Pen to Paper

I’ve come across a few articles recently that reminded me of a book I read last year – Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.  Last winter it was part of the GeekNights book club, and I’d just moved to a state where I didn’t know anyone so I had plenty of time on my hands.

The title characters – Joe and Sam – start as kids and grow into major figures during the birth of the comics industry.  If I remember right, they’re cousins – but don’t hold me to that.  So far as I know, the characters are imagined.  The settings, however, are exceptionally real.

I’m trying to think what a list of keywords would include, and it’s pretty eclectic – comics, Jewish Americans, World War II, escape artist, golem, homosexuality (and, incidentally, this book is a better treatment on “homosexuality in an intolerant culture” than the movie Brokeback Mountain).

I enjoyed reading Kavalier & Clay, and the fact that it keeps coming back to me speaks well for it.  If you’re interested in the creative process or comics, or just good literature, you might want to check it out.

Trope of the Day: Iron Woobie – you know the guy you feel sorry for because life keeps dumping on them, but they nobly press on?  This is that guy.

For an hour and a half tonight, Neil Gaiman told me stories. It was beautiful.

There were a few hundred other people there, too.

Funny thing – it took me 45 minutes to drive there during rush hour, and about 12 to get home (if that).

He was as charming speaking as he is on his blog. Gaiman is an exceptionally talented person, but has a real air of humility about him (even saying something “I won a Newberry last year”) (which was followed with a digressing into how knowing the definition of “claptrap” ruins all speeches forever), you sense this is just an introduction to something else he wants to say, not a demand for praise and attention.

During the Q&A (”I will be doing the A,” Gaiman clarified), several people asked far more interesting questions that I could think of (or questions I thought of, but hadn’t phrased interestingly in my mind), and one little girl asked a simple question but was so cute we all loved her for it (and it gave Gaiman the opportunity to use more self-deprecating humor). The 2nd question, though, started off with “I’m also a writer…” and turned into the frustrating “I’m having trouble writing and want advice, can I tell you what the story’s about?…” Gaiman handled it far better than I would have, though, using it as an opportunity to get some great advice about writing in general.

So, yes. I spent an hour and a half with one of my man-crushes tonight. And a few hundred other people.

I just read And Another Thing…, the latest installment in the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy trilogy. The whole thing was awesome, and I highly recommend it. There was one quote in particular I wanted to share because it made me giddy.

Most craft give a nod, however brief and unfriendly, toward beauty. Vogon ships did not nod toward beauty. The pulled on ski masks and mugged beauty in a dark alley.

This was the first Eoin Colfer book I’ve read. It won’t be the last.

Assuming a Vogon deconstructor fleet doesn’t deatomize me before I get the chance.

…Jim Butcher’s Turn Coat. It’s the most recent book in The Dresden Files, a series about another (much more awesome) wizard named Harry. I came across a bit that hit close to home.

“…at the end of the day you obsess about having everything ordered the way you want it.” … She smirked. “The problem is that your bastion of order is sort of tough to coexist with.”

“I have no bastions. I am bastionless.”

“Hah,” Murphy said. “You like the same car, the same apartment, the same restaurant. You like not needing to answer to anyone, and doing the jobs your conscience dictates you should do, without worrying about the broader issues the involve. You hang out, fairly happy without much in the way of material wealth and follow your instincts, and be damned to anyone who tells you otherwise. That’s your order.”

Granted, I am not a wizard private investigator. It still reminds me a bit of myself.

I’ve recently had a couple friends give me books to read. I thought I’d pass on the favor.

The Shack

The first was The Shack by William P. Young. Young gives us the story of a man who has an incredible encounter. Mack, a man stricken with grief for several years, receives a note inviting him back to the scene of his deepest personal tragedy. He goes, and finds the note is from God him(her)self. The next few days are full of both personal and theological discovery for Mack.

I found The Shack to be a powerful and challenging read. I don’t think that Young presents a complete picture of God, but I don’t think he gives an incorrect picture either. This is, instead, a snapshot. The God character points out several times that Mack’s perspective needs to be corrected; that is the point of the weekend and the book. Just as no one can fully understand God, no book can capture him. I’m alright with that – anything that is understood loses some of its power (think of the shark in Jaws – much scarier before you see it). It helps to remember this while reading The Shack. Several times I found myself starting to disagree with Young, only to realize that my picture of God needed to be expanded as well.

Science Fiction

The second book I was recently recommended is Science Fiction, a 1973 anthology edited by Sylvia Z. Brodkin and Elizabeth J. Pearson. When my friend Jon handed it to me, he said, “I found this book at a library book sale when I was in middle school. It’s the book that made me realize how great science fiction could be.” He added, “This is basically my science fiction bible.”

Science Fiction contains short stories, poems, and a variety of artwork. I’m about three-quarters through the book, and so far it’s pretty amazing. Many of the stories fall into the classic sci-fi-tragedy category. That is to say, the message is “All these scientific accomplishments, at the cost of our humanity.”

Contributors to the anthology include Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke, among many others. If you can find it, I highly recommend checking this out.