The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Review

5 out of 5 stars

-          Superbly written

-          Entertaining

-          Hard to put down

-          Strong Female protagonist

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is one of many international bestsellers that I over looked a first; I thought it was something different.  I don’t mean different in a good way, I mean that because of the title I judged it to be a pseudo-romance novel at first; I was wrong. Not only is this book worthy of the acclaim it has garnered but it has gone on my recommendation list for anyone looking for a good read

Huckleberry Finn Controversy

Hello dear readers

I am close to finishing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and am in the process of watching Let Me in; you would be surprised at the fact that I am having trouble with that one.  We’ll get to that when I get to my review of it.  No, I’m not here to talk about books that I have reviewed or will be reviewing I’m here to talk about a book that is considered a classic by many.  Not all but many; the removal of the N-word from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  In the original version it is mentioned 219 times; and why? Because during that time it was accepted as the word for black person.

This day and age have seen many politically correct movements. Movements to ban the n-word, the word retard, or any racially derogatory word from our vocabulary.  I can’t say I agree with it, because really the only people who give a word power are people who pay attention to it; and yes I realize by writing what I write in this entry I will be giving the word power. However, at the same time I feel it needs to be said, or at least reiterated as over the past few days it has been trending on twitter, and within my own circle of personal friends on facebook I have gotten ten or eleven replies when I linked the article which I will give you at the end of this article.  Why I feel the need to speak about this is because of my love of history and the need for understanding.

First off, I get why this is happening; let’s face it the N-word is offensive but it is only offensive to those who let it be offensive, and by banishing the word itself you won’t get what you want. As a matter of fact you will give it more power:the power of fear.  Which is what the racists who use it want. I also understand the professor’s need to keep the classic relevant but mark twain himself was quoted as saying “A classic is a book that everyone praises but nobody reads. “ So by trying to keep it relevant you are going against the author’s wishes.  Now this isn’t the first time this has happened; but when it usually happens it’s just in the way that we as a literary public see the work.  Take for example Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 which the educated public think is a tirade on censorship, but in the author’s eyes it was actually the new invention of the Television overtaking reading; looking at the literacy rates in this country alone, it speaks volumes to Bradbury’s purpose more than censorship.

Truth be told, I’m surprised they haven’t tried this before. I’m not one for political correctness, I think being politically correct is giving more power to those who are actively seeking to harm us but that’s my view and I’m in the minority; but, this action alone is not political correctness, it is outright censorship.  The thing is like I said the N-word was not the word it is today, nor is the south.  I speak from living in the south myself.  We aren't the backward people you think we are; hell in Huntsville, Alabama my birth town we have more rocket scientists than rednecks.  But back when Twain published this book(1884) it was accepted. As a matter of fact, it was published as a satire of society then; I’m not trying to say that the word isn’t powerful because let’s face it, it is.  What I’m saying is by taking the word out; your giving it even more power.  Twain meant it to be a dark mirror for us in the south to look at; it was meant to be a way to look at the past and our actions and simply be appalled at it.  If it was offending you well he did his job.  Of course with this it opens a whole slew of possibilities up all of which make me rather freaking scared.

With this does this mean that no  book on the public domain is safe? Can I go back and make a pro-socialist 1984?  What about taking Dante’s Divine Comedy and making it more in line with scripture? Or as one of my closest friends that is a girl put it: “Does this mean I can go back and make the bible more pro-women? You want to make a friendlier version of Huck Finn? Fine take Mark Twain’s name off of it; hell one of the “Quirk” classics that I talked about a while back is named “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the Zombie Jim” and you know how much I railed on those! This right here makes me afraid. It makes me look at us and wonder are we really heading down the right path? To those who will say; “well it’s not going to catch on they won’t use it in school” that’s one of this man’s goals! He doesn’t want the classic forgotten, which hey I can applaud that but doing this is just sullying the name of Samuel “Mark Twain” Clemons.  That my friend is what pisses me off.

Upcoming NewSouth "Huck Finn" Eliminates N-Word

Let The Right One In Part II Movie

4 out of 5 Stars

Pros                          

-          Excellent acting and directing

-          Written by the author

-          Visually pleasing

Cons

-          Some areas are rushed through or glossed over

Oskar a 12 year-old bullied boy finds comfort in the arms of Eli a child vampire.

Let The Right One In Part I Book

4 Out of 5 Stars

Pros

-          Great action

-          Suspenseful Read

-          Genuinely Creepy

-          Sticks to the classic rules of Vampirism while molding some new one

-          Characters you actually care about

Cons                                                              

-          Constant jumping point of views

-          Too Many side characters

Oskar is a boy who doesn’t fit in is obsessed by murder and confused; one day when he comes home he finds that someone new has moved into town.  A girl, her name is Eli she has seemingly moved in with her parents and is strange.  Oskar is fascinated by his new acquaintance; they become fast friends, but when he finds out Eli’s secret will it last?

Stop fucking with Classics

Incoming literary geek rant


Turn away now if not interested in listening


Ok, I get the zombie craze. I know how it started, (Shaun of the Dead, World War Z), have no problem with that or one or two of the books, although it does cause this innate reaction in me that just came out when was pointed to the fact that Mike White has been signed on to direct Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Forgiving for a second that the title should have been altered to Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies (I know the original title of the book was the reason that it’s titled that way).  Also forgiving the fact that no kid or teenager, and that’s what these are marketed at in an attempt to get them to read the classics, has ever read the originals (which is a crime even I am punishable for). Why the hell are there so many? I mean look at this list:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
Pride Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H Winters
Jane Slayre by Sherri Browning Erwin

And those are just four out of twenty or so books that are mash-ups of classic literature that are dealing with anything from zombies to sea monsters, I don’t get it I really don’t, it seems it started out as a freaking fan-fiction exercise and turned into a fully fledged genre, as a matter of fact here’s a quote from the New York Times about the phenomenon and its primary publisher: Quirk books:

“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has spent eight months on the New York Times best-seller list, spawned several imitators and injected some fresh blood -- and male readers -- into an Austen industry dominated by gauzy romances. Goodbye, The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy. Hello, Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and Dawn of the Dreadfuls, a prequel to Zombies that lists Austen as an author despite the lack of what Hollywood types refer to as "participation."”

Now don’t get me wrong; I can kind of get it; you want to bring new blood to old classics and what better way than to take it and mash it up with well known trends in media?  But you’re forgetting one key thing: these people will never read the originals; sure you can say oh it’s a gateway to it.  But in general the people who are reading these haven’t read the classics.  Well, no, that isn’t exactly true. I know plenty of friends of mine who have read and enjoy the originals who picked up the books on a whim.

Now you might be thinking to yourself well it’s only a small list, it’s not going to hurt a lot; I thought the same thing when Hollywood started making remakes; look where that has got us: Lionsgate is already planning to remake Saw.

Now what can I do about this? I can rant for one and hope that someone hears me and listens, though I don’t have enough faith in humanity for that one dear reader.  I can sit back and let this take a hold of your life therefore insuring that it will gain even more popularity.  I can give up on reading(no…no that’s just dumb) or I can try and support little known authors like Lundqvist, Larrison, and a local author that I met while at a convention Michael D’Ambrosio(whom I plan on reviewing in a few weeks).  The small press is practically where it’s at as the bigger presses tend to try and garner attention with trends in media, the smaller presses garner more attention to their authors and take more risks.  Now am I saying give up on big press completely?  No, odds are you have a favorite author who is on a big press that you just love, stick with that author hope he doesn’t succumb to the wheel o’plot syndrome like Stephen King or any number of big authors out there.

Another thing I would like you to do is pick up an odd book, any odd book by an author you don’t know something you don’t ever expect to read and give it a chance.  Sure it may not be much but lord knows there are enough unknowns out there to make your head spin, take chances don’t just go looking for “New York Times Best Seller” do it for your own sake, for literary sake and for arts sake.

Now in closing, I’m going to say this and I know it might seem contradictory to what I’m trying to say but it is true; I know there aren’t or are barely any original ideas left in this world, we’re all working on variations of themes but isn’t it about time that we gave that new variation a try? For our sanity sake, give it a try!

Audio Corner: World War Z Audio Book

World War Z – Audio Book

A review by Darth Thought

4 out of 5 Stars

I normally don’t pick up audio books.  I can’t stand someone reading to me; but Max Brook’s World War Z is not just an audio book, it’s as close to an audio drama as you can get without having to buy a Big Finish CD Set.  It boasts a full cast of character’s all connected to Max Brook’s voice acting career and I would be lying if I said I didn’t know a lot of them specifically Jürgen Prochnow, 

Mark Hamill, Alan Alda, Carl Reiner, and Bob Reiner.  They all do spectacular jobs at giving voices to the characters in my head, and for the most part this is a better version than the book itself.

Now this isn’t going to be a big article like all my other’s because, it’s an audio book and I’d be lying if I said I knew a lot about it.  But as a casual listener, and an honest to god fan of the other book, I can tell you this:

It does a great job of capturing the atmosphere of the interviews, having a full voice cast helps this along a great deal.  My problems with the book are done away with in so much as that it is an actual abridgment and for the most part does away with some of the tedious stuff I talked about the book having.  It flows better, they’ve cut out a lot of the meaningless interviews, and the actors do a good job encapsulating the feel of the book while making the characters even more alive.

So you’re saying ok you’ve given it praise why isn’t it a 5 out of 5?

Well that can be summed up in the simple words, while it cut out some meaningless interviews it also cut out some of the greatest interviews, gone is the interview with a survivor of one of the church mercy killings, gone is the otaku who survived most of the war in his house and didn’t even realize what was going on.  That and while it is good the interviews are sterile; sure you have the interviews but the problem is that most of the interviews took place in public places where there would have been noise.  It’s not there, and while the voice cast can draw you in, it’s still distracting not hearing the actions. Instead you’ll have Max Brooks reading out the directions as the interviewer put them down.  Maybe it’s just me and I’m being overly picky about the fact that this is an audio book and I expect something like an actual radio drama, but still for something like World War Z to be so sterile sounding and only have sound breaks between the interviews for the introductions, seems well a little lacking.

All in all if you are a fan of the book you should give this a listen.  If you are someone who doesn’t really read books(shame on you but I digress), pick this up you’ll have a great time and hey it’s a great way to gear up for The Walking dead!

World War Z

World War Z by Max Brooks

Published in 2006

Published by Three Rivers Publishing a subsidiary of Random House

Score 3 out of 5 stars



Boy, this one is kind of hard for me to talk about. See World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is a very popular book; one that has ushered in the zombie craze of the past few years. Zombies themselves have always had a cult following. I mean what is scarier than trying to defeat the one thing that you can’t escape? Death. Most of us think of zombies and they automatically think of the films of the legendary George A Remero, such as Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead but in the past decade we’ve be inundated with both remakes of the first two films, as well as films like 28 Days Later, and 28 Weeks Later, both of which I love.



The book itself acknowledges these films, as well as many other as the authors other work, The Zombie Survival Guide, it is done in the way of a periodical interview; where Brooks showcases his talent to write in many voices, truth be told I would love to see more from this author; flaws of the book aside. The fictitious account ranges from the funny to the disturbing leaving the breath laughing at the stupidity of some of these people and appalled at some of the actions the characters take to just survive, I truly can tell you, that if you read this you will have to look at yourself in the mirror and go: “would it be worth it, could I do that to my fellow man?” I did this many times during the book especially during the scenes of cannibalism and filicide. Then again I cringe at the harm of a child so, yeah it’s a rather touchy thing for me.

The book is also a satire of sorts, pointing out just how isolated we in America actually are. The book shows a stark contrast of the fact that many other countries help each other out and yet we seem to be the only ones doing anything by ourselves. One of the most stinging scenes takes place in the interview of a Cuban who describes the mass exodus of not only former Cubans, but a lot of American citizens during the great panic, which were the first few months of the ordeal. The curious thing about this book is the fact that the first cases that are reported are actually in Asia (China and Japan to be exact). As a matter of fact I was rather surprised at how the book handled the Japanese solution, though in truth I shouldn’t of been.



So you may be asking me; if you’re giving this book such praise why the score of a three? Simple really, while the plot is good, the writing is above par, and it is over all enjoyable, it seems to reach a dead stop in the last third of the book. During the section called Around
the World and Above; it seems to crawl for pages and pages when in actuality it’s only about one or two pages. Then, it seems to rush towards its conclusion. It feels like Brooks was reaching the end of his contracted time and decided to just scrawl an ending to the book where as he really wanted to carry it on or something. Also it has some major plot holes, like never really explaining how a blind man can become a person who cuts trees, now you may say I’m being nit picky but in truth it seems like he wants us to believe it’s all done because of the heightened senses one can have with being blind. Maybe if he had been born blind that would work, but he discusses that he wasn’t and so I just can’t see it. There is also no explanation of what the disease actually is, or why and how it operates in the human body. Granted the book is only set a decade after the ordeal but you would figure they would have a few scientists to discuss what they’ve found. All we get in that vein is a man who creates a placebo drug and the government going ‘we don’t know’, I was a little dissatisfied with that aspect.



All in all, would I suggest it? Yeah, it is entertaining and brings to light some things about zombies we might not know, it’s just you have to bear through a crunching halt in the midst of the book. Which can very well kill it for you; it almost did for me and a friend who read it. Flaws aside, I would recommend it especially for those curious about how zombies got so damned popular. Many say it was the film Shaun of the Dead, which I think was the spark, but this was the book that just set it ablaze.