Skip to main content

The Platypus Reads Part XVII

I've finished "A Princess of Mars," and it turns out to have followed through with my original expectations. Overall, I liked the book. It was a fast-paced, short read with just enough depth to keep you interested and a pacing that keeps you from pausing to break out and laugh at the absurdity of the whole thing. Classic pulp to the core. The heroes are larger than life, the villains are just plain villainous, and the ending sets up for plenty of sequels.

My only qualm: since when is it o.k. to sack a city using ravening hordes of brutal barbarians just to get the woman you love out of trouble? In keeping with the Martian setting, exulting in physical prowess, and martial skill are at the core of this work. This would leave us in a Nietzachean universe were it not for the countervailing emphasis placed on love, pity (Zarathustra's great sin!), and friendship.

Moving on down my list of summer reading, Hellboy Volume 8: "Darkness Calls" came in yesterday. I've had time for a strait read-through, and then some skimming of key passages to help clarify my thoughts (I use this method for all serious comic book reading). This volume was certainly, and appropriate to where the overall story is at this point, the most intense. The choice of handing over the actual art-work and layout to Duncan Fegredo plays a large part in this. Fegredo's style is much more direct than Mignola's. Fegredo keeps thrusting us into the action with his panels where Mignola would defer or come at a situation obliquely. Still, their styles are similar enough, overall, to avoid jarring the reader out of the world (a weakness in my opinion with some of the stories in Volume 7: "The Troll Witch and Others").

Without giving away the plot, Yolen's assessment on the jacket seems correct: this volume sets us up for the eucatastrophe. My big question is "how will this play out?" This question is wrapped up with the very fabric of the world Mike Mignola has created. If we are in a fundamentally "Christian" world, then good will definitively triumph over evil. If we are in a dualistic world, then somehow the devil will get his/her? due. This all hinges on whether Hecate is right in the Epilogue. Typical of Mignola's work, the bad-guys often seem to be the closest to the truth, but they then draw the wrong conclusions from it. We'll see if this is actually the case.*

*Caveat: Mignola is express in stating that "Hellboy" is meant to take place in its own sub-created universe and is not meant to represent cosmological realities in our own.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Platypus Reads Part XXVII

Thoughts after reading the "Iliad" to prepare a Greece unit for my students: -Hector is a jerk until he's dead. He even advocates the exposure of Achaean corpses and then has the cheek to turn around and ask Achilles to spare his. He rudely ignores Polydamas' prophecies and fights outside the gate to save his pride knowing full well what it will cost his family and city. After he's dead, he becomes a martyr for the cause. -Agamemnon has several moments of true leadership to balance out his pettiness. In this way, he's a haunting foil to Achilles: the two men are more alike than they want to acknowledge. -We see that Achilles is the better man at the funeral games of Patroclos. His lordliness, tact, and generosity there give us a window into Achilles before his fight with Agamemnon and the death of Patroclos consumed him. -Nestor is a boring, rambling, old man who's better days are far behind him, and yet every Achaean treats him with the upmo...

SNES as Money Well Spent: Platypus Nostalgia

I got my Super Nintendo Entertainment System when I was eleven years old.  That's a couple years after it first came out.  The occasion was a little dramatic: to celebrate the end of a two-and-a-half year course of treatment for cancer.  I had no idea that it would be waiting for me at home after the final doctors visit.  It was a nice spring day, the trees were waving gently in the breeze outside the bay windows.  With a cup of tea resting on the coffee table, I set down to play.  What was that first game?  It was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past .  Around twenty years later, my SNES still works as does that Zelda cartridge.  It's been a long way from boyhood in Southern Connecticut to manhood in North Houston, but I'm still playing. Why am I still playing?  There were stretches when I didn't.  Many times, I've just been too busy.  There were also seasons when it felt embarrassing to still be playing video games....

Under the Moon: The Platypus Reads Part LXVI

My wife and I were discussing our favorite books from the Chronicles of Narnia on our way back from lunch.  My wife, true to her sunny personality, is a staunch fan of "The Voyage of the Dawntreader."  I can't argue with that choice but, when push comes to shove, "The Silver Chair" has always been my favorite. I have a bit of a theory.  I think "The Voyage of the Dawntreader" is Lewis' grail legend.  If that's so, then I'd hazard a guess and say that "The Silver Chair" is his "Pilgrim's Progress." -just think about the shape of Puddleglum's hat and the fact that he lives in the Fen Country and you'll see what got me thinking down this line. That brings me to why I like "The Silver Chair" so much.  When I was little, we had a children's version of "Pilgrim's Progress" that my mom used to read to me.  I lived in New England and the Christianity I was raised with had a heavy tin...