The Hobbit.
First things first, I freaking love dwarves. In every piece of literature, film, or interactive media that I've ever seen some variation of the dwarven race appear in, I've loved them. The dwarves of the Lord of the Rings universe are no different, so the fact that a solid half of the cast in "The Hobbit" is dwarven got me a little more than excited to read the book. All of that said, let's talk about Thorin. At first I couldn't WAIT to get into this novel almost completely due to Thorin -- the reason being that he bore several similarities to the dwarven character that I always make in any game that I play that has dwarves in it (keep in mind that I'm a Game Art student, so this isn't completely out of the blue). Reading further on though, I really... unexpectedly came to dislike him. Sure, he started out as the brave n' brash, mead-swilling rogue that I'd expected from the "young, adventuring dwarf" archetype, but when it came down to it, Thorin just wasn't very good at his job. As the leader of his band of foolhardy vagabonds, it was his duty to, for one, have a darn plan when the sh*t hits the fan; as soon as Gandalf left the group, though, everything was just "attack!" or "run!". A leader simply needs more than two speeds. And the whole angle of his heritage and how the dragon's treasures are rightfully his, while necessarily to jump-starting the plot, just give him this wacked-out sense of entitlement and renders him all the more unlikeable! Just as that entitlement is vital to the plot, though, I suppose his reprimandable actions are vital to give the protagonist, Bilbo, all the more credibility as an actual leader -- being incredibly clever, crafty, and concerned with the rest of the group in comparison to its "leader" really helps in Bilbo preventing him from being overshadowed by the rest of the novel's colorful cast. While I didn't get to finish "The Hobbit", I definitely intend to do so in the future, and I'm quite relieved to hear that Thorin, though I don't know though, manages to redeem himself in the eyes of the audience by the time the book is through. It's definitely a relief to me.
--William Avery
Saturday, October 6, 2012
A Story that was Just too Familiar.
Battle Royale.
As a white American male between the ages of 14 and 28 who was overweight for a good portion of my life, I belong to a certain group of people within my generation that appreciates Japanese culture and doesn't see it as alien to American culture, but merely an extension that occasionally gets a little strange. Upon reading the first half (or so) of "Battle Royale", I found nothing to be new from my normal experiences with the "Japanese High School Students with Problems Genre", albeit they were trying to kill each other. I guess I just figured that the character archetypes would have advanced beyond the standard "guy who's too cool to care and his doting protege constantly whining 'senpai this!' and 'senpai that!'", or "the two characters who are totally interested in each other but both are too beta to do anything about it" because, you know... life and death struggle should bring some CRAZY characters to the floor. Moving on to the actual story, though, I loved the introduction of the book and how the author set everything up; the totalitarian regime, the unannounced class trip, gassing the bus -- all things that I felt really fit in the universe that had been laid out in front of me. It was after the briefing, though, that my brow frequently began to furrow. I mean really, the weapon that each student receives is totally random? I thought it was a bit ridiculous that there was no drawing of a line at the minimum quality that a weapon could be (I'm talking, of course, about the paper fan). That's just... not fair. Funny, but not fair.
--William Avery
As a white American male between the ages of 14 and 28 who was overweight for a good portion of my life, I belong to a certain group of people within my generation that appreciates Japanese culture and doesn't see it as alien to American culture, but merely an extension that occasionally gets a little strange. Upon reading the first half (or so) of "Battle Royale", I found nothing to be new from my normal experiences with the "Japanese High School Students with Problems Genre", albeit they were trying to kill each other. I guess I just figured that the character archetypes would have advanced beyond the standard "guy who's too cool to care and his doting protege constantly whining 'senpai this!' and 'senpai that!'", or "the two characters who are totally interested in each other but both are too beta to do anything about it" because, you know... life and death struggle should bring some CRAZY characters to the floor. Moving on to the actual story, though, I loved the introduction of the book and how the author set everything up; the totalitarian regime, the unannounced class trip, gassing the bus -- all things that I felt really fit in the universe that had been laid out in front of me. It was after the briefing, though, that my brow frequently began to furrow. I mean really, the weapon that each student receives is totally random? I thought it was a bit ridiculous that there was no drawing of a line at the minimum quality that a weapon could be (I'm talking, of course, about the paper fan). That's just... not fair. Funny, but not fair.
--William Avery
I will not negotiate with the undead!
Monster Island.
I chose to read "Monster Island" because access to it, being an internet novel, was much easier to obtain than the alternative, "Zone One"; also, a friend of mine back home had tried once to get me to read it, so I figured why the hell not? Unfortunately, my busy schedule in the computer labs rendered me unable to finish the book, which I believe will be a very, very common problem through the duration of my being in this class, but I was able to take in some pretty decent content in what I WAS able to read. I was stopped just after the group ran into Gary Fleck, an interesting character indeed -- as a zombie who had somehow managed to retain his consciousness, he stands out as quite the unique character in this genre. This was a huge relief to me, as I must admit I have a very negative bias towards zombie comics/books/movies, as they all appear to be roughly the exact same thing, and it's been done to DEATH (oh ho ho! a pun!) over the last few years. It was refreshing to see funny little story quirks like a main character who was a weapons inspector instead of a ex-marine (or triple-blackbelt, fighter pilot, etc.), and a group of Somalian schoolgirls instead of a rag-tag multi-racial group of attractive 20-35 year olds, one of which is always potentially retarded. Unlike Frankenstein, which I've learned I cannot stand due to Captain Depression monologuing the whole time, I'm actually looking forward to finishing this, probably over Christmas. Dekalb seems like a pretty likable protagonist to follow around, and I'm really liking David Wellington's writing style -- I audibly laughed (very rare for me) at "I will not negotiate with the undead!".
--William Avery
I chose to read "Monster Island" because access to it, being an internet novel, was much easier to obtain than the alternative, "Zone One"; also, a friend of mine back home had tried once to get me to read it, so I figured why the hell not? Unfortunately, my busy schedule in the computer labs rendered me unable to finish the book, which I believe will be a very, very common problem through the duration of my being in this class, but I was able to take in some pretty decent content in what I WAS able to read. I was stopped just after the group ran into Gary Fleck, an interesting character indeed -- as a zombie who had somehow managed to retain his consciousness, he stands out as quite the unique character in this genre. This was a huge relief to me, as I must admit I have a very negative bias towards zombie comics/books/movies, as they all appear to be roughly the exact same thing, and it's been done to DEATH (oh ho ho! a pun!) over the last few years. It was refreshing to see funny little story quirks like a main character who was a weapons inspector instead of a ex-marine (or triple-blackbelt, fighter pilot, etc.), and a group of Somalian schoolgirls instead of a rag-tag multi-racial group of attractive 20-35 year olds, one of which is always potentially retarded. Unlike Frankenstein, which I've learned I cannot stand due to Captain Depression monologuing the whole time, I'm actually looking forward to finishing this, probably over Christmas. Dekalb seems like a pretty likable protagonist to follow around, and I'm really liking David Wellington's writing style -- I audibly laughed (very rare for me) at "I will not negotiate with the undead!".
--William Avery
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