I finished reading Watchmen by Alan Moore. Let me preface this by saying, WOW. Then I need to restate myself, WOW!!

I loved it. It was incredible. I can't believe how many interesting themes were contained in about 100 pages about super-heroes. The plot, simply speaking, is about the US in 1985 at the height of the Cold War, but in this alternate course of events, super heroes actually existed. They were regular people who wanted to imitate the comic books and fight for justice in the streets. They banded together in the 50's and did so again in the 70's, but a law was passed to ban them after the populace became sick of them. The book opens with the murder of one of the first heroes, the Comedian, and a subsequent trend of retired superheroes dying or disappearing which leads the only still-active hero, Rorschach to believe that someone out there is killing the "masks".

The main conflict in the book is the struggle between saving people and saving the world. The characters all react in interesting psychological ways to the desperate impossibility of saving the wretched hordes of people. Some, like Dan Dreiberg, the second man to take the superhero name of Nite Owl, give up and fall into a depressed middle age where they view their vigilanteism as youthful naivete. Then there is my personal favorite character Rorschach. He's horribly traumatized from a childhood with a prostitute mother who genuinely dislikes him, and then he's further damaged by an "adventure" in which he tries to rescue a kidnapped little girl only to discover that the criminal already slaughtered her and fed her to his dogs. Needless to say, retribution is delivered. Now he doesn't really have emotions nor does he care for the scum of the earth people who populate the streets, and yet he lives his life to fight desperately for what is undebatably right. He is not willing to lie or to do what he thinks is wrong, but he so cold and able to kill anybody he thinks deserves it. Also, his mask is just a Rorschach blot test which has to be the coolest thing in the world.

Every single intricate element of the plot comes together so perfectly in the end, and the overall moral of the story is so unmistakable, understandable, and thought-provoking. It is no doubt one of the best books that I've read recently, and the best graphic novel that I've ever read... It's also the only graphic novel that I've ever read...

I've recently become obsessed with a couple of things, The Colbert Report, The Killers, and Diablo Cody's columns. I can only blog about one of them, but I'd be more than happy to talk about all the things I love about Diablo Cody's writing!

Here's the url to her most recent article:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20233928,00.html

This time, she's talking about her new obsession with some show on the history channel called MonsterQuest. It's sappy and it appears to be 90% fictional from what she says, but she loves it. The topic itself isn't incredibly interesting to me. They usually aren't when she's writing; I mean the last few articles have been about how she loves retro PlayBoy stuff and Judy Blume. Her screenplay is about a pregnant teenager (a movie premise that wouldn't really interest anyone unless they're a fan of 7th Heaven or something). It's the way in which she writes things that keeps me coming for more.

Let's take this passage for an example:

"Television is essential to my overall wellness. It's my only distraction from the endless, unceasing California sunshine that refuses to get off my damn lawn."

Okay, let me list a couple reasons why I absolutely love those two sentences. Her sense of humor is actually... well... funny. I don't usually find women that funny. You've heard about my dislike of Tina Fey..... Diablo Cody is an exception to the rule. She's sharp, funny, and she does things like write that she needs a TV to distract her from the sun that won't leave her lawn.

Her amusing and earnest voice that screams through every word that she writes isn't the only reason I like her though. That she used to be a stripper and blogged about it is pretty much the coolest thing I've ever heard in my life. She's unapologetic about her sexuality (the title of the article I cited is "I Was a 'Monster' Virgin") and that's a breath of fresh air in an era where every pop-tart has to pretend that she's an untouched and pure girl to get famous (Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus) when everyone knows that they aren't. I can't stand dishonesty and I love cynicism. She writes about everyday life in a way that is entertaining and enjoyable and she'll make fun of anything stupid or fake if she feels like it.

That is why I like Diablo Cody. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to listen to The Killers' cover of Romeo and Juliet for the 1,000,000th time this weekend.

I'm still working through The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory. Yes, I just said "working through" which is never the ideal way to describe the reading of a book, but I must say that it is an excellent choice of words on my part. Despite it's similarities to The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory in outside appearences (note the name and the author), it does not have any of the appeal of her earlier book. I realize that in my last post, I was comparing the two books, but I feel that after finishing more than half of The Other Queen, I have to reiterate my opinion.

The Other Queen is told by three perspectives, and there are no subtleties about how the three characters view things differently. The wife is jealous that the husband is in love with Mary Queen of Scots. Mary Queen of Scots wants to be queen no matter what. The husband is in love with Mary but has to stay faithful to his wife and his real queen, Elizabeth. This could result in some interest if the characters were DYNAMIC, but these happen to be the three most STATIC characters I've ever encountered in my life, and I've read a fair amount of books.

If you take a look at The Other Boleyn Girl, the main character, Mary, Anne Boleyn's sister, narrates, THE ENTIRE TIME. She starts the book out as a young innocent girl who's in love with Henry VIII but after a while sees him as a spoiled and uncaring man and falls out of love with him. She watches from the sidelines as her sister takes her place as his mistress, then rises even higher only to be executed in the end.

So Ms. Gregory, you should really take notes from your previous book and make sure your characters develop.

Now, it's unfair to say that her multi-perspective books aren't any good. The Boleyn Inheritance does the same thing, but that involves some passion that it actually appealing to the reader (Catherine Howard and Thomas Culpepper!), a seriously messed up woman (wife of George Boleyn, Anne Boleyn's brother who was executed for allegedly sleeping with his sister, who testified against her husband), and perspective on the same events that are different without being too obvious (the way the strict and pious Anne of Cleves views things versus the way the ditzy, young Catherine Howard sees things). When you look back at the bland perspectives I listed in The Other Queen, I must say that perhaps this new book of hers isn't so much a bad version of The Other Boleyn Girl but more a bad version of The Boleyn Inheritance.

Or maybe I just don't like it because Boleyn isn't in the title...

Last week's blog was a bit lengthy, but this week I'm reading something much lighter. I picked up a brand, new hardbound copy of The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory because I'm shamefully obsessed with her historical fiction novels. I've read them all, so of course I had to go and blow $20 on a copy of her brand-new book. 

It's of course not nearly as good as The Other Boleyn girl (no, I never saw the movie), but that one had something extra to it. I'm convinced that any story about Anne Boleyn will turn out moderately good, and since Ms. Gregory is a pretty good writer, hers was really quite good. Something about the feverish rise and deadly fall of a character is monstrously appealing. 

This time around, the story is about Mary Stuart (also known as Mary Queen of Scots) and she's never really interested me very much. Some people find the idea of a queen of three countries yet without a throne fascinating, but I've always felt that it's pretty boring. This book alternates between the perspectives of Mary, and the couple who are keeping her in their house while she's exiled in England. Philippa Gregory is obviously going to spend the whole book building pathos for the young queen so that her death seems very tragic. A love story is slowly being constructed aswell between her and George. Bess is, meanwhile, aware of the beauty and vivaciousness of this royal and not too happy to see her husband slowly become taken with her. The problem right now in this story, is that there is no conflict. I really want a catastrophe to happen to spice things up a bit... That and the chapters narrated by Bess Talbot are terribly boring...