tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28824955018319188972024-03-18T12:11:01.567-04:00Science's Less Accurate GrandmotherSteve[n] Mollmann's blog: it only knows that it needs, but like so many of us, it does not know whatStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.comBlogger2388125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-26733783118048013402024-03-18T08:30:00.037-04:002024-03-18T12:10:29.562-04:00Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor<p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>The Shadow Speaker </b>by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu<br />
</p><p>My wife was into Nnedi Okorafor before, as the hipsters say, she was cool, and thus she owns a first printing of the first edition of <i>The Shadow Speaker</i>, one of her earliest novels, from 2007. (It's about to be rereleased along with a sequel.) I borrowed it from her earlier this year and gave it a read.<br /></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSkt72L4LLxz5Xb6Nqk60FGLlfBMIdzkTvpndExMGGWbgoK84XYom7eAdKbDTGuAhxtPFfhcPWSDi9euT3Wfi-ETu9egoTpI0qbbthzuoj7CfuxQ094IQ_PjoopWlCahyt32tuSq34uZj8VHN-_p2z9YdPBFm5SwmXYddo_OdYrKslimPcX7SahpLCMBVG/s1270/Okorafor-MbachuShadow.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="849" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSkt72L4LLxz5Xb6Nqk60FGLlfBMIdzkTvpndExMGGWbgoK84XYom7eAdKbDTGuAhxtPFfhcPWSDi9euT3Wfi-ETu9egoTpI0qbbthzuoj7CfuxQ094IQ_PjoopWlCahyt32tuSq34uZj8VHN-_p2z9YdPBFm5SwmXYddo_OdYrKslimPcX7SahpLCMBVG/s320/Okorafor-MbachuShadow.jpg" width="214" /></a></td></tr><tr>
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<span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/3719126/book/256595384">Published: 2007</a><br />Read: February 2024</span><br />
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</tr></tbody></table><p>I think I am coming to realize that Okorafor just doesn't work for me as much as I want her to. I have read the <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/search/label/subseries%3A%20binti">three Binti books</a>, <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/search/label/series%3A%20akata%20witch">the three Akata books</a>, some of her comics, and just none of it clicks. (Except for the <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2018/07/hugos-2018-akata-warrior-by-nnedi-okorafor.html">second Akata book</a>, which I liked.) Most of her books are ambling, with character just kind of moving from place to place without any kind of clear throughline from an emotional or plot standpoint. This is more of that. It clearly works for lots of people, but I think this might be it for me and Okorafor.<br /></p>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-30180491981968053472024-03-15T08:30:00.059-04:002024-03-15T08:30:00.121-04:00Reading The Magical Mimics in Oz Aloud to My Kid<p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>The Magical Mimics in Oz</b> by Jack Snow<b><br /></b>illustrated by Frank Kramer<br /></p><p>After John R. Neill died, the Oz series took a rest for a couple years, but it returned in 1946 with<i> The Magical Mimics in Oz</i>, by the series's fourth author, Jack Snow, and third artist, Frank Kramer.<br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvrf-t1DdeNqze2C8fy35ILSKfFnE4I_xN5NeLo7uelbGMEpjevvS6bKwllSCiSCcIBMCRuhcze25NjN-SMqW9OW_mvxzPoe6-gZR7eI0liunXKuWI5ufwPP8SG10lFBPNjJNGN8EJyTaqhdADY9-va_w_C22qF5N4WS9uHHq_S2dQKU-DTezDqsYpByH/s1270/SnowMagical.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="840" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvrf-t1DdeNqze2C8fy35ILSKfFnE4I_xN5NeLo7uelbGMEpjevvS6bKwllSCiSCcIBMCRuhcze25NjN-SMqW9OW_mvxzPoe6-gZR7eI0liunXKuWI5ufwPP8SG10lFBPNjJNGN8EJyTaqhdADY9-va_w_C22qF5N4WS9uHHq_S2dQKU-DTezDqsYpByH/w265-h400/SnowMagical.jpg" width="265" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/201313/book/219676083">Originally published: 1946</a><br />Acquired: July 2022<br />Read aloud: </span><span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">February</span><span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">–March</span><span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"> 2024<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Jack Snow was the first person to be a bona fide Oz fan to write an Oz book, and you can tell; it's the kind of book where characters do things like say, "Oh, wasn't the Forest of Burzee where Santa Claus was raised?" so that you know the writer has read <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2022/03/review-life-and-adventures-of-santa-claus.html"><i>The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus</i></a>. (Although, weirdly, he gets the Guardian of the Gates confused with the Soldier with the Green Whiskers. Rookie mistake!) He was also specifically an L. Frank Baum fan; while Neill built on what Thompson had established, <i>Magical Mimics</i> doesn't reference any characters or concepts from after Baum; you could go straight from <i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2022/08/review-glinda-of-oz-l-frank-baum-books-of-wonder-facsimile.html">Glinda of Oz</a></i> to <i>Magical Mimics</i> without missing a beat. And actually, it would read pretty well; Baum always included some minor characters from the last couple books in his most recent book's celebration scenes, and Lady Aurex from <i>Glinda</i> shows up in this book's. But if you are reading in publication order, <i>Glinda</i> was twenty-six years ago, so the odds are very much against you remembering her! A lot of minor characters that Thompson and Neill hadn't cared for pop up here in minor roles, like Button-Bright and Cap'n Bill. (I did add in a reference to the events of <i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/02/blog-post.html">Runaway</a></i> when reading aloud though; it fit quite naturally into one of Scraps's scenes.)<br /></p><p>The premise of <i>Magical Mimics</i> is on the darker end. As always, someone is trying to take over Oz, but it's one of the more successful attempts, like Thompson's <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2023/07/review-wishing-horse-of-oz-ruth-plumly-thompson.html"><i>Wishing Horse</i></a>. The Mimics are shapeshifters who want to invade Oz, but can't because of a spell of protection cast by Queen Lurline when she enchanted Oz. What they figure out, though, is that they <i>can</i> replace people who came to Oz after the spell was cast, so when Ozma and Glinda leave Oz on state business, they sneak into the Emerald City and replace Dorothy and the Wizard. Dorothy and the Wizard wake up in prison in Mount Illuso, the Mimics' home, while the residents of the Emerald City go increasingly concerned about Dorothy and the Wizard's strange behavior.</p><p>To be honest, I kind of wanted something more creepy and more complex, with Mimics slowly replacing Oz character after Oz character, while some other characters desperately tried to figure out what was going on. As it is, the book is pretty simple: the Mimics replace Dorothy and the Wizard, the other Oz characters wonder why they're acting weird but don't really make any progress or discoveries, meanwhile the real Dorothy and the Wizard meet a fairy who explains everything to them, she takes them back to Oz, and she defeats the Mimics. But perhaps Jack Snow knows his audience better than I do, because my five-year-old kid was totally on edge and nervous even with this very limited threat posed by the Mimics. They did not like that the Mimics replaced Dorothy and the Wizard, and did not like the tense chapter where the Mimic horde invaded the Emerald City and replaced everyone. So I guess it had enough jeopardy for the target audience!</p><p>Overall, I thought it was fine. I wish there had been more clever problem-solving by the Oz characters. Much like a Thompson novel, ironically, this one mostly sees the main characters stand around while a previously unknown powerful magic user takes care of everything for them. Dorothy and the Wizard don't do anything interesting to get away from the Mimics; the Emerald City characters don't do anything clever to figure out what the Mimics are up to. Toto turns out to be the real MVP of the novel, instantly realizing Dorothy has been replaced, evading capture by the Mimics, and striking at the Mimic King and Queen when everyone else is paralyzed by indecision. (The Scarecrow also shows some minor cleverness, admittedly, delaying the Mimics until Ozma and Glinda return to deal with them.) Thompson never did much with Toto, so it's nice to see him do some interesting stuff. Snow has the kind of languid pacing Baum often did, as opposed to the frenetic pacing of Thompson and Neill; Oz may be in danger, but Dorothy and the Wizard can still spend two chapters looking at a garden! Snow also captures a lot of Baum's sense of whimsy; both Pineville and the Story Blossom Garden feel like the kinds of places he might have thought of, not Thompson.</p><p>I'm sorry to say, though, that not only is Frank Kramer in third place for Famous Forty artists (thus far), it is a <i>very</i> distant third. There is an occasional nice picture (the one of Toto as Sherlock Holmes is fun), but overall most of his illustrations seem to aspire to competent at best. Baum hit gold with both W. W. Denslow and John R. Neill, so it's sad to see the publisher scrimping this time around.<br /></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">Next up in sequence:<i> John Dough and the Cherub</i></span><br /></p>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-5878087919801411122024-03-13T08:30:00.082-04:002024-03-13T08:30:00.130-04:00Marvel Zombies: Battleworld by Simon Spurrier, Kev Walker, et al.<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div style="text-align: center;">Marvel Zombies: <b>Battleworld</b><br /></div><div><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFYoAF43WWRpSObCvQ-NYoGlWMBYA6zHanXXgDT-4H3Ra72fXh1ZhF7xk99MiFi5mqFmFbSMmmnu0Miq4sbxCZet6BumgGbk9mvBoR-9GX3eIpV7p8C60x-DkZRjSSRgrShJ_WXnkThFzemPh0yT1lyj9WOBkuMJXFl2m6Sjh84aZz87Pa-9blKbxR3IvB/s1270/SpurrierBattleworld.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="826" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFYoAF43WWRpSObCvQ-NYoGlWMBYA6zHanXXgDT-4H3Ra72fXh1ZhF7xk99MiFi5mqFmFbSMmmnu0Miq4sbxCZet6BumgGbk9mvBoR-9GX3eIpV7p8C60x-DkZRjSSRgrShJ_WXnkThFzemPh0yT1lyj9WOBkuMJXFl2m6Sjh84aZz87Pa-9blKbxR3IvB/w260-h400/SpurrierBattleworld.jpg" width="260" /></a></td></tr><tr>
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<span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/16778572/book/257131601">Collection published: 2022</a><br />Contents originally published: 2006-15<br />Read: January 2024</span><br />
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</tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Writers:</b> Simon Spurrier</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, Robert Kirkman<br /></span></div><div style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><b>Artists</b></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><b>:</b> Kev Walker</span></span><span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: xx-small;">, Sean Phillips<br /></span></div><div style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Inker</b></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><b>:</b> Jason Gorder</span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><b>Colorist</b></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><b>s:</b> Frank D'Armata</span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span face="sans-serif">, June Chung<br /></span></span></div><div style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><b>Letterers</b></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><b>:</b> Clayton Cowles</span></span><span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: xx-small;">, Randy Gentile<br /></span></div> </div><div>I almost didn't even notice this existed, but while I was reading <i>Nextwave</i>, something I read clued me into its existence, which claimed that it was a really good Elsa Bloodstone story. I normally would be doubly skeptical of a story tying into both <i>Secret Wars</i> (ugh) and <i>Marvel Zombies </i>(double ugh), but then I saw it was by Simon Spurrier, who was one of the contributors to Titan's excellent <i>The Eleventh Doctor: Year Two</i> series, so I decided to give it a chance.</div><div> </div><div></div><div></div><div>I read the Ms. Marvel <i>Secret Wars</i> tie-ins back in the day; I only have the foggiest notion what it was about. I think a bunch of timelines got smushed together into the same planet? You don't really even need to know that to understand this, as long as you're willing to accept 1) Elsa Bloodstone is commanding an army against a horde of zombies, and 2) it's possible to run into multiple versions of the same character.</div><div> </div><div></div><div></div><div>This isn't high art, but it is surprisingly enjoyable and well done for what it is. Spurrier and artist Kev Walker take the post-<i>Nextwave</i> version of Elsa Bloodstone, but treat the character more seriously than Ellis and Immonen did. What would it be like to grow up with all this trauma? How would it affect you as an adult, and how could you relate to others after it happened? Spurrier explores this with a mix of horror and humor, and I wouldn't say I loved it, but it's much better than it needed to be. Walker impressed me as an artist, too; good with both character and action. At one point, I thought, "wow this guy should draw <i>Star Wars</i>"... later I realized he was the artist for Marvel's <i>Doctor Aphra</i> series, and I was probably subconsciously remembering some of the art I'd seen for that.</div><div> </div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZL5WXkI4tzjD717RiXfOmagvibMtbV_7w_qwVZypTz9wweoZSaNS4_5KKO7gZlTShDzBsb3vxk1PkRkOgD62QZdiwY6XhFYsTGctMkgcrmb38D5hQbCO5jjQwygviglKx4UmGDHx6DJ6wR5uxbP6Bz0r0yQMesn9Jw2bjnXYuyriVZH2dMwoQ20y55udW/s905/Marvel%20Zombies%203.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="621" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZL5WXkI4tzjD717RiXfOmagvibMtbV_7w_qwVZypTz9wweoZSaNS4_5KKO7gZlTShDzBsb3vxk1PkRkOgD62QZdiwY6XhFYsTGctMkgcrmb38D5hQbCO5jjQwygviglKx4UmGDHx6DJ6wR5uxbP6Bz0r0yQMesn9Jw2bjnXYuyriVZH2dMwoQ20y55udW/w275-h400/Marvel%20Zombies%203.png" width="275" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't mess with Elsa in any timeline.<br />from <i>Marvel Zombies</i> vol. 2 #3 (script by Simon Spurrier, art by Kev Walker)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> </div><div></div><div>The collection also contains one issue of the original <i>Marvel Zombies</i> series as a bonus, but no one's tricking me into reading that shit.<br /><p></p><p></p><p></p><div><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">This is the fourth post in a series about Elsa Bloodstone. The next installment covers <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/03/review-monsters-unleashed-monster-size-monster-mash-learning-curve.html"><i>Monsters Unleashed!</i></a> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Previous installments are listed below:</span></p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li> <i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-ulysses-elsa-bloodstone-legion-of-monsters.html">Bloodstone & the Legion of Monsters</a></i> (1975-2012)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-elsa-bloodstone-2001-miniseries.html"><i>Bloodstone</i></a> (2001-06) </li><li><i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/03/review-nextwave-warren-ellis-stuart-immonen.html">Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E.</a></i> (2006-07)<br /></li></ol></span></div></div>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-68230551683141507432024-03-12T08:30:00.020-04:002024-03-12T08:30:00.119-04:00Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, No. XIX (Chs. 51-54)<p style="text-align: center;"><b>The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit</b> by Charles Dickens</p><p style="text-align: left;">Finally... the end!<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZB4XksSTBTLv3Z5SVw6ZwiTeVrpRJQM96ONpI8ASsKXIW3D8HAndhYKpPkU5GrRbbkxVUOCbtU1-9_kfrz8tNZApFcEEyLLBqhAZScyWiXCUOgvn_afzENeE3hwyirV6bTCgQHlMebGMGzKHAGOS119dvU18-vLC5KXsmj7o3vkvkIr7243w3z2VaP3AM/s1270/DickensLife.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="839" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZB4XksSTBTLv3Z5SVw6ZwiTeVrpRJQM96ONpI8ASsKXIW3D8HAndhYKpPkU5GrRbbkxVUOCbtU1-9_kfrz8tNZApFcEEyLLBqhAZScyWiXCUOgvn_afzENeE3hwyirV6bTCgQHlMebGMGzKHAGOS119dvU18-vLC5KXsmj7o3vkvkIr7243w3z2VaP3AM/w264-h400/DickensLife.jpg" width="264" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/15539/book/255158312">Originally published: 1843-44</a><br />Acquired: December 2023<br />Installment read: March 2024</span><br />
</td></tr></tbody></table><p><b>No. XIX (Chs. 51-54)<br /></b>I wish I could say this whole novel was worth it for the scene where the elder Martin Chuzzlewit whacks Pecksniff with a walking stick, knocking him to the floor. It did make me laugh and want to cheer. Unfortunately, getting to see an annoying character whacked with a stick doesn't quite make up for having to read over seven hundred pages about that character... but at least Dickens himself knew the guy was annoying.</p><p>I also think Dickens himself clearly recognized that Martin Chuzzlewit was a failure of a protagonist; the last few chapters are far more interested in Tom Pinch and how he ends up than Martin Chuzzlewit and how he ended up. He's the one who gets what is clearly the protagonist's wrap-up, not Martin, with a whole chapter spent on his future happiness. The up- and downside of the serial novel, one supposes. If your protagonist doesn't work out, you can get a new one (shades of a tv show shifting who its lead is), but... but if your protagonist doesn't work out, you can't go back and make someone more interesting the protagonist from the beginning, all you can do is pack them off to America!</p><p>So, overall, did this work as a way to read Dickens? Well, I did not (as you can tell) like <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i> much... but I think I would have liked it even less had I attempted to read it straight through! Hopefully next year's Dickens is better (but I doubt it).<br /></p><p></p><p></p><p>
<small>This is the last in a series of posts about <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>. Previous installments are listed below:</small></p><small><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-1.html">Nos. I–III</a> (chs. 1-8)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-2.html">No. IV</a> (chs. 9-10)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-3.html">Nos. V–VII</a> (chs. 11-17)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-4.html">No. VIII</a> (chs. 18-20)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/02/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-5.html">No. IX</a> (chs. 21-23)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/02/blog-post_20.html">Nos. X–XII</a> (chs. 24-32)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/03/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-7.html">Nos. XIII–XVIII</a> (chs. 33-50)<br /></li></ol></small>
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-43633472138321438152024-03-11T08:30:00.066-04:002024-03-12T15:37:02.936-04:00The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold, Part 4: Barrayar<p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Barrayar </b>by Lois McMaster Bujold<br />
</p><p>My fourth Vorkosigan novel (third in chronological sequence, eighth in publication order) picks up right from the end of the previous one, <i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2023/11/review-shards-of-honor-lois-mcmaster-bujold.html">Shards of Honor</a></i>. Indeed, Bujold's very interesting afterword discusses how originally <i>Shards</i> was going to be longer but she realized she was introducing new complications instead of wrapping up existing ones, so she went backward and found a spot where it could stop, orphaning several thousand words that she'd written. It was another five years or so before she went back to that orphaned material and realized it could form the beginning of a second novel about Cordelia, one about—as the title is very clear about—her new life on the planet Barrayar.<br /></p><p>I had actually read <i>Shards</i> and <i>Barrayar</i> before; over a decade ago my friend Christiana loaned me an omnibus edition of the two. Rereading the review I wrote at the time, it's almost hilariously lukewarm:</p><blockquote><p>It has some adventure narrative tropes I find uncomfortable (the "other" being simultaneously more dangerous and more interesting than the home society), some slightly strange gender politics (the woman must give up her society utterly for the man she loves, who never seriously considers it), and some stuff that's just plain weird (everyone reveres one character who is a rapist), but overall I enjoyed it. It gets off to a rough start, to be honest-- there's a lot of journeying through a dangerous landscape, which I find tedious, and our protagonist Cordelia has a tendency to be rescued by other people a lot. But at the one-third mark, she finally starts making her own decisions, fleeing her home planet in a fantastic sequence, and then traveling to Barrayar, where she marries Aral Vorkosigan and is forced to navigate her way in a strange society. At this point, I was completely absorbed, and I loved all the political maneuvering and civil war stuff, and Cordelia herself shone quite well.<br /></p></blockquote><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqW8lTV7G57EIVrcvp3fPvmuNU0tO7srNgsVwHp05sAWRSDRe2R92-VeQte_Q3XU0wOI-bKdP4X9jV2EXmTBT8PjZDhYcBkluga13JJAOjGvtfcxKo63b7WMtP4Bbox45enuSYOSM45yx8-nsoXoCAyMMRDz6H0elDlj3fsL9FJT5mpS91NUkpeHTaY7Lg/s1270/BujoldBarrayar.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="814" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqW8lTV7G57EIVrcvp3fPvmuNU0tO7srNgsVwHp05sAWRSDRe2R92-VeQte_Q3XU0wOI-bKdP4X9jV2EXmTBT8PjZDhYcBkluga13JJAOjGvtfcxKo63b7WMtP4Bbox45enuSYOSM45yx8-nsoXoCAyMMRDz6H0elDlj3fsL9FJT5mpS91NUkpeHTaY7Lg/w256-h400/BujoldBarrayar.jpg" width="256" /></a></td></tr><tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/24776/book/210473800">Originally published: 1991</a><br />Acquired: January 2022<br />Read: November 2023</span><br />
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</tr></tbody></table>On this read, it was pretty obvious to me that the books are interrogating the things I found uncomfortable, and I'm not sure why I didn't know that the first time; these books are all <i>about</i> that contact between cultures and danger of being fascinated by the "other"; the gender politics of Barrayar are <i>continuously</i> scrutinized. And when on Earth was Cordelia ever a victim who needed to be rescued!? What I do think is fair is that I clearly liked <i>Barrayar</i> more than <i>Shards</i>. While <i>Shards</i> is good, I definitely think Bujold got better as a novelist in the interim; <i>Shards</i> is like three linked novellas while <i>Barrayar</i> has a unity of plot and, especially, theme.<p></p><p>The other really interesting tidbit the afterword brought into focus for me was that this was a book about parenting. I just don't think I saw that at age 24, and even if I had, it would not have resonated the way it does as a 38-year-old father of two. Most of Cordelia's emotions and decisions are driven by the fact that she's a parent. This is obviously the case when it comes to Miles, but it's true almost everywhere in the book: the way she thinks about the boy emperor, Gregor, for example, or her ability to figure out what the emperor's mother Kareena is thinking. I definitely <i>liked</i> the book before, but this time through I <i>felt</i> it, there was a real intensity to it. The book is filled with great moments, some of them funny, some of them grim, all of them thoughtful and considered. I won't list them here, but if you've read it, you'll easily bring a number of them to mind.<br /></p><p>Science fiction can sometime feel like a young person's game: young people doing epic stuff like fighting empires. But <i>Barrayar</i> is science fiction for the middle aged. Yes, there are evil empires, but it's about the struggle to be a good parent in all its myriad forms, the right you keep up every day, not always because you want to, but because you won't be yourself if you give up.</p><p>I know there are more Cordelia-focused novels in the saga's "main" sequence, but it's a shame there aren't more of these books about her younger days on Barrayar, because in some ways she's an even more interesting protagonist than Miles.<br /></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">Every five months I read a book in the Vorkosigan saga. Next up in sequence: <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/04/review-cetaganda-vorkosigan-adventure-lois-mcmaster-bujold.html"><i>Cetaganda</i></a></span><br /></p>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-64520512304329288752024-03-08T08:30:00.034-05:002024-03-08T08:30:00.133-05:00Screen Time<p>At a certain point, my wife and I began to use the removal of "screentime" (watching tv and tablet use) as a punishment. "I'm going to count to five, and if you're not brushing your teeth..." I don't think this was terribly effective—as any parent knows, the "counting to five" technique just lets your child draw it out when you don't <i>want</i> them to draw it out. What you really ought to do is a time out as soon as the child doesn't listen, but of course that makes things take even longer in the moment, even if in the long run it will supposedly have a better pay off.</p><p>It also had the problem of creating an expectation of screentime. Whereas screentime had been a thing for lazy weekend afternoons and the occasional after-school pre-dinner moment, once you are threatening to take it away, that implies the default is the existence of screentime. Furthermore, it also decouples the moment of punishment from the moment of the action, and in three- and five-year-old cognition, it's still pretty important for consequences to immediately flow from action. Not getting the screentime in the afternoon because they didn't brush their teeth promptly nine hours earlier isn't very effective. And finally, the moment of taking it away often makes things <i>worse</i>; now they aren't brushing their teeth <i>and</i> they're mad at you.</p><p>So I had an idea: could I flip screentime around? Could I make it a positive reward instead of a negative punishment?</p><p>I got an Etsy seller to make us a bunch of wooden tokens with "SCREEN TIME 30 MINS." engraved on them. So no longer do we threaten to remove screentime for negative behaviors; instead, we reward them for positive behaviors. If the morning routine is executed with a minimum of cajoling, then they get a screentime token. This also lets us reward other behaviors; Son One did a chore with no fussing the other day as soon as I asked, so I gave him one for that.</p><p>I think overall it's been to the positive. There are now firmly established limits on screentime, which is also a positive—something we had lost over the past year or so. A couple days ago we did have a situation where, having spent all his screentime tokens over a three-day weekend, Son One became quite upset in the afternoon that he hadn't gotten one that morning. He hadn't been <i>terrible</i> for the morning routine, but I had felt like he had required one too many reminders. This prompted an hour of whining!</p><p>We'll see how it continues. Son One in particular does well with systems; the main issue I have right now is if I say things like, "You're moving too slow, so you don't get a screentime token," that puts us right back where we started, so it's a little tricky to create that association between the behavior we <i>don't</i> want and the consequence.<br /></p>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-88243294632030490462024-03-07T08:30:00.000-05:002024-03-07T08:30:00.138-05:00Reading Roundup Wrapup: February 2024<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrjY28rRTFf6rNd2WfrwdDNsA1ba6THOYfgUKEbuwZ9TS70lrQhZ8P2hp5qs4I-5gt0oeW9tyH3l7b89KdIvLxP6AqmEbzOsoLSiHW5r0HfqqS89ZBa66xeTETTSpwLAqJi7KkIU4Tl0z277XOVXFYUErV6XbCbxTyZVXItAt3Mb8qn452y6etzoPEH9cW/s1270/NeillRunaway.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="842" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrjY28rRTFf6rNd2WfrwdDNsA1ba6THOYfgUKEbuwZ9TS70lrQhZ8P2hp5qs4I-5gt0oeW9tyH3l7b89KdIvLxP6AqmEbzOsoLSiHW5r0HfqqS89ZBa66xeTETTSpwLAqJi7KkIU4Tl0z277XOVXFYUErV6XbCbxTyZVXItAt3Mb8qn452y6etzoPEH9cW/w265-h400/NeillRunaway.jpg" width="265" /></a></b></div><b>Pick of the month:</b> <i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/02/blog-post.html">The Runaway in Oz</a></i> by John R. Neill. Tough month to pick—I didn't read much that was bad but I wouldn't describe much of what I read as standout, either. But I did enjoy this John R. Neill Oz book, a fun adventure story featuring my favorite recurring Oz character.<p></p><p><b>All books read:</b></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><i>The Shadow Speaker</i> by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu</li><li><i>Monsters Unleashed!</i> by Cullen Bunn, Steven McNiven, Greg Land, Leinil Francis Yu, Salvador Larroca, Adam Kubert, et al.</li><li><i>Monsters Unleashed!: Monster Mash</i> by Cullen Bunn, David Baldeón, and Ramón Bachs</li><li><i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/02/blog-post.html">The Runaway in Oz</a></i> by John R. Neill, edited and illustrated by Eric Shanower</li><li><i>The Kingdoms</i> by Natasha Pulley</li><li><i>Monsters Unleashed!: Learning Curve</i> by Cullen Bunn, Justin Jordan, Andrea Broccardo, et al.</li><li><i>Elsa Bloodstone: Bequest</i> by Cath Lauria</li><li><i>Black Panther: A Cultural Exploration</i> by Ytasha L. Womack </li></ol><p>A little low, but I've been making slow but steady progress through two very long books, both of which I think I will finish in March.</p><p><b>All books acquired:</b></p><p>NONE! </p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuskljEHZ_dFMkzUtlpfuxIOIljTR4MpobkcJzYjiST_BSY2WTlo2htf06IEeTxhPZZUF4fmAfmQsWKgvOIWFPbR9MJMPU-cmjEJcpnURpnoE9qNjFILFI3JCCPt36VnYea29DDZYn-j8x2NG4gO1v0uVc_gdC9VFVsM7rLfSfb9hlPFsLMRczTwAC8xFH/s1270/ParkerMarvel-Verse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="847" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuskljEHZ_dFMkzUtlpfuxIOIljTR4MpobkcJzYjiST_BSY2WTlo2htf06IEeTxhPZZUF4fmAfmQsWKgvOIWFPbR9MJMPU-cmjEJcpnURpnoE9qNjFILFI3JCCPt36VnYea29DDZYn-j8x2NG4gO1v0uVc_gdC9VFVsM7rLfSfb9hlPFsLMRczTwAC8xFH/w266-h400/ParkerMarvel-Verse.jpg" width="266" /></a></b></div><b>Currently reading:</b><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><i>Marvel-Verse: Black Panther</i> by Jerry Bingham et al.<i> <br /></i></li><li><i>The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit</i> by Charles Dickens</li><li><i>The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 7</i> edited by Neil Clarke</li></ul><p><b>Up next in my rotations:</b></p><p></p><ol><li type="a"><i>Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Long Mirage</i> by David R. George III </li><li type="a"><i>The Pelican History of England: 3. English Society in the Early Middle Ages (1066-1307)</i> by Doris Mary Stenton </li><li type="a"><i>The Periodic Table</i> by Primo Levi </li><li type="a"><i>The Dispossessed</i> by Szilárd Borbély</li></ol><p><b>Books remaining on "To be read" list:</b> 663 (down 1)</p><p>Six months of no increase! <br /></p>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-51722248678644853102024-03-06T08:30:00.106-05:002024-03-06T08:30:00.121-05:00Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E. by Warren Ellis, Stuart Immonen, et al.<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsZHcuRZdQ9MahWxRG0QJ7Bx_J6ZRhzrx4cDwVwLH_kalPehhaB6r3yGrpT-aer0STx0A1A4t-1AJ2u6ZsrvdMQI1BTEIHf6F8eBppUB-hlJnKRMjzqEMexG0X05KJuNgua7OiFiymhTKR7xaKx0Xay5S5FQtS8U0YwX78Pi-GB_bnloinNlX-_3InT686/s1270/EllisThis.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="824" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsZHcuRZdQ9MahWxRG0QJ7Bx_J6ZRhzrx4cDwVwLH_kalPehhaB6r3yGrpT-aer0STx0A1A4t-1AJ2u6ZsrvdMQI1BTEIHf6F8eBppUB-hlJnKRMjzqEMexG0X05KJuNgua7OiFiymhTKR7xaKx0Xay5S5FQtS8U0YwX78Pi-GB_bnloinNlX-_3InT686/s320/EllisThis.jpg" width="208" /></a></td></tr><tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/1533691/book/256137102">Collection published: 2020</a><br />Contents originally published: 2006<br />Read: January 2024</span><br />
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</tr></tbody></table>Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E.: <b>This Is What They Want</b><br />Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E.: <b>I Kick Your Face</b><br /></div><div><p></p>
<div style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Writer:</b> Warren Ellis</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><b>Penciler</b></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><b>:</b> Stuart Immonen</span></span><span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Inker</b></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><b>:</b> Wade Von Grawbadger<br /></span></span></div><div style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><b>Colorist</b></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><b>:</b> Dave McCaig<br /></span></span></div><div style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><b>Letterers</b></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><b>:</b> Chris Eliopoulos & Joe Caramagna</span></span><span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><p>After her original appearance (see item #2 in the list below), Elsa Bloodstone was reinvented in the pages of <i>Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E.</i>, a farcical maxiseries about a team of D-list characters who find out that the anti-terrorism organization they work for, the Beyond Corporation, is actually run by terrorists and testing its WMDs on Americans. You might think this would be a very dramatic thing, but it actually happens before issue #1. This is because <i>Nextwave</i> is not about stuff like characters or themes, it's about leaning into two things: 1) violence is a fundamental tenet of superhero comics, and 2) superhero comics are full of dumb shit.<br /></p><p></p>The main characters are largely has-beens or forgotten: Elsa, of course; but also Jack Kirby's Machine Man, from his weird <i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i> tie-in; Tabitha Smith, an X-Man named "Boom-Boom" with the powers to explode things; and Monica Rambeau, recently on the big screen but then kind of irrelevant and without a home, as a former Captain Marvel, then Photon, then Pulsar. Add to all these the original character "the Captain," who answers the question, "what if the worst person alive got the power of Captain America... and also he never figured out the answer to 'Captain <i>What</i>?'" <br /></div><div> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHsR0V5ASic17-MD6v-NglHvzHXSxV_5PjW07stbNicIaFbejm6So98CQNA0Tb9NS5Xdt9jYNjVoj4XRJMrTdZ7bRe9fhJ-c1CloQniaMJ4m0Q_XMWE6bcg4krCZrYtu-8-bMl6PhZ1TIxEIc2UegklDfU9jgKOkmhCTySNiWHk7mC1gJAOotqxhANE96-/s884/Nextwave%20Agents%20of%20H.A.T.E.%206.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="884" data-original-width="826" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHsR0V5ASic17-MD6v-NglHvzHXSxV_5PjW07stbNicIaFbejm6So98CQNA0Tb9NS5Xdt9jYNjVoj4XRJMrTdZ7bRe9fhJ-c1CloQniaMJ4m0Q_XMWE6bcg4krCZrYtu-8-bMl6PhZ1TIxEIc2UegklDfU9jgKOkmhCTySNiWHk7mC1gJAOotqxhANE96-/w374-h400/Nextwave%20Agents%20of%20H.A.T.E.%206.png" width="374" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Perhaps the truest ever depiction of Elana Gomel's "violent sublime."<br />from <i>Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E.</i> #6<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>Ellis delights in making them all pretty awful. Tabitha is basically Paris Hilton with superpowers (very topical in 2006), Machine Man is always drunk and ranting about "fleshy ones," Monica rattles on about when she was in the Avengers but now doesn't give a shit, Elsa just likes to kill monsters. Each two-issue story sees them turn up somewhere and then dismantle a Beyond Corporation plan in as violent and gratuitous and stupid a way as possible.</div><div> </div><div></div><div>In the first volume, Elsa seems like she could be the same character we knew from <i>Bloodstone</i>, just older, but in the series's second volume we are told she was raised by her father (not her mother, as established in her debut), who dropped her into monster pits as a baby in order to develop her skills. It passes my law of retcons: though different, I find it just as interesting as her old origin.</div><div> </div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjftEVWc_KHvFU6ocesCPwgoXsAu3n8V4lfuAZZbw3NF6gNbLgeTCMr6BkPKZsTxMiJ8BWt0BxDrZa-48nPW3fS9wY3Ftp-iU1TSn8yPfPo0WITJPVSn2NQg4V6rARk50CQde8RO9LVlbkvaARDJ-CEHV74q8XujuejqmV2UY-2lN_hyphenhyphenWK8PxEkj528g8tD/s1085/Nextwave%20Agents%20of%20H.A.T.E.%208.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="1085" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjftEVWc_KHvFU6ocesCPwgoXsAu3n8V4lfuAZZbw3NF6gNbLgeTCMr6BkPKZsTxMiJ8BWt0BxDrZa-48nPW3fS9wY3Ftp-iU1TSn8yPfPo0WITJPVSn2NQg4V6rARk50CQde8RO9LVlbkvaARDJ-CEHV74q8XujuejqmV2UY-2lN_hyphenhyphenWK8PxEkj528g8tD/s320/Nextwave%20Agents%20of%20H.A.T.E.%208.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A very different mother for Elsa.<br />from <i>Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E.</i> #8<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div> </div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>The book as a whole is good fun... one sort of feels like it's simultaneously (almost) Stuart Immonen's best work and like he was wasted a bit. Like, there's not a bad panel, scene, character, or composition here... but oughtn't he be illustrating things like <i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2010/01/review-superman-secret-identity-by-kurt-busiek-stuart-immonen.html">Secret Identity</a></i> or <i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2016/07/review-moving-pictures-by-kathryn-stuart-immonen.html">Moving Pictures</a></i>? Though if they <i>had</i> got some hack to do this, it wouldn't have worked. At first I thought the whole thing was a bit of an <i>Authority</i> parody... then I remembered <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2012/04/faster-than-dc-bullet-special.html">who wrote <i>The Authority</i></a>! But when I got to the end, I realized I was right. What kind of writer satirizes themself just six years later? Don't answer that, but it's funny anyway.</div><div> </div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk-XL4-x1_X3SjaB7NMxWq8ZBqrb3NH32PF3JKs385ygVZuPm5yn13durt2W_OnccP3HM7h1MYUYPC9YMUDNlPwaGr2Fn2KM77lriCrpBTDRK_MVccXx-QQ8A_CyKD3f2IaFhBCmt1yfbeFTW446r6gXNAKaFU0KYWSy-qKcdpy5tFJf8pTP_fPlH3kR-e/s2065/EllisI.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2065" data-original-width="1324" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk-XL4-x1_X3SjaB7NMxWq8ZBqrb3NH32PF3JKs385ygVZuPm5yn13durt2W_OnccP3HM7h1MYUYPC9YMUDNlPwaGr2Fn2KM77lriCrpBTDRK_MVccXx-QQ8A_CyKD3f2IaFhBCmt1yfbeFTW446r6gXNAKaFU0KYWSy-qKcdpy5tFJf8pTP_fPlH3kR-e/s320/EllisI.jpg" width="205" /></a></td></tr><tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/2080708/book/256595076">Collection published: 2019</a><br />Contents originally published: 2006-07<br />Read: January 2024</span><br />
</td>
</tr></tbody></table>So is it great? I don't know. Is it worth your time? I don't know. But if Marvel reprinted the complete run at an affordable price again (I read it via Hoopla this time), I probably would pick it up. Healing America by beating people up!<br /><p></p><p></p><p></p><div><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">This is the third post in a series about Elsa Bloodstone. The next installment covers <i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/03/review-marvel-zombies-battleworld-elsa-bloodstone.html">Marvel Zombies: Battleworld</a></i>. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Previous installments are listed below:</span></p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li> <i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-ulysses-elsa-bloodstone-legion-of-monsters.html">Bloodstone & the Legion of Monsters</a></i> (1975-2012)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-elsa-bloodstone-2001-miniseries.html"><i>Bloodstone</i></a> (2001-06) </li></ol></span><p></p></div></div>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-18818551406112092652024-03-05T08:30:00.089-05:002024-03-08T08:53:19.629-05:00Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, Nos. XIII–XVIII (Chs. 33-50)<p style="text-align: center;"><b>The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit</b> by Charles Dickens</p><p style="text-align: left;">I was sick last week, so I was able to get through a lot of <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>. (If you think that sounds like I punished myself for being sick, you're right.)<br />
</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZB4XksSTBTLv3Z5SVw6ZwiTeVrpRJQM96ONpI8ASsKXIW3D8HAndhYKpPkU5GrRbbkxVUOCbtU1-9_kfrz8tNZApFcEEyLLBqhAZScyWiXCUOgvn_afzENeE3hwyirV6bTCgQHlMebGMGzKHAGOS119dvU18-vLC5KXsmj7o3vkvkIr7243w3z2VaP3AM/s1270/DickensLife.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="839" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZB4XksSTBTLv3Z5SVw6ZwiTeVrpRJQM96ONpI8ASsKXIW3D8HAndhYKpPkU5GrRbbkxVUOCbtU1-9_kfrz8tNZApFcEEyLLBqhAZScyWiXCUOgvn_afzENeE3hwyirV6bTCgQHlMebGMGzKHAGOS119dvU18-vLC5KXsmj7o3vkvkIr7243w3z2VaP3AM/w264-h400/DickensLife.jpg" width="264" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/15539/book/255158312">Originally published: 1843-44</a><br />Acquired: December 2023<br />Installments read: February–March 2024</span><br />
</td></tr></tbody></table><p><b>No. XIII (Chs. 33-35)<br /></b>I seriously do not understand people who think the American segments drag this book down. The middle chapter here is about Americans being ridiculous and stupid (some Americans try to talk to Mark on a steamboat). The jokes are not top-tier Dickens, but at least they are jokes. I would much rather read them than whatever else is going on in this book.</p><p><b>No. XIV (Chs. 36-38)<br /></b>This installment actually has some inklings of interest. Tom Pinch (who I am sure might have been in this book all along, but whom I last remember doing something interesting back in ch. 12) strikes out on his own, hanging out some with his sister, a much put-upon governess. Like the America stuff, it feels like a soft reset. Okay, Dickens thinks to himself, even after being packed off to America, Martin is <i>still</i> boring, so let's focus on this other guy, he seemed nice. I very much enjoyed all the stuff with him tramping about London:</p><p></p><blockquote>Yoho, past hedges, gates, and trees; past cottages and barns, and people
going home from work. Yoho, past donkey-chaises, drawn aside into the
ditch, and empty carts with rampant horses, whipped up at a bound upon the
little watercourse, and held by struggling carters close to the
five-barred gate, until the coach had passed the narrow turning in the
road. Yoho, by churches dropped down by themselves in quiet nooks, with
rustic burial-grounds about them, where the graves are green, and daisies
sleep—for it is evening—on the bosoms of the dead. Yoho, past
streams, in which the cattle cool their feet, and where the rushes grow;
past paddock-fences, farms, and rick-yards; past last year’s stacks, cut,
slice by slice, away, and showing, in the waning light, like ruined
gables, old and brown. Yoho, down the pebbly dip, and through the merry
water-splash and up at a canter to the level road again. Yoho! Yoho!
</blockquote><p></p><p>(Was this chapter an inspiration for <i>Little Blue Truck's Springtime</i>? "Yoo-hoo duck!") <br /></p><p>Anyway, will the second relaunch work? Well, who knows because then we get two chapters of tedium. The only thing more boring than Pecksniff is the two Miss Pecksniffs.<br /></p><p><b>No. XV (Chs. 39-41)<br /> </b>With Victorian novels, I often play a game: how would you see it if it had a different title? For example, <i>Adam Bede</i> could be the exact same text and justifiably titled <i>Dinah Morris</i> or even <i>Hetty Sorrel</i>. But if it was, it would be much sadder. Or, how would we see <i>Bleak House</i> if it was called <i>Esther Summerson</i>?</p><p>Anyway, it seems to me <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i> would much more justifiably be called <i>Pecksniff</i>, but then I would also hate it all the more. But on the basis of this installment, perhaps it ought to have been called <i>Tom Pinch</i>, and probably I might have liked it a bit more. There's no Martin, sure, but I'd much rather read about Tom Pinch doing stuff. This is a bit of a classic Dickens set-up: the down-on-the-luck fellow who gets a mysterious benefactor. But it's classic because it works. Chuck all the Martin and Pecksniff chapters and retitle this book, please.</p><p><b>No. XVI (Chs. 42-44)<br /></b>Who is even less interesting than Pecksniff? Signs point to Jonah. <i>Tom Pinch </i>continues to seem like a nice book, though.<br /></p><p><b>No. XVII (Chs. 45-47)<br /></b>Okay, so I just said I found Jonah boring... but ch. 47 here, where Jonah does a murder, is one of the best in the book. Classic Dickens, totally captivating suspense.</p><p><b>No. XVIII (Chs. 48-50)<br /></b>Okay, lots of boring stuff... FUCK ME, THE ELDER MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT HAS BEEN FAKING IT THIS ENTIRE TIME!? AND HE'S THE SECRET BENEFACTOR OF TOM PINCH??!? You do occasionally know how to hit a home run, Charles.<br /></p><p></p><p></p><p>
<small>This is the seventh in a series of posts about <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>. The next covers <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/03/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-8.html">installment no. xix</a>. Previous installments are listed below:</small></p><small><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-1.html">Nos. I–III</a> (chs. 1-8)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-2.html">No. IV</a> (chs. 9-10)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-3.html">Nos. V–VII</a> (chs. 11-17)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-4.html">No. VIII</a> (chs. 18-20)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/02/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-5.html">No. IX</a> (chs. 21-23)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/02/blog-post_20.html">Nos. X–XII</a> (chs. 24-32)<br /></li></ol></small>
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-58420064464590276522024-03-04T08:30:00.056-05:002024-03-04T08:30:00.124-05:00The Wife in Space by Neil and Sue Perryman, Volumes 1-8<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFnugEi-lFSbhqsu4YuTc0Ju1ZdyNBV7fhA6id9q8qNnbM_QJlzqff4eear1pOWB-LBxoGHqvYVSil44zGVXFP0HF1mcdGRBNomdeQg2xKyyunnMLzPtt9wGAd7goo-cH8f0UCBovEElyK8bWh4qnEGDsFdqVTcUL7RGRrITMLgYDUsXDWWjz_eEMAbhLS/s1270/PerrymanWife1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="828" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFnugEi-lFSbhqsu4YuTc0Ju1ZdyNBV7fhA6id9q8qNnbM_QJlzqff4eear1pOWB-LBxoGHqvYVSil44zGVXFP0HF1mcdGRBNomdeQg2xKyyunnMLzPtt9wGAd7goo-cH8f0UCBovEElyK8bWh4qnEGDsFdqVTcUL7RGRrITMLgYDUsXDWWjz_eEMAbhLS/w131-h200/PerrymanWife1.jpg" width="131" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1_QNrZZH-t-GgYadPDxJaYts9hoC5FgCku9gvc5jy7oA6UrLw-enY3Pney0WTdoeJjVInYuS1NgluK-v4G-SPvLMvLDxloOYZHHkYNhZoRlu5ZX4uIxLYy1DaTaMxAC5SuXpxrMG2QGx-o7v4xuVsXLhZWXtUBa48ijBh1o6IeXVhCCDyaJmy5Qknul3M/s1270/PerrymanWife2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="828" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1_QNrZZH-t-GgYadPDxJaYts9hoC5FgCku9gvc5jy7oA6UrLw-enY3Pney0WTdoeJjVInYuS1NgluK-v4G-SPvLMvLDxloOYZHHkYNhZoRlu5ZX4uIxLYy1DaTaMxAC5SuXpxrMG2QGx-o7v4xuVsXLhZWXtUBa48ijBh1o6IeXVhCCDyaJmy5Qknul3M/w131-h200/PerrymanWife2.jpg" width="131" /></a><b>The Miserable Git</b>: The Wife in Space, Volume 1<br /><b>The Scruffy Drunk</b><b></b>: The Wife in Space, Volume 2<br /><b>The Pompous Tory</b><b></b>: The Wife in Space, Volume 3<br /><b>The Mad One</b>: The Wife in Space, Volume 4<br /><b>The (Still) Mad One</b><b></b>: The Wife in Space, Volume 5<br /><b>The Fit One</b><b></b>: The Wife in Space, Volume 6<br /><b>The Court Jester</b>: The Wife in Space, Volume 7<br /><b>The Crafty Sod</b><b></b>: The Wife in Space, Volume 8<br />by Neil and Sue Perryman</p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmitvxQ6uFHgM05pPSz2Df9r24InGsD9AkcyRvic9FIcCrEz3QojCstiS7i20rCkplG6BXFa7popjhX-BpxbyO4lOUY6kYwrRvVUnKcMl80YfIuZ1IaeA8mroNTCvSfXcQCKtjicHBr2tkcwAglzWtgd_wCdX7pQkXxj1hMriuGIf22y0uCE4oVTzM7e4x/s1270/PerrymanWife3.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="828" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmitvxQ6uFHgM05pPSz2Df9r24InGsD9AkcyRvic9FIcCrEz3QojCstiS7i20rCkplG6BXFa7popjhX-BpxbyO4lOUY6kYwrRvVUnKcMl80YfIuZ1IaeA8mroNTCvSfXcQCKtjicHBr2tkcwAglzWtgd_wCdX7pQkXxj1hMriuGIf22y0uCE4oVTzM7e4x/w131-h200/PerrymanWife3.jpg" width="131" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQa4M7b8F15sU8XUnTHFzS8rRMRJy0_TvwADtPFs94ckRUAKzQ75AuoLEHOwRi_Ki2TYhrxfIdKsQwY2Y1IVmB-L_Ut9-Bp0DjsOH3vLQ3AQvwIl_kzp-noWcDkc6iZ6BHChUhYRmCCROzGcCNZjNqakKrPWuBIB8Y4RSrZC-xNjyptaEO2YbgOf6_tcF6/s1270/PerrymanWife4.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="828" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQa4M7b8F15sU8XUnTHFzS8rRMRJy0_TvwADtPFs94ckRUAKzQ75AuoLEHOwRi_Ki2TYhrxfIdKsQwY2Y1IVmB-L_Ut9-Bp0DjsOH3vLQ3AQvwIl_kzp-noWcDkc6iZ6BHChUhYRmCCROzGcCNZjNqakKrPWuBIB8Y4RSrZC-xNjyptaEO2YbgOf6_tcF6/w131-h200/PerrymanWife4.jpg" width="131" /></a><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/02/review-adventures-with-wife-in-space.html">After the book from Faber & Faber</a>, which chronicled Neil and Sue's lives with excerpts from the <i>Wife in Space</i> blog, Neil collected its complete contents plus extras in a series of limited-run volumes via Kickstarter. Alas, I couldn't afford the shipping costs as an American, but I did contribute enough to receive the ebook editions. Upon finally reading the Faber & Faber book, I then went on to read the ebooks.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZCXpypsOHk09dG0x1f5foPuda9ndUJZ9sQAGJu8zXPpFfvve_g6DoA2zr_16YUmEjYU2OUrClb4MvyCxfgmEIlMQsURSk-fuNfcvImC1cueej5UvmQ0otLFe2ou9Z95SaIRb726o1ctFq99LLpElm_vwjqJtu-nWfM8I8Ub3zDBAAvJUpNZvM-KowR4KP/s1270/PerrymanWife5.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="828" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZCXpypsOHk09dG0x1f5foPuda9ndUJZ9sQAGJu8zXPpFfvve_g6DoA2zr_16YUmEjYU2OUrClb4MvyCxfgmEIlMQsURSk-fuNfcvImC1cueej5UvmQ0otLFe2ou9Z95SaIRb726o1ctFq99LLpElm_vwjqJtu-nWfM8I8Ub3zDBAAvJUpNZvM-KowR4KP/w131-h200/PerrymanWife5.jpg" width="131" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCsmCba9EQBb1JcYxu1tomcDair3Rz6DCdcSonjdeGW-7vV-wmeFwjuwOywvDXyBna2PU7Www37B29W9tcRFBPC9C4DbAs1Yua9bvMnLRhVsbKEzQ9R5sdLWiwk1vhlz_XwyokULO5PZsFCZygRAWITs14iEqPY5mv4cmUnRJyZzMizInC7TjTFcw4e9KY/s1270/PerrymanWife6.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="824" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCsmCba9EQBb1JcYxu1tomcDair3Rz6DCdcSonjdeGW-7vV-wmeFwjuwOywvDXyBna2PU7Www37B29W9tcRFBPC9C4DbAs1Yua9bvMnLRhVsbKEzQ9R5sdLWiwk1vhlz_XwyokULO5PZsFCZygRAWITs14iEqPY5mv4cmUnRJyZzMizInC7TjTFcw4e9KY/w130-h200/PerrymanWife6.jpg" width="130" /></a>Like I said, this collects the complete run of the blog, which I had all read before, though each volume usually contains two or more relevant bonus entries, such as <i>Adventures in Space and Time</i> for the Hartnell volume or <i>The Stranger</i> fanfilms for the Colin Baker one. The blog isn't available online anymore, so I was happy to have this convenient way to reread it, and happy to spend a month in the company of Neil and Sue, working my way through one of the best television shows ever made. The blog was often hilarious, always insightful, and never not infectiously enthusiastic; it made me realize what an awful long time it has been since I watched some classic <i>Who</i>, and though I have no enthusiasm for doing it all from the beginning in order, there's so much good stuff that I am keen to see again.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcLOSNp8nsXLmWaqN2K6AYhMI1VLe60_tCmw5ft2bPTSv0QXpjOQ0mas9Jl_Rb8-zGmTgGQ1tbuaZ52skb3XtJah9TkBHAWeyDy2UK5mENiDB_NM6cGZHivXWH4W4V9LoBw_PhX1XtpHogzNRxCtktLxU9SN6pbb14LdzDDK8RLr3iCz46wd8j8M9KtQ-0/s1270/PerrymanWife7.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="834" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcLOSNp8nsXLmWaqN2K6AYhMI1VLe60_tCmw5ft2bPTSv0QXpjOQ0mas9Jl_Rb8-zGmTgGQ1tbuaZ52skb3XtJah9TkBHAWeyDy2UK5mENiDB_NM6cGZHivXWH4W4V9LoBw_PhX1XtpHogzNRxCtktLxU9SN6pbb14LdzDDK8RLr3iCz46wd8j8M9KtQ-0/w131-h200/PerrymanWife7.jpg" width="131" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8J1DeUIVUI7sCTZHRrwqTvfoYssEqvCpGSqQWrwKZcJ7VvfWqEkUmRgITI1rJZzMzlmJ1vHANAMvbpmn86ej1TJcU1-eiJUiOEefqYYV6hokPP7feiw3R5Qb4oy8N5YgZGQjmIHoCXNGF_c8IIVLFLPWLujSAYPipp9Wy-LdYX12kemwBxoIye-W6L23W/s1270/PerrymanWife8.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="830" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8J1DeUIVUI7sCTZHRrwqTvfoYssEqvCpGSqQWrwKZcJ7VvfWqEkUmRgITI1rJZzMzlmJ1vHANAMvbpmn86ej1TJcU1-eiJUiOEefqYYV6hokPP7feiw3R5Qb4oy8N5YgZGQjmIHoCXNGF_c8IIVLFLPWLujSAYPipp9Wy-LdYX12kemwBxoIye-W6L23W/w131-h200/PerrymanWife8.jpg" width="131" /></a>One of the delightful things is that Sue recognizes quality when she sees it, and is not held back by fan shibboleths. As a partisan of the Sylvester McCoy years, I was particularly pleased by her appreciation for stories like <i>Rememberance of the Daleks</i> and <i>Curse of Fenric</i>... but she also knows that <i>Silver Nemesis</i> is rubbish! Probably the most magical part of the books is when they watch<i> City of Death</i> along with Sue's daughter Nicol, and all of them become completely entranced by it.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://wifeinspace.com/wifeinspace.html">The ebooks can still be purchased from Amazon or Smashwords</a>; they also contain forewords by various <i>Who</i> luminaries. I particularly enjoyed Jenny Colgan's in volume six.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p></p>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-61789044846267671802024-03-01T08:30:00.277-05:002024-03-01T08:30:00.122-05:00qtd. in<p>I subscribe to a number of different academic subrebbits, and this semester, I feel like I've seen a lot of questions on a number of the "Ask" ones (e.g., "AskAcademia," "AskLiteraryStudies," "AskProfessors") about whether it's okay for an academic writer to cite someone's citation of someone else, rather than dig back into that original source themself.</p><p>There are two ways to think about this question. The first is that <i>can</i> you do this? And the answer to this is pretty simple: yes. I don't know how it goes for other citation formats, but in MLA you do this by putting "qtd. in" in your parenthetical citation and then indicating where you found your quotation; the best practice is that the signal phrase should indicate who actually said it. Here's an example from own eternally in progress book:</p><blockquote><p>In an 1872 letter to an unknown correspondent, Charles Kinglsey vented his frustration at the way many men of science excluded men of religion: “There are many men – I among them – who love physical science as dearly as Spencer and Tyndall can; who are ready to follow Darwin… without the least fear. But when it is said to us. No. You shall not be a scientific man and a Xtian… then, I think, an honest man has a right to lose his temper deliberately, and use a few hard words” (qtd. in Conlin 123). <br /></p></blockquote><p>The signal phrase makes it clear that Kingsley is who said this, but the parenthetical makes it clear that to find this quotation, you will need to go to Conlin. Then, if you go to the Works Cited (which I've included at the bottom of this post), you can see where I actually got the quotation from.</p><p>So this achieves the two goals of every citation: giving credit, and providing documentation.</p><p>But as a wise man once said, <span>"Just because we <i>can </i>do a thing, it does not necessarily mean we <i>must </i>do that thing</span>" (Meyer and Martin qtd. in 137th Gebirg). There a couple problems that "qtd. in" is prone to, and a couple circumstances in which it is definitely warranted.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><b>First, you are trusting that the source you read gets it right</b>.</h2><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oER4OYqYdFs/Vcyf3N6lJMI/AAAAAAAAERA/oYIPBE6codY/s1600/Kingsleys.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oER4OYqYdFs/Vcyf3N6lJMI/AAAAAAAAERA/oYIPBE6codY/w286-h400/Kingsleys.jpg" width="286" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charles Kingsley and his wife<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table><p>This isn't always the case! Even among academics, sources can be misquoted, or even if quoted correctly, they can get the context wrong. For example, in his <i>The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin</i> (1887), Francis Darwin (Charles's son) quotes a letter from Charles Kingsley to Charles Darwin saying, "I have to thank you for the unexpected honour of your book [the <i>Origin</i>]. That the
Naturalist whom, of all naturalists living, I most wish to know and to
learn from, should have sent a scientist like me his book, encourages me at
least to observe more carefully, and perhaps more slowly" (81). This is quoted all over the place. When I read this, I was surprised—would Kingsley really call himself a scientist, especially back in 1859 <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2023/04/mary-somerville-first-woman-scientist-coined.html">before the word really took off</a>?</p><p>So I tracked down <a href="https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-2534.xml">the letter in the <i>Darwin Correspondence Project</i></a>, where we find that Kinglsey actually says, "a <i>sciolist </i>like me" (emphasis mine). A sciolist is, as the <i>OED </i>tells us, a "person whose knowledge is only superficial, esp. one who makes much of it; a pretender to learning"; this is a far more likely thing for Kingsley to be calling himself. But searching "'charles kingsley' 'a scientist like me'" gets 1,490 hits on Google, whereas "'charles kingsley' 'a sciolist like me'" gets seven! That 1887 Francis Darwin misquotation has been endlessly reproduced and requoted by people who have not checked the original. (Both formulations get exactly three hits in <i>Google Scholar</i>, however, so professional academic have been more careful.)<br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Second, you may not be giving adequate intellectual credit (or not making an original contribution).</h2><p>The most obvious form of plagiarism is, as everyone knows, taking someone else's language without credit. But it's <i>also</i> plagiarism (as, in my experience, many students do <i>not </i>know) to take someone else's <i>ideas</i> without proper credit. This actually recently happened to me; I was asked to peer review an article about a novel (let's call it "novel A") that I had published about myself. The paper I reviewed took another text (let's call it "essay B") and applied it to novel A—the exact same second text that <i>I</i> had been the first to apply to novel A. It cited me, but only in the sense that the citations didn't actually quote essay B themselves, they quoted my quotations (e.g., qtd. in Mollmann).</p><p>Now is this plagiarism in the sense of borrowing language without attribution? No. But I do think it was pretty fishy. One, it was <i>my idea</i> to bring these two texts together, and nothing in the article I peer reviewed made that clear, I was just cited as the source of quotations for essay B. There was a failure to adequately give credit for a comparison that only I had thought of, even if none of my language had been stolen. Furthermore, I did the work of picking out the relevant passages from both novel A and essay B, but received no credit for it. (The writer clearly had not read essay B themselves, because they quoted nothing from it that I hadn't.)<br /></p><p>Second, even if adequate credit <i>had </i>been given... what's the point? If they don't go back to that original source themselves, they are entirely dependent on my interpretation, and thus cannot be making much of an original intellectual contribution—which is the whole point of academic writing. Even if I was credited, someone else had already had the idea of pairing novel A with essay B. Why do I want to read someone else making the exact same combination of texts, using the exact same selection of passages?</p><p>For me, this is the real issue with not going back to the original source. If one writer pulls a line that's important <i>to them</i> out of a source, I don't need a second writer to re-pull that same line. I want to know what the second writer thinks is important to <i>their </i>point.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">So when <i>is</i> it a good idea to use "qtd. in"?</h2><p style="text-align: left;">I searched my book manuscript for uses of "qtd. in" in order to write this post, and discovered that I use it thirteen times in 424 pages. My uses fall into two main categories:</p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>First, when the original source <i>isn't</i> readily available.</b> This is, I believe, the case with the Kingsley letter I quoted via Conlin above. (It has been a long time, so I'm not 100% sure, but I do feel sure I would have quoted the original if I could have.) Some sources just can't be easily accessed: they are letters that have never been reprinted or periodicals that have never been digitized and are only available in some archive in another country. This makes you entirely dependent on someone else... but what else can you do? In a quick skim of my "qtd. in"s, I would guess this accounts for more than half of them.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Second, when you are working with a secondary source, but you also want to provide some detail by quoting its quotation of a primary source.</b> There must be a more elegant way of putting that, but let me provide some examples. For one, here's a passage where I'm discussing the work of my academic grandfather, George Levine:</p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">Levine examines how self-abnegation figures into epistemology beginning in the 1830s, both within literature and within the work of actual scientists, drawing on the writing of scientists such as Tyndall who claimed “a self-renunciation that has something lofty in it… is often enacted in the private experience of the true votary of science” (qtd. in Levine 4). Levine does not examine any specific discipline, but examines both scientists and scientist-like figures during the Victorian period to see how self-abnegation functions as a narrative: how does science create a narrative of self-abnegation, and how do literary narratives incorporate self-abnegation? <br /></p></blockquote><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p47kQEc0UWU/YLeoZMCAZpI/AAAAAAAAyxk/YYv8BueodLQrbmeVVdHTeXVCEvFfRyp5QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1920/survival-final.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p47kQEc0UWU/YLeoZMCAZpI/AAAAAAAAyxk/YYv8BueodLQrbmeVVdHTeXVCEvFfRyp5QCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/survival-final.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Social Darwinism: "There's always a bigger fish" (Lucas qtd. in benjay2345).<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">Yes, I'm quoting Tyndall, but here I'm quoting Tyndall in order to elucidate something about the Levine passage where he quotes Tyndall. Thus, I think I'm doing a better job of giving Levine credit if I make it clear that this is <i>his</i> quotation of Tyndall that supports <i>his</i> point. Similarly, when discussing social Darwinism in the novel <i>Zalma</i> (1895), I draw on the ideas of Mike Hawkins:</p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">But this is not <i>purposeless </i>violence; an important keystone of Darwinism was “that social conflict (at least in certain guises) could be presented… as the motor of progress” (Hawkins 146). Applying this kind of evolutionary vision to humankind leads Pahlen to anticipate some of the Darwinist writers who would come after <i>Zalma</i>. The German general Friedrich von Bernhardi would write in 1912, “Might is at once the supreme right, and the dispute as to what is right is decided by the arbitrament of war. War gives a biologically just decision” (qtd. in Hawkins 209), and the socialist writer La Monte argued in 1917, “Let us… assert the necessity and efficacy of cataclysmic revolution!” (113) </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">In this case, I think it's important to show that Bernhardi is Hawkins's own example of the idea he's discussing, though I also supplement them with my own example pulled from La Monte.</p><p style="text-align: left;">On the other hand, if you read a source that points you to another source, and you end up taking stuff from the second source that the first source did not, and don't use any of the ideas of the first source, I don't think there's any obligation to cite the first source. Yes, it was nice of that first source to lead you somewhere useful, but I would argue that it didn't make an intellectual contribution to your piece. <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">So... <i>can</i> you just depend on someone else's citation, and cite them? Well, sure, you <i>can</i>. But is it always the <i>best </i>choice? I don't think so. Like many aspects of writing, it's about context.<br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Works Cited</h2><div style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;">benjay2345. “Qui-Gon's quote 'There's always a bigger fish' in the first film of the Saga foreshadows the final film of the saga.” <i>Reddit</i>, 22 June 2020, <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsCantina/comments/hdzke3/quigons_quote_theres_always_a_bigger_fish_in_the">www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsCantina/comments/hdzke3/quigons_quote_theres_always_a_bigger_fish_in_the</a>.<br /></div><div style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;">Conlin, Jonathan. <i>Evolution and the Victorians: Science, Culture and Politics in Darwin’s Britain</i>. Bloomsbury, 2014. </div><div style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;">Darwin, Francis. <i>The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Including an Autobiographical Chapter</i>. 1887. Vol. 2, D. Appleton, 1888.</div><div style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;">Hawkins, Mike. <i>Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860–1945: Nature as Model and Nature as Threat</i>. Cambridge UP, 1997.</div><div style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;">Kingsley, Charles. Letter to Charles Darwin. 18 Nov. 1859. <i>Darwin Correspondence Project</i>, U of Cambridge, <a href="http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-2534.xml">www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-2534.xml</a>.</div><div style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;">La Monte, Robert Rives. “Science and Revolution.” <i>The Social-Democrat</i>, vol. 13, no. 3, 15 Mar. 1909, pp. 105-13. <i>HathiTrust</i>, <a href="http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101067578953&view=1up&seq=115">babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101067578953&view=1up&seq=115</a>.</div><div style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;">Levine, George. <i>Dying to Know: Scientific Epistemology and Narrative in Victorian England</i>. U of Chicago P, 2002.</div><div style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;">137th Gebirg. “The President's Address at Khitomer - <i>Star Trek VI: TUC</i>.” <i>The TrekBBS</i>, 8 June 2007, <a href="http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-presidents-address-at-khitomer-star-trek-vi-tuc.33640">www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-presidents-address-at-khitomer-star-trek-vi-tuc.33640</a>. </div><div style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;">“sciolist.” <i>Oxford English Dictionary</i>, Oxford UP, July 2023, doi: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/3809113041"><span class="citation-doi">10.1093/OED/3809113041</span></a>.</div>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-72776294892648177602024-02-28T08:30:00.054-05:002024-02-28T08:41:44.460-05:00The Crew: Big Trouble in Little Mogadishu by Christopher Priest, Joe Bennett, Danny Miki, et al.<p></p><p>After his run on <i>Black Panther</i> came to an end, Christopher Priest began a short-lived ongoing called <i>The Crew</i>, a team book that included one-time Black Panther Kasper Cole (now the White Tiger) among its members. I wasn't super into Kasper part of Priest's <i>Black Panther</i> run, but <i>The Crew</i> was included in the Christopher Priest <i>Black Panther: The Complete Collection </i>volumes, which you can read for free on Hoopla, so I figured why not read it?</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyYSno_2NT7-tJKXdadjPZf6sieOUFTuAKBqRDRlyW8yDpiEKV_KaX8CjAF6WqBQCRz5zdWA7RaDKuMQeaUdc3AscH8GMlfEgEj3jVvVCVsoY9om3QxdBQthSt76fl2xvcivU5TKVNrYzCx18P2xYQ5W9XEZ1i5hQH2TsWGzqvDZZ3PMsFML36TiTggh38/s1411/Crew%202.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="470" data-original-width="1411" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyYSno_2NT7-tJKXdadjPZf6sieOUFTuAKBqRDRlyW8yDpiEKV_KaX8CjAF6WqBQCRz5zdWA7RaDKuMQeaUdc3AscH8GMlfEgEj3jVvVCVsoY9om3QxdBQthSt76fl2xvcivU5TKVNrYzCx18P2xYQ5W9XEZ1i5hQH2TsWGzqvDZZ3PMsFML36TiTggh38/w400-h134/Crew%202.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from <i>The Crew</i> #2<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>It was kind of worth reading, kind of not. Certainly it wasn't worth it for Kasper, who continues to spin his wheels as a character, arguing with his girlfriend and expectant mother of his child, chasing promotion so he can afford to support his mother and girlfriend. The ongoing thing about his dad wasn't picked up at all, and by the end of these seven issues, Cole isn't really anywhere we haven't already seen him.<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyxPnRClqtV4BMRkLrEjZUFAuGmE9Hoynp07OzL-W4DTIbssWBD8lV2WEfkHb2wyxRokA8wGLcsjlkrbCq9UeV6kal6Xd45XxX7y5TIYkWMFth1lwygGRqVLMlhqTYc0meFsKQjS1ck7aM3poTmVZuntJ9nseENxKvy2S6lNFIpc0S-xGng3muQJLcqKAn/s1293/Crew%204.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="862" data-original-width="1293" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyxPnRClqtV4BMRkLrEjZUFAuGmE9Hoynp07OzL-W4DTIbssWBD8lV2WEfkHb2wyxRokA8wGLcsjlkrbCq9UeV6kal6Xd45XxX7y5TIYkWMFth1lwygGRqVLMlhqTYc0meFsKQjS1ck7aM3poTmVZuntJ9nseENxKvy2S6lNFIpc0S-xGng3muQJLcqKAn/s320/Crew%204.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from <i>The Crew</i> #4<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The other three members of the "Crew" (never called that in the story) are James "Rhodey" Rhodes, the one-time Iron Man and War Machine; Junta, a superpowered information broker whose mom is a robot who I think appeared in one issue of <i>Black Panther</i> vol. 3; and Josiah X, the son of a black man who was experimented on during World War II in an attempt to create super-soldier serum. The first few issues look at each man in turn; the "team" really only kind of comes together with issue #7, when of course the title was cancelled. Junta probably could have become fun with time, but the real standouts here are Rhodes and Josiah.</p><p>Rhodes I don't think I have ever actually read a comic about before, but I liked what Priest did with him here; a man who use to be on top but has found himself at the bottom trying to climb his way back up using his sense of justice as a guide. I don't know how the character is in actual <i>Iron Man</i> comics, but I would read more stories about him if they were like this.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsWxcnwR5rmeJ-A4jSp2eG6t3NY_iBWq8ze3kxuyHDvUeHzuZQ1HlYX1Nj5iXhfyywFJVPRnPa5-ozE7kQJHbV6w7cpiKOmMA-8-amqWlLD842TFo8TKJQ2SaPfwOxs4GQLZBPX1vQ7NfpOaN5Jbc0k6wLajBT4dsTeUneZmT36cKQMuutS3Amj_ILKEYt/s899/Crew%206.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="892" data-original-width="899" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsWxcnwR5rmeJ-A4jSp2eG6t3NY_iBWq8ze3kxuyHDvUeHzuZQ1HlYX1Nj5iXhfyywFJVPRnPa5-ozE7kQJHbV6w7cpiKOmMA-8-amqWlLD842TFo8TKJQ2SaPfwOxs4GQLZBPX1vQ7NfpOaN5Jbc0k6wLajBT4dsTeUneZmT36cKQMuutS3Amj_ILKEYt/s320/Crew%206.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from <i>The Crew</i> #6<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Josiah X (called "Justice" in behind-the-scenes information but not in the actual book) is a really interesting character, a black Muslim community organizer who dons Captain America iconography. Can such a man reconcile the contradictions that led to his own existence? How can he wear the emblem of the country that treated him and his father so disposably? Priest and artist Joe Bennett do their best work with Josiah, and unfortunately only scratch the surface of the character. I gather he hasn't really appeared since, but I am curious to pick up the <i>Captain America: The Truth</i> miniseries where his father originally appeared.<p></p><p>As I've alluded to, it's a bit of a slow burn, which was probably a mistake for a book that bundled together a bunch of has-been and also-ran characters; I cannot imagine it sold well at all. I enjoyed it well enough, but by the end of seven issues, I wasn't convinced we needed seven issues to see the Crew take down some pretty ordinary gangsters. A decent read, but not really for Black Panther–related reasons. I gather the Crew returns during Ta-Nehisi Coates's run, but not with this line-up.<br /></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3y4r83Nik4Iwj80DCaOcgPuo73nHkdN3FGU82-RpWbOooOgZMyf22J3qT2BnzjAHPchRR3KAZyoaZ4TAsC9lZ3qaI2P-6g17rAQerYOmSirnrHvcD0_bjO52s_cMhZnKJ9ZE0nt_DYZS8Prnp9q0xj3gKSW4yVEAXsvih43otCEWtOZV-5XSFXiUHUrrW/s1796/Black%20Panther%202099%201.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="837" data-original-width="1796" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3y4r83Nik4Iwj80DCaOcgPuo73nHkdN3FGU82-RpWbOooOgZMyf22J3qT2BnzjAHPchRR3KAZyoaZ4TAsC9lZ3qaI2P-6g17rAQerYOmSirnrHvcD0_bjO52s_cMhZnKJ9ZE0nt_DYZS8Prnp9q0xj3gKSW4yVEAXsvih43otCEWtOZV-5XSFXiUHUrrW/s320/Black%20Panther%202099%201.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from <i>Black Panther 2099</i> #1<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>I also read the 2004 <i>Black Panther 2099</i> one-shot, set in (as always) a dystopian future. T'Challa is dead, his lineage has ended, and Wakanda is invaded by Latveria. A new Black Panther must step into the vacancy at long last. Not much of interest actually happens; the guy has basically no personality and no struggles. It ends with a twist, but it's a pointless twist if there's no more stories about this set-up, which of course there weren't.<br /><p></p><p><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Big Trouble in Little Mogadishu</i> originally appeared in issues #1-7 of <i>The Crew</i> (July 2003–Jan. 2004). The story was written by Christopher Priest; penciled by Joe Bennett; inked by Danny Miki (#1-7) and Rich Perrotta (#7); lettered by Ken Lopez (#1-2), Rus Wooton (#3-5), and Dave Sharpe (#6-7); and edited by Tom Brevoort. It was reprinted in <i>Black Panther: The Complete Collection, Volume 4</i> (2016), which was edited by Mark D. Beazley.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Black Panther 2099</i> was originally published in one issue (Nov. 2004). The story
was written by Robert Kirkman, illustrated by Kyle Hotz, colored by Jose Villarubia, lettered by Dave Sharpe, and edited by Tom Brevoort.<br /></span></b></p><p><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2020/09/black-panther-comixology-reading-order.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b>ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE</b></i></span></a></p>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-21144152405064408592024-02-26T08:30:00.087-05:002024-02-26T08:39:15.179-05:00Antkind by Charlie Kaufman<p style="text-align: center;"><b>Antkind</b> by Charlie Kaufman<br /></p><p></p><p>I keep trying to explain this book to people. On its surface, it's simple. Film critic B. Rosenberger Rosenberg discovers a film that's three months long (including breaks for bathroom, meals, and sleep), stop-motion animation that took decades for its creator to complete—and it's the greatest film he's ever seen, it's going to make his career. Except, in a freak accident, the only copy is destroyed, and he must try to recreate it through hypnosis as his life falls apart.<br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRJzs-cvLZ5iCFY2HsCdWxRUeT8eUe5RCuavBMdaPHm5aAfcNxwiZxClGm1GvjaiudtoWgBlJLK5JPwrenPVyamQLoQYENEgeUGGk-WPabE3xbpM41Ekmw5Bmm1dEcsHXygsWOGf5RPGoQDCBwuA6UIyAy8HzNuyHjizUoMyt-jw2jcX1vLAPe3QFwfYxh/s1000/KaufmanAntkind.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="652" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRJzs-cvLZ5iCFY2HsCdWxRUeT8eUe5RCuavBMdaPHm5aAfcNxwiZxClGm1GvjaiudtoWgBlJLK5JPwrenPVyamQLoQYENEgeUGGk-WPabE3xbpM41Ekmw5Bmm1dEcsHXygsWOGf5RPGoQDCBwuA6UIyAy8HzNuyHjizUoMyt-jw2jcX1vLAPe3QFwfYxh/w261-h400/KaufmanAntkind.jpg" width="261" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/23951955/book/255157987">Originally published: 2020</a><br />Acquired: December 2023<br />Read: January 2024<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p>But that's barely it. Narrator B. is neurotic, prone to overthinking things in a way that reminds me of a lot of mid-to-late-century American literary fiction that I haven't actually read, like David Foster Wallace or Thomas Pynchon. Every exchange is excruciatingly overthought. The book is full of weird sidebars and extended digressions, sideplots that seemingly have nothing to do with the book's ostensible main thrust, like B.'s romantic pursuit of a woman he meets at the hypnotist, his exchanging of apartments with a neighbor who does advertising videos for fast-food chain Slammy's, or B. being visited in his dreams by a "Brainio" filmmaker from the future who wants him to novelize her film before she makes it. And that barely scratches the surface.</p><p>On LibraryThing, <i>Antkind</i> has one one-star review and one five-star one, perhaps the epitome of "mixed." But the book is over seven hundred pages long, and I feel certain you cannot write a seven-hundred page novel that will please everyone. Even if a reader likes what it is doing, will they like it being done <i>that much</i>? It took me just over a week to read it, and I found that in each chunk of 80-90 pages, I found something to enjoy, even if much else that was happening was inscrutable or dull. <i>Antkind</i> could easily be pompous or dull or pretentious, but it's saved from such a fate by how funny it is. Kaufman is very frequently laugh-out-loud hilarious. There are a lot of good Trump jokes, but there's tons of fun stuff here.</p><p>Does it all add up? I am not so sure. Perhaps no seven-hundred-page novel does. <i>Antkind</i> surely is a foremost example of Henry James's "large loose baggy monsters, with their queer elements of the accidental and the arbitrary." But I found a lot to like here even if I didn't always love it. Much like the film the novel ostensibly is about, <i>Antkind</i> cannot be described, only experienced, and any discussion of it can scratch the surface at best. Perhaps derivative, but enjoyable enough to be worth it.<br /></p>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-58794537496377663032024-02-23T08:30:00.086-05:002024-03-12T08:27:24.275-04:00Reading The Runaway in Oz Aloud to My Son<p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>The Runaway in Oz</b> by John R. Neill<b><br /></b>edited and illustrated by Eric Shanower<br /></p><p>There are a number of Oz books that some fans call "quasi-canonical"; that is to say, they have some sort of claim to official status, but they are not part of the "Famous Forty" (the novels from the original publisher(s) of the series). For many, it's that they were written by a Famous Forty author, but released by a different publisher. It has been my intention to incorporate those stories in me and my son's marathon through the Oz books—but where they <i>ought</i> to have been published, not where they <i>were</i>. <br /></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUF9nbSRz6JHmGyO8ZEebvxfWxBIx1HJneRDEG3i2fl_oHnMc8x1xw6m3KeiHE4QUQEUU4kVtqf5XxaMQdC6B_K-_otcBB6P8DjTl0hSLr3ovH0iUnY5RtaqHLxsaewDM5tVefOksoavlflqxlI-UCXgxl8zMACd6pcCx3pSQO68lMtJH_3PbX4SlxiwaT/s1270/NeillRunaway.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="842" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUF9nbSRz6JHmGyO8ZEebvxfWxBIx1HJneRDEG3i2fl_oHnMc8x1xw6m3KeiHE4QUQEUU4kVtqf5XxaMQdC6B_K-_otcBB6P8DjTl0hSLr3ovH0iUnY5RtaqHLxsaewDM5tVefOksoavlflqxlI-UCXgxl8zMACd6pcCx3pSQO68lMtJH_3PbX4SlxiwaT/w265-h400/NeillRunaway.jpg" width="265" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/472734/book/221036396">Originally published: 1995</a><br />Acquired: July 2022<br />Read aloud: </span><span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">January</span><span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">–February 2024<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><i>The Runaway in Oz</i> was intended as the Oz book for 1943, but John R. Neill died before he finished editing the manuscript or even started doing the illustrations; the publisher opted to forego an Oz book for the year, and the next would not appear until 1946. In 1995, however, Books of Wonder finally published the book with the blessing of Neill's family, edited and illustrated by contemporary Oz superstar Eric Shanower. I opted to read this to my son following on from <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-lucky-bucky-oz-john-r-neill.html"><i>Lucky Bucky</i></a> as if it <i>was</i> the Oz book for 1943. By the time we got to 1995, I am not so sure he would remember who, say, Jenny Jump was!</p><p>In some ways, this is probably the best of John R. Neill's four Oz books. <a href="https://reactormag.com/childhood-in-fairyland-the-runaway-of-oz/#comment-148305">In a comment on the late, lamented <i>Tor.com</i></a>, editor Eric Shanower says one of the things he did was "[t]ake out whatever made no sense"—in a John R. Neill book this could, of course, be quite a lot, and <i>Runaway</i> certainly has a cohesion lacking in, say, <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2023/12/review-wonder-city-of-oz-john-r-neill.html"><i>Wonder City</i></a> or <i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2023/12/review-scalawagons-of-oz-john-r-neill.html">Scalawagons of Oz</a></i>. It has two clear, parallel plots in the classic Baum/Thompson fashion, one about Scraps running away from the Emerald City and one about Jenny Jump, Jack Pumpkinhead, and the Wogglebug trying to find her. Yet it still has that John R. Neill fancifulness, with details such as the Wogglebug literally creating a castle in the air while he dreams—one he intends to use to take a vacation!</p><p>The best part of the book is probably the beginning, where Scraps antagonizes in turn Jellia Jamb, the Tin Woodman, and Jenny Jump. Convinced everyone is "mean" for simply telling her to behave herself, she resolves to run away. It's a very child-like, very accurate response, and it led to some good moments with my five-year-old, who likes to declare that <i>I</i> am mean whenever I enforce a rule or boundary, no matter how gently I do it. Were Jellia or Jenny being mean to Scraps, I asked? No, he declared. <i>Hmmmm... </i>Will this lesson sink in? Well, I am less sure about that.</p><p>You might think, then, that the book would end with Scraps learning to accept some responsibility for her actions, but this only kind of happens. There is a great scene where Scraps returns to the Emerald City, seemingly in prisoners' garb (a sheet, in a callback to <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2022/04/review-patchwork-girl-of-oz.html"><i>Patchwork Girl</i></a>), but I feel like an author who was not John R. Neill could have pulled things together a bit more strongly. I do like the somewhat Ozzy moral that sometimes it's <i>right</i> to run away, but it does seem to me that Scraps largely gets away without actually learning anything even if she does inadvertently face some consequences.</p><p>So the book was lively and focused, but not always totally successful at what it seemed like it was doing, if that makes sense. And while it certainly had a coherence lacking in <i>Wonder City</i>, <i>Wonder City</i> was so manic it almost gets away with its many faults, which isn't quite the case here.</p><p>Eric Shanower illustrates, and it's certainly a beautiful edition. Shanower's character designs are clearly influenced by Neill's, but he has a somewhat different style, with a tightness of line that makes the weirdness of what he's drawing seem more real. This being a Neill novel, there's a lot of fanciful imagery, and Shanower does a great job with it; probably my favorite was the army of quinces! The flat people were also pretty great. </p><p>I could also detect (so I believe) a bit of fannishness in Shanower's editing. This is the first book to get east and west right since Ruth Plumly Thompson took over, and there's an extended passage of exposition reversing Jenny Jump's "lobotomy" from <i>Wonder City</i>. Actually, I very much enjoyed Shanower's Jenny, particularly all her costume and hairstyle changes. It's a shame Neill's work is still under copyright, because that means Jenny (and Number Nine) haven't been available to other authors, and they're strong characters I'd like to see in other Oz stories. I also like the continuing friendship between Scraps and Jack Pumpkinhead.<br /></p><p>Things my son really did not like: the stressful sequence where the air castle disintegrates, Scraps being turned all black by the quinces. But on the whole, he reported enjoying this one. Both of us like the Patchwork Girl a lot, so perhaps we were destined to! Even the three-year-old is into her; whenever we read a chapter at bedtime, he would point to the cover and declare, "Scraps is rainbow. Scraps is rainbow!" A couple weeks later, I asked him if he remembered what color Scraps was and he said "Scraps is rainbow... but she turned black!" So the books are starting to sink in for him as well.<br /></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">Next up in sequence:<i> <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/03/review-magical-mimics-in-oz-jack-snow.html">The Magical Mimics in Oz</a></i></span><br /></p><p></p>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-74112283205521323372024-02-21T08:30:00.037-05:002024-02-21T08:30:00.120-05:00Symphony for the City of the Dead by M. T. Anderson<p style="text-align: center;"><b>Symphony for the City of the Dead</b>: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad<br />by M. T. Anderson<br /></p><p></p><p>To be honest, there's very little chance I would normally pick up a biography of Dmitri Shostakovich, even though such a topic <i>does</i> sound interesting in a hypothetical sense; I simply just don't read a ton of nonfiction. But tell me about a biography of Dmitri Shostakovich written by the best YA author currently working, M. T. Anderson, and of course I'm all over it.<br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5_PYgq0m7orKWSmVJxz3uzv2qmm-mTJaZqamrio_6VoBF52bkeX934T6OniKUXltF2xL38I-Ie9nq2jvEE4ejvz1pEbLij0wYxcGttpMHMOnbIbT4ywhMsend3_x_35DYnxm7nWfaZWyU-iNmgZQqbMkWauc33psdpvSxq52AkTY6aHeIXGFVYb99SxD0/s1270/AndersonSymphony.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="847" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5_PYgq0m7orKWSmVJxz3uzv2qmm-mTJaZqamrio_6VoBF52bkeX934T6OniKUXltF2xL38I-Ie9nq2jvEE4ejvz1pEbLij0wYxcGttpMHMOnbIbT4ywhMsend3_x_35DYnxm7nWfaZWyU-iNmgZQqbMkWauc33psdpvSxq52AkTY6aHeIXGFVYb99SxD0/w266-h400/AndersonSymphony.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/16026605/book/140527652">Originally published: 2015</a><br />Acquired: April 2017<br />Read: August 2023<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p>This takes in Shostakovich's whole life, but mostly focuses on the siege of Leningrad, when the Nazi army cut the city off from any supply lines; it chronicles Shostakovich's life up until that point but also provides a lot of historical information about the history of the Soviet Union for context. Even though it's for a YA audience, I found it totally successful for an adult audience, and even ended up recommending it to my father, a WWII buff but definitely <i>not</i> a YA reader, who enjoyed it so much that a couple months later he was citing facts he learned from it back to me, having forgotten I was the one who recommended it to him to begin with. Anderson even does some original research here; poking around on <i>Google Scholar</i>, it seems that academics are citing his work in peer-reviewed journals already.<br /></p><p>The book is pretty horrifying. WWII-era Soviet Russia was a pretty awful place to live even before the Nazis showed up. Anderson does a great job exploring the intersection of politics and art, how art is shaped by politics and works to defy it. Anderson writes about music beautifully (no easy feat!) and really gets us into the head of Shostakovich in particular and the world of Russia in general; I learned a lot about Stalin from this, actually. Overall, excellent work, and a good example of why M. T. Anderson is one of my favorite authors full stop, not just one of my favorite YA authors.<br /></p>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-12517893913635769742024-02-20T08:30:00.015-05:002024-03-04T20:55:12.805-05:00Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, Nos. X–XII (Chs. 24-32)<p style="text-align: center;"><b>The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit</b> by Charles Dickens<br />
</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZB4XksSTBTLv3Z5SVw6ZwiTeVrpRJQM96ONpI8ASsKXIW3D8HAndhYKpPkU5GrRbbkxVUOCbtU1-9_kfrz8tNZApFcEEyLLBqhAZScyWiXCUOgvn_afzENeE3hwyirV6bTCgQHlMebGMGzKHAGOS119dvU18-vLC5KXsmj7o3vkvkIr7243w3z2VaP3AM/s1270/DickensLife.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="839" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZB4XksSTBTLv3Z5SVw6ZwiTeVrpRJQM96ONpI8ASsKXIW3D8HAndhYKpPkU5GrRbbkxVUOCbtU1-9_kfrz8tNZApFcEEyLLBqhAZScyWiXCUOgvn_afzENeE3hwyirV6bTCgQHlMebGMGzKHAGOS119dvU18-vLC5KXsmj7o3vkvkIr7243w3z2VaP3AM/w264-h400/DickensLife.jpg" width="264" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/15539/book/255158312">Originally published: 1843-44</a><br />Acquired: December 2023<br />Installments read: February 2024</span><br />
</td></tr></tbody></table><p><b>No. X (Chs. 24-26)</b> <br />I read this installment over a week ago and forgot to write it up. I seem to have blanked it all from my memory.</p><p><b>No. XI (Chs. 27-29)<br /></b>"Pip's our mutual friend." One future Dickens protagonist and one future Dickens title, both in one line of dialogue.</p><p><b>No. XII (Chs. 30-32)<br /></b>FOR GOD'S SAKE CUT BACK TO THE AMERICA PLOTLINE, CHARLES, I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE. WHY OH WHY WOULD YOU HAVE THREE WHOLE INSTALLMENTS OF <i>MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT</i> WITH NO MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT!?<br /></p><p></p><p></p><p>
<small>This is the sixth in a series of posts about <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>. The next covers <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/03/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-7.html">installment nos. xiii–xviii</a>. Previous installments are listed below:</small></p><small><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-1.html">Nos. I–III</a> (chs. 1-8)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-2.html">No. IV</a> (chs. 9-10)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-3.html">Nos. V–VII</a> (chs. 11-17)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-4.html">No. VIII</a> (chs. 18-20)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/02/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-5.html">No. IX</a> (chs. 21-23)<br /></li></ol></small>
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-81252624425454940192024-02-19T08:30:00.127-05:002024-02-28T10:47:10.024-05:00Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Black Panther, Volume 1 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, John Buscema, et al.<p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Mighty Marvel Masterworks Presents The Black Panther, Volume 1</b>: Collecting <i>The Fantastic Four</i> Nos. 52-54, 56, <i>Tales of Suspense</i> Nos. 97-99, <i>Captain America</i> No. 100, <i>The Avengers</i> Nos. 52, 62, 73-74 & <i>Daredevil </i>No. 52<br /></p>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlPxsjxokYY38NsyRyGO4zc_ATLwjnTPilg0W5QLvHkcqqSNy1C1srUE2r1PqnPko1p31SvvuY3_xXbRY621UMU0duPvO1KagWfYPGk2WhLfW3F9drRcwlByCmD6bCQ3DBfiyKtHmuVISn4yGRZi1l3Ea9pH_MQ_ITN5ydkpZT4CX_E_rHqAvvqorfGlD5/s1270/LeeMighty.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="847" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlPxsjxokYY38NsyRyGO4zc_ATLwjnTPilg0W5QLvHkcqqSNy1C1srUE2r1PqnPko1p31SvvuY3_xXbRY621UMU0duPvO1KagWfYPGk2WhLfW3F9drRcwlByCmD6bCQ3DBfiyKtHmuVISn4yGRZi1l3Ea9pH_MQ_ITN5ydkpZT4CX_E_rHqAvvqorfGlD5/w266-h400/LeeMighty.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr><tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/29685621/book/254880387">Collection published: 2022</a><br />Contents originally published: 1966-70<br />Read: January 2024</span><br />
</td>
</tr></tbody></table><div style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Writers:</b> Stan Lee, Roy Thomas<br /></span></div><div style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><b>Pencilers</b></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><b>:</b> Jack Kirby, John Buscema</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, Barry Windsor-Smith, Frank Giacoia</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Inkers</b></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face="sans-serif"><b>:</b> Joe Sinnott, Syd Shores, Vince Colletta, George Klein, Johnny Craig, Sam Grainger, Tom Palmer</span></span><br /><span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Letterers: </b>Sam Rosen, Art Simek</span><span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><p></p><p>I've been reading <i>Black Panther</i> comics in original publication order, but read this out of sequence because it's a collection of material from 1966-70 that wasn't released until after I'd read other material from this era. I didn't discover it until I'd got up to the early 2000s; I jumped back to read it after finishing Christopher Priest's run. Confusingly, it's called <i>Mighty Marvel Masterworks Presents The Black Panther, Volume 1</i> but the stories collected are totally different to those collected in <i>Marvel Masterworks Presents The Black Panther, Volume 1</i>. Not sure why Marvel would have two so similarly titled reprint series, but I'm sure it must make sense to someone. (Note that the marketing calls this volume <i>Claws of the Panther</i>, but that title doesn't actually appear on the cover, title page, or copyright page of my digital copy from Hoopla.)<br /></p><p>The story collects the Black Panther's original two appearances in <i>Fantastic Four</i> #52-53 (which I had already read, so I did not reread), plus the half of #54 where he appears (which I had not), and then goes on to reprint early guest appearances alongside the FF, Captain America, and Daredevil, as well as a few of his appearances with the Avengers. The first few stories are all Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, then Roy Thomas takes over as writer with John Buscema on pencils.</p><p><i></i></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfW25D4Tj1b9p1HRgMafyuEi1fWVWeqU7QwuJhBSaM3MnmAAY183YI3ys71Hn91dpWFVNFWhb50WEFHOb3ZNXPEI-G4Qbex27SS-_QWcDSin-3URVPQfDOSUqpQBrPZSGlMwfYdYhx9daz8q0XRL1C2LVI7g2HLPewzo32xhdXn3Hcxo-soL5eHttbCKXB/s1351/Fantastic%20Four%2054.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="764" data-original-width="1351" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfW25D4Tj1b9p1HRgMafyuEi1fWVWeqU7QwuJhBSaM3MnmAAY183YI3ys71Hn91dpWFVNFWhb50WEFHOb3ZNXPEI-G4Qbex27SS-_QWcDSin-3URVPQfDOSUqpQBrPZSGlMwfYdYhx9daz8q0XRL1C2LVI7g2HLPewzo32xhdXn3Hcxo-soL5eHttbCKXB/w400-h226/Fantastic%20Four%2054.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Playing baseball against Mr. Fantastic doesn't really seem fair.<br />from <i>The Fantastic Four</i> vol. 1 #54 (script by Stan Lee, art by Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><i><br />Fantastic Four</i> #54 and 56 are largely curios. It is neat to see the Black Panther play baseball against the Fantastic Four, but you have to suffer through a lot of blather about the Inhumans even though it's only ten pages long; the Panther doesn't really appear in #56, which is about Klaw returning to bedevil the Fanstastic Four. This has some amazing Kirby art but the writing is not Stan's finest, with a pathetic Sue and some pretty random resolutions. The Captain America comics didn't do much for me either, they are very much Captain America stories with Black Panther as a supporting character who could pretty much be any other hero, though I guess it shows that Marvel were interested in keeping the character going.<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg3UEGVJnJAPJwKHNewoskGwadL5KqnpMw-WxV2vagMQmDSLu-oGk2MYZqRxmS-OpQawtmjRnTl2cqeJGtVHuXa02_dgm19nHpa97Bw6EdH43nLBN5Uf8DJ39ZVekvorfrr2O9cNNt4fC5zY4UO9xLiHmIp3nZ7juhlfIApA2W94RaYnR3FLQU60ekZ749/s1358/Avengers%2052.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="659" data-original-width="1358" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg3UEGVJnJAPJwKHNewoskGwadL5KqnpMw-WxV2vagMQmDSLu-oGk2MYZqRxmS-OpQawtmjRnTl2cqeJGtVHuXa02_dgm19nHpa97Bw6EdH43nLBN5Uf8DJ39ZVekvorfrr2O9cNNt4fC5zY4UO9xLiHmIp3nZ7juhlfIApA2W94RaYnR3FLQU60ekZ749/w400-h194/Avengers%2052.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Who was this loser, anyway?<br />from <i>The Avengers</i> vol. 1 #52 (script by Roy Thomas, art by John Buscema & Vince Colletta)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Then Roy Thomas takes over, and he clearly is very interested in the character because we suddenly get him and his world fleshed out a lot more. <i>The Avengers</i> stories weren't great, but were noteworthy. We get the story where Black Panther joins the team, the first appearance of Man-Ape, and a two-parter that introduces singer Monica Lynne, Panther's future fiancée who would play a big role in Don McGregor's and Christopher Priest's work. The story where T'Challa joins the team is weird; it has him in a mask where his lower face is visible, and he's <i>not</i> called "the Black Panther," his codename is just "the Panther." Clearly this minor attempt at a revamp did not stick—to the extent that in that in one of the later stories we're told he deliberately hides that he is Black so that he can avoid judgments on his skin color! The story has him being framed for murdering the Avengers, but the eventual explanation for what happened makes little sense. It is pretty easy to read this story with Priest's retcon that T'Challa only joined the Avengers to spy on them in mind, too.<br /><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh79dhmR9N_SwIeJM8StAANVs6Kbn7svsk92emWtSsalgBaHP4SMBIW0sBF-miMcoaXvoQFF2FXAEFbEmlAo3cUXTecZjtCe7CMssHIH7VWgJ4aQzB2Z8wUjRtcZqiWI3yLS-pWMvqSAzKbZ3Hg-XE8yUA2G-mJilg7eFpUMEt0F9Dt6LYywCXOep4TeHAz/s862/Avengers%2074.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="862" data-original-width="624" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh79dhmR9N_SwIeJM8StAANVs6Kbn7svsk92emWtSsalgBaHP4SMBIW0sBF-miMcoaXvoQFF2FXAEFbEmlAo3cUXTecZjtCe7CMssHIH7VWgJ4aQzB2Z8wUjRtcZqiWI3yLS-pWMvqSAzKbZ3Hg-XE8yUA2G-mJilg7eFpUMEt0F9Dt6LYywCXOep4TeHAz/s320/Avengers%2074.png" width="232" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You would've been happier in the long run if you'd stayed out of it, Monica.<br />from <i>The Avengers</i> vol. 1 #74 (script by Roy Thomas, art by John Buscema & Tom Palmer)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />The two-parter was pretty interesting at first; Black Panther and Monica get mixed up in the attempt of white nationalists to stir up racial animus. Initially, it seems like it's about them taking down the kind of people who might say things like "pointing out racism is the <i>real</i> racism!" Pretty woke, Roy Thomas! But then we learn that the white nationalist demagogue and the Black anti-racism crusader are part of the same evil organization, working together to undermine America. Not so woke after all. But you can see why Monica stuck around; she instantly pops off the page.<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-cA5SwVt6rBUzuy7dwCTqNQloNbn61jnQz8lDouLQVKNcRZucer8SiUB0EyIVg7mPlV-XEpP4Q6ubvwBCKN4RrDt_WvQhfatsYHr57YaNklLzV3HrZ3MSNCL217oMfUYZh34F7BAXKwQIOhRdjlb_3G_-TPYAhdcHB1WgfW7ugfEHIm855pxW-n9rROe/s723/Daredevil%2052.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="543" data-original-width="723" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-cA5SwVt6rBUzuy7dwCTqNQloNbn61jnQz8lDouLQVKNcRZucer8SiUB0EyIVg7mPlV-XEpP4Q6ubvwBCKN4RrDt_WvQhfatsYHr57YaNklLzV3HrZ3MSNCL217oMfUYZh34F7BAXKwQIOhRdjlb_3G_-TPYAhdcHB1WgfW7ugfEHIm855pxW-n9rROe/s320/Daredevil%2052.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Is this that "concrete city" they're always talking about?<br />from <i>Daredevil</i> vol. 1 #52 (script by Roy Thomas, art by Barry Smith & Johnny Craig)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />The best story here is the Daredevil one. It's a bit nonsensical in parts, but it's a neat story about the police trying to find Daredevil (he's been poisoned) but mistaking Black Panther for him, and so T'Challa helps them find Daredevil. Barry Windsor-Smith does some of the best non-Kirby art in this book, good atmosphere. We don't learn much about Black Panther here but it is well told.<p></p><p>So overall, a decent collection to read if you want a sense of where the Black Panther came from.<br /></p><p><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2020/09/black-panther-comixology-reading-order.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b>ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE</b></i></span></a><br /></p>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-33903629129169951092024-02-16T08:30:00.005-05:002024-02-16T08:30:00.126-05:00How Often Do I Agree with the Hugo Electorate?<p>In <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/02/2023-hugo-awards-final-results.html">my recent post</a> comparing my final ballot to the winners of the 2023 Hugo Awards, I noted that my first place choice and the actual final winner were the same in four of the nine categories in which I vote. I then speculated, "I think this is a record."</p><p>But <i>was</i> it a record? Good question! I trawled backward through my old posts to see how often the broader Hugo electorate had made the right choice (i.e., my choice).</p><p>Here's how many categories my first-place choice and the voters' has coincided in each year:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>2017: <b>4</b> (Novelette / Short Story / Related Work / Dramatic Long)</li><li>2018: <b>1</b> (Short Story)</li><li>2019: <b>1</b> (Dramatic Long)</li><li>2020: <b>1</b> (Novel)</li><li>2021: <b>4</b> (Short Story / Related Work / Dramatic Short / Lodestar)</li><li>2022: <b>1</b> (Lodestar)</li><li>2023: <b>4</b> (Novel / Short Story / Related Work / Dramatic Long)</li></ul><p>Far from being a record, four matches is my second most common result! I had not realized that my distribution was so sharply bimodal; either I agree in one category or four. Never zero, two, or three!</p><p>I then wondered how I did more broadly. To figure this out, I looked at whatever I ranked first and then averaged where it ranked in the final results. That is to say, if my picks for first came in fifth, sixth, first, first, sixth, first, first, and second, that would average out to 2.9. A lower score is better; thus on this graph, I've flipped things around.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRvZ9cQvsCC4ar8Oa1B7AuehOf8TrF-ZDXTTHIk_VtFePezn_Bb63fJ8OliB0birneVQ4tKOkIibshUO3eKknYdN7uILIZ9wn5NXis_Ah48X-_EzsJ25hiA9zjKnjGOOThhVPFsboO9OgxTGx8j3paU0H1GOF9ddHL9CESRZ_5AKiF1YB-V8EoG5j6E9kt/s467/Hugocorrelation.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="467" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRvZ9cQvsCC4ar8Oa1B7AuehOf8TrF-ZDXTTHIk_VtFePezn_Bb63fJ8OliB0birneVQ4tKOkIibshUO3eKknYdN7uILIZ9wn5NXis_Ah48X-_EzsJ25hiA9zjKnjGOOThhVPFsboO9OgxTGx8j3paU0H1GOF9ddHL9CESRZ_5AKiF1YB-V8EoG5j6E9kt/w400-h238/Hugocorrelation.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />You'll see that 2023 actually <i>is</i> a record at 2.3; I've never been so consistently in agreement with the other voters. My low point was 2019; I don't know what was wrong with everyone else. <p></p><p>I am not sure what we can infer from this: it may be that in years where I match up well, there's a weak finalist pool and thus only one obvious winner for me and everyone else.</p><p>Having compiled this data, it was then easy to also figure out what was the <i>category</i> where my tastes are most often aligned with the broader electorate's:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Aqy_aKcsq49_gFQzT8qUguuY52r_p-cS4t1gHky__v8UYE0aFi8zBHnCjVz6JZbClNP89BcFoIcAmRVeLqc6KIkyZbDeVu2ZP4ihfyGirX_24gpppDqbEo64-ap6xwMXl5Q55mC0vmtj7McshjQtmihJRoD4jakpbny2RixizVPiPJWNpTnU4uwyrR9_/s403/hugocorrelation2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="403" height="379" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Aqy_aKcsq49_gFQzT8qUguuY52r_p-cS4t1gHky__v8UYE0aFi8zBHnCjVz6JZbClNP89BcFoIcAmRVeLqc6KIkyZbDeVu2ZP4ihfyGirX_24gpppDqbEo64-ap6xwMXl5Q55mC0vmtj7McshjQtmihJRoD4jakpbny2RixizVPiPJWNpTnU4uwyrR9_/w400-h379/hugocorrelation2.png" width="400" /></a></div><p>I didn't find anything too surprising here. Dramatic Long usually has one very good choice and a bunch of Marvel movies, so I am not surprised to see I usually line up well here. I have picked the eventual first-place winner three out of seven times.</p><p>Two categories do much worse on a regular basis. I have never picked a first-place winner in Graphic Story; indeed, one time my first-place pick finished in second, and all other times fourth or sixth. But it is a category usually made up of a bad set of finalists (in my opinion), and one where my tastes clearly do not line up with others' at all. Novella fares even worse, with my first-place pick coming in fifth on average. I have never picked the winner, and my pick for the winner has come in sixth three times and in seventh once! (In 2019, I liked the set of finalists so little that I voted No Award in first.) Though apparently me and the voters do pretty well for Short Story,* when it comes to novella-length fiction, we just do not get on.</p><p>Which is to say, the electorate loves Tordotcom novellas and I do not.</p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">* My first-place choice has come in first four out of seven times, actually, which is my best result for any category, but this is counterbalanced by my first-place choices coming in fourth, seventh, and fifth in the three other years.</span><br /></p>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-86579962429754749622024-02-14T08:30:00.160-05:002024-02-14T08:30:00.144-05:00Mistress Masham's Repose by T. H. White<p style="text-align: center;"><b>Mistress Masham's Repose</b> by T. H. White<br /></p><p></p><p>One of my favorite pieces of writing about what science fiction is and what it does comes from China Miéville's introduction to <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2018/07/review-first-men-in-moon-by-h-g-wells.html">H. G. Wells's <i>The First Men in the Moon</i></a>. Miéville argues that science fiction is not really about the future: "It is, like any worthwhile literature, 'about' now, using a technique of rationalized (rather than free-for-all) alienation from the everyday to structure its narratives and investigate the world." But, he points out, there's also a pitfall if you go too far in the other direction: "When 'mainstream' writers dip their toes into the fantastic, they often do so with the anxiety of seriousness, keen to stress that their inventions are really 'about' other, meaningful things." What makes the fantastic work for its readers and writers, he claims (and I agree), is that it does <i>both</i> at once. You get a metaphor for the present day <i>but</i> within the world of the story, it's literally true (unlike in mimetic fiction, where metaphor is just metaphor), and that's pleasurable. He uses Jonathan Swift's <i>Gulliver's Travels</i> as an example of this:</p><p></p><blockquote>In Swift, for example, Gulliver's journey to Brobdingnag [...] clearly casts a remorseless light on Swift's own society; it also, however, features a sword fight with a giant wasp, a passage the enjoyment of which depends on the specific uncanny/estranging impact of <i>literalizing the impossible</i>: simply, it is a great, weird idea. Weirdness is good to think with, and is also its own end.</blockquote><p></p><p>Miéville goes on to mention "the pleasure he [Wells] took in his oddities" as one of the things that distinguishes <i>First Men</i> from being only satire.<br /></p><p>It's been a long time since I actually read <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>, not since childhood, but it's my memory that though certainly Brobdingnag, Lilliput, and all the other fantastic countries Gulliver visits are literally true, and the book has certainly provided its share of "great, weird" imagery—that iconic image of Gulliver tied down by the Lilliputians, which is on so many book covers and probably appears in every screen adaptation—Swift's emphasis is more on the social satire than the "great, weird" ideas. Like, sure we get swordfights with giant wasps and such, but the point of the novel is to see our human foibles writ large and writ small and writ equine. (I, for one, always though the journey to the place where they got electricity out of cucumbers was underrated.)</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigEbwizMUzM7h48MvA4JBfrhHjtFCiJ-QLLxpEx1bLkKcoagssFXl8ac3EWq-qfNDp97yb-tInwgi-iT9_ZqFzns-McBaKvxtPmX2TbTRZLxtPSZH8ST9eIIAmhD-LBWp6SWtEiBbH9JDPqhYNh94XzDvww8wB1DFP9eVP5w9wv-apSMZVe-czlfKsIj40/s1270/WhiteMistress.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="832" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigEbwizMUzM7h48MvA4JBfrhHjtFCiJ-QLLxpEx1bLkKcoagssFXl8ac3EWq-qfNDp97yb-tInwgi-iT9_ZqFzns-McBaKvxtPmX2TbTRZLxtPSZH8ST9eIIAmhD-LBWp6SWtEiBbH9JDPqhYNh94XzDvww8wB1DFP9eVP5w9wv-apSMZVe-czlfKsIj40/w263-h400/WhiteMistress.jpg" width="263" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/51319/book/254268130">Published: 1946</a><br />Read: December 2023<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><i>Mistress Masham's Repose</i> is a 1946 children's fantasy novel by T. H. White, best known as the writer of <i>The Once and Future King</i>. It's clearly intended to be read aloud (the name of the dedicatee, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaryllis_Garnett">Amaryllis Virginia Garnett</a>, is even mentioned by the narrator a few times), though in that very British way where there are passages that the adult reader will get much more out of than the child listener, a lot like Kingsley's <i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2014/06/review-water-babies-by-charles-kingsley.html">The Water-Babies</a></i>. I found it on my wife's shelves and decided it looked interesting enough to read; the book is a sort-of sequel to <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>.<p></p><p>The premise is that there's a young orphan girl named Maria who lives on the rambling country estate that she inherited from her parents, but does not have the money to maintain. Her legal guardian is a cruel vicar, and her day-to-day guardian is an even crueler governess. Her only friends are the estate's sole servant, a cook, and a local absent-minded professor of classics. One day, exploring an island on the estate, she finds a colony of Lilliputians, brought to England and forgotten about, where they've been living for centuries in secret.</p><p>The pleasure of the book is that it takes the "great, weird idea" of the Lilliputians very seriously, probably more seriously than Swift himself did. Anticipating books like Mary Norton's <i>The Borrowers</i> (1952) and John Peterson's <i>The Littles</i> (1967), the book gives us a group of little people operating in <i>our</i> world, and asks how they might survive, what they might to do, say, fish in a world where the fish are to them as whales are to us, or how they might be able to intervene to battle against human adults.</p><p>The book not only gives the reader this pleasure of the fantastic, it also explores how the characters themselves experience that pleasure. There's one extended sequence where the Professor imagines what he would do if they also got hold of a Brobdingnagian giant. What would be the logistics of capturing it? How would you transport it back to England? What would you do with it then? He doesn't go through with any of this, he can't, but it's fun to see him work it all out. In another passage, Maria and the Professor debate if an island could really fly in the way Swift imagined for Laputa. (And the Professor points out "that Dr. Swift was silly to laugh about Laputa. I believe it is a mistake to make a mock of people, just because they think. There are ninety thousand people in this world who do not think, for every one who does, and these people hate the thinkers like poison. [...] Better to think about cucumbers even, than not to think at all." The book is filled with great, quiet observations like this.)<br /></p><p>The book also finds limits to literalizing the impossible. Maria, for example, concocts an idea that Lilliputians might be able to fly in toy airplanes, and tries to make it happen. But she is (metaphorically) crashed down to earth when her pilot (literally) crashes down to earth. As she learns, we can have some fantastic imaginings that cannot be well, <i>real</i>ized. Realistic concerns get in the way. This is disappointing to Maria, of course, but part of what makes the book pleasurable to us—if the book is to feel real, there need to be some things that <i>cannot</i> happen.</p><p>It's also very funny. I was forever quoting bits to my wife (who, if she had actually read the book, did not remember it all). When the Professor tries to get the local Lord Lieutenant to intervene to protect Maria from the cruelty of the vicar and the governess, who have locked her in the estate's torture dungeon, the Lord Lieutenant objects that such things aren't heard of these days:</p><blockquote><p>"But, good Lord, my dear chap, you can't do that sort of thing in the nineteenth century, or the twentieth, or whatever it is. I mean, you take the first two figures, and add one, or subtract one, I forgot which, for reasons I never could fathom, possibly owin' to these X's which those chaps are always writin' on monuments, and then it is different. Now, take horses..."<br /> "Whether you can or can't, it has been done. I tell you..."<br /> "My old Grandad, or his grandad, I can't remember which, used to ride a hunter in a long point until it foundered, old boy, died, absolutely <i>kaput</i>. Now you couldn't do that sort of thing nowadays, not in this century, whichever it is, without getting the Society for Cruelty to Animals after you. Absolutely couldn't do it. Not done. Out of date. I heard it was the same with dungeons?"<br /></p></blockquote><p>I mean, it's funny if you like pompous out-of-touch English people going on about things, and I certainly do. The book is is filled with stuff like that.</p><p>Overall, <i>Mistress Masham's Repose</i> has good "worldbuilding" (I kind of shudder to apply the term here, but it fits) and good comedy, but also good themes and great hair-raising escapes and dangers and ingenious protagonists. I found it an utterly delightful 250 pages. I don't know if it would work for most readers, but it's the kind of book that felt squarely aimed at <i>me</i>, and all the better for it.<br /></p>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-15534539273090430492024-02-12T08:30:00.138-05:002024-02-12T08:30:00.134-05:00"With the sleekness of the jungle cat whose name he bears, T-Challa - King of Wakanda - stalks both the concrete city and the undergrowth of the Veldt. So it has been for countless generations of warrior kings, so it is today, and so it shall be for the law of the jungle dictates that only the swift, the smart, and the strong survive! Noble champion. Vigiliant protector. BLACK PANTHER"<p></p><p>In 1998, Christopher Priest began as the writer of a new volume on <i>Black Panther</i> for Marvel's "Marvel Knights" imprint; this was, I think, intended as a twelve-issue run and ended up lasting until issue #62 in 2003. <i>Black Panther</i> vol. 3 would introduce a lot of what will be familiar to contemporary viewers of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the Dora Milaje, Everett K. Ross (played by Martin Freeman on screen), Wakanda vying for a place in contemporary geopolitics, and the Black Panther's more thoughtful, stoic demeanor.</p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEf4g3K8IWDrt4BY5VQzY4p2seBWj0AqPqT2aleg3oqhnXZ1E0uKHkLdWFkddmnVfMyjQGgQh-h38wj-A_d0mSUefWyb2SEJiG4KRruFmmM8ynOA9RfJeGffASEIBYYSzX1eWpMXBNjqlkCCjuxU4BTmFOCtNTbZEmxCJj-MtMjpJOuG5lOUSyDeLZKLPB/s1098/Black%20Panther%2010.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="1098" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEf4g3K8IWDrt4BY5VQzY4p2seBWj0AqPqT2aleg3oqhnXZ1E0uKHkLdWFkddmnVfMyjQGgQh-h38wj-A_d0mSUefWyb2SEJiG4KRruFmmM8ynOA9RfJeGffASEIBYYSzX1eWpMXBNjqlkCCjuxU4BTmFOCtNTbZEmxCJj-MtMjpJOuG5lOUSyDeLZKLPB/s320/Black%20Panther%2010.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from <i>Black Panther</i> vol. 3 #10<br />(script by Priest, art by Mike Manley)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Priest thinks through what it would mean for the Black Panther to be a <i>king</i>—he's not a superhero, though he is a fairly hands-on king. He's not going around recusing babies from trees or even punching supervillains, he's defending a nation from its threats, and he's doing so using political cunning even moreso than superpowers. In order to make this work, we mostly see T'Challa from the outside, usually from the perspective of Everett K. Ross, his liaison in the U.S. Department of State. Ross is meant to provide T'Challa with transportation and assistance during a quick trip to New York City, but ends up embroiled in T'Challa's machinations, which results in things like losing his pants to the demon Mephisto, becoming regent of Wakanda, accidentally offending Bill Clinton by roller-skating through the White House, and being exiled to a U.S. listening post in the Arctic.<br /></p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqGv8iG2otzXVS9M1cFN60Mwe7RAHsVKuKSptGOZQnszTNE6baHtecO0diaEqa8AgjDzxoBvaWd8iUtlfScnfcevPqiueF8E20B7uo9so_PnIQ07H29Kh2wTxUZ4BqINMn562TkEZGHXs652N0hFqp6gzRNSJkySpG9sGWah6Cv7lzRdjCBAguXpjVl4U-/s1114/Black%20Panther%2021.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="1114" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqGv8iG2otzXVS9M1cFN60Mwe7RAHsVKuKSptGOZQnszTNE6baHtecO0diaEqa8AgjDzxoBvaWd8iUtlfScnfcevPqiueF8E20B7uo9so_PnIQ07H29Kh2wTxUZ4BqINMn562TkEZGHXs652N0hFqp6gzRNSJkySpG9sGWah6Cv7lzRdjCBAguXpjVl4U-/w400-h245/Black%20Panther%2021.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from <i>Black Panther</i> vol. 3 #21<br />(script by Priest, art by Sal Velluto & Bob Almond)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>The first twelve issues are almost certainly the highlight. The story is told out of order as Ross attempts to make some kind of sense of everything he's gone through, to little avail; with its out-of-order vignettes, all preceded by some kind of caption, it came across as an attempt to do Quentin Tarantino on the comics page. This is surely one of the most 1990s moves you could pull, and Priest and his ever-changing artistic collaborators pull it off perfectly. I was constantly laughing at the reversals facing Ross, as he confronts his own prejudices about Africa and the increasing series of absurdities he is faced with. Upon reading this series, it became very clear to me why Ross is played by Martin Freeman in the movies, because who does "put upon" better than Martin Freeman, but it also became clear to me that the movies had largely failed to take advantage of the character.</p><p>Priest's <i>Panther</i> instantly marked itself as the best run on the character I'd read thus far, taking the best aspects of Don McGregor's run in particular (though we don't spend much time in Wakanda here, Priest very much builds on McGregor's sense of it as a real, complicated place). You can very easily see why it kept getting extended, even though it was apparently always on the verge of cancellation. A revolving door of artists at the series's beginning soon gives way to Sal Velluto and Bob Almond, who illustrated thirty of the series's sixty-two issues, excellently capturing the humanity and the action alike. Priest is always coming up with new spins on old concepts, always keeping things fresh.</p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjebOtHsNYaI7gszbyhA0A0_wQOLx0JfJ_AymtRLLlyv9QmVszuXbZs4Ja0tW34ovJ82Hr0NTU1_xvZ5baDTSacUqwi1ttXHlIJVA27Y04O2zP0AlWwfLGGjzNaVmzgFE4ol5FTUZ2SCQsLctWZxjEtzoJ3O3z2bkDvXVy0XHfmKx6R5_4dEbJQj_O19JFR/s903/Black%20Panther%2025.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="903" data-original-width="715" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjebOtHsNYaI7gszbyhA0A0_wQOLx0JfJ_AymtRLLlyv9QmVszuXbZs4Ja0tW34ovJ82Hr0NTU1_xvZ5baDTSacUqwi1ttXHlIJVA27Y04O2zP0AlWwfLGGjzNaVmzgFE4ol5FTUZ2SCQsLctWZxjEtzoJ3O3z2bkDvXVy0XHfmKx6R5_4dEbJQj_O19JFR/w316-h400/Black%20Panther%2025.png" width="316" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from <i>Black Panther</i> vol. 3 #25<br />(script by Priest, art by Sal Velluto & Bob Almond)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>The Dora Milaje are not exactly what they became on screen, not an army of warrior women; here, they're wives of the king, one from each tribe in Wakanda as a way of maintaining political balance. They may only speak to the king (in Hausa) and must defend him with their lives. One of my favorite characters was Chanté Giovanni Brown, a teenager social justice crusader from inner-city Chicago who renamed herself "Queen Divine Justice"... and then learned that as the estranged descendant of a Wakandan tribal leader, she was a new Dora Milaje. I feel like we have really missed out by not getting her on screen.<br /></p><p>That said, he perhaps sometimes keeps things <i>too</i> fresh. One gets the sense of a juggler continually adding balls to his act, forgetting to maintain balls he already launched into the air. (Okay, how's that for a metaphor?) Soon there's the Hulk (okay, the bit where Queen Divine Justice bonds with him is cute), and then Power Man and Iron Fist, and there's a crossover with <i>Deadpool</i> (ugh), and a flash-forward to a dystopian Black Panther, and all sorts of other stuff, and I found myself missing Ross and the supporting cast of the book's earlier days, whose stories had more faded away than actually come to an end. Though there's always a lot to like, from, say, issue #30 to 40 especially, I found myself a bit adrift in the book's overcomplications.</p><p>Also, suddenly a second T'Challa appears, one written and even drawn in the Jack Kirby adventurer fashion, complete with friend Abner Little. This is hilarious, especially given how much the two Black Panthers like each other, but the mystery of who he is and how he got there is drawn out too long and not really resolved satisfactorily. Like, we get all the answers we need, but the story just kind of fizzles out.<br /></p><p>However, with the <i>Enemy of the State II</i> storyline, where Wakanda annexes part of Canada and T'Challa pits himself against Tony Stark, the book showed a marked improvement, again recapturing that energy and focus of the first twelve issues, and then there's a two-parter where the whole cast is inadvertently tossed through time into the Wild West, which is of course hilarious.</p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ptTsuUoATmlFakW-AmPPaRHjCuNRBiibJExSajUXZKC7AIOhjEgCdqlPRQJObbX4oVN4RjtlxWo2jwpnTReHIHFYm7QnpbVXu9LwuuV6gpz-uK14qUq8SDedM0phJjSicmYW2F2MpPi2_GGcaT7BrkTuJOKy2GEAYLgAsx0cbiB2pS_coW2sITkEM0X4/s1137/Black%20Panther%2051.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="605" data-original-width="1137" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ptTsuUoATmlFakW-AmPPaRHjCuNRBiibJExSajUXZKC7AIOhjEgCdqlPRQJObbX4oVN4RjtlxWo2jwpnTReHIHFYm7QnpbVXu9LwuuV6gpz-uK14qUq8SDedM0phJjSicmYW2F2MpPi2_GGcaT7BrkTuJOKy2GEAYLgAsx0cbiB2pS_coW2sITkEM0X4/s320/Black%20Panther%2051.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from <i>Black Panther</i> vol. 3 #51<br />(script by Priest, art by Jorge Lucas)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>But, having got its mojo back, the book must have seemed in even more danger of cancellation than ever, for with issue #50, it's suddenly drastically retooled. T'Challa is missing, presumed dead,* and the main character is suddenly Kevin "Kasper" Cole, a New York cop who finds a discarded Black Panther suit and begins using it to take down corrupt cops, the whole series suddenly transforming into a seedy crime novel of sorts. Priest does an okay job with it, but it's just never as interesting as what he was doing. Unfortunately (aside from a terrible two-issue fill-in by the usually reliable J. Torres), Kasper is the main character for the rest of the run. He has its moments, but I found his character beats a bit repetitive, and, well, no one is reading <i>Black Panther</i> for a grounded crime thriller about corrupt cops. Kasper briefly counts as a new Black Panther, but by series's end, has become the White Tiger, endorsed by T'Challa and given the heart-shaped herb for his own superpowers.</p><p>I read the whole run on comiXology, having got it for free in a sale; it's also been collected as four trade paperbacks called <i>Black Panther: The Complete Collection</i>. The first three volumes collect all of stuff actually focused on T'Challa, and they are well worth your time to pick up. I have a lot of Black Panther comics to go, but it seems unlikely to me that any of them will top this.<br /></p><p><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2020/09/black-panther-comixology-reading-order.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b>ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE</b></i></span></a></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">* Well, kind of. In one issue we're told he's supposedly dead, in another, we learn he's still a member of the Avengers!<i><br /></i></span></p>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-86193706917428382862024-02-09T08:30:00.024-05:002024-02-09T08:30:00.134-05:00Twenty Years of Reading Logs, Part 6: Nonfiction<p>Here's the last post of my series that's been celebrating <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/search/label/topic%3A%20twenty%20years%20of%20reading">how my reading habits have evolved over two decades</a>. This one will be very short! It covers nonfiction and I (mostly) don't track subcategories when it comes to nonfiction. (I sort of do, in that if I read a nonfiction book about, say, <i>Star Trek</i>, I count it with my <i>Star Trek</i> numbers, not my nonfiction numbers.)<br /></p><p></p>
<table align="center"><thead><tr><th><br /></th><th>2003-07</th><th>2007-11</th><th>2011-15</th><th>2015-19</th><th>2019-23</th><th>TOTAL</th><th>PCT</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: right;"><b>General Nonfiction<i><br /></i></b></td><td style="text-align: right;">27<br /></td><td style="text-align: right;">38<br /></td><td style="text-align: right;">73<br /></td><td style="text-align: right;">46<br /></td><td style="text-align: right;">19<br /></td><td style="text-align: right;"><b>203</b><br /></td><td style="text-align: right;"><b>6.9%</b></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: right;"><b>PCT</b></td><td style="text-align: right;"><b>4.9%</b></td><td style="text-align: right;"><b>6.2%</b></td><td style="text-align: right;"><b>10.8%</b></td><td style="text-align: right;"><b>7.5%</b></td><td style="text-align: right;"><b>3.9%</b></td><td style="text-align: right;"><b>6.9%</b></td><td style="text-align: right;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>What is not very surprising is that my nonfiction peaks in the 2011-15 period, when I was in grad school, and specifically, I am sure it's all down to 2012-13, when I was reading for my doctoral exams, and had to read myriad works of literary criticism and history. I've never read that much nonfiction before or since! I probably should be better about keeping up with my field.<br /></p>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-77695773862705849862024-02-08T08:30:00.049-05:002024-02-29T10:25:21.792-05:00Reading Roundup Wrapup: January 2024<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzQcHrDDtRgU4UcM40CfZxN-OgaLlHmmxXQuZciaN5KUW3R__LDISMR4kPhSwRbTHcqIDOj6WCj7nAeSnGgPFcoHGKfvuvMCjDIPvmm45Pv3WRVbet8ayXNN21JbjUzFoByyum9hJ1z5zMUh7gBZGoclpn0zRAqSRi9JjlnOVxCBjqsX7ghUrI4iCCEmZR/s1270/PerrymanWife8.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="830" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzQcHrDDtRgU4UcM40CfZxN-OgaLlHmmxXQuZciaN5KUW3R__LDISMR4kPhSwRbTHcqIDOj6WCj7nAeSnGgPFcoHGKfvuvMCjDIPvmm45Pv3WRVbet8ayXNN21JbjUzFoByyum9hJ1z5zMUh7gBZGoclpn0zRAqSRi9JjlnOVxCBjqsX7ghUrI4iCCEmZR/w261-h400/PerrymanWife8.jpg" width="261" /></a></b></div><b>Pick of the month:</b> <i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/03/review-complete-wife-in-space-neil-sue-perryman.html">The Wife in Space</a></i> by Neil and Sue Perryman. Okay, this is kind of a cheat. I don't think any one volume of <i>The Wife in Space</i> (I read three of them this month, and five of them last) is the best book I read all month... but I do think that <i>as a unit</i> they are the best thing I read in January. Delightful experience reliving the best of what <i>Doctor Who</i> has to offer.<p></p><p><b>All books read:</b></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><i>The Fit One: The Wife in Space, Volume 6</i> by Neil and Sue Perryman</li><li><i>The Court Jester: The Wife in Space, Volume 7</i> by Neil and Sue Perryman</li><li><i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/02/mighty-marvel-masterworks-black-panther.html">Mighty
Marvel Masterworks Presents The Black Panther, Volume 1: Collecting <u>The
Fantastic Four</u> Nos. 52-54, 56, <u>Tales of Suspense</u> Nos. 97-99, <u>Captain
America</u> No. 100, <u>The Avengers</u> Nos. 52, 62, 73-74 & <u>Daredevil</u> No. 52</a> </i>
by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, John Buscema, et al.</li><li><i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-lucky-bucky-oz-john-r-neill.html">Lucky Bucky in Oz</a></i> by John R. Neill</li><li><i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/02/review-crew-christopher-priest-black-panther-2099.html">Black Panther: The Complete Collection, Volume 4</a></i> by Christopher Priest, Dan
Fraga, Jorge Lucas, Jim Calafiore, Patrick Zircher, Joe Bennett, et al.</li><li><i><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/02/antkind-by-charlie-kaufman.html">Antkind</a></i> by Charlie Kaufman</li><li><i>The Crafty Sod: The Wife in Space, Volume 8</i> by Neil and Sue Perryman</li><li><i>Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E.: This Is What They Want</i> by Warren Ellis, Stuart Immonen, et al.</li><li><i>Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E.: I Kick Your Face</i> by Warren Ellis, Stuart Immonen, et al. </li><li><i>Empire of Ivory: Book Four of Temeraire</i> by Naomi Novik</li><li><i>Marvel Zombies: Battleworld</i> by Simon Spurrier, Kev Walker, et al.</li></ol><p>Okay numbers. I read (or still am reading) a number of long books: <i>Antkind</i>, <i>Empire of Ivory</i> (ish), <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>, <i>The Best SF of the Year</i>,
so even though my reading has been pretty consistent, I haven't racked
up a lot of books... except that my morning comic books have been
collected editions (#3, 5, 8-9, 11), which have made up what would
otherwise have been a little deficit. (Often my morning comics are
single issues, which don't count for my reading statistics.)</p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQX6ISUELW44hZTSkpgtYPPyfjNcuKHJQRfSXI0N-B0w7nP8FQApcJzJpgTBYZnviHZSWITSZQrRmMPEmbmZRlE-FWznnUHLcjn32j4pJhiUGOQX6uazpmf_GeJT4ST3gj5rekkaWpjhMZF64ES2SWLsyIBDDnt5GO9IKTolwUMlqsQ-1h6PmBESifeci_/s1264/RobertsMTMTE3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1264" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQX6ISUELW44hZTSkpgtYPPyfjNcuKHJQRfSXI0N-B0w7nP8FQApcJzJpgTBYZnviHZSWITSZQrRmMPEmbmZRlE-FWznnUHLcjn32j4pJhiUGOQX6uazpmf_GeJT4ST3gj5rekkaWpjhMZF64ES2SWLsyIBDDnt5GO9IKTolwUMlqsQ-1h6PmBESifeci_/w285-h400/RobertsMTMTE3.jpg" width="285" /></a></b></div><b>All books acquired:</b><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/18844195/book/255848242"><i>Star Trek: The Next Generation: Headlong Flight</i></a> by Dayton Ward</li><li><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/31387186/book/256847171"><i>The MTMTE Notebooks: Vol. 3</i></a> by James Roberts</li><li><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/31387201/book/256847299"><i>The MTMTE Notebooks: Vol. 4</i></a> by James Roberts</li><li><i><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/31582037/book/256847676">The Complete[d] Saucer Country</a></i> by Paul Cornell, Ryan Kelly, et al.</li><li><i><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/10963584/book/257035811">The Norumbegan Quartet, Vol. 3: The Empire of Gut and Bone</a></i> by M. T. Anderson</li></ol><p><b>Currently reading:</b></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><i>The Shadow Speaker</i> by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu</li><li><i>The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit</i> by Charles Dickens</li><li><i>The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 7</i> edited by Neil Clarke</li><li><i>Monsters Unleashed!</i> by Cullen Bunn, Steven McNiven, Greg Land, Leinil Francis Yu, Salvador Larroca, Adam Kubert, et al.<b> </b> </li></ul><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKrwLgHes3SexgYWFRuqO3NfhyphenhyphenPcKnLEBs1AsYimwJlJk91Vm6v720q3l1rf2aAuconfz83VLGphD3jNYOs6J472snfD_qWCbHbW1XG5uSsn06BU9VeM93Yggtse-nwlQy1SUo-TmeEzcbj91xqq0hyphenhyphenNqqzVSiYZme377gLf4cD3vgqwIvq4NKHqndYEGB/s635/GeorgeLong.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="635" data-original-width="379" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKrwLgHes3SexgYWFRuqO3NfhyphenhyphenPcKnLEBs1AsYimwJlJk91Vm6v720q3l1rf2aAuconfz83VLGphD3jNYOs6J472snfD_qWCbHbW1XG5uSsn06BU9VeM93Yggtse-nwlQy1SUo-TmeEzcbj91xqq0hyphenhyphenNqqzVSiYZme377gLf4cD3vgqwIvq4NKHqndYEGB/w239-h400/GeorgeLong.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>Up next in my rotations:</b><p></p><ol><li type="a"><i>Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Long Mirage</i> by David R. George III </li><li type="a"><i>The Pelican History of England: 3. English Society in the Early Middle Ages (1066-1307)</i> by Doris Mary Stenton </li><li type="a"><i>The Periodic Table</i> by Primo Levi </li><li type="a"><i>The Dispossessed</i> by Szilárd Borbély</li></ol><p><b>Books remaining on "To be read" list:</b> 664 (no change)</p><p>Holding steady!<br /></p>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-5070105746681637132024-02-07T08:30:00.048-05:002024-02-07T08:30:00.124-05:00Adventures with the Wife in Space by Neil & Sue Perryman<p style="text-align: center;"><b>Adventures With the Wife in Space</b>: Living with<i> Doctor Who</i><b></b><br />by Neil Perryman<br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">with constant interruptions from Sue Perryman<br />from an idea that seemed like a good one at the time by Neil Perryman</span><br /></p><p></p><p>My wife and I were big fans of the blog <i><a href="http://wifeinspace.com/">Adventures with the Wife in Space</a></i>, where <i>Doctor Who</i> fan Neil Perryman got his "not-we" wife Sue to watch every episode of classic <i>Doctor Who</i>, from 1963 to 1989. Sue wasn't a fan, but she does teach television production, so she can appreciate it and comment on it interestingly... plus she's quite funny. A book of the blog came out for <i>Doctor Who</i>'s fiftieth anniversary, which my wife got me for Christmas that year. In classic Steve Mollmann fashion, I finally got around to reading it just after the<i> sixtieth</i> anniversary (though thankfully <i>before</i> the new edition of the book came out).</p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2UlgEli_UVS2QBrCY9gvKdqzj6smuVUSNW5dLv0X29OXlDuzlQZeDTCBL7Gbg6lvKVmceLvfCB6sR6fSukQyAbqaA9hBBctje2opn-PzBmXE-HI6fh5KlHQTbM8ld-aiUNODDjpHTza_Et5LjJjHoTX5-gNKWcQJuXoepSjo_oSO-RYEyH9CLRsUt6P9E/s1270/PerrymanAdventures.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="816" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2UlgEli_UVS2QBrCY9gvKdqzj6smuVUSNW5dLv0X29OXlDuzlQZeDTCBL7Gbg6lvKVmceLvfCB6sR6fSukQyAbqaA9hBBctje2opn-PzBmXE-HI6fh5KlHQTbM8ld-aiUNODDjpHTza_Et5LjJjHoTX5-gNKWcQJuXoepSjo_oSO-RYEyH9CLRsUt6P9E/w258-h400/PerrymanAdventures.jpg" width="258" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/14301924/book/104620184">Published: 2013</a><br />Acquired: December 2013<br />Read: December 2023<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table>The first half of the book chronicles Neil's life as a fan from childhood and his adult life with Sue, up until the invention of the blog. I can see how if you were not previously invested in Neil and Sue, this might not be super-interesting, but I really enjoyed getting to hear their relationship history spelled out in detail—mostly it had been something you just had to infer from their blog posts before. Neil's name upon meeting Sue was hilarious, and it was great to get the whole living-in-a-caravan story explained. The second half details the blog, how it came about, and how it carried on. Both halves are filled with small excerpts from blog entries.</p><p>The whole thing is quite funny, of course, but also somewhat moving. The back cover spells out the book's premise somewhat flippantly: "Neil loves Sue. He also loves <i>Doctor Who</i>. But can he bring his two great loves together?" It's a part of the fan experience that will resonate with any fan, I suspect. One way a fan shows their love is by sharing something they love. But of course other people don't always love what their loved ones love. Longtime readers of my blog know that <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/search/label/series%3A%20oz">I introduced my older son to Oz</a>, one of my childhood loves, and over two years later, we're still reading them together. Sometimes it works, and it's magical. But as I write this, I've been thinking about introducing him to <i>Doctor Who</i>... but will he love it? I am honestly a little trepidatious! Neil captures this quite well. He and Sue were married for years before he dared to share what he loved with her... but for them it paid off, and as he tells it, even made their relationship stronger!</p><p>Highly recommended if you're a certain type of <i>Doctor Who</i> fan, or even if you just know one. Though you may benefit from reading the blog first. As for me, I'm using the book as a launching-off point for a reread of the blog, in the form of the ebook collections of it I've bought over the years but have never gotten around to reading.<br /></p>Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-7303216966139365162024-02-06T08:30:00.016-05:002024-02-23T08:52:50.006-05:00Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, No. IX (Chs. 21-23)<p style="text-align: center;"><b>The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit</b> by Charles Dickens<br />
</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZB4XksSTBTLv3Z5SVw6ZwiTeVrpRJQM96ONpI8ASsKXIW3D8HAndhYKpPkU5GrRbbkxVUOCbtU1-9_kfrz8tNZApFcEEyLLBqhAZScyWiXCUOgvn_afzENeE3hwyirV6bTCgQHlMebGMGzKHAGOS119dvU18-vLC5KXsmj7o3vkvkIr7243w3z2VaP3AM/s1270/DickensLife.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="839" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZB4XksSTBTLv3Z5SVw6ZwiTeVrpRJQM96ONpI8ASsKXIW3D8HAndhYKpPkU5GrRbbkxVUOCbtU1-9_kfrz8tNZApFcEEyLLBqhAZScyWiXCUOgvn_afzENeE3hwyirV6bTCgQHlMebGMGzKHAGOS119dvU18-vLC5KXsmj7o3vkvkIr7243w3z2VaP3AM/w264-h400/DickensLife.jpg" width="264" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/15539/book/255158312">Originally published: 1843-44</a><br />Acquired: December 2023<br />Installment read: February 2024</span><br />
</td></tr></tbody></table><p><b>No. IX (Chs. 21-23)</b><br />Back to Martin in America for these three parts, which are less funny than the previous American ones and thus also less interesting; mostly they are about Martin getting caught up in a land speculation scheme. There are some jokes but they are much less densely packed in, and the book is back to feeling flabby and slow; you always get the point of a scene long before it is over. The satire about the racist, anti-emancipation Americans was pretty potent, though:</p><p></p><blockquote>It was hastily resolved that a piece of plate should be presented to a
certain constitutional Judge, who had laid down from the Bench the noble
principle that it was lawful for any white mob to murder any black man;
and that another piece of plate, of similar value should be presented to a
certain Patriot, who had declared from his high place in the Legislature,
that he and his friends would hang without trial, any Abolitionist who
might pay them a visit. For the surplus, it was agreed that it should be
devoted to aiding the enforcement of those free and equal laws, which
render it incalculably more criminal and dangerous to teach a negro to
read and write than to roast him alive in a public city.</blockquote>Alas, it had little to do with Martin.<br /><p></p><p></p><p>
<small>This is the fifth in a series of posts about <i>Martin Chuzzlewit</i>. The next covers installment <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/02/blog-post_20.html">nos. x–xii</a>. Previous installments are listed below:</small></p><small><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-1.html">Nos. I–III</a> (chs. 1-8)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-2.html">No. IV</a> (chs. 9-10)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-3.html">Nos. V–VII</a> (chs. 11-17)</li><li><a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-charles-dickens-martin-chuzzlewit-part-4.html">No. VIII</a> (chs. 18-20)<br /></li></ol></small>
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2882495501831918897.post-25724579535647311672024-02-05T08:30:00.052-05:002024-02-05T08:30:00.119-05:00Hugos Side-Step: The Collected Short Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume Two<p style="text-align: center;">The Collected Short Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume Two: <b>Second Variety<br /></b>by Philip K. Dick<br />
</p><p>The second volume of Philip K. Dick's complete short stories has been variously published under the titles <i>Second Variety</i>, <i>We Can Remember It for You Wholesale</i> (not actually included in the 1999 Gollancz edition I have, and confusingly also the title of volume five in the Gollancz editions), and <i>Adjustment Team</i>, and contains stories originally published from 1953 to '55 (the collections overlap in publication date a little bit because they are collected in sequence of composition). I'm reading it as part of <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/search/label/topic%3A%20old%20hugos">my project of reading old Hugo winners</a> and related books; it's a "related book" on the grounds that <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2022/07/review-man-in-high-castle.html"><i>The Man in the High Castle</i> won the 1963 Hugo</a> and I liked it enough that I've kept going with Dick's stuff since.<br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq8rck2xG9QPVx7nWNeP6SwnKWcuxJELm-_RlQzWN5Vht_Hd6MA3L3-jKslztaY1w-rsbEj2VrWJzo-e-5B3FjCX1BnorNXserHsR4WDBpV1GBEPisLF6stsDNrugP40viFN9gT4XL4tfvJqXL4Bxm0VHwDmXP_LdrXO76lcNQ_gRzIQNL-ftY1iTulWyS/s1270/DickSecond.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="834" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq8rck2xG9QPVx7nWNeP6SwnKWcuxJELm-_RlQzWN5Vht_Hd6MA3L3-jKslztaY1w-rsbEj2VrWJzo-e-5B3FjCX1BnorNXserHsR4WDBpV1GBEPisLF6stsDNrugP40viFN9gT4XL4tfvJqXL4Bxm0VHwDmXP_LdrXO76lcNQ_gRzIQNL-ftY1iTulWyS/w263-h400/DickSecond.jpg" width="263" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<span face="sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/8175674/book/251721979">Collection published: 1999</a><br />Contents originally published: 1953-55<br />Acquired and read: November 2023</span><br />
</td></tr></tbody></table><p>I didn't find this quite as strong as <a href="https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2023/06/review-collected-short-stories-philip-dick-volume-1-beyond-lies-wub-short-happy-life-brown-oxford-king-of-elves.html">the first volume</a>. There are a lot of fantasy stories in this one, which are less to my taste, and a few too many stories where some spooky happens at the end and then the story stops, also a few too many stories about people exploring space. Which is usually my favorite subgenre of sf, but not one that plays to Dick's strengths. Some are undermined by seventy years of subsequent science fiction: "Second Variety" could be great, but if you've read later stuff, or even just another stuff by Dick, you'll see the twist coming. A similar complaint can be lodged at some of the time travel stuff here. Some of the stories have good concepts but don't totally convince on the worldbuilding, like one about a father in a world where robots do the childrearing... only he's somehow <i>never heard</i> of this dramatic change in social norms, or another about robots that are discriminating against humans, but ends up making everything too easy for a human to push against it.<br /></p><p>That said, when Dick hits, he scores. There's some good satire of military imperialism in "Some Kind of Life," where every year some new excuse is thought of for good Terrans to go off to war—for the benefit of the Earth economy, of course. "The World She Wanted" is a weird story about someone convinced she can arrange the world the way she wants... and maybe she really can! "Breakfast at Twilight" is a neat glimpse of an ordinary suburban family suddenly plunged into a world at war. "Human Is" is a little bit predictable but effective all the same, about a man who may have been replaced by an alien. Dick loves this theme, of course; "Human Is" focuses on a wife uncertain about her husband but there's another where the replaced person themself is uncertain. On slightly similar lines, there's "Small Town" about a guy who obsessively builds a model of the town he lives in in his house's basement, taking out his dissatisfaction with his real life on the model...</p><p>My favorite here, though, was "The Commuter," where the main character begins slipping into another world, a world where a commuter town was built in the suburbs that never existed in his own. Like Dick's best stories, it captures the unease and uncertainty of modern life.<br /></p><p>
<small>I read an old winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel every year, plus
other Hugo-related books that interest me. Next up in sequence: <i>...And Call Me Conrad</i> by Roger Zelazny<br /></small></p>
Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16546370463396570168noreply@blogger.com0