Review: Moto Hagio's A Drunken Dream and Other Stories

Comic hardcover, 256 pages
Published 2010 (contents: 1977-2008)
Borrowed from the library
Read June 2012

Moto Hagio's A Drunken Dream and Other Stories
translated by Matt Thorn

I read a couple stories from this collection of short-form shōjo manga in a class on graphic novels that I was taking, and I was sufficiently intrigued to track down the whole book. My previous experience with shōjo was pretty slight, and I imagined it as an entire genre of awkward high school relationships-- we can probably blame this on my experience reading Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. Hagio, who was one of the founders of shōjo, showed me with "Iguana Girl" that this was entirely untrue: "shōjo" simply means "girl," and these stories are simply stories designed to appeal to girls, which seems to basically mean that they have high emotional content.

"Iguana Girl" is one of the most touching stories I have ever read. It's about a girl who is born an iguana-- but only she and her mother can tell, to everyone else she looks human. She spends her life constantly ridiculed by her mother and her sister, and Hagio makes the story hurt. Rika's pain is every child's pain, the pain of the daughter who's never quite what her mother wanted. We follow Rika as she grows up and finally comes to understand her mother, though it's not enough of course. This was one of three stories excerpted for our class, making me want to read the book-- and on reading the whole thing, it's definitely the best one.

But this is praising with faint damn. A Drunken Dream and Other Stories collects ten stories spanning Hagio's career. I found the material from the middle of her career the strongest. Her early 1970s stuff is perhaps a little too slight and overly saccharine-- but though I say that now, flipping back through "Girl on Porch with Puppy," I recall the deep emotional shock of its ending, so maybe that's a lie to make myself feel superior to this deeply emotional and melancholic work.

Her stories become stronger in the 1980s, which includes "A Drunken Dream," a strange gender-bending sci-fi story about reincarnation and the cruelty of destiny. This is where Hagio begins including more fantasy motifs into her stories, which heightens their power. "Hanshin: Half-God," about a pair of conjoined twins, is another highlight. So many of these stories I felt like I shouldn't like-- "Angel Mimic" is about a college girl falling for her professor and has a bunch of cod-evolutionary theory-- but I did anyway. Hagio's writing is lyrical, not in her dialogue (which has, after all, been ably translated by Matt Thorn) but also in her beautiful illustrations, which put emptiness to amazing effect. Even when I didn't want to be moved, I always was.

I borrowed this from the library, but I want to buy it now-- and I definitely want to pick up more classic manga, both stuff written by Moto Hagio and stuff translated by Matt Thorn. Even better when it's both of them together again!

Review: Doctor Who Storybook 2007 edited by Clayton Hickman

Hardcover, 76 pages
Published 2006
Acquired August 2011
Read June 2012

Doctor Who Storybook 2007

edited by Clayton Hickman

I picked this book up because my wife and I had just listened to Patient Zero and Blue Forgotten Planet, two Big Finish appearances of the Viyrans, and she was curious about them; the story "No One Died" by Nicholas Briggs contains their only appearance in prose. It's an okay story-- there are some good ideas, but the resolution obnoxiously leaves a central mystery dangling!

The rest of the stories are fine: there are no particular standouts, positive or negative. Part of the problem stems, I think, from the fact that most of the writers try to tell a "typical" Doctor Who story in a few pages, not reworking the format to the shorter length as the Short Trips usually do. Still, some are fun, such as Gareth Roberts's "The Cat Came Back," about a strange civilization discovered by the Doctor and Rose. (Martin Geraghty's illustrations are great.) Robert Shearman's "Untitled" has some good ideas-- a picture coming to life-- but the best part of it are the Brian Williamson illustrations it engenders.

I did find Justin Richards's "Gravestone House" sacrificed logic for poorly done "scares," and Jonathan Morris's comic strip "Opera of Doom" is kinda disappointing as well.

On the other hand, Steven Moffat's "Corner of the Eye"-- told in the form of an implausibly detailed instant messenger conversation-- is hella creepy.

Review: Doctor Who Annual 2006 edited by Clayton Hickman

Hardcover, 62 pages
Published 2005
Acquired August 2009
Read June 2012

Doctor Who Annual 2006

edited by Clayton Hickman

This set of stories are some of the scant few adventures to feature Christopher Eccleston's ninth Doctor: aside from this book, there's just six novels and a slim collection of Doctor Who Magazine comic strips. Despite being written by luminaries such as Paul Cornell and Rob Shearman, they're mostly just okay. Nothing terrible, but Gareth Roberts's "Doctor vs Doctor" just seemed too convoluted, and I never engaged with Cornell's perhaps-too-alien "The Masks of Makassar."  Shearman's was a bit better, with "Pitter-patter" giving us some nice creepy moments, and Daryl Joyce turning in some excellent illustrations.

The best stories are definitely the fun little comic strip ("Mr Nobody") by DWM stalwart Scott Gray and illustrator John Ross and "What I Did On My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow" by Steven Moffat, which went on to become the television story "Blink," but is a fun Moffat adventure in its own right. (I actually bought this book to get this story, so that I could assign my students to write a short paper on that adaptation!)

There's also some puzzles and behind-the-scenes stuff which is utterly disposable, with the exception of the volume's highlight: "Meet the Doctor" and "Meet Rose," both written by Russell T Davies. There's nothing quite like seeing how the characters are viewed by their creator himself.

Review: I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

Mass market paperback, 272 pages
Published 2004 (contents: 1940-50)
Acquired and read September 2009
Reread June 2012

I, Robot
by Isaac Asimov

I taught this book for the second time this summer; I don't think it went as well as it did last time, but I can't really point at a reason for that. My students did cause me to reevaluate the ostensibly triumphal ending of "Robbie" to an extent that I had not done prior. On the other hand, rereading it to teach it has consolidated my belief that "The Evitable Conflict" is one of Asimov's best stories, and indeed, one of the best sf short stories ever published. An underrated inclusion in a book of standouts.

Reading Roundup Wrapup: July 2012

I've been gone, faithful blog-readers! But now I'm back. (I was on a bona fide vacation.) And though I haven't been writing up my books, I have been reading them...

Pick of the month: Campaign: An Adventure In Time And Space by Jim Mortimore. This might not be the best Doctor Who novel ever published, but it's certainly close. And best of all, you can download it for free, since strictly speaking, it's a piece of fanfiction. But written by a professional author.

1. The Powers of Distance: Cosmopolitanism and the Cultivation of Detachment by Amanda Anderson
2. Star Wars: Tatooine Ghost by Troy Denning
3. Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy by Mike Baron with Timothy Zahn
4. Batman vs. the Fearsome Foursome by Winston Lyon
5. From Faust to Strangelove: Representations of the Scientist in Western Literature by Roslynn D. Haynes
6. His Grace of Osmonde: Being the portions of that nobleman's life omitted in the relation of his Lady’s story presented to the World of Fashion under the title of A Lady of Quality by Frances Hodgson Burnett
7. Two Years Ago—Vol. I by Charles Kingsley
8. Dark Currents edited by Ian Whates
9. Asimov’s Science Fiction July 2011 edited by Sheila Williams
10. Two Years Ago—Vol. II by Charles Kingsley
11. In the Closed Room by Frances Hodgson Burnett
12. Voices from the Past edited by Scott Harrison and Lee Harris
13. Omphalos: An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot by Philip Henry Gosse
14. Mumbai Noir edited by Altaf Tyrewala
15. The Two Worlds: Two Giants Novels by James P. Hogan
16. Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill
17. Mission to Minerva by James P. Hogan
18. Campaign: An Adventure In Time And Space by Jim Mortimore
19. Doctor Who and the Pirate Planet by David Bishop
20. Doctor Who and the City of Death by David Lawrence
21. Doctor Who and Shada by Paul Scoones

All books acquired:
1. Star Wars: Invasion 2: Rescues by Tom Taylor
2. Star Wars: Invasion 3: Revelations by Tom Taylor
3. Star Trek: Alien Spotlight, Volume 2 by Arne Schmidt & Andy Schmidt, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Scott Tipton & David Tipton, Ian Edginton, and Stuart Moore
4. Star Wars Omnibus: A Long Time Ago..., Volume 1 by Star Wars Omnibus: A Long Time Ago…, Volume 1 by Roy Thomas , Don Glut, Archie Goodwin, Chris Claremont, and Mary Jo Duffy
5. Star Wars Omnibus: A Long Time Ago…, Volume Two by Archie Goodwin with Chris Claremont, Wally Lombego, Larry Hama, and Mike W. Barr
6. Star Wars Omnibus: Boba Fett by John Wagner, Mike Kennedy, Ron Marz, Thomas Andrews, Andy Mangels, and John Ostrander
7. Dostoevsky: A Screenplay by Raymond Carver and Tess Gallagher / King Dog: A Screenplay by Ursula K. Le Guin

Books remaining on "To be read" list: 418

Back to Burnett: The White People

Kindle eBook, n.pag.
Published 2006 (originally 1917) 
Read April 2012

The White People
by Frances Hodgson Burnett

This is a short book by Burnett about a girl who can see into the spirit world. There is the occasional creepy moment, but most of it is a rather pedestrian love story that outwears its welcome even at this length.

Back to Burnett: Robin

Hardcover, 343 pages
Published 1922
Acquired March 2012
Read April 2012

Robin
by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Robin is the second half of the story began in The Head of the House of Coombe, telling what happened to Robin and Donal during the Great War.

It's boring. In that weird Burnettian way, we are constantly told how suited Robin and Donal are to one another, and how great of a romance they have, again and again for chapter after chapter, yet we somehow come away without having anything to actually point at that would demonstrate this. The Head of the House of Coombe himself continues to be the best character, but we never get enough of him, of course.

There's some psychic mind powers, but even that turns out to be underdeveloped.

Inherit the Stars

Hardcover, 728 pages
Published 1981 (contents: 1977-81)
Acquired March 2008
Read June 2012

The Minvervan Experiment
by James P. Hogan

I have fond memories of reading James P. Hogan's Inherit the Stars from when I was a kid. It was passed on to me by my father, and I know I read it at least twice. A few years ago, I acquired this book-- the first I knew that Inherit the Stars had any sequels, much less four. It's first two are collected here, and I took the opportunity to reread the original and read the other two for the first time:

Inherit the Stars
It's pretty easy to read many sf stories as essentially detective fiction, but perhaps that has never been more true than with this novel. The novel lays out a very intriguing mystery-- how did the corpse of a human being in a spacesuit end up on the moon 50,000 years ago?-- and all of the information, and then proceeds to have the characters solve it. There's not much of characterization or depth here, really, but that's not what you're reading it for. Even if you've read the book before and know the answer, there's a certain joy in watching a set of skilled professionals at work, slowing piecing together the clues and unraveling the mystery.

Inherit the Stars was published around a decade after Thomas Kuhn blew open the scientific world with The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, and it would not surprise me at all to learn that Hogan had read his work; the book in many ways epitomizes what Kuhn says about the moment of crisis that causes a paradigm change. Some attempt to keep on working in the old paradigm, ignoring bits that don't fit, others plunge ahead, and it's hard for everyone to communicate without a common language.

There are also some interesting echoes of Darwin. One of my favorite parts of The Descent of Man is when Darwin talks about the valiant little ape who saved his comrade, as it's inspiring; we as a species came into existence because of a countless number of events of tenacious survival. Inherit the Stars ends similarly, with the solution to the mystery actually being quite inspirational in what it says about humankind.

The Gentle Giants of Ganymede
This book suffers one of the most common problems of sequels. It's essentially the same book as the first one, only less compelling. It's structured around a mystery, but instead of "how did the corpse of a human being in a spacesuit end up on the moon 50,000 years ago?", it's something about amino acids. Of course, it grows more complex from there, but one central mystery never drives the novel, just a number of small and underdeveloped ones.

One of the big weaknesses in Inherit the Stars, by the by, is that the characters uncover the spaceship on Ganymede at the exact moment they need the information it contains. Lucky them! The Gentle Giants of Ganymede exacerbates this tenfold with its big coincidence; all in all, I found this a dull and pointless sequel.

Giants' Star
Thankfully, things pick up with Giants' Star, which takes the series from scientific mysteries to political ones; this is actually a pretty fast-paced thriller about alien interference in human development. There's spy missions, space warfare, alien invasions, and some really cool mysteries to unravel. It's a massive change in tone from the first two books, and involving in a much less intellectual way than Inherit the Stars, but I liked it a lot anyway-- you just have to enjoy it for what it is. The plots within plots get pretty elaborate at some points.

It does undermine the series' own mythology in some key ways, though. One of the problems I have with the Foundation series as it goes on is that it constantly undoes its own purpose: you start out thinking psychohistory predicts everything, but soon you find out that the Second Foundation's telepaths manipulated everything, and then you find out that there are even further levels of manipulation, so that psychohistory (ostensibly the core premise of the series) doesn't work at all. Something similar happens here; by the end of Giants' Star, you've learned that the scientists in Inherit the Stars were right about what happened... but for all the wrong reasons. It reads as though readers objected to Hogan's solution on scientific grounds, and he had to keep on coming up with reasons it could still work, disrupting the sheer elegance of the original. I also think that focusing on the giants is focusing on the less interesting part of the series premise-- Charley's people are the cool ones!

If you can just look at Giants' Star as a standalone though, it works pretty well, and I'm interested enough that I've picked up the last two books in the series, and hopefully I'll read them soon...

(These books also introduced me to the UK idea of the "cryptic crossword." Geeze! I struggle with the L.A. Times one enough, and I'll stick to that, thank you very much.)

From Off the Streets of New York Comes...

Comic hardcover, 152 pages
Published 2006
Borrowed from a friend
Read June 2012

American Splendor: Ego & Hubris: The Michael Malice Story

Story: Harvey Pekar

Art: Gary Dumm

Another full-length work from Pekar, Ego & Hubris tells the story of Michael Malice, who co-created Overheard in New York and co-wrote some wrestler's autobiography.  Malice is a guy who is smart, but thinks he's a genius. If he really was a genius, though, he'd figure out that part of the social contract is being nice to other people.  Pekar and Dumm tell his story in an entertaining enough fashion; Malice swings back and forth between sympathetic and flabbergasting.

Before the Streets of Cleveland Comes...

Comic hardcover, n.pag.
Published 2005
Borrowed from a friend
Read June 2012

The Quitter

Writer: Harvey Pekar

Artist: Dean Haspiel

Gray Tones: Lee Loughridge
Letters: Pat Brosseau

The Quitter covers Harvey Pekar's childhood growing up in Cleveland. Some of this material was previously covered in American Splendor, but not much of it; that tended to focus on Harvey's later life, which only comes in at the very end here.  What can I say about it beyond that it might be my favorite Pekar comic yet?  He fills in his life in broad sketches, focusing into specific moments only a couple times, but this story really resonated with me-- as indeed, I suspect it would with anyone who's ever tried to do something and ended up giving up because it was hard. Or maybe just because of stupid reasons. The Quitter details Pekar's attempts to find something he won't give up at.

Pekar's short works resist "messages," but The Quitter has one, sort of, even if it's just that someday you might find something where you don't quit. Barely a message, but it's somehow uplifting, and I found myself feeling better about myself after finishing The Quitter, and I don't often like books that overtly try to do that to me.

Dean Haspiel might just be my favorite artistic collaborator for Pekar so far; his work is cartoony, but gritty, which suits Pekar's "neo-realist" style more so than some of the more realistic art I've seen in American Splendor, which tends to be too stiff to work as good comics.  Lee Loughridge-- who I know as Gotham Central's fabulous colorist-- accentuates the whole thing with good use of "gray tones."

Surely one of the better graphic memoirs I've ever read (and at this point, I've read too many!).