The Dark Knight Rises While Comic Books Sink
Bats, fire, and ice. The title screens of the three films in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, collectively, offer an Easter egg homage to the comic books that inspired them. The first in the series, Batman Begins, offers a limned glimpse of the symbol within a flurry of bats across a yellow sky. The sequel, The Dark Knight, shows the same image, except in … Continue reading
Jo Refuses Laurie
In my final post on Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, I want to focus not on the death of Beth, which is the climax of the novel, but on that peculiar narrative twist that Alcott was so proud of: Laurie doesn’t end up with Jo. Let’s put this deferred romance in perspective. If you look … Continue reading
Ripley asks “Will you be my friend?”
What do some of these books have in common: Charlotte’s Web, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Bridge to Terabithia, Beverly Cleary’s Ramona books, Holes, Maniac Magee, and just about every one of the American Girl books. Two things right off the bat come to mind. First, they are all children’s or young adult fiction. Second, they … Continue reading
Best and Worst Reads of 2010
As the year comes to a close, here’s a list of my favorites and least-loveds. FAVORITE BOOKS Ovid’s Metamorphoses. How can a long poem about Roman gods, written around the time of the New Testament, be interesting today? Because the language bowls you over time after time. Each myth is small enough to enjoy in … Continue reading
Sustaining Dread – Neuromancer teases out the bad guy
The most painful thing about reading this book is knowing how just about every idea in it has been turned into a cliche. Some of these ideas were innovative at the time. For example, action scenes in cyberspace, cybernetically-enhanced characters, and the intermingling of the human brain and the computer. However, some tropes in Neuromancer … Continue reading
Letters Republic 