks people directly with the most primitive of weapons, their own teeth, draining their victims of so much blood that they become incapacitated and left to die, is definitely in a horror fan's appeal. I think what I don't like about vampires is that in novels and other forms of entertainment the idea is romanticized and taken from it's “monster” roots just as it is in Interview with a Vampire. In movies like Blade, Vampire Hunter D, or Underworld, the vampire(s) aren't really horrific monsters, but they certainly aren't romanticized either. They all hold true to the common characteristics of a fictional vampire, and turn it more into an action oriented gory show of blades and mutilation of humans and even other monsters. I feel that the vampire genre like many others is rather diverse and can appeal to all different types of people, but I feel because of it's romantic view on the otherworldly creature Interview is primarily written with the female reader in mind.
There are a few things that I did find interesting about Rice's novel however; I enjoyed how she described the vampires as being bone pale and possessing extremely smooth features tightly pulled over their facial structure to give them more of a ghastly appearance that they had to hide in the dimmest of lights when conversing with a normal person. In most vampire fiction, including the film adaptation of the book Interview with a Vampire, as long as it's night the normal humans have no suspicion that they're actually in the company of a vampire. I also liked the scene, though it was extremely short when Claudia and Louis run into the European vampire, who seems almost zombie-like with his brutish strength and nothing driving him but a crazed hunger for, in this case, blood. Lestat was a great character with an arrogant personality, due to his experience and expertise in all things vampire, which gave him the ability to be extremely manipulative. In Rice's novel vampires aren't harmed by the common garlic and cross weakness' that they're often thought to have, but the community is aware of the myth, which was pretty unique.
It wasn't a terrible book, but it certainly wasn't my favorite, romanticized vampires just aren't part of testosterone fueled interests, and I won't be reading any of the other books in The Vampire Chronicles, I'll just stick with Castlevania and Blade.
The more I think about it however, I don't really dislike the idea of a vampire. The thought of a ghoulish phantom that attacks people directly with the most primitive of weapons, their own teeth, draining their victims of so much blood that they become incapacitated and left to die, is definitely in a horror fan's appeal. I think what I don't like about vampires is that in novels and other forms of entertainment the idea is romanticized and taken from it's “monster” roots just as it is in Interview with a Vampire. In movies like Blade, Vampire Hunter D, or Underworld, the vampire(s) aren't really horrific monsters, but they certainly aren't romanticized either. They all hold true to the common characteristics of a fictional vampire, and turn it more into an action oriented gory show of blades and mutilation of humans and even other monsters. I feel that the vampire genre like many others is rather diverse and can appeal to all different types of people, but I feel because of it's romantic view on the otherworldly creature Interview is primarily written with the female reader in mind.
There are a few things that I did find interesting about Rice's novel however; I enjoyed how she described the vampires as being bone pale and possessing extremely smooth features tightly pulled over their facial structure to give them more of a ghastly appearance that they had to hide in the dimmest of lights when conversing with a normal person. In most vampire fiction, including the film adaptation of the book Interview with a Vampire, as long as it's night the normal humans have no suspicion that they're actually in the company of a vampire. I also liked the scene, though it was extremely short when Claudia and Louis run into the European vampire, who seems almost zombie-like with his brutish strength and nothing driving him but a crazed hunger for, in this case, blood. Lestat was a great character with an arrogant personality, due to his experience and expertise in all things vampire, which gave him the ability to be extremely manipulative. In Rice's novel vampires aren't harmed by the common garlic and cross weakness' that they're often thought to have, but the community is aware of the myth, which was pretty unique.
It wasn't a terrible book, but it certainly wasn't my favorite, romanticized vampires just aren't part of testosterone fueled interests, and I won't be reading any of the other books in The Vampire Chronicles, I'll just stick with Castlevania and Blade.
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