Annotation - Fantasy

Author: Neil Gaiman

Title: American Gods

Genre: Fantasy

Publication Date: 2001

Number of Pages: 465 pages

Geographical Setting: Modern day USA

Time Period: Late 1990's or early 2000's

Plot Summary: Shadow, a strong, silent ex-con with a knack for getting into trouble gets released from jail just in time to travel to his dead wife's funeral. Eventually, while looking for work, Shadow encounters Mr. Wednesday, who is looking for a bodyguard. After meeting a host of Mr. Wednesday's odd friends, becoming an accomplice to a few minor crimes, and fighting his way free after being kidnapped by a group of mysterious men in black, Shadow realizes that the Gods from the ancient scriptures are alive and well in modern day American, and that Mr. Wednesday-- AKA Odin-- is recruiting powerful beings for an impending all-out battle to the death with the new, modern-day American Gods, who aim to wipe the ancient Gods from existence.

Subject Headings:

• National characteristics, American -- Fiction.
• Spiritual warfare -- Fiction.
• Ex-convicts -- Fiction.

Appeal: Adult fans of fantasy and mythology as well as mind-bending science fiction.

3 terms that best describe this book: fantasy, mythology, action

Similar Authors and Works:

A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin -- A feudal court drama, set in a fictitious realm of the Westeros, in the wake of the death of the great King Robert Baratheon that follows the lives of several key point-of-view characters, including the honorable Ned Stark, his wife, and his children. Known for scenes of graphic violence and explicit sexual content, as well as Martin's penchant for unceremoniously dispatching beloved characters, Game of Thrones is adult fantasy at its best.    

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett -- Book # 13 of the Discworld series, Small Gods tells the story of Brutha, an ordinary man seeking nothing but to live a simple life, who's existence is radically changed when his God, speaking through the mouth of a tortoise, appears to him and sends him on an epic quest for peace. 

Imajica by Clive Barker -- After a nasty split from her sadistic husband, Judith is pursued through the streets of New York City by his assassins. After being saved by her long lost love, John Zacharius, the two are sucked into the underworld of Imajica where they are forced to battle ancient, unspeakable evil. 

eBooks & Audiobooks - week 11 prompt response

The first audiobook I ever "read" was Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. We listened to the novel on a family trip to Florida over the span of two days and two nights on the way to Florida to stay with my grandparents when I was roughly 12 years old. Today, I listen to audiobooks all the time-- I have a half an hour commute to the library I work at, and that ensures me an hour daily in which I can listen to an audiobook.  In fact, sometimes I am unable to sit down and read anything other than an audiobook in the course of a day. Most of the time now, I will have an audiobook checked out, as well as copies of the same book on eBook and a physical print version of the book.  I love this combination of multiple formats because it allows me to rapidly consume literature. One of the big appeals to eBooks is that you an adjust the appearance of the font, make the text bigger or smaller, and sometimes eBooks include music, which may or may not appeal to someone reading them.  Basically, all of these innovations in the way we read are conveniences that we did not have when I was a child.  eBooks and audiobooks allow us to experience literature in a very unique way.  With audiobook, a narrator can greatly effect your experience with a novel-- and sometimes, an audiobook is an improper choice for a certain novel.  Reading "The Sound and the Fury" on audiobook, for example, is a poor choice because of the unique way in which the author manipulates language-- that sort of experimentation doesn't really translate to narration, and you won't fully understand or be able to appreciate what the author is doing. However, some books-- such as the Harry Potter series-- are fantastic on audiobook, and the narrator's performance only enhances the experience. The ability to manipulate the text with eBooks is helpful with patrons who have poor vision, and for a library, an eBook copy of a novel is great because one individual copy can service the normal print crowd and the large print crowd without necessitating multiple copies of a book.  As long as you pay attention and put some care into your choice of book when it comes to eBooks and audiobooks, the experience with them will be mostly positive-- and the other great thing about these two formats is that multiple works can be downloaded to a device like a Kindle or an iPad for vacations and trips that don't consume the same amount of physical space in your luggage.  It is possible to get a poor narrator for an audiobook, but other than that, there aren't too many drawbacks to experiencing a great novel in either medium.

Book Club Experience

As luck would have it, a friend of mine-- having recently moved home after being away for several years-- had expressed interest in starting a book club prior to this assignment, and she asked me if I would help her moderate the group.  She assembled a Facebook group and invited around 25 of our mutual friends and acquaintances to join, then started a thread to gauge interest and there was a generally positive response. We determined a time and a place to meet, and left the group open in order to allow any interested parties to extend invites to friends. As the conversation went on, Kazuo Ishiguro's name came up in discussion and we eventually settled on Never Let Me Go for our first book club book. 

We met at a New Orleans-themed cafe in the downtown area of our city, which might not have been the best idea because there was live music and initially it was hard to talk to each other. Out of all of the people we had invited, only 4 of us were able to actually attend the meeting; of the 4 of us that showed up, only 2 of us had actually finished the book.  However, the other 2 people there had read enough of the book to hold a discussion, and we enjoyed a few cocktails and talked for roughly 2 hours. We didn't use any kind of study guides, but during the course of reading the books it became apparent that there was plenty to talk about.  Topics of conversation mostly centered on the behavior of the characters—and especially why one of the characters, Ruth, acted so horribly towards the other 2 main characters, Tommy and Kathy, and tried to keep them apart when they were obviously meant to be together.  The book proved to be divisive and 2 of us (myself included) rated the book at 2 of 5 stars, while the other 2 people rated it at 4 of 5 stars. Generally the people who rated the book poorly did so because they felt that none of the characters in the book were very likable—and that some of them were downright stupid—while the people who did like the book admitted that they typically enjoyed novels that were "sort of tragic."

Despite the not-so-stellar turnout, everyone enjoyed the meeting and we all agreed to meet again.  Several people had mentioned—via Facebook—that even though they missed the first meeting, they would still be interested in attending book club on future dates.  We also decided that we would take a poll of everyone who finished the book—even if they didn’t make the meeting—in order to keep track of our overall response to the books that we read; Never Let Me Go ended up with an overall rating of 3 after everything was said and done—which made sense based on our initial group’s ratings.  We held a discussion about what to read next, and we realized that there was quite a bit of interest from members in science fiction in general—and especially in sci-fi that would be considered “dystopian.”  One of the group members suggested the novel We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which most of the members had never heard of before.  The overall consensus was that most of us wanted to get outside our comfort zones when it comes to the book club, so we elected to go for it. The book is considered to be one of the first dystopian science fiction novels, written in 1921, and is said to have been greatly influential upon George Orwell and Aldous Huxley.  I was initially concerned that it would be a hard book to find, but no one’s had any problems finding it so far, and it looks like book club is on track for next month. 

Special Topics - Graphic Novels and EFL

The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction-- formerly the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel-- has been awarded annually since the year 1917, and while there has been no award presented 11 different times over the course of its history, 86 awards have been granted since its inception.  Only 3 men-- Booth Tarkington, John Updike, and William Faulkner-- have received the award multiple times.  While there are, of course, many other literary awards-- including genre specific awards such as the Hugo for science fiction or the Spur for westerns-- none of them carry the prestige of the Pulitzer Prize.  The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction stands, at this juncture in history, as one of the penultimate achievements in the career of a writer-- and it is for this reason that Art Speigelman's special award for the graphic novel, Maus, in 1992, is so incredible.  While Speigelman did not win the coveted Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which went to Jane Smiley for her novel, A Thousand Acres, the selection committee felt so strongly about his work that they honored him with a special prize-- the first and only time that a graphic novel has received a Pulitzer. 

Dating back to the pulp comics of the 1950's and 60's, the prevailing view of educators across the world has historically been very negative when it comes to comics.  Dave Gibbons, co-creator and illustrator of The Watchmen, in a recent interview with the Guardian, stated that he has, "vivid memories of the prefects at my school going through my desk and confiscating comics and burning them.” He goes on to say, "There were scares in the 50s about trashy American horror comics, and there has been this notion that comics are very low culture." Now, however, Gibbons has been named the first "comics laureate" of the UK, and is charged with becoming an "ambassador for comics and their potential to improve literacy."  (Flood) After decades of being reviled by educators, comics are beginning to be seen as another weapon in the fight against illiteracy; the work of artists like Speigelman and Gibbons have helped usher in that change in perception.  Neil Gaiman, author of the vaunted Sandman graphic novels as well as several bestselling novels, put it best: "But all of a sudden I felt like someone who'd been informed that she wasn't actually a hooker; that in fact she was a lady of the evening." (Burdette)

Now that the stigma has in part been stripped away, educators can fully explore the educational application of the graphic novel.  Carola Hecke, a German researcher, in an articled entitled “Graphic Novels as a Teaching Tool in High School and University English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Classrooms,” writes that, “Graphic novels may not only serve as an engaging means to teach comics literacy and intercultural communicative competence, but also as a means to read and analyze American culture.” (Hecke) This makes an incredible amount of sense since it's exactly what we do with children-- we use illustrations to help them understand concepts-- but the stigma against the graphic novel somehow overrode common sense in this arena.

One thing that Hecke does not mention-- but is nevertheless true-- is that the educational value of graphic novels is not limited to EFL programs, and there are already courses on graphic novels being taught in most modern American universities. Hecke writes, "Graphic novels are not yet standard material in high school EFL classes, as many teachers are not yet familiar with them or do not know how to work with them. This kind of insecurity should no longer prevent the use of graphic novels in schools, which is why this use should be taught at university." (Hecke) This is a valid point. Whether in EFL classes, or in traditional primary schools, teachers cannot teach something that they themselves are not comfortable with. Luckily, comic publishers also realized that a lack of visibility was impacting comic sales in the mid-1980's, so they set about creating genre-specific awards-- dubbed first the Jack Kirby Awards, from 1985-1987, and then the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, from 1988 to the present. Now in their 27th year, the Eisner Awards comprise a ready-made resource for finding the most innovative and artistic comics currently being published. From categories like "best short story" and "best new series" to "best lettering" and "best publication for kids," the Eisner Awards-- showcased at www.comic-con.org-- are an ideal starting point for both casual readers and educators (or librarians) who may not be familiar with popular comics, but recognize the educational value inherent in the medium. 



Works cited:

http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Special-Awards-and-Citations

http://www.comic-con.org/awards/eisner-awards-current-info

Hecke, Carola (2011). Graphic Novels as a Teaching Tool in High School and University English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Classrooms. Amerikastudien / American Studies, 56, 653-688. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23509434

Flood, Alison (2014). David Gibbons, first comic laureate: "They're not just cheap, lurid entertainment." The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/20/dave-gibbons-comics-laureate-child-literacy-watchmen

Burdette, Anthony. A Comic By Any Other Name... Timesunion.com. http://blog.timesunion.com/comicbooks/a-comic-by-any-other-name/930/

Sci-Fi Annotation

Author: Yevgeny Zamyatin

Title: We

Genre: Science Fiction

Publication Date: 1924

Number of Pages: 203 pages

Geographical Setting: One State, formerly Earth

Time Period: A future totalitarian society that places value on obedience, rationale, and logic over imagination and emotion.

Plot Summary: D-503, a brilliant mathematician and loyal subject of One State-- an future version of Earth where the most highly-held ideal is a willingness to forsake individuality and subjugate yourself to the control of the government for the betterment of society-- has almost finished building Integral, a technologically superior vessel that will be used to explore the depths of space and assimilate any extraterrestrial races encountered, when he meets a beautiful and mysterious stranger called I-303. After being exposed, for the first time, to ancient vices such as cigarettes and alcohol, D-305 is slowly seduced into the web of a terrorist organization known as MELPHI who's goal is to reunite the citizens of One State with the "savages" in the natural world. Eventually, D-503 must chose between his long-held belief in the authority of the almighty One State, and the woman he has grown to love.

Subject Headings:

Russian fiction -- 20th century.

Satire, Russian.

Totalitarianism and literature.

Appeal: Adult fans of hardcore science fiction and dystopian literature.

3 terms that best describe this book: dystopian, thrilling, romance

Similar Authors and Works:

1984 by George Orwell -- Set in a totalitarian future, the story is one of illicit-love in a society where free-thought is forbidden and an all-powerful government keeps order through terror and lies. While blatantly re-writting history at will for the Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith begins an ill-fated romance with a woman named Julia, and is eventually hunted down by the Thought Police and arrested for treason. 

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley -- Another dystopian story set in a totalitarian future-- in this case a society in which genetic modification of human beings is routine and a premium is placed on genetic sameness-- that centers around an ill-fated romance and ends in tragedy. 

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro -- Ruth, Kathy and Tommy are students at Hailsham, an elite boarding school in England, where they are educated and raised by a cadre of "Guardians," and where  a premium is placed on creativity. As they grow, they come to understand that they are different than normal people, and eventually it is revealed that Ruth, Kathy and Tommy are actually clones created for the sole purpose of organ-harvesting to support the lives of natural born humans. A love triangle between the three eventually evolves, and the story centers around their relationships as they struggle to come to terms with their ultimate purpose. 

Prompt Response - Week 7

When it comes to controversial novels, in general, I rally to the side of the written word.  However, I'm making quite a few internal assumptions when I say this, and these assumptions mostly have to do with the type of content I'm assuming is causing controversy around the book.  What I mean to say is that it seems like in America, the content that is objected to most frequently is sexual in nature.  From Tropic of Cancer to Lolita to Fifty Shades of Grey, our country has a long established history of an inability to handle sexual content rationally--most likely a puritanical hangover from our days in the original colonies getting dusted on moldy bread. Any piece of art or literature or media in this culture that makes it to the mainstream is judged, first and foremost, on its sexual content.  Look no further than Janet Jackson's immortal nipple-- thank you Google images-- if you really need proof that our country loses its collective shit over sex.  But on the other hand, every 8-year old boy in America is running around with a stuffed ninja turtle, kicking and punching his way to the corner for a time out while his parents just kind of smile, and shake their heads, and "boys-will-be-boys themselves" down to the juvenile detention center.

The point I'm trying to make here is not that somehow violence trumps sex, or vice versa, or that we should be scared of either in an artistic context, but simply this: who am I to judge? There're too many people in this country with radical values, and given that I don't rely on some ancient spectral figure(s) to discern what is morally or ethically right or wrong, the fact is that I'm never going to understand that kind of a perspective. This is good, in my opinion, because this helps me to ignore the "controversy" and focus on whether the work in question has any kind of artistic merit. This is why I can explain to someone, with no shame via a nuanced argument, why Lolita and Tropic of Cancer are canonical literary masterworks, and Fifty Shades of Grey is a trivial, if entertaining, exploration into light BDSM and sexual power dynamics.

Of course, there are different types of controversy. A work like A Million Little Pieces, written by James Frey and endorsed by Oprah's Book Club, was deemed "controversial" not because of its content, but because it was marketed as a lie. Initially published as a memoir, there was a major public backlash once it was discovered that Frey's work was largely fiction.  Oprah even recanted her personal endorsement.  In my mind, this shows exactly the value of a celebrity endorsement. Does the fact that Frey lied about the genre of the work somehow alter Oprah's posthumous experience reading the book? I don't think so. It was the content of the book that initially appealed to Oprah, not the controversy surrounding it; I think her initial review still has some value. Her initial review still implies that she enjoyed reading the book. The book was beautifully written, from a mechanical standpoint, and it feels like Frey was acknowledging a sort of "beat" tradition-- as in Ginsberg and Kerouac and Kesey and Thompson and Burroughs-- as far as novels centered around drug abuse are concerned.  Many, many other people disagree with me. The fact is this: an endorsement can only ever amount to an opinion. 

I also happen to have an opinion concerning A Million Little Pieces: I think it's brilliant. I think that it's brilliant for a true author of fiction-- someone who's job is essentially to be a fantastic liar-- to show such dedication to the lie. 

But then again, I haven't read it yet.