[Portraits from Life, David Collier & Paul Arthur, first half]

I'm really not sure what to say about this book so far. My initial impression was, Oh, wow, this is boring. I hope I can make it through. I didn't, entirely. I've got a tiny bit more to finish before class. And yeah, it's still boring. The subject material just doesn't interest me, I guess. I'm not thrilled to read about old people and the Canadian wilderness. Sorry.

I googled the book, and I found out that, yes, these are real people that he's writing about, just with his own twist or opinion. It's a shame, too, because his grandfather is what "Getting Dead" is about, and he actually sounds fascinating. If the story was all about his time in the military, I'd be interested. I wouldn't be yawning my through it at 4 in the morning.

Just. It's dull. I'm sorry. Blankets had a different structure, and the story flowed smoothly and, well, interestingly. Watchmen had superheroes. V for Vendetta had anarchy (and explosions). Portraits from Life has nothing but old men and old-school Canada. I'm not bashing either, I just don't care about either, and I doubt I'm the only one. If this were a straight-up book, I doubt I'd've made it ten pages in.


In other scholarly news, I started to expand an old idea for a "short" story I have due Wednesday. It's supposed to be 12-20 pages long. I'm happy if I get 1000 words normally (four pages). It's going to be about assassins, eventually, and I want it to be a business. Like an assassin business. It runs like a normal office building, and has a front as a publishing company (I think), but, secretly, they kill people. It'll probably be black comedy, or something like that. I'm excited about it, but it's literally causing me to lose sleep.

["Book 3" from V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore and David Lloyd]

On page 196, V quotes William Butler Yeats poem, saying, "This is not anarchy, Eve. This is chaos... 'Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer. Things fall apart... The centre cannot hold.'"

I actually had to analyze the poem, "The Second Coming," earlier this semester for my English 285 (Post-Colonial Lit) class. Here it is in its full-text:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre*

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

We discussed its relation to Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart, and to colonization's effects in general. Alan Moore didn't pick it wrongly, either; it definitely applies to V for Vendetta. The "widening gyre" bit can symbolize time falling in on itself, which is directly related to anarchy: the government in the novel is falling in on itself, as well as its hold on the people. "The falcon cannot hear the falconer" symbolizes that the people cannot hear their Leader/leaders. Obviously, "the centre cannot hold" is a direct reference to the central government being unable to hold together and/or to hold power.


*gyres (n.): 1. (as used by Yeats) two, spiraling geometic forms (cones, technically) that intersect; symbolizes the inevitable movement of time; everything (all time and space) is contained with the gyres; used to represent dualities (like peace vs. war) 2. (as used by Lewis Carroll) used in "Jabberwocky" and Through the Looking Glass; Humpty Dumpty says that a gyre goes "round and round like a gyroscope"

[Alan Moore and David Lloyd's V for Vendetta, Book Two]

Of all the things that were changed for the film, I'm incredibly glad to learn that the Valerie bit is still in there. It's very powerful in the movie, the story of her and her lover, and it's important in the novel as well. Moore uses individuals to show what the changes to England have done. With V, Evey, and Valeria, we get an up-close-and-personal look at not only people with the letter "V" prominent in their names, but how the takeover has impacted everyday people. It makes the entire story more realistic (and thus scarier).

I might add more to that later. For now, check out this wicked graphic that took forever to do for my manifesto:

I had to go through and use a select tool to get all of the blood before I could desaturate everything else. This meant zooming in to 800x and hand-and-wrist pain. See, my wireless mouse won't work with my laptop, since my laptop is pitifully broken. Even if it would work, I don't want to go hunt it down. God only knows where it's run off from. The picture is a still frame of a dead Russian from The Boondock Saints. Those are pennies over his eyes (the fare for passing the River Styx, y'know?). He was shot in the back of the head, so the bullet exitwounds are through his eyes, just to be clear. It turned out pretty cartoon-y with the blood, which is good since that was my intention (cartoons to comics to graphic novels).

["Book One" of V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd]

Yes, this is a day late. Sorry! It's a discussion of Lewis Prothero in the graphic novel vs. Lewis Prothero in the film.

[ch. 7-9 of Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud]

Since John brought it up, and it still relates to visual media, obviously, here's the Gnarls Barkley video for Crazy:


And yes, I am trying to psychoanalyze all of you, even though I don't know how to properly do so. I think some of the reason I don't stare too hard at the ink blots is because so many of them do look like insects. (I have a grave fear of insects. Not spiders, just bugs. We're talking phobia-level fear, here.)

McCloud is still his wacky and crazy self for this section. I have to say I feel bad for his wife (and child!) in the last panel, though. It's like, seriously? That's kind of sick. It looks like he's neglecting his family. Also, toward the end, he experiments with a manga-type style. I honestly like the manga style; I've barely read any, just what my friend(s) have forced on me, but it's prettier. It seems more well done than a lot of "realistic" American comics. Maybe I just like how're they actual books more so than comics? I'm not sure.

[ch. 5-12 of Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons]

In honor of Rorschach and his experience in chapter 6 with the Rorschach ink tests, I'm posting some blot paintings Andy Warhol did. By the way, seeing Rorschach/Kovac's real face? Yeah, he should wear the mask, no question, and, hi, didn't need to see the dogs bloodied. Very unnecessary.

See, my issue with these is I never really see anything in them.

This one's a little Tim Burton-y. But still, I just think, Oh, hey, symmetry.

Yellow!

Seahorses maybe? Except not really, and I'm struggling to make anything of it.

More colors.

I don't know. I'm apparently not cut out for these. I don't think I lack in creativity, but eh. They're supposed to evaluate personality characteristics. So the fact that I see nothing in them means either, a) I have no personality OR b) I refuse to give anyone anything they can psychoanalyze me with.

Mostly I think the tests are creepy looking because of the crawling black ink overlapping again and again. It's like a flurry of movement trapped in some single moment.

What I really want to know is what YOU see in them? Can anyone out there actually make pictures out of the mess?

On an Ending of Watchmen note, I loved the scenes of utter destruction toward the end, in chapter 12. The apocalyptic nature of it all. Just that hopelessness, it's engaging.

[chapters 5-6 of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics]



Scott McCloud giving a presentation. His PowerPoint is more interesting than me talking about his book. Funnily enough, it's also more interesting than the book.



A mock interview with "Scott McCloud." Around 1:45, the fake!Scott talks about people using Understanding Comics in classrooms. "He" then goes on to talks about why comics and graphic novels are important for people other than kids. It's pretty base knowledge, but it's interesting. (And Lovecraft is mentioned! I've read some Lovecraft adaptations, and they're pretty sweet.)

In chapter six, though, it gets a little cool, I have to admit, because he talks about showing vs. telling. As a Rhetoric/Creative Writing major, Cinema Studies minor, I'm pretty damn used to hearing "show don't tell." Of course, that means, with creative writing, that you're still writing, but you're showing how John is angry, not just saying, "John is angry."

Chapter five discusses the "art of the invisible" and images being able to provoke emotions. I don't know what to add to that, but there it is.