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WED READING MEME.........
Nov. 25th, 2015 10:28 amPosting from beautiful Hilton Head, South Carolina. Although it could be a heck of a lot warmer. Was supposed to be in the 60s and 70s this week, but it's actually in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Oh well, NYC is colder. And guess what? It will drift up into the 70s again once I'm gone.
1. What I just finished reading?
Fool Me Twice by Meredith Duran -- too much navel gazing on the part of both characters, admittedly a flaw of the romance genre. It did start out well though, loved the first half, was incredibly bored during the second. Yes, yes, I know you love each other but don't think you can be together but can't keep your hands off one another - confront the villain already.
X-Men: Prelude to Schism - This is basically a series of issues with our heroes worrying over a big crisis event and putting all the pressure on their leader of the moment, Cyclops, to figure out how to make it work. If he does the right thing - he'll be their hero and the greatest man ever. If he fails, then they'll abandon him. It's not clear what the crisis event is - and each of the head male leaders discusses it with Cyclops, along with revealing a bit about their own back story or Cyclops back story in the process. The series is meant to shed light on Cyclops, Magneto, Xavier, and Wolverine's motivations.
Unfortunately, it is highly male-centric, neither Storm nor Emma Frost appear to have much say in the matter. Which is actually the biggest flaw in the X-men post Grant Morrison/Josh Whedon's reign, the focus is on the male characters, with the female characters as supporting or second string. I'm not sure if Keiron Gillian, Bendeis, Fraction, Aaron, and Brubacker just aren't comfortable putting women front and center in the main arc (they do have a somewhat cheesy secondary title - the X-women), or if the writers just aren't interested in those characters?
Also, as nice as it is to know these characters motivations -- it doesn't really go anywhere, worse, it contradicts the story that follows it -- making Wolverine's actions seem insanely out of character and hypocritical in all of the comics that follow. In Prelude - Wolverine insists they stay on the island no matter what, not run away, and everyone engage in the fight. Xavier states that he will be supporting Scott through each crisis, and take the burden from him if it gets to be too much. Magneto warns Scott not to bring children into it, and not go down the road he did or Charles did. Which to be fair, Charles warns this as well. In the limited five issue miniseries that follows, which is outside the main titles but affects them all, splitting Uncanny X-men into two new titles as a result, all these characters do the exact opposite of what they say they are going to do in Prelude. I'm guessing the writers were trying for some sort of dramatic irony...except it's not clear what crisis if any Prelude was about. Was it "Fear Itself"? If so, Cyclops was successful. Or is it "Avengers vs. X-men", in which most of the characters weren't supporting Cyclops and he was on his own. Neat comic, but doesn't seem to fit within the arc.
The problem with long-running serial writers - is 1) too many changes in writers, 2) the writers don't read the back story and contradict themselves, and 3) due in part to 1&2 they suck at plotting. (In other words, B doesn't always follow A, sometimes it follows Q, by way of Z.)
X-Men: Schism --The cataclysmic event that changes the X-men forever. (Sigh). Interesting comic, with some interesting themes. Doesn't quite work, but interesting all the same.
( Read more... )
2. What are you reading now?
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - when I state this reminds me a great deal of Joyce's Ulysess - I mean in how the narrative structure changes in each section. And by change, I mean it feels as if you are starting a whole new book. Not just from first to second or third point of view, but writing style.
Joyce would jump from stream of consciousness to a play to ordinary prose to a long epic poem, to phonics...in Ulysesses. People called it Stream of Consciousness, because they didn't have a word for it.
David Mitchell's book, depending on your point of view, is...worse or better. He not only changes styles and points of view, he also changes time zones, decades, characters, etc. It's like reading various short stories written in various experimental styles, across various decades, which all end abruptly or sometimes in mid-sentence. By the time you get into one style or story, it ends, and you thrust head first into the next. Not for the casual reader, more for an academic with way too much time on their hands.
The first section is written in the style of an 18th century ships log. The next in the style of 1930s letters by a music composer. The third in the style of a screenplay by a 1970s screenwriter, without the format. But the language and description feels like a teleplay. It jumps genres, styles, etc. The only connection is the theme of reincarnation and references to the sections previous throughout.
It's like reading sections of various short novellas by a writer with attention deficit disorder at the same time.
1. What I just finished reading?
Fool Me Twice by Meredith Duran -- too much navel gazing on the part of both characters, admittedly a flaw of the romance genre. It did start out well though, loved the first half, was incredibly bored during the second. Yes, yes, I know you love each other but don't think you can be together but can't keep your hands off one another - confront the villain already.
X-Men: Prelude to Schism - This is basically a series of issues with our heroes worrying over a big crisis event and putting all the pressure on their leader of the moment, Cyclops, to figure out how to make it work. If he does the right thing - he'll be their hero and the greatest man ever. If he fails, then they'll abandon him. It's not clear what the crisis event is - and each of the head male leaders discusses it with Cyclops, along with revealing a bit about their own back story or Cyclops back story in the process. The series is meant to shed light on Cyclops, Magneto, Xavier, and Wolverine's motivations.
Unfortunately, it is highly male-centric, neither Storm nor Emma Frost appear to have much say in the matter. Which is actually the biggest flaw in the X-men post Grant Morrison/Josh Whedon's reign, the focus is on the male characters, with the female characters as supporting or second string. I'm not sure if Keiron Gillian, Bendeis, Fraction, Aaron, and Brubacker just aren't comfortable putting women front and center in the main arc (they do have a somewhat cheesy secondary title - the X-women), or if the writers just aren't interested in those characters?
Also, as nice as it is to know these characters motivations -- it doesn't really go anywhere, worse, it contradicts the story that follows it -- making Wolverine's actions seem insanely out of character and hypocritical in all of the comics that follow. In Prelude - Wolverine insists they stay on the island no matter what, not run away, and everyone engage in the fight. Xavier states that he will be supporting Scott through each crisis, and take the burden from him if it gets to be too much. Magneto warns Scott not to bring children into it, and not go down the road he did or Charles did. Which to be fair, Charles warns this as well. In the limited five issue miniseries that follows, which is outside the main titles but affects them all, splitting Uncanny X-men into two new titles as a result, all these characters do the exact opposite of what they say they are going to do in Prelude. I'm guessing the writers were trying for some sort of dramatic irony...except it's not clear what crisis if any Prelude was about. Was it "Fear Itself"? If so, Cyclops was successful. Or is it "Avengers vs. X-men", in which most of the characters weren't supporting Cyclops and he was on his own. Neat comic, but doesn't seem to fit within the arc.
The problem with long-running serial writers - is 1) too many changes in writers, 2) the writers don't read the back story and contradict themselves, and 3) due in part to 1&2 they suck at plotting. (In other words, B doesn't always follow A, sometimes it follows Q, by way of Z.)
X-Men: Schism --The cataclysmic event that changes the X-men forever. (Sigh). Interesting comic, with some interesting themes. Doesn't quite work, but interesting all the same.
( Read more... )
2. What are you reading now?
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - when I state this reminds me a great deal of Joyce's Ulysess - I mean in how the narrative structure changes in each section. And by change, I mean it feels as if you are starting a whole new book. Not just from first to second or third point of view, but writing style.
Joyce would jump from stream of consciousness to a play to ordinary prose to a long epic poem, to phonics...in Ulysesses. People called it Stream of Consciousness, because they didn't have a word for it.
David Mitchell's book, depending on your point of view, is...worse or better. He not only changes styles and points of view, he also changes time zones, decades, characters, etc. It's like reading various short stories written in various experimental styles, across various decades, which all end abruptly or sometimes in mid-sentence. By the time you get into one style or story, it ends, and you thrust head first into the next. Not for the casual reader, more for an academic with way too much time on their hands.
The first section is written in the style of an 18th century ships log. The next in the style of 1930s letters by a music composer. The third in the style of a screenplay by a 1970s screenwriter, without the format. But the language and description feels like a teleplay. It jumps genres, styles, etc. The only connection is the theme of reincarnation and references to the sections previous throughout.
It's like reading sections of various short novellas by a writer with attention deficit disorder at the same time.