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Wed Reading Meme...
Dec. 2nd, 2015 10:52 pm1.) What I just finished reading?
More X-men comics. Although will state that the Cyclops arc has got to be the most extreme character arc that I've seen in serials. To get a good idea of how extreme this arc is - all you need to do is compare the series: Uncanny X-Men - First to Last and Avengers vs X-men : Consequences. (By the way, the Avengers are written as smug self-righteous, somewhat inept, insanely stupid, hypocritical pricks in the X-men books. If you are a huge fan of the X-men -- it's hard to see the Avengers as anything other than idealistic and somewhat clownish poster boys for a racist regime. From the movies, Amazon reviews and flist, I have a feeling that are not portrayed in this manner in their own books.)
At any rate - ignoring that problem:
( reviews of X-men First to Last and Avengers vs. X-Men Consequences )
2) What I'm reading now?
Still stumbling my way through Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Although there is a light at the end of this tunnel. It appears I'll actually finish it.
I don't dislike the book. In places, it's rather brilliant. But, I think it is also a tad over-rated. Keep in mind, I read a lot of these types of books in my 20s and 30s, so the format isn't new to me. And well, it feels like I'm reading a lot of short stories, slices of life tales, and I'm not a fan of short stories -- as I explained recently to a friend, it takes me at least 50 pages to get into the characters, style, and story - and here, by the time I got into the story and characters - it ends. Abruptly. And I'm starting a new book. Also, even though the characters in this book are well-drawn, well-developed, and off the beaten path (ie. quirky), it isn't really character driven so much as thematically driven - the writer at times feels like he's sermonizing or philosophizing through his characters. Which is okay, but not really my cup of tea, as it were.
The book is broken up into a series of sections, each section fitting neatly into the next like a series of hollow chinese wooden dolls. In case the reader hasn't figured out that this is the writer's intent in regards to the structure, he tells you, in various sections of the story.
Mitchell doesn't trust his reader all that much, which to be fair - he may have a point, I have a feeling this structural point was lost on quite a few readers.
There's some great quotes in the novel - which pretty much tell you the theme and what the writer's purpose was in writing it. They'll also give you an idea as to the jumps in writing styles. One section, by far the most difficult, is written completely in dialect. (I didn't have too much difficulty with it - but I'm an old hand with dialect, having read Toni Morrison's Beloved, Mark Twain, Zora Neal Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, and various other books where writers like to make up their own language or write dialect. One of the plus sides of having dyslexia - is you learn early on to figure out the meaning of words by context and what lies around them. You sort of used to seeing weird words and making sense of it. I don't recommend doing it yourself unless you know what you are doing and have mastered technique. Otherwise you'll lose the reader. Although I think Mitchell probably lost quite a few...I was aided in part, by having seen the movie which closely follows the book - at least from a plot perspective.)
( mild and rather vague book spoilers - quotes )
More X-men comics. Although will state that the Cyclops arc has got to be the most extreme character arc that I've seen in serials. To get a good idea of how extreme this arc is - all you need to do is compare the series: Uncanny X-Men - First to Last and Avengers vs X-men : Consequences. (By the way, the Avengers are written as smug self-righteous, somewhat inept, insanely stupid, hypocritical pricks in the X-men books. If you are a huge fan of the X-men -- it's hard to see the Avengers as anything other than idealistic and somewhat clownish poster boys for a racist regime. From the movies, Amazon reviews and flist, I have a feeling that are not portrayed in this manner in their own books.)
At any rate - ignoring that problem:
( reviews of X-men First to Last and Avengers vs. X-Men Consequences )
2) What I'm reading now?
Still stumbling my way through Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Although there is a light at the end of this tunnel. It appears I'll actually finish it.
I don't dislike the book. In places, it's rather brilliant. But, I think it is also a tad over-rated. Keep in mind, I read a lot of these types of books in my 20s and 30s, so the format isn't new to me. And well, it feels like I'm reading a lot of short stories, slices of life tales, and I'm not a fan of short stories -- as I explained recently to a friend, it takes me at least 50 pages to get into the characters, style, and story - and here, by the time I got into the story and characters - it ends. Abruptly. And I'm starting a new book. Also, even though the characters in this book are well-drawn, well-developed, and off the beaten path (ie. quirky), it isn't really character driven so much as thematically driven - the writer at times feels like he's sermonizing or philosophizing through his characters. Which is okay, but not really my cup of tea, as it were.
The book is broken up into a series of sections, each section fitting neatly into the next like a series of hollow chinese wooden dolls. In case the reader hasn't figured out that this is the writer's intent in regards to the structure, he tells you, in various sections of the story.
Mitchell doesn't trust his reader all that much, which to be fair - he may have a point, I have a feeling this structural point was lost on quite a few readers.
There's some great quotes in the novel - which pretty much tell you the theme and what the writer's purpose was in writing it. They'll also give you an idea as to the jumps in writing styles. One section, by far the most difficult, is written completely in dialect. (I didn't have too much difficulty with it - but I'm an old hand with dialect, having read Toni Morrison's Beloved, Mark Twain, Zora Neal Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, and various other books where writers like to make up their own language or write dialect. One of the plus sides of having dyslexia - is you learn early on to figure out the meaning of words by context and what lies around them. You sort of used to seeing weird words and making sense of it. I don't recommend doing it yourself unless you know what you are doing and have mastered technique. Otherwise you'll lose the reader. Although I think Mitchell probably lost quite a few...I was aided in part, by having seen the movie which closely follows the book - at least from a plot perspective.)
( mild and rather vague book spoilers - quotes )