Bookblog #53: Juvenile moments



Josh Whedon and others, Astonishing X-Men: Gifted (Marvel 2008)
Dr Seuss, The Cat in the Hat (1957, HarperCollins 1985)

I inadvertently uploaded the first rough notes for this entry yesterday afternoon and it stayed up there for at least a couple of hours. So, with apologies, here' s what I meant to say.

A quick post about a couple of quick reads:

My younger son, a brilliant gift-giver, gave me a Will Eisner comic for Christmas. It turned out that I already had it as part of one of the big compendiums released after Will Eisner's death, so I made my way to Kinokuniya to swap it. There was nothing on the shelves that was obviously of the calibre of the book I was replacing, so I decided to venture into unknown territory. I've enjoyed the X-Men movies, and -- as the comics nerd on duty pointed out, Astonishing X-Men: Gifted, a collection of six comics, was written by Joss Whedon, of Buffy and Firefly cult status (though when a cult gets that big it should probably be called a religion). Buying it seemed a reasonable adventure. Sadly the reading of it confirmed that I just don't get superhero comics. I found it visually repellant (digital techniques have not improved the look of comics IMHO) and almost completely uninteresting in its story and characters. If I hadn't seen the movies I wouldn't have had a clue what was going on, but having seen them I couldn't tell if anything new was happening. The existence of the X-men is under threat again because of widespread prejudice against mutants. They fight among themselves, spectacularly. They uncover a plot to destroy humanity. They foil it, but their victory leaves the alien villain alive to fight another day. With apologies to all Whedon/X-men fans: Ho-bloody hum! I've lent the book to a younger person who loves Buffy, and look forward to seeing whether she agrees or think I'm an illiterate idiot.

When Theodore Geisel came up with his distinctive style of verse in the 1950s, I don't imagine he thought it would be bringing joy to people with dementia half a century later. But surely he would preen just a little if he saw Penny reading The Cat in the Hat to Mollie, doing the fish in different voices, and registered the unmitigated delight of her audience. Thrill to the anarchic energy of the cat, mock the prissy moralism of the fish, shake your head in mock seriousness at the ethical dilemma when Mother returns at the end! It's all there, using a minimal vocabulary, repeating the same words in different configurations so no one's powers are being taxed, and bouncing along with enough energy to enliven the weariest of brains

We're now looking for our old copy of Green Eggs and Ham.

Posted: Tue - January 27, 2009 at 06:23 AM           |

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