Left -> Right
Louis Armstrong
Lucille Armstrong
Kwame Nkrumah
Check them out, all three.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Books books books (more accurately, Magazines, Magazines, Comics), this'll be a big one because I apparently have nothing to do with my time but read.
First off are the first two issues of L.A cartoonist Jesse Moynihan's The Backwards Folding Mirror.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to review these together or separately, but after realizing how much I have to write already, and how close in quality these were, I just tossed them together. The Backwards Folding Mirror is a story based on the author's troubled relationship with a past girlfriends (hence why there are only two issues, unfortunately for everyone but him), but with ghosts and talking animals thrown in.
It sounds awfully unappealing, I know. But between the excellent drawing and the great punchlines, I had a blast reading (and re-reading) these. A highlight is a joke about the ghost of his girlfriend's father watching over them while they sleep, but that was just one of the many times I laughed out loud at these great comics. Moynihan is currently working on a weekly online strip called Forming, about an alternate reality creation story, check it out here.
Carrying on with comics, but bringing it a little closer to home is Toronto artist Dave Lapp's book of collected Children of the Atom strips. I'm unsure of where these originally ran, but I sure am glad they were all collected into a single book. Many reviews I've read compare this strip to Samuel Beckett's plays, and while I don't think that it's totally off the wall, I think they are THE CLOSEST THING to Samuel Beckett that has happened in comics.
Featuring only two characters, each strip places Franklin Boy and Jim-Jam Girl in an often surreal situation while they constantly bicker back and forth, and while it's obvious they have some sort of connection, it's hard to put a finger on. That being said, each strip stands alone as being a self-contained story in five (give or take) panels. While that isn't uncommon, it's amazing how much content Lapp packs into each of them while at the same time being extremely modest with dialogue and generally simply movements.
Stepping out of comics-dom for a moment, here's the 10th installment of Penguin's Great Ideas series with Thomas Paine's Common Sense. Cited as being one of the revolutionary sparks that landed on the haystack of colonial America, this was one of the most interesting (and quickly read) volumes of the series that I have read thus far.
Using common sense to persuade the colony of America into a fight for independence from their colonial masters, Paine looks at the redundancy of obeying a king literally half a world away as he points out that England will never come to assist America, while at the same time exploiting America for everything that it's worth. Sound familiar? I thought so. Reading this, one can't curb the urge to look at this in a modern context. Now that America has broken free of its English chains, it has shown no hesitation in condemning other nations to a fate that was once it's own. Sure, "colonialism" is treated as somewhat of a dirty word as of late and as such it's hard to claim that third world countries are really just colonies of the United States of America, but it's only a matter of time until thoughts similar to Paine's show up in places like Mexico.
This should be required reading for everyone, simply because it provides a much needed nudge to think critically of even the most obvious things in government. If it's too good to be true...
Following Paine's calls to question government, comes Mary Wollstonecraft's calls to question the prejudices that have plagued women from the dawn of society, in the form of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, the 11th Great Ideas book.
I was glad upon reading this book that I was as enthralled with it as I was with Paine's work, after a couple minor let downs in the previous couple of books in this series. One of the first pieces of proto-feminist literature, A Vindication... laid down the claim that in order for women to mature to the fullest potential of human nature, they should be entitled to the same education as any man, and have the opportunity to pursue enjoyment in activities that were more intellectually stimulating than lives consisting of innocence, sensual exploits and an odd novel here and there.
What I found most interesting in reading this was that there was no open effort to attempt to make men and women equal (as seen by Wollstonecraft's frequent references to men as "the stronger sex"), but rather establishing herself as someone who I would argue set goals realistic at the time (in urging women to educate themselves)and laying down a female-positive intellectual framework. I really could go on about this for much longer, and maybe I will in another post, but I'll end this and say that the urging for intellectual growth is applicable to anyone, of any time period, regardless of gender. And simply viewing this as a piece of "feminist writing" is doing it a disservice.
Time for a total reversal of subject and talk about the third volume of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's Preacher. Hailed as one of the most groundbreaking series in mainstream comics, I put off reading this for far too long and I've slowly been chugging through.
There's something about the series that just doesn't click for me, and I can't quite put my finger on it. I love Ennis' Punisher MAX, and I even enjoyed the first two volumes of Preacher but this one almost seemed like a struggle to read at times. I think it might be due to the amount of character back story that is revealed in this volume, I felt like I already had my own ideas of history in place for Cassidy and Jesse's dad and that revealing them in a way that conflicted with my own made it less enjoyable.
Qualms out of the way, I plan on continuing through the series, primarily due to the fact that the main story line is beginning to heat up in a big way and I love the subject matter, art and amount of violence in this series. (The end of this volume has a VERY satisfying splat, you'll understand once you read it.)
Accidentally blending the world of comic strips and philosophy, I set out on my summer goal to read through as many books of The Complete Peanuts as I could. Drawn by Charles Schulz (If this is news to you, climb out from your rock.), the first book compiles every strip and Sunday special from 1950-1952.
After casually reading Peanuts strips for as long as I can think back, there is a much different feeling reading them in a chronological format (and so many at once.). The book starts out with a small cast consisting only of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Patty and Shermy, and slowly begins to grow, eventually involving Violet, Lucy, Schroeder and even a baby Linus towards the end. Watching the characters mature (I.E. Watching as Schulz became comfortable writing them) is probably the greatest part of the book. Containing over 700 strips, there is no shortage of laughs, and while it may not be Peanuts at it's prime, it's very clear that it is on its way to greatness.
Also included is an essay on Schulz' life by David Michaelis and even more excitingly, a reprinted interview with Schulz done by comic historian Rick Marshall and Fantagraphics Books co-founder Gary Groth. In it Schulz tells of his favorite comics and artists, least favorite comics and artists and also about his life in general, a great read. I look forward to reading more of these great collections by the time school resumes.
Following up a comic with an artist of Scandinavian descent with a comic about Scandinavians he may have (but hopefully did not) descended from, here's the first volume of Brian Wood and Davide Gianfelice's Northlanders.
I was itching to check this book out ever since I heard about it through the vast expanses of the internet, and after finally tracking down the first three volumes at a local comic store I jumped at the opportunity.
Totally worth it, beautiful art, great viking-style dialogue (the most eloquent of barbarians), and no shortage of battle axes to heads, arrows to the throat and decapitations. The story is so-so this far, but I'm not expecting anything to special from a series advertised as a crime series based around vikings. They aren't overly clever (save one), so why should the book be? I'll be reading the next two volume ASAP, and considering I made it through this 200 page book in a little under an hour, I feel like that will be an easy yet extremely rewarding task.
Totally unrelated, this is the May 2010 issue (Volume 62 NO.1) of Monthly Review, an "Independent Socialist Magazine".
I had my gripes last go-around with Relay as being sometimes too academic for its own good. It was good, but it focused far too much on dense economic theory, which is interesting in it's own right but there is no way to make it completely satisfying reading on it's own.
Monthly Review is great to balance that out. With some articles still bringing up the slightly intimidating numbers game (Such as John Foster and Hannah Holleman's The Financial Power Elite, it's done in a way that is much more accessible and most importantly it is less focused with trying to sound scholarly, and more focused on trying to convey a clear, concise message.
There's that, and there are also some articles that are just damn interesting, including stories of American involvement in the Rwandan genocide and subsequent resolutions, the history of the modern conservative movement, and the lack of politically left views when it comes to business and economic education.
This was my first time picking up this magazine, and I can easily see it being a monthly read.
Then there was the fifth issue of The Feathertale Review...
I know I don't really have too many big problems with books I review here, especially not magazines, that being said, I'll assume I picked this one up on a weak issue.
Maybe I had high expectations, but I thought a humour magazine with a cover that advertises stories about protecting Celine Dion's voice box, a Q&A with Stuart Mclean and a "3-Page Pullout Primate Centrefold" to be funny. I expected it to be thoroughly funny. I got my laughs, don't get me wrong (mainly at the stories that were mentioned on the cover, now that I think about it) but as a whole it seemed like they were trying real, real hard to meet their promises of being funny.
Humour is a personal thing, and I'll assume that this may not have been my kind of humour. I'll try again next time, and hope that I'm more impressed.
As a nice way to end off, here's a great art-focused magazine published through the University of Guelph, Carousel issue 25 (Spring/Summer 2010).
During my perfunctory flip through of the magazine after noticing the cover by Toronto cartoonist/artist Michael DeForge I noticed a great deal of things that I instantly enjoyed. Paintings/Illustrations, lots of them. Comics, a good deal of them. SHORT works/poems/interviews. Plus a great bare-bones layout that makes it real easy to read. Oh, and more Michael DeForge.
I can't say enough about this magazine, and for something that is put out through a University (not to mention one so close to me), this is amazing. And as a final point, I want to mention that this is the ideal length of a magazine in my opinion. Just under 70 pages, many of which are primarily images with little to no text to drown them out. Mark Laliberte's art made it a bit of a struggle to read the written pieces on the opposite page, but that was a small, small price to pay for this. I'm extremely impressed.
First off are the first two issues of L.A cartoonist Jesse Moynihan's The Backwards Folding Mirror.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to review these together or separately, but after realizing how much I have to write already, and how close in quality these were, I just tossed them together. The Backwards Folding Mirror is a story based on the author's troubled relationship with a past girlfriends (hence why there are only two issues, unfortunately for everyone but him), but with ghosts and talking animals thrown in.
It sounds awfully unappealing, I know. But between the excellent drawing and the great punchlines, I had a blast reading (and re-reading) these. A highlight is a joke about the ghost of his girlfriend's father watching over them while they sleep, but that was just one of the many times I laughed out loud at these great comics. Moynihan is currently working on a weekly online strip called Forming, about an alternate reality creation story, check it out here.
Carrying on with comics, but bringing it a little closer to home is Toronto artist Dave Lapp's book of collected Children of the Atom strips. I'm unsure of where these originally ran, but I sure am glad they were all collected into a single book. Many reviews I've read compare this strip to Samuel Beckett's plays, and while I don't think that it's totally off the wall, I think they are THE CLOSEST THING to Samuel Beckett that has happened in comics.
Featuring only two characters, each strip places Franklin Boy and Jim-Jam Girl in an often surreal situation while they constantly bicker back and forth, and while it's obvious they have some sort of connection, it's hard to put a finger on. That being said, each strip stands alone as being a self-contained story in five (give or take) panels. While that isn't uncommon, it's amazing how much content Lapp packs into each of them while at the same time being extremely modest with dialogue and generally simply movements.
Stepping out of comics-dom for a moment, here's the 10th installment of Penguin's Great Ideas series with Thomas Paine's Common Sense. Cited as being one of the revolutionary sparks that landed on the haystack of colonial America, this was one of the most interesting (and quickly read) volumes of the series that I have read thus far.
Using common sense to persuade the colony of America into a fight for independence from their colonial masters, Paine looks at the redundancy of obeying a king literally half a world away as he points out that England will never come to assist America, while at the same time exploiting America for everything that it's worth. Sound familiar? I thought so. Reading this, one can't curb the urge to look at this in a modern context. Now that America has broken free of its English chains, it has shown no hesitation in condemning other nations to a fate that was once it's own. Sure, "colonialism" is treated as somewhat of a dirty word as of late and as such it's hard to claim that third world countries are really just colonies of the United States of America, but it's only a matter of time until thoughts similar to Paine's show up in places like Mexico.
This should be required reading for everyone, simply because it provides a much needed nudge to think critically of even the most obvious things in government. If it's too good to be true...
Following Paine's calls to question government, comes Mary Wollstonecraft's calls to question the prejudices that have plagued women from the dawn of society, in the form of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, the 11th Great Ideas book.
I was glad upon reading this book that I was as enthralled with it as I was with Paine's work, after a couple minor let downs in the previous couple of books in this series. One of the first pieces of proto-feminist literature, A Vindication... laid down the claim that in order for women to mature to the fullest potential of human nature, they should be entitled to the same education as any man, and have the opportunity to pursue enjoyment in activities that were more intellectually stimulating than lives consisting of innocence, sensual exploits and an odd novel here and there.
What I found most interesting in reading this was that there was no open effort to attempt to make men and women equal (as seen by Wollstonecraft's frequent references to men as "the stronger sex"), but rather establishing herself as someone who I would argue set goals realistic at the time (in urging women to educate themselves)and laying down a female-positive intellectual framework. I really could go on about this for much longer, and maybe I will in another post, but I'll end this and say that the urging for intellectual growth is applicable to anyone, of any time period, regardless of gender. And simply viewing this as a piece of "feminist writing" is doing it a disservice.
Time for a total reversal of subject and talk about the third volume of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's Preacher. Hailed as one of the most groundbreaking series in mainstream comics, I put off reading this for far too long and I've slowly been chugging through.
There's something about the series that just doesn't click for me, and I can't quite put my finger on it. I love Ennis' Punisher MAX, and I even enjoyed the first two volumes of Preacher but this one almost seemed like a struggle to read at times. I think it might be due to the amount of character back story that is revealed in this volume, I felt like I already had my own ideas of history in place for Cassidy and Jesse's dad and that revealing them in a way that conflicted with my own made it less enjoyable.
Qualms out of the way, I plan on continuing through the series, primarily due to the fact that the main story line is beginning to heat up in a big way and I love the subject matter, art and amount of violence in this series. (The end of this volume has a VERY satisfying splat, you'll understand once you read it.)
Accidentally blending the world of comic strips and philosophy, I set out on my summer goal to read through as many books of The Complete Peanuts as I could. Drawn by Charles Schulz (If this is news to you, climb out from your rock.), the first book compiles every strip and Sunday special from 1950-1952.
After casually reading Peanuts strips for as long as I can think back, there is a much different feeling reading them in a chronological format (and so many at once.). The book starts out with a small cast consisting only of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Patty and Shermy, and slowly begins to grow, eventually involving Violet, Lucy, Schroeder and even a baby Linus towards the end. Watching the characters mature (I.E. Watching as Schulz became comfortable writing them) is probably the greatest part of the book. Containing over 700 strips, there is no shortage of laughs, and while it may not be Peanuts at it's prime, it's very clear that it is on its way to greatness.
Also included is an essay on Schulz' life by David Michaelis and even more excitingly, a reprinted interview with Schulz done by comic historian Rick Marshall and Fantagraphics Books co-founder Gary Groth. In it Schulz tells of his favorite comics and artists, least favorite comics and artists and also about his life in general, a great read. I look forward to reading more of these great collections by the time school resumes.
Following up a comic with an artist of Scandinavian descent with a comic about Scandinavians he may have (but hopefully did not) descended from, here's the first volume of Brian Wood and Davide Gianfelice's Northlanders.
I was itching to check this book out ever since I heard about it through the vast expanses of the internet, and after finally tracking down the first three volumes at a local comic store I jumped at the opportunity.
Totally worth it, beautiful art, great viking-style dialogue (the most eloquent of barbarians), and no shortage of battle axes to heads, arrows to the throat and decapitations. The story is so-so this far, but I'm not expecting anything to special from a series advertised as a crime series based around vikings. They aren't overly clever (save one), so why should the book be? I'll be reading the next two volume ASAP, and considering I made it through this 200 page book in a little under an hour, I feel like that will be an easy yet extremely rewarding task.
Totally unrelated, this is the May 2010 issue (Volume 62 NO.1) of Monthly Review, an "Independent Socialist Magazine".
I had my gripes last go-around with Relay as being sometimes too academic for its own good. It was good, but it focused far too much on dense economic theory, which is interesting in it's own right but there is no way to make it completely satisfying reading on it's own.
Monthly Review is great to balance that out. With some articles still bringing up the slightly intimidating numbers game (Such as John Foster and Hannah Holleman's The Financial Power Elite, it's done in a way that is much more accessible and most importantly it is less focused with trying to sound scholarly, and more focused on trying to convey a clear, concise message.
There's that, and there are also some articles that are just damn interesting, including stories of American involvement in the Rwandan genocide and subsequent resolutions, the history of the modern conservative movement, and the lack of politically left views when it comes to business and economic education.
This was my first time picking up this magazine, and I can easily see it being a monthly read.
Then there was the fifth issue of The Feathertale Review...
I know I don't really have too many big problems with books I review here, especially not magazines, that being said, I'll assume I picked this one up on a weak issue.
Maybe I had high expectations, but I thought a humour magazine with a cover that advertises stories about protecting Celine Dion's voice box, a Q&A with Stuart Mclean and a "3-Page Pullout Primate Centrefold" to be funny. I expected it to be thoroughly funny. I got my laughs, don't get me wrong (mainly at the stories that were mentioned on the cover, now that I think about it) but as a whole it seemed like they were trying real, real hard to meet their promises of being funny.
Humour is a personal thing, and I'll assume that this may not have been my kind of humour. I'll try again next time, and hope that I'm more impressed.
As a nice way to end off, here's a great art-focused magazine published through the University of Guelph, Carousel issue 25 (Spring/Summer 2010).
During my perfunctory flip through of the magazine after noticing the cover by Toronto cartoonist/artist Michael DeForge I noticed a great deal of things that I instantly enjoyed. Paintings/Illustrations, lots of them. Comics, a good deal of them. SHORT works/poems/interviews. Plus a great bare-bones layout that makes it real easy to read. Oh, and more Michael DeForge.
I can't say enough about this magazine, and for something that is put out through a University (not to mention one so close to me), this is amazing. And as a final point, I want to mention that this is the ideal length of a magazine in my opinion. Just under 70 pages, many of which are primarily images with little to no text to drown them out. Mark Laliberte's art made it a bit of a struggle to read the written pieces on the opposite page, but that was a small, small price to pay for this. I'm extremely impressed.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
Time for round two of book reviews, this time I'll try to be more entertaining. Maybe.
First up is the 9th book of the first volume of Penguin's Great Ideas series, Edward Gibbon's The Christians and the Fall of Rome. I purchased this before I finished The Social Contract, which Rousseau ended with a criticism of a nation existing with a religious population, and elaborating on how it re-directs their attention from trying to better the nation to religious causes instead. So I had a inkling as to where the subject matter of this one might be directed (if the title wasn't enough).
This is a great criticism of the shift of Christianity from a pattern of thought into the ultra-powerful organization, complete with hierarchy and ties to governmental structures (Rousseau, eat yer heart out.), along with the frightening ability to independently rewrite its own history. That being said, I found this to be a much less satisfying read when compared to The Social Contract, this could be because in reality it is actually a small portion of Gibbon's larger work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, had this not been the next part of the Great Ideas series, I would have skipped over it, and buckled down to read the original six-volume work as I have a feeling this would have been much better in the context of the full work.
Next up is A Very Bad Wizard, by Houston philosophy professor Tamler Sommers. Published through McSweeney's, I was expecting that this books would be good, but I was surprised by two things. The first being how great it was, between some of the groundbreaking views held both by Sommers and the various professionals he interviews (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it, but this is a book of interviews with professionals in the fields of psychology, philosophy and in one case, biology about how morality works), and the second being how fast I was able to tear through this books, or perhaps how slow I was at putting down...the decision is yours.
The format is amazing, it's one thing to have a person explain their views in the closed environment of their own work, but another thing entirely to read them discussing it in a non-formal environment, and sometimes being forced into a position of defending them. And with that of course, you get mildly hilarious conversations about incest, Catherine Zeta-Jones and being Jewish, all totally unrelated, I promise.
Is it morally right for a sister and a brother to have one-time-only fully consensual intercourse with protection that doesn't have a negative impact on their relationship? Think about it for a while, then read this (especially the interview with Jonathan Haidt) to find out what the big guys are saying.
Canadian cartoonist Jeff Lemire's Essex County. Wow.
I was drawn towards this book (pun mildly coincidental) primarily due to the fact that for the most part, it's set in rural Ontario, and because it had a Canadian cartoonist, these sort of things make my wallet practically climb out of my pocket. I was entirely oblivious of the critical praise this collection had been receiving until I flipped open the cover and was greeted by a review that put forth the idea that once comics became an acceptable academic form of literature (give it 20-50 years), this book would be at the centre of graduate programs at Princeton. Wow, that is a pretty big claim to be making. But was it unwarranted? I wouldn't say so.
Originally a trilogy (Tales from the Farm, Ghost Stories, and The Country Nurse, this collection simultaneously tells the life stories of 5 people and their convergence with each other. I would elaborate more, but the convergence of these individuals is what makes this book so damn good. Well, than and Lemire's excellent use of beautiful, scratchy black and white drawing.
I would write a graduate paper on this book, just saying. I know at very least I will be re-reading it over and over again.
Next up is the 11th issue of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. I know, I should be working my way FORWARD in the series, and not backwards, but that will start with the next issue I read, don't worry! For now, we have this extremely attractive book, faux leather cover with some great shiny gold printing, be still my beating heart. Also, it comes with a DVD, which I will get to at the end of the review (spoiler alert, it's stupid).
Silly videos of writers reading a page of their work aside, this issue was one of the best that I have read, primarily due to three stories that entirely overshadowed the rest of the book, thankfully they were spread out. T.C. Boyle's Blinded by the Light, recounting the tale of a meddling intellectual in a rural families lifestyle, Sean Warren's What Keeler Did to His Foot in the Navy, a story about the struggles and trials of being a "boot squid" in the Navy on the pacific, and lastly, Joyce Carol Oates' The Gathering Squall, about being young, impressionable and infatuated. These were all sandwiched between other stories that were still enjoyable, but when placed between those three juggernauts, they seemed like they could just be there to take up space.
As for the DVD, despite the fact that it was included as a joke, I was really hoping for something more interesting. Although I must say, sometimes I'm happy not connecting writers to what they look like in person. It ruins the mystique, and it ruins my pleasurable delusion that writers aren't next-level nerdy. BUMMER. It was nice to see a scene from Dennis Johnson's Soul of a Whore acted out though, so maybe the redeemed it. (Actually, no. But it was still cool.)
Firstly, I want to apologize for the butchered image of this wonderful magazine's cover I'm using here. The book itself is too large to fit onto my scanner, so it looks like I'm going to have to go the camera route next time. I was doing so well, too.
The being said, if you buy this you'll realize that the A on the cover was actually grown out of cells exclusively for the 2010 Annual issue of Creative Review. How cool is that you ask? I answer "It's about as cool as the rest of this magazine!". With a focus on design in mass media, this is the sort of thing that I can really sink my teeth into. There is no intellectual masturbation going on here, just great articles about great designers and trends. (There is a small section titled "Crit." in the middle, but even then it doesn't come off as contrived as some publications would make it seem.) Highlight articles are easily "The F Word" dealing with the resurgence of northeastern European folk art in mainstream design, a trend that I have no problem with because it looks fuckin great. And the critical article "The advertising isn't working", a damning criticism of British election time political adverts. For those who don't pick up on the clever title, it's a play on Margaret Thatcher's election winning slogan "Labour isn't working", a poster design that revolutionized political advertising from 1979 onward.
(See: http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/images/cigarettes/LabourIsn%27tWorking.jpg )
Turn the issue over and you'll be greeted with 100 pages of what has been deemed to be the "best work in advertising, graphic design and visual communication". Some amazing work pops up in there, but out of sheer laziness, I will let you discover that for yourselves when you grab this or flip through it wherever this fine mag is sold. It's worth it, I swear!
Last of this round is the Jan-March 2010 issue of Relay, a neat independently produced socialist project review which focuses on, but does not deal exclusively with Southern Ontario affairs. I was picking up some other magazines when this caught my eye, mainly due to the great cover collage. And I mean, it was only three bucks, c'mon.
Most of the articles in here are written either by people in teaching positions at a couple universities (Primarily University of Toronto, but York also pops up here and there), or are graduate students in the same institutions. But I look at this as a double edged sword. On the one hand there is the assured credibility of the contributors, especially in a collection that focuses on academically reviewing past left-leaning political action. But on the other hand this leads to a lot of theory and not much real application on the author's parts, which is okay but not ideal.
Luckily there are a few outstanding pieces by individuals with no clear ties to the academic stronghold. From retired union activist Herman Rosenfeld's New Openings for Toronto Workers, to prominent Italian Fourth International and Feminist activist Lidia Cirillo's Feminism of the Anti-Capitalist Left, these articles are by far more interesting and unlike some of the articles submitted by professors, they aren't just trying to advertise a book.
As a side anote, this also includes a reprint of an article by Colin Wilson titled Russia's Sexual Revolution After 1917, which was the absolute standout of the magazine for me. Summarizing the sexual liberation goal of the 1917 Russian revolutionary movement, and following to it's decline and eventual regression following the introduction of the New Economic Policy, Stalin and the Second World War. Great article, worth the three bucks alone as far as I'm concerned.
First up is the 9th book of the first volume of Penguin's Great Ideas series, Edward Gibbon's The Christians and the Fall of Rome. I purchased this before I finished The Social Contract, which Rousseau ended with a criticism of a nation existing with a religious population, and elaborating on how it re-directs their attention from trying to better the nation to religious causes instead. So I had a inkling as to where the subject matter of this one might be directed (if the title wasn't enough).
This is a great criticism of the shift of Christianity from a pattern of thought into the ultra-powerful organization, complete with hierarchy and ties to governmental structures (Rousseau, eat yer heart out.), along with the frightening ability to independently rewrite its own history. That being said, I found this to be a much less satisfying read when compared to The Social Contract, this could be because in reality it is actually a small portion of Gibbon's larger work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, had this not been the next part of the Great Ideas series, I would have skipped over it, and buckled down to read the original six-volume work as I have a feeling this would have been much better in the context of the full work.
Next up is A Very Bad Wizard, by Houston philosophy professor Tamler Sommers. Published through McSweeney's, I was expecting that this books would be good, but I was surprised by two things. The first being how great it was, between some of the groundbreaking views held both by Sommers and the various professionals he interviews (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it, but this is a book of interviews with professionals in the fields of psychology, philosophy and in one case, biology about how morality works), and the second being how fast I was able to tear through this books, or perhaps how slow I was at putting down...the decision is yours.
The format is amazing, it's one thing to have a person explain their views in the closed environment of their own work, but another thing entirely to read them discussing it in a non-formal environment, and sometimes being forced into a position of defending them. And with that of course, you get mildly hilarious conversations about incest, Catherine Zeta-Jones and being Jewish, all totally unrelated, I promise.
Is it morally right for a sister and a brother to have one-time-only fully consensual intercourse with protection that doesn't have a negative impact on their relationship? Think about it for a while, then read this (especially the interview with Jonathan Haidt) to find out what the big guys are saying.
Canadian cartoonist Jeff Lemire's Essex County. Wow.
I was drawn towards this book (pun mildly coincidental) primarily due to the fact that for the most part, it's set in rural Ontario, and because it had a Canadian cartoonist, these sort of things make my wallet practically climb out of my pocket. I was entirely oblivious of the critical praise this collection had been receiving until I flipped open the cover and was greeted by a review that put forth the idea that once comics became an acceptable academic form of literature (give it 20-50 years), this book would be at the centre of graduate programs at Princeton. Wow, that is a pretty big claim to be making. But was it unwarranted? I wouldn't say so.
Originally a trilogy (Tales from the Farm, Ghost Stories, and The Country Nurse, this collection simultaneously tells the life stories of 5 people and their convergence with each other. I would elaborate more, but the convergence of these individuals is what makes this book so damn good. Well, than and Lemire's excellent use of beautiful, scratchy black and white drawing.
I would write a graduate paper on this book, just saying. I know at very least I will be re-reading it over and over again.
Next up is the 11th issue of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. I know, I should be working my way FORWARD in the series, and not backwards, but that will start with the next issue I read, don't worry! For now, we have this extremely attractive book, faux leather cover with some great shiny gold printing, be still my beating heart. Also, it comes with a DVD, which I will get to at the end of the review (spoiler alert, it's stupid).
Silly videos of writers reading a page of their work aside, this issue was one of the best that I have read, primarily due to three stories that entirely overshadowed the rest of the book, thankfully they were spread out. T.C. Boyle's Blinded by the Light, recounting the tale of a meddling intellectual in a rural families lifestyle, Sean Warren's What Keeler Did to His Foot in the Navy, a story about the struggles and trials of being a "boot squid" in the Navy on the pacific, and lastly, Joyce Carol Oates' The Gathering Squall, about being young, impressionable and infatuated. These were all sandwiched between other stories that were still enjoyable, but when placed between those three juggernauts, they seemed like they could just be there to take up space.
As for the DVD, despite the fact that it was included as a joke, I was really hoping for something more interesting. Although I must say, sometimes I'm happy not connecting writers to what they look like in person. It ruins the mystique, and it ruins my pleasurable delusion that writers aren't next-level nerdy. BUMMER. It was nice to see a scene from Dennis Johnson's Soul of a Whore acted out though, so maybe the redeemed it. (Actually, no. But it was still cool.)
Firstly, I want to apologize for the butchered image of this wonderful magazine's cover I'm using here. The book itself is too large to fit onto my scanner, so it looks like I'm going to have to go the camera route next time. I was doing so well, too.
The being said, if you buy this you'll realize that the A on the cover was actually grown out of cells exclusively for the 2010 Annual issue of Creative Review. How cool is that you ask? I answer "It's about as cool as the rest of this magazine!". With a focus on design in mass media, this is the sort of thing that I can really sink my teeth into. There is no intellectual masturbation going on here, just great articles about great designers and trends. (There is a small section titled "Crit." in the middle, but even then it doesn't come off as contrived as some publications would make it seem.) Highlight articles are easily "The F Word" dealing with the resurgence of northeastern European folk art in mainstream design, a trend that I have no problem with because it looks fuckin great. And the critical article "The advertising isn't working", a damning criticism of British election time political adverts. For those who don't pick up on the clever title, it's a play on Margaret Thatcher's election winning slogan "Labour isn't working", a poster design that revolutionized political advertising from 1979 onward.
(See: http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/images/cigarettes/LabourIsn%27tWorking.jpg )
Turn the issue over and you'll be greeted with 100 pages of what has been deemed to be the "best work in advertising, graphic design and visual communication". Some amazing work pops up in there, but out of sheer laziness, I will let you discover that for yourselves when you grab this or flip through it wherever this fine mag is sold. It's worth it, I swear!
Last of this round is the Jan-March 2010 issue of Relay, a neat independently produced socialist project review which focuses on, but does not deal exclusively with Southern Ontario affairs. I was picking up some other magazines when this caught my eye, mainly due to the great cover collage. And I mean, it was only three bucks, c'mon.
Most of the articles in here are written either by people in teaching positions at a couple universities (Primarily University of Toronto, but York also pops up here and there), or are graduate students in the same institutions. But I look at this as a double edged sword. On the one hand there is the assured credibility of the contributors, especially in a collection that focuses on academically reviewing past left-leaning political action. But on the other hand this leads to a lot of theory and not much real application on the author's parts, which is okay but not ideal.
Luckily there are a few outstanding pieces by individuals with no clear ties to the academic stronghold. From retired union activist Herman Rosenfeld's New Openings for Toronto Workers, to prominent Italian Fourth International and Feminist activist Lidia Cirillo's Feminism of the Anti-Capitalist Left, these articles are by far more interesting and unlike some of the articles submitted by professors, they aren't just trying to advertise a book.
As a side anote, this also includes a reprint of an article by Colin Wilson titled Russia's Sexual Revolution After 1917, which was the absolute standout of the magazine for me. Summarizing the sexual liberation goal of the 1917 Russian revolutionary movement, and following to it's decline and eventual regression following the introduction of the New Economic Policy, Stalin and the Second World War. Great article, worth the three bucks alone as far as I'm concerned.
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