Category: writing

Life, Shivah and other things.

What am I doing today? I slept in, which was bad. I then got up and rushed off to the pool to swim. After doing that I came home and read my email and news. Then I decided to find out if I really have graduated from college. I cycled down to campus and the registrars. Waited 10 minutes in line and then… found out I don’t know. Nor does UCD apparently. They told me that my graduation status is pending until the end of August. It has to go to the Academic Senate, for some reason. I was also told to talk to my Major adviser. So, why I wait for the end of August, I’ve sent an email to me adviser and payed all my debts to the college. There is nothing in the UCD’s system that says I’m not graduating, which is good. Last time I tried this I found out right after the ceremony that I wasn’t graduating. It’s been a month or more since then and no such email. I’m staying positive.

In other news, I need to quickly finish Neptune’s Ark and start reading Mainspring which I need to review for Steampunk Magazine. I’m also playing an independent adventure game called Shivah, which so far is very good, very cerebral. I want to review it as well.

I’m also trying to come up with a life re-format plan. You know, make some changes, small, but substantial, that will make be a better, more organized person. So that is what is going on.

My bad, I need to get better at this.

So, the review below is full of poor grammar. I’m wholly at fault (who else could be?) for this. I cut the review together from 2 separate works and then re-wrote parts of it. I failed to go through though and look over it critically. It shows. I’ve started cleaning it up but I’m busy with other things right now and don’t feel like going through it at the moment. Please forgive and ignore them if you’d be so kind.

In other news, I’ve got a big party happening here tonight and I need to get ready for it. So you have fun and I’ll prepare to have fun.

Soon I Will be Invincible by Austin Grossman, a review

Austin Grossman’s debut novel is as spectacular as it’s subject and characters. Tackling the much maligned genre of comic super heroes, Grossman eschews the over the top action, thin to non existent story lines, and bad dialog that seem to hamper the genre. He has approached his subject seriously, putting the focus on the people rather than their powers. Assuming all the assorted tropes that every long running comic uses (other dimensions, time travel, magic, etc., etc., etc. ) to extend its life and make some small sense of their convoluted, contradictory stories, he creates a believable world. The book is populated by even more believable characters, characters with body image, self-esteem and assorted other issues. No “whams”, “biffs”, or “kapows” can be found in the pages of the book. Instead he emphasizes the very real problems of alienation, solitude, and being an outsider. Taking a look at the psychology of his characters as opposed to their super physiology. A look that I found both fascinating and compelling.

The story centers on two characters: long time super villain, Dr. Impossible and a brand new super hero, Fatale. Impossible has broken out of super prison again and immediately puts into action his latest plan for world domination. Fatale, a cyborg and former NSA assassin, has recently joined the world’s premiere super hero team. Her new team was that put Impossible into prison. The story revolves around these two characters and builds to the conclusion one imagines when thinking of comic books. A secluded island fortress bristling with the latest and deadliest technology,and a team of super heroes assaulting it. A violent conflict ensues with Impossible facing down the super team. This, though is not the point. Grossman uses the settings and super hero trappings merely as dressing. Dressing for a much richer and meatier exploration of what it means to be alienated. Remember back to your middle school or high school years, were you part of the in crowd? Were you one of those people who everyone was vying to sit with at lunch, hang out with after school, or even just be somewhat associated with in any way? It is likely you were not, even if you were I know you were troubled about just where you fit into things and how. This is the bulk of Grossman’s book. Exploring the emotions and feelings of alienation and being an outsider. What strange alchemical reaction turns some kids into ‘winners’ and others into ‘losers’? What damage does this do to their psyches? How long can it last? Most of us outgrow the sense of alienation or rejection we sensed in high school and earlier and at times the characters can appear juvenile for their continued existence in a world that largely ends once the growth spurts stop. But, perhaps this is more subtle commentary by Grossman, comics it seems have never grown up, nor have the characters that populate their pages. Perhaps those of us who reading them have yet to as well…

If you’re interested in checking it go to your local library, bookstore or check it out here at amazon. Mr. Grossman’s website can be found here.

Randomness…

Had a slight break-down tonight after getting back from work. Why, you ask? Mostly because I have no idea what I am doing with/in my life. It’s the truth, I feel drawn about 12 different ways, but I lack the motivation energy to go down any of these paths. As I sit here typing I’m asking myself when did I become so apathetic? Is this even apathy? Am I just lazy? Why am I writing boring stuff no one wants to read about? Did Snow White ever get with any of those dwarves? Were the dwarves gay? Was Snow White butch? I have to imagine a girl raised by seven gruff, smelly, half-men being really really butch. The farthest thing from a fairy tale princess I can imagine. Wearing cast off clothes, belching and cursing. Not to mention, bathing irregularly. Even with all that she was still prettier than her wicked step-mother? If that is the case the old hag must have been a real piece of work?! Why did a King, who could have any woman he wanted, pick a hideous (psychotic, shallow and vain too) hag for a wife? Maybe she had really good parenting skills? When of course it came to children other than Snow White…

You should check out the little blurb they have on the Snow White story over at Wikipedia. Follow the link because if you just try to skip to it in Firefox through the address bar it takes you straight to the page on Disney’s Snow White. In the original story the evil queen, was forced to wear heated iron shoes and then dance until she collapsed dead! That’s pretty fucked up… not that killing a child just because she looks better than you isn’t… Also the mirror started saying that Snow White looked better than the queen after Snow White turned seven!? Who thinks seven year olds are hot? According to Wiki, seven was the age a girl became a maiden. So all those maidens you read about in old books and fairy tales? All the beautiful princesses that are being romanced by and married to Princes? They are all jail bait. And those Princes? Pedophiles. Someone out there is saying it was a different time and a different place, yadda, yadda, yadda. If that is the case then there is no such thing as pedophilia. It’s just a cultural more, a subjective decision made at random. And we can’t judge them.

Another interesting note is that in most tellings of the folk tale, Snow White doesn’t end up with dwarves. That is only in the German version that the Brothers Grimm decided to write down. In all those other version it’s not some species of half-men that might not be attracted to the most beautiful maiden in the world… it’s a band of robbers. Desperate, on the lamb robbers. Are you telling me these “upstanding men of strong moral fiber” are going to respect (as a woman) the hottest piece of ass in the world, that just happened to be hand delivered to them, no strings attached? I don’t think so, which means in this lovely fairy tale, we have the first recorded pedophilic gang-bang story for children, I’m guessing it is the only one too.

And to end it in the oldest known writing down of this children’s story, it isn’t the step-mother. Nope it’s Snow White’s very own flesh and blood mother. This pillar of maternal duty doesn’t need a huntsmen either. Nope she can do her own dirty deeds. Taking her seven year old daughter into the woods to pick flowers and leaving her there. Not being a to give in either, after she discovers her daughter didn’t die. She goes back to finish the job. Once by strangling her (using a corset), then by using a poisoned comb, and then the poisoned apple. Third times a charm.

Maybe she did deserve to dance ’til she died as her feet slowly cooked in red hot iron shoes.

Oh, and did I mention that folk tales totally kick ass. I could so return to this topic over and over.

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