Platypus of Truth

Ad Hominem Lives.  I speak to those who know.  To those who don't: my mind's a blank -I'll never say a word.  Mike Mignola gets to all the good ideas first....  Meh. ;-)

And like to coins, some true, some light, but every one of you stamped with the image of the King. -Tennyson, The Holy Grail There are experiences that "stamp" a person for life.  Whatever they may be, these events are so life-altering that they set those who experience them apart from the rest of humanity.  No matter what your character, appearance, or circumstances are, something about you is different from those who haven't been "stamped."  Conversely, no matter how unalike you may be, you have a bond with anyone who has had experienced the same.  They know. They've been there.  They "get it." Discussing Tennyson's Idylls of the King with my students has led me to coin a new term: "Round Table experience."  These are periods of profound communal interaction that dramatically shape our character for good or ill.  It's those moments when you feel part of something bigger than yourself; when you enter into fellowship at ...

Too Christian to be Pagan and too Atheist to be Christian. That's about the best way I've found to describe the 2010 remake of the 1982 adventure classic "Clash of the Titans."  Emerson assures us that "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds."  Whether that's true or not, any kind of consistency, even a foolish one, is necessary for art.  Now "Clash of the Titans" doesn't bother to posture itself as high art; it's just plain pulp.  However, even a thinly invented world created purely for the sake of entertainment needs some unifying "truth" to so that the audience can suspend disbelief.  The lack of a unifying "truth" to the film is the one great weakness of this remake.  "Clash of the Titans" can't decide what kind of world it's trying to immerse us in.  Are the gods really damnable?  Well we only meet two of them.  Hades is definitely damnable, but Zeus comes off as more conflic...

In a series like "Hellboy," volume 9 just has to be significant.  In this case, Mike Mignola doesn't disappoint.  "The Wild Hunt" has to be the strongest in the series to date, uping even the soulful "Strange Places" and eerie "Darkness Calls."  After holding off for over a decade, Mignola finally taps into one of the richest wells in world folklore: the Arthurian Legends.  In case you haven't read it yet, I'll spare you any further details.  All I can say is "dude, it's like my brain barfed into a comic book!"

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...

Why do we love to explore? I've played Squaresoft's "Secret of Mana" through more times than I care to count.  As I've stated earlier, it has sentimental value to me.  In the final analysis, however, sentimental value only goes so far.  So why do I keep playing. It's a fair question.  Look at the map.  You'll see that the world of "Secret of Mana" is no where near as complex as that of "Final Fantasy III."   In addition, the English dialog is simple to the point of being facile; though, from what I hear, that's not the translator's fault.  The whole look of the game is brightly colored and rather on the "cutesy" side.  The only place where it really measures up to the Final Fantasy series is in the soundtrack which is beautiful and moving, especially considering the primitive tools they had to work with.  All that said, I still love this game. So what's so great about "Secret of Mana?"  In two wo...

Usually I wait until summer to devote myself to pulp, but a gift certificate from a student allowed me to get started early this year.  With my love of (most) things Victorian, and my interest in pulp, it was inevitable that I would turn to works of Rider Haggard and his celebrated creation, Allan Quatermain.  Having just finished "King Solomon's Mines" last night, I am ready to report. I grew up with the Indiana Jones movies.  Late in college I was introduced to Allan Moore's (what ever shall we do with him?  He is the Alcibiades of the comic world.) "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen."  With these things under my belt, as it were, I must confess that I was worried that the source would not live up to my expectations.  Lesson number one, grasshopper, never doubt the Great Books (at least not in that way)!  "King's Solomon's Mine's" lives up to all the hype.  From the first page to the last, it was one straight-forward, rollicking adv...