June 2008 Archives

Reviewed by John Glover, Reference Librarian for the Humanities

The comic strip Boondocks ran in various locations from 1996 to 2006, at which point the strip ceased production, possibly for good. Subject matter included race, politics, religion, and all things African-American. The strip often followed current events closely, sparking intense debate and anger in many quarters, particularly with its intensely political turn after 9/11, and it was regularly pulled from or edited by many newspapers during its run. It stood out on the comics page, both for its largely African-American cast and for the vigor with which McGruder regularly laid into prominent politicians, media moguls, and self-appointed champions of Right.

All the Rage is a collection of selected 2003-2005 strips; articles about the strip and interviews with McGruder; and strips that caused controversy and/or were pulled. It comes packed with plenty of actual strips, along with enough behind-the-scenes information to give you a broad take on the comic. If you've never read Boondocks, which has since become an animated show, this isn't a bad place to start. Note that readers sensitive to cussing, racial epithets, or frank discussion of racial inequality may not find this book to be their cup of tea.

Cabell Library PN6728.B633 M34 2007

Reviewed by John Glover, Reference Librarian for the Humanities

The history of literary criticism is not among the world's most well-known leisure reading subjects, and yet this book is an engrossing study of how tastes in literature change. It's particularly relevant if you spend time thinking about whether what you're reading is good, bad, or indifferent. In 149 pages, Rónán McDonald travels from Aristotle's Poetics all the way to book review blogs like Bookslut and The Book Review Blog

The central questions of this book are whether it is good to evaluate the quality of literature, and, if so, whether trained critics are any better at doing it than journalists or the common bookworm. This book happened more or less as a result of the gradual turn against critical evaluation in the last half of the 20th century, but it was particularly spurred by John Carey's 2005 book, What Good Are the Arts?, which left McDonald wondering how things could possibly have come to this point.

This book is not a deep academic analysis of the central questions, but a survey of literary criticism and how it got from "beauty is truth" to "there is no truth in beauty." If your experience of literary criticism starts with Marx and ends with Foucault, it may surprise you to read about the archetypal criticism of Northrop Frye, the place of Keats' aesthetics, or Virginia Woolf's views on gender privilege and identity.

Cabell Library PN81 .M48 2007

Reviewed by John Glover, Reference Librarian for the Humanities

The story of Sweeney Todd goes back at least to the 1840s, when the serial story The String of Pearls was first published. The "Demon Barber of Fleet Street" has run through pages and on stages, as well as appearing on screens big and small over the years. In 2007 he slashed his way across London and into our hearts in Tim Burton's theatrical adaptation.

Johnny Depp brings a manic gleam to the well-worn role of the bloody butcher, with Helena Bonham Carter as his pie-baking partner in crime, Mrs. Lovett. They sing and glide through scenes with mournful, homicidal grace, planning the barber's revenge against Judge Turpin, played by the talented Alan Rickman. As musicals go, Sweeney Todd is an odd one, but the music is well-integrated into the movie. If you hate music, this might not be the movie for you, but if you stayed away because you like the story or actors but couldn't bring yourself to see a musical, check it out. Above all, this is (and feels like) a Tim Burton film.

Cabell Media and Reserves DVDs PN1997.2 .S94 2008

Reviewed by John Glover, Reference Librarian for the Humanities

Li-Young Lee is a poet of the core elements of human experience, shunning the transitory. His work encompasses loneliness, fatherhood, love, the inner life of children, and many other experiences familiar to readers of today, yesterday, or tomorrow. The poems of Book of My Nights are not very long as a rule, focusing with spare language on the things one tends to ruminate about in the hours between dusk and dawn.

On the death of his brother, in "Black Petal":

Ask him who his mother is. He'll declare the birds
have eaten the path home, but each of us
joins night's ongoing story

On the concerns of a father, in "Words for Worry":

Worry boils the water
for tea in the middle of the night.

Worry trimmed the child's nails before
singing him to sleep.

On youth and mortality, in "Stations of the Sea":

Once forsaken, I remain
hidden in the dust, a mortal threshold
unearthed by crying.

Crying, my body turns to dark petals.

The poet has been well-laurelled in his life as a poet, winning multiple Pushcart Prizes, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, among others. Perhaps the most prominent of Asian American poets, a collection of interviews entitled Breaking the Alabaster Jar was published in 2006. His poems have been anthologized in major works like the Norton Anthology of American Literature, signaling both provisional inclusion in the oft-debated canon and the regard in which his work is held.

Cabell Library PS3562.E35438 B66 2001

Cabell Library PS3562.E35438 Z46 2006 Breaking the Alabaster Jar

Reviewed by John Glover, Reference Librarian for the Humanities

This collection of short stories is a representative offering, showcasing Murakami's skills from his beginnings as an author in the late '70s to today. Shadowy jazz clubs, bizarre metaphysical conditions, high and low culture, Japanese work culture, political violence, nameless and subtly attractive women: all of his recurring obsessions appear here. The book has a loose, freewheeling feel, and is a fine place for a Murakami beginner. Read a few paragraphs of a story, and if you don't like it, move on to the next. Diverse as this collection is, you will eventually find something you like.

"Tony Takitani" chronicles the life a Japanese jazz man's son, what his drive and focus brings him, and how he eventually learns about loneliness. "The Ice Man" is a story about love between a woman of flesh and a man of ice, and the progression of their relationship as she learns to live in his icy world. "Birthday Girl" tells the story of the circumstances surrounding a young woman's birthday wish, but not the wish itself. "Nausea 1979" describes a Biblical period of regurgitation that may or may not be connected to the protagonist's amorous adventures with his friends' wives and girlfriends.

The book also contains two pieces of writing for those interested in Murakami as an artist. "The Rise and Fall of Sharpie Cakes" is a disconcerting fable about the author's view of his reception by the Japanese literary establishment. The reader knows the truth behind the story because Murakami tells us about it in the introduction, which is itself a nice essay about his take on writing, short fiction, and the purpose of stories.

Cabell Library PL856.U673 A23 2006