Interlude: apparently 1960s Batman is still the height of comperative literature for the mainstream press

From NPR today:

Talk of the Nation, January 30, 2009 · BANG! POW! PHOSPHORYLATION! The Stuff of Life is a new genetic biology primer with a twist — it takes the form of a graphic novel. Author Mark Schultz explains how he turned everything from cytokinesis to parthenogenesis into comic strips.

God, even now? Bang! Pow!?

BANG FUCKING POW?

Must the mainstream press continue to reduce everything about comics to the level of goddamn 1960's Batman? Are we reduced to seeing the same headlining rhetoric that was rolled out for Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns over twenty years ago? And then each time comics became "noteworthy"?

It's not even superhero comics you're doing this for, but a primer. Would you do this for Maus? BANG POW! Nazi Cat vs Jew Mouse!

Fun Home? BANG POW! Lesbian Daughter vs Closeted Father and Ennui!

Acme Novelty Library? BANG POW! Chris Ware vs Your Ability to Read Small Print Without Your Special Reading Glasses.

Hasn't the past DECADE of successful mainstreaming of "art"comics and action packed superhero blockbusters given you a new language with which to address this woefully misunderstood genre?

DIE, MEDIA, DIE! You don't belong in this world!

Book 6: The Player of Games

I wrapped the second Culture book up this morning. This book is really incredibly well done. It is funny, inventive, insightful, and full of all the things which science fiction is best at (recontextualizing societal situations through a theoretical lens).

The book deals with issues of racism, sexism, colonialism, war, competition, obsession, and gaming culture.

I wish I weren't at work. I would love to sit with the book and detail the tonal shifts, the passages which delighted me, the few instances which I did not enjoy the book, and on and on.

Wikipedia has a good write up of plot but goes on to spoil the whole ending, so I won't get into that, but the Wikipedia entry doesn't really get into a lot of what is subtextually there.

The Player of Games is the second of the Culture novels. Gurgeh, a brilliant, though decadent, game player from the Culture, is entrapped and blackmailed into unwittingly acting as a Special Circumstances agent in the brutal Empire of Azad. Their system of society and government is entirely based on an elaborate strategy game, Azad.

Interlude: The Pain of Nerdery Continues

Guardian Books is again talking about Genre. This time about Science Fiction that is marketed as Literary Fiction. It's a pretty standard article on the whole frustration with the public's perception of Sci-Fi but it does put forth a theory on why this is.

Perhaps the problem is that our present has caught up with the future presented to us by the pioneers of science fiction. Back in the 40s and 50s, when bright-and-shiny/dark-and-dangerous futures were given to us by the pulps, they were truly beyond anyone's ken. Now we are actually living in a science fiction future, is it fair to label a novel that extrapolates from what is possible today to what will probably be possible tomorrow...

Personally, I blame Star Wars but even that is blatantly ignorant and discounts the effects of 50s Science Fiction film on the cultural perception of the silliness of the whole genre.

I'd love to be able to say something like back then we had serious movies with silly effects but now we have silly movies with serious effects and the fact that we've only managed to shift the silly rather than get rid of it all together as what is keeping the genre from attaining a higher cultural standing, but I don't think I have the knowledge to really back that instinctual feeling up.

I honestly don't know.

The Player of Games Continues

It is absolutely ridiculous how good The Player of Games is.

So far about half way through it's an entertaining and wry sci-fi book about diplomatic relations between two cultures which really seems to be about British colonial relations yet is also exceptionally well written with two fascinatingly envisioned societies.

Why couldn't i have read this 20 years ago when it came out?

New Book: The Player of Games

I enjoy Ian Banks. I rather liked the Wasp Factory, finding it to be a rather fascinating portrait of a boy and his autonomous world.

I have never read any of the science fiction by the author (which is published under the name Ian M Banks) even though I have several of his books in my possession. Probably because everyone who is a raving fan says to start with The Player of Games. I managed to snag that book from Strand Books a few weeks ago and have begun to tuck into it.

So far I fear that this will be like Ender's Game but for middle age intellectuals but I'm only on page 30, so I have plenty of time to be pleasantly proven wrong.

Book 5: Black Hole

I wrapped this today at my gf's insistence that I actually read and return her books at some point. (a common issue, I'll borrow a book intending to read it but then it will get put onto the "to read" pile).

I'm having a difficult time trying to wrap this one up because it's rather dense so my review may come a bit later than I like.

Book 4: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

What an incredible book.

As you'll come to find I'm a big fan of fiction which teaches me something. Alan Moore's From Hell contains a 60 page tour of Victorian London's Masonic points of interest, and while many of the people I knew skipped it, that was the part that I read and re-read somewhat obsessively to capture all of the details in the art and to try to map the geography in relation to our main characters.

I read a lot of science based fiction because science is very entertaining. The more out there the science (cosmology is big fun) the more exciting it is for me to read. So I read a lot of science fiction. I read a lot more Michael Crichton than I like to admit because I enjoyed learning about whatever he was talking about.

I don't have an issue with non-fiction, per se, it's just not my preferred way to gain knowledge.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is great because it deals with the financial world, specific libel laws, Swedish modern history and it does so in an really entertaining matter.

Basically a middle-aged disgraced financial reporter is hired by a reclusive former titan of Swedish industry to track down what happened to a favorite family member whose disappearance 40 years previously was never solved. She disappeared from an island which had its one way on or off blocked that day by a horrific accident.

We're introduced to a wonderful character by the name of Salander, a product of broken homes, uncaring bureaucracy, violence against women (both physical and mental), and also seemingly possessing little to no standard social skills. I had originally typed that she was a "victim" rather than a "product" switching out one cliche' with another, but the truth of the matter is that she is not a "victim" because she never cows nor lets her circumstances dictate her self identity. There is also the matter of revenge where in she rather systematically regains control of various situations.

The issue with really discussing this book is trying to explain why you should read it but not telling you a thing about it so that you can approach it fresh and niave of what you're going to experience in the reading.

I will say there was one mind numbing cliche' which nearly made me give up reading the book because it is so ridiculous yet the strength of everything else (predominately the characters) made me overlook this portion of the book and read on to the end.

This is a very quick and satisfying read. It is also part of a trilogy, the second book was released in the UK but the US won't get it until July.