Skip to main content

The Platypus Reviews 2011

This past year represented an unprecedented jump in the number of posts here at "The Platypus of Truth."  Now that 2012 has begun, the official total is fixed at 93.  This blows 2010's 66 posts out of the water and sets the bar high for the new year.  The main culprits seem to be my treks through Terry Brooks' "Elfstones of Shannara" and "Wishsong of Shannara," "The Mammoth Book of Fantasy," and a gloss of Tennyson's "The Passing of Arthur."  Since "The Platypus of Truth" primarily serves as a venue for my literary musings, that's not surprising.

There were some other trends this year at "The Platypus of Truth," however.  For instance, 2011 saw a return to meditations on video and computer games especially new favorites Starcraft II, and Titan Quest, and old faithfuls Final Fantasy III, and The Legend of Zelda.  Branching out a bit, I also attempted a look at the state of the field in light of "Dragon Age" and "Bioshock."

Beyond video games, 2011 saw several forays into the world of film including an attempt to set down my favorite films, and retrospectives on Moulin Rouge and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.  Indeed, by mid-year there were enough film reviews to warrant the creation of a new label: "film platypus."  I'm no expert on film, but I was glad to see that several of the posts sparked conversation and got a link or two.

Finally, 2011 saw some meditations on art and culture in the city of Houston.  I still miss the Getty (both of them), The Huntington Gardens, The LACMA, and the Museum of Jurassic Technology, but the Lanier Theological Library, the Houston Ballet, and The MFAH are nothing to sniff at.

Well, that's a short assessment of the past year over here at "The Platypus of Truth."  No big controversies, no grand causes, just a good, long chat over at the quiet end of Lake Blogosphere.  May 2012 be a blessed year for you all and remember: the platypus speaks truth.   

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...

Tolkien's Dark Tower: The Platypus Reads Part CLXXXVI

Tom Shippey points out in his Road to Middle Earth that the germ of Barad Dur, Sauron's Stronghold, comes from a scrap of Chaucer where the poet makes an offhand reference to a knight and his approach to "the dark tower."  Chaucer expected that everyone knew that story, but somehow in the intervening centuries it has become lost.  Using his imagination, Tolkien tried to delve back into the mine of story and imagine what this Dark Tower might have been.  We see several tries at this image, or several "accounts" in Tolkien's corpus.  The first is Thangorodrim, Morgoth's "dark tower," where he sits "on hate enthroned."  The second, and like unto it, is Sauron's original keep at Tol Sirion.  This is the dark tower before which Luthien, in all her frailty, stands and lays the deepest pits bare with her song (an image oddly reminiscent of protestant poets like Spenser, Bunyan, and Wesley).  Building on these two images, Tolkien constru...

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....