I don’t generally post about comics, but something just happened which is so marvelous that I had to. First, let me give you a little background. I have loved Catwoman since I was a little girl. I loved that she was a supervillan, and a thief. I have every issue of the Catwoman comic, and I have to admit that recently, I haven’t really been reading them. Catwoman got a rehaul a while back, and while I loved her new look, her new “more on the side of a hero” thing kind of got to me. I don’t have a problem with her being an ambivalent character, but she was saving people more than she was stealing stuff. In the words of Tina Turner, I don’t need another hero.

Well, I read the two most recent issues, and WOO HOO! First, some more background. (Be patient, this is going somewhere.) In a mini-series that I really didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to (Identity Crisis), it was revealed that Dr. Light, one of the good guys, did something very very bad in the past, and as a result, the Justice League wiped his memory and made him a good guy. They also, I believe, (I told you, I didn’t really pay a lot of attention) wiped Batman’s memory of them wiping Dr. Light’s memory when he objected. (Something that really should come back to haunt them, because you just don’t do that to Batman.)

So what does that have to do with Catwoman? In a stroke of brilliance by DC editors and writers, the Justice League, in all it’s high and mighter than thou glory, decided to wipe Catwoman’s mind too, and make her a good guy. (Batman, of course, wasn’t there, and is pissed when he finds out.) Zatanna feels guilty and comes clean, and now Catwoman has an identity crisis of her own on her hands. What’s motivating her to do good? Is she a cold blooded villan or a humanitarian? This is fantastic, this is what I want to see. And not just the question of Catwoman, but on a broader scale, who are the good guys, and who are the bad guys? Is it ok to force someone to be good, or does that make you bad? Are actions enough to determine who you are? These are great questions, and by asking them, the superhero genre is being used to its potential, not just as an excuse to show fighting. Bravo, DC, bravo.

I quit reading Warp. Maybe it’s just the mood I’ve been in, but it was way too Kevin Smith for me. No insult to Kevin Smith, honestly, I just prefer my “people hanging around saying witty things” to have a little more to the story than just the witty sayings. Let’s just say I prefer Oscar Wilde to Kevin Smith and leave it at that. Warp fell more on the Smith side of things, some funny pop culture commentary, but nothing was happening, so I gave up. I’ll go back to it when I’m in a different mood. If I still have it from the library.

In its place I picked up Ambient by Jack Womack, a book I’ve read before. I was inspired to pick it up because of… something. Some TV show or movie that now I don’t recall. But I was glad I was prompted to do so because it’s been a while since I read it, and I really enjoyed it.

The world of Ambient and its sequels is a future that’s gone out of control. Businesses rule everything, violence and chaos reign, and the world waits for the second coming of Elvis. (Ok, that sounds hokey, but it fits right into the context of it all.) It’s a bit like if Warren Ellis’ Transmetropolitan were made into a series of novels, told from the perspective of a working stiff just trying to survive. The language is as inventive as that in A Clockwork Orange, and it’s impressive in its completeness and coherence. Once you get used to it it’s more streamlined and poetic than regular English. For example:

“She was a dream, printed and punched; the woman you brought home to mother, if mother was home. Mine was dead. To be so evernear while everfar set my feelings on hair trigger; were I a moth I would have freely sizzled in her light.”

“Dryco piefingered every major country, stuck both hands deep into America.”

And it’s all like that.

The story is told by Seamus, a body guard for one of the most powerful CEOs in the country. He’s convinced to kill the CEO’s father (by the CEO himself), and things go terribly awry for a number of reasons, and Seamus ends up finding out the truth behind all number of societal secrets. There’s a huge number of twists and turns I’m leaving out, but that’s the main plot. The Ambients of the title are a subculture of citizens, affected by radiation in the womb, who were born with a spectrum of physical deformities. Their parents died of the radiation poisoning, and so they have grouped together, gathering others to their cause, leading those who sympathise with them to mutilate their bodies in solidarity as outsiders. Seamus’ sister is an Ambient by choice (she has nails implanted into her head), and he ends up turning to them for help as the story goes on, and ultimately finding out the secret behind their creation.

Anyway, the book is really good, and I think I may have to read it’s sequel Elvissey again. People sent into an alternate universe where Elvis never died, with the intent to bring him back so that everyone will think he’s returned and is supporting one particular company? Brilliant.

Current total: 8
Just finished: Ambient by Jack Womack
Next Up: don’t know yet

I finished Urn Burial by Kerry Greenwood, and in comparison to the book I posted about last, it is my kind of mystery. It’s complicated, there’s lots of potential suspects, everyone has a secret, and by the end, the end makes sense.

Phryne Fisher, the illustrious heroine, is invited to her friends’ home for a house party. As she and her entourage arrive, they hear a gunshot, and a woman scream, and then come across a terrified young woman running through the woods. She’s a maid from the home to which they’re headed, and once they get there, things just get more strange. Phryne’s friend is recieving threatening notes, and attempts are being made on his life. When the river overflows and blocks the house party from leaving, they’re all trapped on the estate with a killer. There’s blackmail, murder, and urns that keep showing up in the strangest places.

On top of the mystery part of it all, Greenwood manages again to fit in realistic references to 1920′s culture; for example, she doesn’t create an ideal world where everyone at the party welcomes Phryne’s Chinese companions without any qualms- the guests’ reactions are realistically discriminatory, and their ultimate turnaround is believable.

This is a fine addition to the series, and I can’t wait for the reprint of the next one.

Current total: 7
Just finished: Urn Burial by Kerry Greenwood
Currently Reading: Warp by Lev Grossman

Back ages ago, I posted about my disappointment in Alexander McCall Smith’s series of mysteries set in Africa. Well, technically my disappointment in the first one, since I didn’t go on to read the others. I felt at the time (and still do) that it was a matter of misplaced expectation- I went into the book expecting it to be one thing, and was disconcerted when it proved to be something different altogether.

I had the same problem with his most recent book, Friends, Lovers, and Chocolate. This is the second in his “Sunday Philosopher’s Club” series, the first one of which I liked but didn’t love. This one I smartly borrowed from the library (I can learn, sometimes it just takes time!).

When I sit down to read a mystery, I want a mystery. I want a crime that needs to be solved, and I want a detective, and I want clues, and I want resolution. If it’s possible for me to solve the mystery along the way, then all the better, but that’s not strictly required. But the crime/detective/clues/resolution quartet is pretty much a must, and I don’t think it’s too much to ask.

This book started out well enough, we have an already established detective, and though she’s a bit snooty for my taste, if she solves problems then she’s ok. The “crime” in question is nebulous- all we know is that a man had a heart transplant and is now having visions of a face, accompanied by intense pain in his upper torso. Was the donor murdered? Seems so. So we have a detective, and we have what is an actually pretty intriguing crime. And this is where it falls apart. Because instead of clues, we have meandering meditations on the philosophical ramifications of different actions, two thwarted love stories, discussions of wine, cheese,and chocolate, and finally, after all of that, a resolution that comes out of nowhere and that given what it took to get there, is somewhat frustrating. If there had been clues, if there had been anything pointing in that direction it would have been acceptable, but as it was… it just didn’t do it for me. It was as though the mystery was simply an excuse to write about a million other things, and really, if you want to write about a million other things, then just do that. Don’t frame it in the context of a mystery if you’re not going to give the mystery full play.

Rant over.

Now I’m reading Urn Burial by Kerry Greenwood, and am so far enjoying it immensely.

Current total: 6
Just finished: Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith
Currently Reading: Urn Burial by Kerry Greenwood

I love Colette. She has a writing style and voice that are comfortable and comforting, and even translated from French, her words have nuance and poetry. (I’m assuming that’s not just due to the translator; I’m guessing that the nuance and poetry is in the French version too.)

Her regular “voice” is that of a French girl (or woman) as they go through the travails of love and life, and it’s a very intimate, personal voice. Even when her stories center on young men (like her Cheri series), the young man is rather feminized or takes a feminine role (ie. Cheri being a kept boy).

Ripening Seed is different, in that the voice is more male, less introspective. The narrator is Phillip, a young man of almost 17 who has loved his friend Vinca since they were children. As their families spend the summer together as they do every year, Phillip and Vinca notice the awkwardness that age is putting into their relationship. Too old to play innocently, too young to get married, they exist in a no mans land, in a time before a teenager was something to be. Phillip ends up in an affair with an older woman, and this potential destroyer of his relationship with Vinca is at the center of the book.

As I said above, the voice for this book is completely different than anything I’ve read of Colette’s to this point, which actually is an awful lot. It’s done well, and I’m not complaining, it just caught me by suprise, and I actually checked the inside cover to make sure that it was the same Colette, and not someone with Colette as a last name. I didn’t really need to check, as there were little stylistic things that betrayed Colette as the author, but it was still a change, and startling.

The end of the book is poignant and well done, and made me glad that this story was told in Phillip’s voice, and that we saw the events through his eyes. If it had been Vinca it would have been the same story that Colette has told before, and this switch made it fresh and new.

Current total: 5
Just Finished: Ripening Seed by Colette
Next Up: Urn Burial by Kerry Greenwood

I’m still pondering Nosferatu by Paul Monette. It’s based on the 1979 screenplay of the same name by Werner Herzog, so Monette isn’t the one who came up with the story, which is quite different than Stoker’s original, but he is the one responsible for the evocative, downright spooky writing.

The story is roughly the same as Stoker’s Dracula, in that there is a man who goes to Transylvania to sell a count a house. The count is actually a vampire, who takes the man captive and then moves to the man’s hometown where he turns other people into vampires, including the man’s wife. That is, however, where the similarities end.

Nosferatu reads like what’s called in the comics world an “Elseworld”, where settings and characters are twisted around and then let loose. In this version, Jonathan Harker’s (the man in the above scenario) wife is called Lucy, not Mina, but she acts somewhat like Stoker’s Mina. The character called Mina is Lucy’s sister in law, and is quite a bit of a wench. Renfeld is Jonathan’s boss, and Dr. Van Helsing runs the sanatorium. The other male characters are missing, and the final showdown happens in the hometown, not after them having traveled again to Transylvania. The biggest Elseworlds change is that Dracula’s ultimate “invasion” is in the form of the plague.

Where Stoker’s Dracula was full of sexual symbolism and undertones, Nosferatu focuses on the religious. Instead of being the open, sexual being that she is in Stoker’s book, Mina (Lucy in the original) is pious and rigid in her beliefs. This leaves her as open to Dracula’s advances as her wantonness did in the original. The vampire myth’s perversion of the Christ story is pointed out, (the offer of everlasting life, return from the dead, the blood is the life…) and used to good effect.

The ending of the book is what has me puzzled, however. Throughout the story, Lucy uses the strength of her love to combat the darkness that she senses is coming. It fends off Dracula’s attacks, and saves her husband. But when she makes the ultimate sacrifice to save everyone, not just her husband and herself, her efforts are successful, but ultimately in vain as Renfeld leaves carrying the vampiric plague, and Jonathan remembers nothing of her sacrifice and heads back to the mountains that tried to claim his soul. Given the religious themes of the story, this leads me to believe that the thesis is that God and religion can’t save man, because man just doesn’t listen. Numerous times warnings are given, visions are seen, and either they are misinterpreted or dismissed by those who could solve the problem. Lucy sacrifices her life to save humanity (ie. Christ), and it doesn’t make a difference, and no one cares. It seems not to be saying that God is incapable of saving man, but that man won’t let Him, won’t go along with the plan.

It’s an interesting thesis, and one I need to think about more to determine if it’s really what’s being said. Regardless, the book is very well written, very dark, and very enjoyable.

Current total: 4
Just finished: Nosferatu by Paul Monette
Next Up: Ripening Seed by Colette

There was a question posed in the comments of the last post, which I answer here because it strikes me that some guys may not know about this subject. (And because I find it funny.)

Sometimes adolescent girls are self concious about how they “fill out” their clothing, especially their tops. Sometimes these girls (especially in books) decide to do something about that by padding the area in question with tissues or socks. Sometimes (especially in books) if the result is less than natural looking, they will use baggies of water, or, in one ill advised instance (see post below), baggies of minestrone soup. This ruse will generally work in situations where no one will be closely inspecting the area in question. But, if for example, someone gets grabby at a socially crucial party, the results can be mighty embarrassing; especially in the case of the baggies of minestrone soup.

This information is not given in an attempt to excuse anyone from reading the book posted about below now that they know what falsies are, but instead to encourage reading of it in droves, because it’s so darn funny.

I’m now reading Nosferatu by Paul Monette, which is a retelling of the Dracula story. It’s good so far, the changes that have been made are interesting, and I want to see to what end exactly the changes were made. More on it when I finish.

Girl, 15, Charming but Insane by Sue Limb is darling. It’s your typical YA plotline: girl (Jess) underestimates herself, pines after boy (Ben), finds love; but it’s clever and funny and sweet. And it includes minestrone filled falsies exploding at a socially crucial party. There’s even an incriminating videotape that’s scheduled to be shown to most of the school… in fact, it’s kind of reminiscent of Chynna Clugston’s Blue Monday series, but without the swearing.

I have a new favorite character in Fred, the best friend Ducky character that Jess should be with. Whether she ends up with him I won’t say, but it is a YA book, so you can make your assumptions from there. Apparently there’s a sequel out, which I’m anxious to find; these characters are just too funny and sweet to leave for long.

Current total: 3
Just finished: Girl, 15, Charming but Insane
Next Up: Don’t know yet