HU News
I’m pleased to announce that Isaac Butler is joining the regular HU roster as a contributing writer. Welcome aboard Isaac!
In other news…next week is Thanksgiving, and I’m traveling, so HU will have a shortened schedule. Not sure exactly how it’ll work, but probably we’ll be off Thursday and Friday and possible Wednesday, Saturday, and/or Sunday as well. Whatever happens, though, have a good holiday if your celebrating it, and we’ll be back to normal the Monday after, if the good lord is willing and the creek doesn’t rise.
On HU
Featured Archive Post: I talk about Wonder Woman vs. Twilight and vampires vs. seal men.
Me on the film I found more terrifying and repulsive than Audition or Hostel.
Me reviewing the Twilight Graphic novel (which sparks a long thread contrasting Bella and James Bond, of all things.)
Me on Junji Ito’s Tomie stories and the feminine proliferation of capitalism.
Rober Stanley Martin reviews Sean Howe’s “Marvel Comics: The Untold Story.
Kinukitty on Heart’s biography, “Kicking and Dreaming.”
Nicolas Labarre on Descent and choosing the horror road more traveled.
Jason Thompson and me talk about Junji Ito’s Tomie stories, progressive horror, and misogyny.
Subdee on Saiunkoku Monogatari and feminist fantasy.
Utilitarians Everywhere
At the Atlantic I reviewed Skyfall (and pissed people off in comments.)
At Splice I note that the GOP is considering maybe treating Hispanics like human beings.
At Splice I wrote about Fleetwood Mac’s Mirage. I was pretty happy with this one.
At Splice I am surprised and heartened by the apparent existence of GOP moderates.
Other Links
Bert Stabler on Chris Hedges and moral climbing.
Glenn Greenwald on out of control government invasions of privacy and the Petraeus scandal.
DG Myers,who I had a really nice interaction with once, was shockingly fired from Commentary, apparently for supporting gay marriage.
Nicky Smith rags on my alma mater.
Monika Bartyzel compares Hunger Games and Twilight, being a hero first or last.
Alyssa Rosenberg on geek sexism.
This Week’s Reading
Not sure I remember everything, but…I finished Junji Ito’s first volume of Tomie stories, and read Lilli Carre’s Heads or Tails, and the fourth volume of Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit. Also read my friend Ilana Gershon’s book The Break-up 2.0 about new media and relationship break-ups, and started Stanley Hauerwas’ book God, Medicine, and Suffering.
Isaac’s piece on V for Vendetta was great; so many zingers.
I read Paul Grist’s Mudman — disappointing; I prefer the formally playful Jack Staff. The final volume of Fantagraphics’ Popeye reprints — I’d forgotten how funny Segar was, and Wimpy is, of course, a top 5 character of all time. You can’t help wondering whether Wimpy would have ended up taking over the strip entirely, just as Popeye had before him; he pretty quickly came to dominate the Sunday strips. Vol 2. of the Dark Horse Manara library — the second half is as inessential as you can get, since it doesn’t even feature nice art from Manara. And I finished Volume 10 of IDW’s Dick Tracy reprints — Gould’s art is way worse than I remember from earlier volumes, but there’s a great villain in here by the name of “Influence” who has this totally gratuitous perversity — I love this guy.
In hindsight, I appear to have spent the last week doing nothing but reading comics.
I read the first three (7) volumes of Cross Game and started The Book of Mr. Natural.
I’m halfway through Henry IV part 1. Also started (re)reading Fortress Conservation – Dan Brockington’s study of the impact of a wildlife reserve in Tanzania on local communities (and vice versa).
I re-watched Mean Girls, Mystery Men and The Draughtsman’s Contract and I saw Letter Never Sent and The Human Condition II.
Starting reading (rereading but it was really long ago) LeGuin’s Earthsea novels. Finished A Wizard of Earthsea and Tombs of Atuan. Enjoyed them a lot, and I like how they don’t read as traditional high/epic fantasy or low/sword & sorcery. Tombs of Atuan in particular is almost all about setting and character with only a very minimal plot and just a bit of indirect conflict. Yet both had a certain thematic richness. Looking forward to reading the rest of them (I think when I original read them there were only 3 or 4 rather than 6).
For the love of god, don’t read all six earthsea books, Derik. The fourth is good, but past that you’re just making yourself miserable.
The third is amazing.
Ok… I’m just about to start number 3.
I may reread Tolkien or read C.S. Lewis next. Fantasy reading month or something.
In tune with “the GOP is considering maybe treating Hispanics like human beings” article, this cartoon from the latest “New Yorker”: http://tinyurl.com/bxebt48 .
…Which pretty neatly summarizes the utter phoniness and superficiality of (as a line by a female speechwriter for Pres. Bush the 1st put it) a “kinder, gentler conservatism.”
As for personal reading, after some lightweight fare, read the 2003 “Dark Waters: An Insider’s Account of the NR-1, the Cold War’s Undercover Nuclear Sub” ( http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Waters-Insiders-Account-Undercover/dp/0451207777 ). An amazing craft, with a miniaturized nuclear reactor, ultra deep-diving capabilities, and wheels to roll along the ocean floor!
(I see the book is available for reading in a “September 2012 revision and online posting of the book,” featuring many additional photos: http://www.nr-1-book.com/ )
..And currently am into the hefty and fascinating bio, “Albert Einstein” ( http://www.amazon.com/Albert-Einstein-Biography-Albrecht-Folsing/dp/0140237194 ).
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Noah Berlatsky says:
DG Myers,who I had a really nice interaction with once, was shockingly fired from Commentary, apparently for supporting gay marriage.
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A conservative magazine fires a writer for supporting gay marriage; who’d have thought?
And the official explanation was that she was bringing politics into a conservative literary magazine. What makes a literary magazine conservative, if not politics?
If they were “conservative” in the sense of being in favor or correct grammar, opposed to tossing Shakespeare, Milton and Dante in the trashheap because they were “dead white males” (and automatically homophobic, misogynistic, racist) and such, I could get behind that…
I finished reading Sailor Twain and the latest volume of Love and Rockets, and I started reading the last volume of DMZ and the latest collection of The Boys. For movies, I watched the Korean crime movie The Man from Nowhere (which was excellent, full of nice action, some brutal violence, and a twisty plot, marred only by a drawn-out, sentimental ending), the Richard Linklater-directed Bernie (which was quite good, featuring a nice dramatic performance from Jack Black and authentic East Texas atmosphere), and most of the space-prison action movie Lockout (I fell asleep before the end though, so take that as an anti-endorsement, if you like).
Ah, another fan of “The Boys”! One of the exceedingly few comics I’m still purchasing (along with “Love and Rockets”) after the “income implosion” of a few years ago.
Predictably to be outragedly denounced as utterly sexist, racist, homophobic, misogynist.