Caught In The Whirlwind
Archive for May, 2010
Keeping Busy
0726 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
I figured I’d come out of hibernation to post up a couple of projects that I’ve been working on this month.
First up is a couple of things I did for my friend Wassy’s website. She wanted a place to showcase the children’s book she did up for a course she took this semester, as well as a place to show her digital portfolio (NOTE: Not safe for work viewing. There’s some nude figure drawing studies in there) for view. Just a note on those though, if you want the full experience, don’t use Internet Explorer. There’s still a few bugs to work out with the animations and things generally work better on Firefox/Chrome/Safari/anything else.
Secondly, is this month’s entry into the City of Heroes forum art competition. The theme was the 7 deadly sins. I wanted to do something heavy on the manipulation of typography this month because it’s something I haven’t done much of. After much deliberation and false starts, I hit upon the idea of doing some kind of old style propaganda poster type thing, which eventually morphed into my final entry, a recruitment poster for the in-game villain organization of Arachnos:
I did the actual typography and design in Adobe Illustrator, popped it into Photoshop to add the distressing, the peeled corner and the wall texture.
I’m really pleased with how it ended up looking. Probably one of my favorite things I’ve done.
And finally, another City of Heroes-ish project for my friend Bayani who’s working up a couple of actual comic type books for his original character…well…Bayani. He needed to make a couple of pages to hold biographical and power information for the two characters highlighted in the book which I finished last night (Click on this to get the full page view from my DeviantArt page). This is a 2 page spread, by the way. The page layout is mine, content provided by him.
Book 15: Brave New World
4
Title: Brave New World
Author: Aldous Huxley
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 288
Summary
Just copying this bit from amazon here:
Aldous Huxley’s tour de force, Brave New World is a darkly satiric vision of a “utopian” future—where humans are genetically bred and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively serve a ruling order. A powerful work of speculative fiction that has enthralled and terrified readers for generations, it remains remarkably relevant to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying entertainment.
Notes
This book was recommended to me by Wassy who read it in High School and enjoyed it. So, looking to take on some of the books regarded more as classics that I had missed, I grabbed it.
Simply amazing. I read though the entire thing in about 2 days and was riveted the entire time.
First of all, for a book written in the 1930′s it’s world view of eventual technology is surprisingly spot on. Except for the ever present flying cars anyway. But even more terrifying, his vision of the future remains to be entirely plausible. Huxley takes the undercurrents of human progress and development from the early 20th century and has created the vision of a utopian society on the surface. Everybody is happy and can get everything they desire to have (and are conditioned to not desire anything that they can’t).
People are created in gigantic labs with various, predetermined levels of ability which force them into certain castes of society. But they are happy regardless of their position because they are conditioned to be so. Which brings up the question, is this really happiness?
You can see a lot of what Huxley describes actually undercutting events of today as well which makes this book as terrifying to read as it is. Particularly the push towards consumerism. In the book people are conditioned to believe that, for example, if their clothes rip, it’s better to throw them away and buy new ones than fix them. All of their games and entertainment options are specifically created to require them to buy equipment and consume more and more stuff.
You can see that push going on today, brought to light particularly due to the economic recession where the US Government has gotten involved in trying to convince people that the only way out of our economic downturn was to buy more stuff and encouraged such by giving out stimulus checks. We’re being trained to be good little consumers and we don’t even really realize it.
I could keep writing about this book, but I think I’ll stop here. I’ll conclude by saying that even almost 80 years after it was written, Brave New World is no less relevant today than it was then. The book is simultaneously riveting and terrifying and if you somehow managed to miss reading it like I did, I highly, highly recommend checking it out. Lot of food for thought contained within.
Next Book
I’m back on the Wheel of Time bandwagon with The Fires of Heaven. I’m also considering picking up and reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. It’s been getting good buzz from people whom I trust their opinions on books, so I’ve been thinking of checking it out. I’ve got the sample on my Kindle so I’ll see how I like that.
Book 14: The Shadow Rising
6
Title: The Shadow Rising (Wheel of Time book 4)
Author: Robert Jordan
Genre: Fantasy (Epic)
Pages: 1008
Summary
The adventures of Rand al’Thor and friends continue as more prophecy unfolds. Again not going to spoil since it’s the middle of the series.
Notes
Ok…here’s where the wheels on the Wheel of Time bus start to fall off. By far the largest book of the series so far, the first half consists mostly of exposition. Explaining the backstory of the world and some of the characters that had not had their stories explained previously. Things get moving in the second half, but much like Rand keeps saying…things are moving too slow.
The pace of the series does slow down considerably from here on out as we transition from the introductory books to the middle of the story which sets up the ending (whatever that ending will be).
Jordan’s issues with writing female characters and dialog between men and women continues here. It feels more pronounced since it’s been the way things have gone for the past few books and one hoped that it’s something Jordan would have grown out of but it’s not so. Nearly everything bit of dialog from a female character (especially things that Nynaeve says) has something to do with how much of a wool-brained fool men are and a good amount of what the men say are how incomprehensible women are. The 40th time Perrin thinks “Light! I’ll never understand women!” you’ll want to find Robert Jordan (were he still alive) and throw the book at him.
BUT. writing cliches aside, the story is still interesting and the reader is left with a hunger for learning what’s going to happen next.
Next Book
I’m taking another little break from the Wheel of Time to dive into a literary classic. After Wassy and I had a conversation on the way back from our wine country trip this weekend which turned to books we read in high school English class, I’ve decided to read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I need to make a better effort to read some of the more widely held classics that I didn’t get a chance to read in high school. And maybe re-read some of the ones I did for a better appreciation. But not Dickens. Oh god…I’m NEVER reading any more Dickens again.
Book 13: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
0
Title: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Author: Seth Grahame-Smith
Genre: Historical Fantasy/Horror
Pages: 352
Summary
By all accounts, Abraham Lincoln’s life was astonishing. 16th President of the United States, a man who successfully navigated the raging rapids formed by the Civil War and the specter of slavery and set the country on a path leading to the present. But what if history didn’t tell the whole story of the man? What if he was also one of the greatest Vampire hunters of his time and all of the events in his life, including his presidency and the civil war were not what they appeared to be on the surface?
Notes
Ok, this is an odd one. It’s written as a historical fiction kind of book, the premise being that Abe kept a series of secret journals through his life detailing his secret vampire hunting activities. The book is probably half 3rd person narrated novel, half first person journal entry excerpts.
The author does an extremely good job of conceiving a scenario where the existence of vampires fits in perfectly with the other events of Abe’s life. If you can get yourself to suspend disbelief enough to believe that there are indeed vampires, then there’s nothing in the book that jumps out at you and makes you go “Oh, come on now!” with the possible exception of the ending. He accounts for everything from why he broke off his engagement with Mary Todd (his eventual wife) to how he came to run for president, to the civil war and slavery, to even his assassination.
The pacing is a little off in places. It’s a quick read overall, but the action slows down in the middle while Abe is transitioning between growing up and becoming President. His youth is interesting because it sets up the world and explains why vampires are such a big part of Abe’s life. His presidency and the civil war is the obvious climax and what the book was leading up to all along.
But the middle years where Abe was wandering around the country trying to make a living for himself after leaving his father drag on a bit. It’s just a string of events punctuated by “Oh, and he killed another vampire here”. I understand that Seth Grahame-Smith was trying to paint a complete picture of the man, but I could have done with a more abbreviated history of the events leading up to his presidency and more detail once he was actually elected.
Overall though, it’s a great premise and a fun read, even with it’s problems. Highly recommended if you’re into history and horror.
Next Book
Well, I’m all caught up with the posting what I’ve been reading now. Right now I’m diving back into the Wheel of Time series with the 4th book, The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan
Book 12: The Dragon Reborn
0
Title: The Dragon Reborn
Author: Robert Jordan
Genre: Fantasy (Epic)
Pages: 624
Summary
In the third book of the Wheel of Time series, the adventures of Rand Al’Thor and his friends continue, with more emphasis on his friends than Rand himself.
Notes
Well, not much to say about this book except that it’s probably one of the better books in the series. It focuses more on the female lead characters than Rand and his activities, which continues to push him into the background even though one would assume he’s the actual main character.
Jordan’s ability to write females is what limits this book from being a classic. But it’s still very good
Next Book
After reading this book I decided to take a small Wheel of Time Break and do something completely different.
So, to that end, I picked up Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
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