Great Books Update
The summer really slowed my progress on the great books resolution. Or perhaps more accurately, it brought it to a screeching halt. Since my last post I've only finished one Shakespearean play and one inarguable 'great' book. So I'm going to highlight some of the highlights, as it were.
Tom Robbins - Jitterbug Perfume. This is apparently popular with my Facebook friends, as a quote from it garnered 6 'likes' and 12 comments. I had not read any of his other books, but I really enjoyed it.
I read the first two trades of The Boys, which is an ongoing comic by Garth Ennis (Preacher) and Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan). Ennis famously promised that the series would 'out-Preacher Preacher' in terms of pushing the envelope. The first volume did a pretty good job of that; it slyly dissects the superhero genre (especially the Justice League) while throwing in the kinds of filthy things that Ennis is famous for. The second volume definitely fell off in quality. The filthy things now seem to have been tacked on for the sake of having filthy things instead of being important parts of the story. I'll still read the third volume once the library gets it, but I'm not buying them.
A number of years ago xhollydayx got me a copy of England's Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond. I finally worked my way through this comprehensive history of the Sex Pistols and the British punk movement over the summer, and let me tell you it was work. Some sections go lightning quick, but much of it is a slog through a mountain of well sourced detail. It's interesting and will tell you everything about the Sex Pistols, but is really only for die-hard punks.
We saw the movie, then I read the novella of Breakfast at Tiffany's. I liked them both, but I personally thought the novellas ending was much truer to the character of Holly Golightly. On the other hand, the film had Moon River. I call it a push.
I returned to Shakespeare. Henry VI Part I was next in the chronological order. You'll note that if current prevailing opinion of the history boffins can be trusted, the order the plays appeared was as follow:
Henry VI Part II (aka, "The First Part of the Contention")
Henry VI Part III (aka, Richard, Duke of York)
and then and only then Henry VI Part I.
If this is true, it's evidence that the current Hollywood formula of "Hit, Sequel, Prequel" has old antecedents indeed. And like most prequels in this formula, it's not very good compared to the original or the sequel. A lot more happens in those two plays, and it makes a lot more sense. H6P1 has lots of combat, but it's pretty basic. Joan of Arc shows up and kicks ass for a while before getting her own ass kicked. Some seeds are sown for the war of the Roses to fully kick off. It makes a lot more sense if it's immediately followed by H6P2.
Next up, Shakespeare jumps to another sequel with Richard III, which would immediately follow H6P3 in the chronology. Don't worry, we're going to have go back to prequels with Henry V (Parts 1 & 2), plus Henry V and several others to come.
Finally, I knocked off a short biography of Shakespeare by Bill Bryson titled Shakespeare: the World as Stage. The primary reason it is short is that, as Bryson acknowledges, undisputed facts about Shakespeare are few and far between. Indeed, most of the 190+ pages is spent shredding apart the assertions that prior biographers have made sans evidence. It's staggering how little we actually know about the man, and yes, Bryson addresses the "who was Shakespeare" and "was Shakespeare bi?" rumors.
Like all Bryson, this book is eminently enjoyable; the effect is much more like having a long chat with a favorite professor than reading a book. I particularly enjoyed the bit about the University of Nebraska English professor who went a little nuts in 1900 and decided that the best way to find stuff about Shakespeare was to read through all extant legal records from his era. So he and his wife moved to London and did so for the best part of a decade. They read thousands and thousands of documents and found more than 120 pages of records about Shakespeare, nearly doubling the total known. That's nuts enough, but then they moved home, where the professor became convinced that he could detect oil merely by looking at land. He spent every penny he had on 160 acres... which turned out to have the richest oil strike ever found in that state up to that point. He died a very rich man. Life, it's messed up. Anyway, read Bryson. This book is a great entry point; it's only 200 pages and it flies by.
And the resolution keeps on rolling, just a little slower than before. 84 books and counting on the year, 20 of which were graphic novels.
Tom Robbins - Jitterbug Perfume. This is apparently popular with my Facebook friends, as a quote from it garnered 6 'likes' and 12 comments. I had not read any of his other books, but I really enjoyed it.
I read the first two trades of The Boys, which is an ongoing comic by Garth Ennis (Preacher) and Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan). Ennis famously promised that the series would 'out-Preacher Preacher' in terms of pushing the envelope. The first volume did a pretty good job of that; it slyly dissects the superhero genre (especially the Justice League) while throwing in the kinds of filthy things that Ennis is famous for. The second volume definitely fell off in quality. The filthy things now seem to have been tacked on for the sake of having filthy things instead of being important parts of the story. I'll still read the third volume once the library gets it, but I'm not buying them.
A number of years ago xhollydayx got me a copy of England's Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond. I finally worked my way through this comprehensive history of the Sex Pistols and the British punk movement over the summer, and let me tell you it was work. Some sections go lightning quick, but much of it is a slog through a mountain of well sourced detail. It's interesting and will tell you everything about the Sex Pistols, but is really only for die-hard punks.
We saw the movie, then I read the novella of Breakfast at Tiffany's. I liked them both, but I personally thought the novellas ending was much truer to the character of Holly Golightly. On the other hand, the film had Moon River. I call it a push.
I returned to Shakespeare. Henry VI Part I was next in the chronological order. You'll note that if current prevailing opinion of the history boffins can be trusted, the order the plays appeared was as follow:
Henry VI Part II (aka, "The First Part of the Contention")
Henry VI Part III (aka, Richard, Duke of York)
and then and only then Henry VI Part I.
If this is true, it's evidence that the current Hollywood formula of "Hit, Sequel, Prequel" has old antecedents indeed. And like most prequels in this formula, it's not very good compared to the original or the sequel. A lot more happens in those two plays, and it makes a lot more sense. H6P1 has lots of combat, but it's pretty basic. Joan of Arc shows up and kicks ass for a while before getting her own ass kicked. Some seeds are sown for the war of the Roses to fully kick off. It makes a lot more sense if it's immediately followed by H6P2.
Next up, Shakespeare jumps to another sequel with Richard III, which would immediately follow H6P3 in the chronology. Don't worry, we're going to have go back to prequels with Henry V (Parts 1 & 2), plus Henry V and several others to come.
Finally, I knocked off a short biography of Shakespeare by Bill Bryson titled Shakespeare: the World as Stage. The primary reason it is short is that, as Bryson acknowledges, undisputed facts about Shakespeare are few and far between. Indeed, most of the 190+ pages is spent shredding apart the assertions that prior biographers have made sans evidence. It's staggering how little we actually know about the man, and yes, Bryson addresses the "who was Shakespeare" and "was Shakespeare bi?" rumors.
Like all Bryson, this book is eminently enjoyable; the effect is much more like having a long chat with a favorite professor than reading a book. I particularly enjoyed the bit about the University of Nebraska English professor who went a little nuts in 1900 and decided that the best way to find stuff about Shakespeare was to read through all extant legal records from his era. So he and his wife moved to London and did so for the best part of a decade. They read thousands and thousands of documents and found more than 120 pages of records about Shakespeare, nearly doubling the total known. That's nuts enough, but then they moved home, where the professor became convinced that he could detect oil merely by looking at land. He spent every penny he had on 160 acres... which turned out to have the richest oil strike ever found in that state up to that point. He died a very rich man. Life, it's messed up. Anyway, read Bryson. This book is a great entry point; it's only 200 pages and it flies by.
And the resolution keeps on rolling, just a little slower than before. 84 books and counting on the year, 20 of which were graphic novels.