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Thank you, Vu - I wonder if Middlesex will be made into a movie as "Virgin Suicides" was?
From: Adelaide, Australia | Registered: Jun 2005
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I bought the comics-industry Golden Age history "Men of Tomorrow" in paperback this past Sunday. I spent all of Sunday night, and every free moment I had yesterday, reading it. That's why I didn't visit LW yesterday. It's that good. And I've still got 100 or so pages left...
I also bought a Jack Kirby bio called "Tales To Astonish." I'll start it as soon as I'm finished "Men of Tomorrow."
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Frederic Wertham and the Critique of Mass Culture, by Bart Beaty. I think every comics fan should read this book. We generally vilify Wertham; I know I did based on what I read from other comics fans and excerpts from Seduction - only a fraction of the man's work. He did condemn the comic books of the 1950s - but the story and his arguments were a lot more complex than we tend to believe. Wertham was a man dedicated to justice, equal rights, defense of the defenseless; he took on jobs as a pyschiatrist that others would not touch for political reasons, operated a free clinic in Harlem, and was often publicly at odds with the established powers.
Another book I read about someone who was seriously misunderstood was about the geneticist Barbara McClintock (A Feeling for the Organism, by Evelyn Fox Keller). This book was written before McClintock was nominated for and received the Nobel Prize (1983). McClintock discovered transposition ("gene jumping") back in the 50s, but was unable to communicate the importance of this discovery. (Being female didn't help.) Transposition was re-discovered in the 80s, and McClintock's work finally acknowledged. Quite frankly, the science rather bored me but the process was fascinating. She was a rare bird, a truly independent thinker. She had a different way of seeing things, more of a Goethean approach to science (my words), or that of a true naturalist (author's words). It's a very sad book, I think, because she was so long ignored, she was so hopeful that things would change, so believing in the merits of pure science. (Also, I suspect her work paved the way for GMOs and other nasty stuff, which I personally loathe.)
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Cramer, Wertham is in several pages of Men Of Tomorrow, and the author is more fair to Wertham than the way he was portrayed in previous books about the comics industry.
I'll definitely read this other book you've recommended. Thanks.
Semi, glad to hear you're enjoying Men Of Tomorrow. I finished it, and still think it's a great book, but my one dissapointment (and it won't spoil anything) is that Julius Schwartz was mostly ignored.
We need a good Julius Schwartz bio, unless there already is one that I'm not aware of.
We also need a book that does for the generation of comics creators born between the late 30s and early 50s what Men Of Tomorrow does for the generation of comics creators born between the mid 10s and mid 30s.
The Kirby bio has been, so far, something of a dissapointment. The actual writing is flat, although there are fascinating bits in the chapters about the less-well-known parts of Kirby's life: his wartime experiences, the details about why the Fourth World saga was doomed almost from the start...
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At the moment I'm rereading a lot of P.G. Wodehouse.
For those of you who don't recognize the name, Wodehouse is the funniest writer in the history of the English language and comes with my highest recommendation.
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Listening to Shogun by James Clavell. Boy, if you ever wanted to know about shogun-period Japan, this is the book for you. Detail, detail, detail. Hard not to have admiration for a very different society than we're used to...
-------------------- The only consistent feature of all of your dissatisfying relationships is you.
Don't judge me!
Registered: Aug 2003
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Currently reading Common Sense, Rights of Man, and other essential writings of Thomas Paine
On deck is Frederick Douglas' autobiography
-------------------- Five billion years from now the Sun will go nova and obliterate the Earth. Don't sweat the small stuff!
From: Boston | Registered: Aug 2003
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The Hobbit, for my Brit Lit II class... Yes indeed. This has led to me starting the Lord of the Rings, again, which I've actually never finished. Having blazed thru Chaucer and Beowulf and Keets the last two semesters, this is a cake walk now.
Have a list of books in my que: Abolition of Manby C.S. Lewis Maximum Bobby Elmore Leonard and a Groucho Marx biography, authors name not being remembered right now.
-------------------- -Nick-
Is Civil War over with yet?
From: Texas | Registered: Apr 2006
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I recently bought "The Historian", by Elizabeth Kostova(what can i say, i'm a big horror/mystery fan). It will probably take me forever to finish it.
From: Earth-247 | Registered: Feb 2006
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quote:Originally posted by disaster boy: "ahwosg" was the worst book i ever read, i hated it, hated. yet i read the whole thing. ugh.
i need a new book now.
I felt that way while reading 'Soft Machine' by Burroughs. It wasnt necessarily the worst book, but man... i had to fight to finish. Every page I found myself saying "What the Heck is going on here? Why am I reading this?" and yet I still finished.
I read that book on the recommendation of Warren Ellis. That man lied to me.
-------------------- -Nick-
Is Civil War over with yet?
From: Texas | Registered: Apr 2006
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