Sagas of the Norsemen by L. Auerbach and J. Simpson

I've been trying to read up on Norse mythology without being quite sure where to start. My first two attempts from a university library yielded a kind of reference book, with gods and heroes listed in alphabetical order, and the first volume of Jacob Grimm's Teutonic Mythology. The former had plenty of good information, but I was looking for something to read straight through, not a reference book. The later is apparently a very important and influential work on Norse Mythology, but it's a scholarly work, very heavy reading, and not exactly a book for beginners.

I was looking for something lighter than Teutonic Mythology, but more in-depth than D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths, which I read back in the 3rd grade. Using a public library this time, I found Sagas of the Norsemen.

Overview
Sagas opens with a bit of archaeological background, pictures of relics, and an account of funeral customs. Then it delves into a description of the pantheon, with a few brief stories of the gods' various adventures and hijinks. The next section describes the provenances summarizes some of the more famous sagas. I didn't know any of them well enough to judge the accuracy of the summaries, but the story-telling left a bit to be desired. The last section of the book describes the cosmology of the Norse world, the creation of the world, and Ragnarok, the end of the world.

Recommended for: Meh, there's got to be better Norse mythology books out there. Sagas is part of a series called Myth and Mankind that covers the mythologies and legends of cultures around the world. They look pretty cool, but if Sagas is a good representation of the series, I probably won't bother with the rest.

Parental worries: The Norse gods and heroes got up to some pretty weird stuff, but this book has a fairly clinical approach. If you'd like to err on the side of caution, check out D'Aulaire's Book of Norse Myths for the young ones (or even the old ones :-p it's been awhile since I read it, but it's probably a better book)

Ramblings:
I always feel bad after giving a book a bad review :-p it may be better than I'm giving it credit for, or maybe I just had the wrong expectations going into it. Sagas approaches mythology from the wrong angle, I think. It doesn't tell a story, doesn't create a world, merely presents the beliefs of a long-dead civilization. For example, who in their right minds puts the creation myth at the end of a book of mythology? It makes no sense! I realize that Norse mythology is nowhere near as well organized as Greek and that it doesn't follow much of a chronology, but that's not much of an excuse. It throws off the whole narrative, to wade into a bevvy of gods, goddesses, and giants with no notion of where they came from, how they're related, etc.

To it's credit, the book does have tons of good pictures and photographs, and the archaeological background is pretty nifty. It also takes the time to discuss the most important sources of information for the myths and sagas it relates, an angle that helps to show the somewhat disjointed nature of Norse mythology.

So, my third attempt turned out to be only slightly better than the first two. Does anyone have other suggestions? I should probably just stop mucking around and just pick up the translated sagas :-p

The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky

A couple of years ago this graphic novel was made into a movie starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. I didn't bother seeing the movie when it came out 'cause it looked like the weirdness would outweigh the starpower, but I wasn't quite right. Turns out it's visually stunning, the acting is quite good (insofar as I'm any judge) and although the plot is just as weird as promised, it makes just enough sense to be really good. Good enough that I jumped at the opportunity to read the original graphic novel.

Overview
The plot consists of three different arcs that seem completely random but are eventually all connected. The three stories interweave and float around in time, so you have to wait until halfway through to start piecing things together. The 'central' story takes place in the present, where Tommy Creo, a research oncologist, is racing the clock to find a cure for his wife Izzy's brain cancer. He finds hope in a strange compound from a tree in Central America that promises to have remarkable abilities. Several hundred years earlier, conquistador Tomas Verde, on a mission from his Queen to find the Tree of Life, attacks a Mayan temple in the hope of reaching his goal. And finally, in the year 2463 a man named Tom floats through space in a golden globe on his way to the dying star Xibalba, accompanied by a giant gnarled tree and the ghosts of his past. (Xibalba is the Mayan underworld, and the Mayans actually identified a particular star as the location of their underworld. Turns out it's a dying star :-p Interesting coincidence, huh?)

Surprise surprise, in the movie all three Toms are played by Hugh Jackman, although it took me awhile to recognize him under the Conquistador's beard and the space traveler's shaved head.

Recommended for: I'd recommend the movie to anyone (with the warning that it does require a bit of thought, not a mindless fun flick), but the graphic novel . . . only to artsy types or graphic novel enthusiasts. The art style is so very stylized that it manages to make the story even harder to understand, and I enjoyed the movie much more.

Parental Warnings: Plenty of nudity and an intimate scene or two. The movie is rated PG-13, but it puts clothes on all the nekkid people.

Ramblings (Spoiler Threat: Low)
I am not a fan of the art style in the graphic novel. I'm sure this just shows how uncultured I am, because it's probably supposed to be new and groundbreaking and enlightened, but to me it just looks unpolished and ugly. Having said that, I really like the story. The basic theme is the acceptance of death, and that death is only a path to immortality. This startlingly Christian theme is presented in a secular setting, with no trappings of religion other than those of the long-past Mayans. (Actually, it may be just generically religious/spiritual, more than Christian--I still prefer it to the materialistic, nihilistic vein of so much modern stuff.)

One of the differences between the movie and the graphic novel that sticks out to me is in the characterization of Tomas Verde's Queen Isabel. In both versions she eventually sends her Captain off to find the Tree of Life in an attempt to gain power over the dark forces of the Spanish Inquisition. However, in the graphic novel she originally questions the wisdom of such a move, mentioning that it is a heresy to attempt to gain eternal life. In the movie (if I remember correctly) the head inquisitor makes this point. That's an important switch. It's a valid point, in line with the main theme of the story, and yet putting it in the mouth of the grand inquisitor instead of the queen automatically turns it to ash, because the man liberally uses the accusation of heresy to justify torture and murder. Difference #2 is that while the movie only gives glimpses of the relationship between the Queen and her Captain, allowing the viewer (if they wish) to assume a chaste, courtly love between the two, the graphic novel leaves no room for such naive illusions. This bugs me, not only because I happen to like my naive illusions on this score, but because it presents two conflicting versions of the Queen. Either she's an intelligent ruler who recognizes and tries to avoid heresy when she sees it but is also involved in a sinful and scandalous affair, or she's a chaste but power-hungry and vapid ruler. >_< Why'd they have to split it like that?

Housekeeping

Yay, I finally did something with my tabs! I've added archives pages and cleaned up the labels to just genre and series.

I've also decided that two posts a week just isn't going to happen :-( so in the interests of keeping a reliable schedule, I'll stick to one a week, probably Wednesdays. Maybe if I build up enough of a cushion of scheduled posts, I can give twice a week a try again :-p but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

Hm, I usually try to come up with a witty opening section, but I've been sitting on this review for far too long as it is :-p So without further ado, we have the next book in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.

Overview
It's a busy time for the Watch, now that they've expanded from night duty to 'round-the-clock City Guard. One result of this is the opening of CSI: Ankh-Morpork. (Okay, so maybe the new forensics division consists of a single dwarf who managed to blow the Alchemist Guild sky-high one too many times, but it's a start) And it turns out that they need all the extra hands they can get, because someone is poisoning Vetinari and someone else is killing harmless old men. It looks like a golem is responsible for the murders, but these fantasy equivalents of robots aren't allowed to hurt people, so what's going on?

Recommended for: Everyone :-p It's not a bad place to start, if you're new to Discworld, but if you've got a choice, Guards! Guards! or Men at Arms might be better.

Parental Worries: Hmm, minor language and violence? I can't remember exactly, so probably not much. A bit of religious spoof, if that's your idea of a bad time.

Audiobook Comments: Read by Nigel Planer, who does a wonderful job as usual.

Ramblings
Three books into Discworld's Watch sequence, and various schemers in Ankh-Morpork are still trying to put a king on their ancient (and rotting) throne. Everyone seems to want a king, and if a willing candidate does not appear, they're ready to make one out of the commonest materials.

Since we've spent the last two books listening to why Vimes doesn't like kings (and you still get a bit of that, don't worry), it's interesting to finally get Carrot's side of things. Why hasn't he stepped up to claim his obvious birthright? (other than the threat of Vimes, that is) The most forthcoming answer is that the desire for power is completely against Carrot's character, a subconsious thing that ironically makes him even more suited to the throne. But assuming it's all subconsious does Carrot a bit of a disservice--as Angua points out in this book, you have to be very complex to appear as simple as Carrot. It's quite possible that he's been avoiding the crown for his own sanity; it appears that kingship tends to drive people mad, and just in case the idea hadn't occured to him before, this little adventure provides a very good demonstration.

An interesting point that I just discovered: According to The Annotated Pratchett, (which is an excellent guide to all the little historical, literary and popular references in the books) golems originated from Jewish legend, which is why they all have Yiddish names and speech patterns (at least in this book, I don't think that's kept up in the golem's later appearances).

Quotes!

"Just because someone's a member of an ethnic minority doesn't mean they're not a nasty small-minded little jerk [...]"--Carrot, quoting Vimes

"I AM DEATH, NOT TAXES. I TURN UP ONLY ONCE."

"People look down on stuff like geography and meteorology, and not only because they´re standing on one and being soaked by the other. They don´t look quite like real science.(That is to say, the sort you can use to give something three extra legs and then blow it up) But geography is only physics slowed down and with a few trees stuck on it, and meteorology is full of excitingly fashionable chaos and complexity."

"'Is It Frightening To Be Free?'
'You said it.'
'You Say To People "Throw Off Your Chains" And They Make New Chains For Themselves?'
'Seems to be a major human activity, yes.'"
- Dorfl the golem tries to understand human nature

Not Dead Yet!

I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, I promise! I'm in the middle of a job search right now, and nothing saps the will to be productive like endless searches and applications >_< I should have a new post up by next week though.

Incidentally, anyone in the San Antonio area need an environmental engineer? :-p