Wagner's Mage

Okay, I've never read a graphic novel in my life, so this wasn't too bad a start.

I saw it at the library and remembered that recommended it to me. A quick read, only took about three hours.

Great mythical overtones! It's like a modern-day King Arthur tale. When I was little I LOVED those kind of stories, Robin Hood and The Sword in the Stone and such. But this is in an urban setting and has different pop-cultural settings, like the Edsel.
It never occurred to me that any day, I could be called on to be a hero....and would I have the strength? the courage? Matchstick definitely does.

Could our lives be part of some greater purpose which we may never know of?
Is human existence an allegory? Wagner goes into this, as Kevin struggles to deal with the fact that his life is the main part of an allegory.
Duty. Being needed. Honor. Bravery. Heroism. ..........Such scary words.

But since so few people are actually involved in the allegory, does it really matter? If it doesn't affect people much then it's not an overarching plan for all humanity, since any overarching plan would have to affect many people.

The idea that any small thing in this world could really be part of some other context for existence, some other metaframework, but we don't realize it. Example: muscle tics. I get those in my right hip a lot; are they merely muscle tics or are they part of some allegorical fight between good and evil, between yin and yang?
Physics dictates that every action in the universe is part of the struggle between entropy and order. So there's an allegorical fight which took humanity a long time to figure out. May there be others yet undiscovered?

Still, the plot was a bit formulaic, which may or may not be a good thing - basic literary conventions of the hero's journey. Not entirely my cup of tea, but still more depth than a literary snob like me would expect in a graphic novel.

"Fate has certain games that it choose to play, Kevin - a hand for every player. But we all pick our final paths. Our roles and situations may seem haphazardly set, but it is our own decisions that turn the cogs." (341)

Some further thoughts on Oscar Wilde.

Part of this new reading system involves studying reviews, essays, and criticism on a book to gain further understanding of the text.
OMG literary analysis! I agree that a lot of it is superfluous (one that I ran across is called "AESTHETICISM, HOMOEROTICISM, AND CHRISTIAN GUILT IN THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: A DARWINIAN CRITIQUE") but learning about the dominant philosophies of the time and biographical background of the author really *DO* add context to and make the book so much more interesting. For example, The Picture of Dorian Grey took on a whole new meaning when I learned that if Oscar Wilde were alive today, he'd probably be a NAMBLA member. The Dorians, an ancient Greek tribe, had a very common cultural practice of man-boy love.

In no way does this diminish the pleasure from the book, unless it's taught badly. What I usually do is read it through once with no thinking, just for the pleasure of the read, then analyze afterwards. The only problem with this method is some literary devices, like foreshadowing, are lost on me!
I think a great author will make a book that is very ripe with room for analysis but at the same time is fun to read on the surface. The "surface" things, like plot, character, dialogue, etc., are important in any book, even a dime novel, and if a book hasn't mastered those then it shouldn't try to do analytical stuff or philosophical exposition.

Wilde was a member of the "fin de siecle" late Victorian school of aesthetic philosophy knows as Aestheticism. Basically they thought that art should have NO purpose; no hidden meanings, no political messages, just the beauty to be contemplated. Even things like morals do not belong in a work of art.

"#4. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.......
#15. All art is at once surface and symbol.
#16. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.
#17. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril."
(from the preface to Picture of Dorian Grey )
I interpret this to mean that any sort of symbolism in art only brings out the ugly meanings; therefore, people who look for these ugly meanings are not contemplating art properly.

Yet the novel itself contradicts this theme. The main character (Dorian) sees only beauty and does not consider ethical meanings; he has made a Faustian (use that word if you want to sound smart) pact with the devil.
Is Dorian supposed to be considered an example for how to live life? He may have committed murder but he was outwardly liked for his charm and youthful beauty.
Or maybe I am not supposed to be analyzing the novel, since it is a work of art.

A very unorthodox interpretation of the novel can be found here; I'm not sure what to think of it.

"Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be--in other ages, perhaps." -Oscar Wilde, in a letter

Links:
Interesting survey of criticism on Wilde
Some interesting info about how he related to the public

Further thoughts on Oscar Wilde

Part of this new reading system involves studying reviews, essays, and criticism on a book to gain further understanding of the text.
OMG literary analysis! I agree that a lot of it is superfluous (one that I ran across is called "AESTHETICISM, HOMOEROTICISM, AND CHRISTIAN GUILT IN THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: A DARWINIAN CRITIQUE") but learning about the dominant philosophies of the time and biographical background of the author really *DO* add context to and make the book so much more interesting. For example, The Picture of Dorian Grey took on a whole new meaning when I learned that if Oscar Wilde were alive today, he'd probably be a NAMBLA member. The Dorians, an ancient Greek tribe, had a very common cultural practice of man-boy love.

In no way does this diminish the pleasure from the book, unless it's taught badly (and in a high school English class, OMG this is usually the case!). What I usually do is read it through once with no thinking, just for the pleasure of the read, then analyze afterwards. The only problem with this method is some literary devices, like foreshadowing, are lost on me!
I think a great author will make a book that is very ripe with room for analysis but at the same time is fun to read on the surface. The "surface" things, like plot, character, dialogue, etc., are important in any book, even a dime novel, and if a book hasn't mastered those then it shouldn't try to do analytical stuff or philosophical exposition.

Wilde was a member of the "fin de siecle" late Victorian school of aesthetic philosophy knows as Aestheticism. Basically they thought that art should have NO purpose; no hidden meanings, no political messages, just the beauty to be contemplated. Even things like morals do not belong in a work of art.

"#4. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.......
#15. All art is at once surface and symbol.
#16. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.
#17. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril."
(from the preface to Picture of Dorian Grey )
I interpret this to mean that any sort of symbolism in art only brings out the ugly meanings; therefore, people who look for these ugly meanings are not contemplating art properly.

Yet the novel itself contradicts this theme. The main character (Dorian) sees only beauty and does not consider ethical meanings; he has made a Faustian (use that word if you want to sound smart) pact with the devil.
Is Dorian supposed to be considered an example for how to live life? He may have committed murder but he was outwardly liked for his charm and youthful beauty.
Or maybe I am not supposed to be analyzing the novel, since it is a work of art.

A very unorthodox interpretation of the novel can be found here; I'm not sure what to think of it.

"Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be--in other ages, perhaps." -Oscar Wilde, in a letter

Links:
Interesting survey of criticism on Wilde
Some interesting info about how he related to the public

books and stuff.

9/2/07 3:36 PM

Today we went to a thrift store and a used book store called The Book Nook.
It's entirely possible that I am addicted to books.
The thrift store was benefitting a home for orphans and abused children. Being an orphan, I HAVE to support an orphanage. Today I bought:
Wilderness and the American Mind by R.F. Nash (this is for my grandma)
Seven Contemporary Short Novels - includes Roth, Porter, Bellow, McCullers, Triling, Steinbeck, and O'Connor. A textbooky anthology with discussion questions.
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales translation by R.M. Lumiansky. (I later realized this was a prose translation, EWWWWW. I gave it away.)
Jennie Gerhardt by Dreiser. If you recall, I read An American Tragedy and The Genius and loved them, so this one should be good.
Darkness at Noon by Koestler. By an English author but it's a novel about the politics of Soviet Russia.
The Genius of the Early English Theater , an anthology of Medieval and Renaissance drama
The Cabala by Thornton Wilder
A Short History of England's and America's Literature , from 1906. I want to see what the historical bias is and it sounds very interesting. I do have a fetish for literature textbooks and anthologies, especially old ones. I keep a big stack of anthologies of all different sorts on my nightstand and read something when the mood strikes me.
Modern English Readings from 1951. It has biographies, short stories, poems, essays and plays, organized thematically and including stuff that isn't in most anthologies.
The Beauty of Fractals: Images of Complex Dynamical Systems - seems very in-depth on the math of fractals, I don't think I'll be able to understand it too well unless I study something simpler first. However it was only 50 cents, and this is supposed to be a classic of fractal geometry writing.
Total cost: $11. Of course I have to mail them home but HEY, don't use your facts and logic on ME!
(That's my catch-phrase, BTW FYI. Not JK LOL)

Today I started Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak after finishing The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde. (I MUST read more Wilde, his work is fantabulous.) I'm still in the middle of Hixon's Coming Home , Golding's Rites of Passage , and The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume I.

In a few weeks I'll post a list of all the books I bought on this trip. It's gonna be long! I'm gonna have to go on book-buying moratorium for a while, allowing myself to ONLY buy books from existing threads and not buy more books for the random books thread.

At thrift strores that have a small selection of random books, I'll get whatever random books I want.
But at bookstores I will only look for specific books from threads and specific subjects I want to explore.
Also, I think I will put my nonfiction books on LibraryThing, so people can see what my interests are.

Linda's husband was right, though I hate to admit it. I can't read everything in the world. If I lived in 1700 or maybe even 1800, it would be entirely possible to absorb the entire sum of Western thought in history, science, and literature in a 70-year lifespan, but now....*sob* I CAN'T. I HATE that fact but it must be faced.

Kline's Mathematics for the Nonmathematician

Kline's Mathematics for the Nonmathematician

Was good except for:
1. blatant Eurocentricity.
2. Didn't explain proofs and logic well at all.