IMAGE OF THE WEEK
‘Nuff said.
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On the recommendation of a friend, I read The Descent by Jeff Long. This novel concerns the discovery that the Earth is somewhat hollow, and living down there is an entire race of beings whose bodily features are frighteningly similar to those we assign to the classical image of demons. Many myths have some basis in some kind of historical fact; what Long has done here is to try to envision the historical fact that would have given rise to our religious ideas of Hell and its minions.
I found this novel to be one of the more amazing reads I’ve had in a while, but it took me all the way to the end to make that decision. Along the way, the book moves in a lot of different directions, and the resulting lack of focus is somewhat maddening. Examining the religious implications of such a discovery alone could make for an entire thick novel; so, too, could the story of the intrepid explorers who are sent to explore it. Ditto the war that breaks out briefly between the surface-dwellers and the hadals (the name given to the subterranean race, homo hadalis). Also throw in linguistic theory — the book’s main character is a nun who has spent her life searching for the lost “mother language” — and Jules Verne homages and the standard not-all-that-benevolent-billionaire who drives most stories like this, and you have one of the densest books, in terms of things that are happening, that I’ve ever encountered.
All this plot, though, means that characterization takes a back seat. Of all the characters in the book, only two — maybe three — are really sharply drawn. The remainder are ciphers, basically filling in obligatory parts that must be played for the plot to work. This overdensity of plot combined with the broad-line characterization combines to make the book hard to really sink one’s teeth into.
The book’s ending, though, is nothing short of amazing. All of the various plotlines come together in the space of about one hundred twenty pages. This is one of those books where nothing makes sense until the reader is done with the entire work and able to sit back and see how it all fits together. This may be a book that improves on successive readings, when the events in the front portion of the work take on a different light given knowledge of what is to come.
The Descent is by turns horror, adventure novel, love story, philosophical novel, religious novel, and science fiction. It doesn’t start out being a page-turner, but it becomes one.
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It is occasionally desirable to be able to non-verbally convey jaded boredom, such as that one might feel in one of those utterly useless, Dilbert-style staff meetings. What is needed in these cases is a way of saying, short of sleeping or notepad-doodling, “I’m here because I’m required to be, but I am well aware that nothing of great importance is being discussed.” For those craving such a skill, check out this site, devoted to the fine art of pen-spinning. (Thanks to Sean, himself a noted pen-spinner, for this one.)
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There are times when one must eschew poetic descriptors, and go instead straight for the onomatopoeia. That said:
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I believe this to be the worst teaser for a film that I have ever seen. It’s for the new Bond film, Die Another Day, and it does absolutely nothing to make me look forward to the movie. And I’m a longtime James Bond fan. It doesn’t help that the thing is presented in a window that is roughly the size of a large postage stamp, but a Bond trailer should look like a BOND trailer, not just a generic espionage-thriller.
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In his review of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Roger Ebert noted that he found many of the film’s visual effects to be hazy and ill-defined, as he was seeing a film print taken from a digital master. Now he has seen the film in an actual digital projection, and he writes this article about the difference.
Many Star Wars fans were surprised by Ebert’s lukewarm review of the new film, given his until-now unflagging support of the franchise — he is the by far the most prominent film critic to give The Phantom Menace a positive review, for example. But to experienced readers of Ebert, his opinions now don’t come as much of a surprise. Ebert has been fairly skeptical of digital cinema for several years now; he has written numerous articles detailing his belief that film is still preferable because the image is more organic. (The argument is reminiscent of the audiophiles who steadfastedly maintain that a pristine vinyl LP sounds better than a compact disc.) He has also been giving films that are not quite up to par passing marks for inventive visuals; it was on this basis that he gave probably the only positive review that Speed 2: Cruise Control received. It was on the basis of visuals that he recommended The Phantom Menace, saying: “As for the bad rap about the characters–hey, I’ve seen space operas that put their emphasis on human personalities and relationships. They’re called Star Trek movies. Give me transparent underwater cities and vast hollow senatorial spheres any day.” If he was truly disappointed by the look of Attack of the Clones, how could he give it any other review than the one he did?
(And he panned Spiderman for the EXACT same reason.)
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Donn Esmonde, a regular columnist for The Buffalo New, wrote this article on today’s vote by the Seneca Nation of Indians on whether to pursue casinos in downtown Buffalo and Niagara Falls. His article is a bit alarmist, but that’s fine by me. I’d love to see the city figure out a plan for economic development that doesn’t include gambling venues.
(UPDATE: The vote by the Seneca Nation approved the gambling pact with the State of New York, by approximately one hundred votes. Casinos, here we come….)
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Newsweek has an interesting article online about the future of high-rise skyscrapers.
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And thus did the Bash Brothers pass into baseball memory, there to dwell forever with the likes of the Gashouse Gang and “Tinker to Evers to Chance”. Jose Canseco has retired. I always rather liked Canseco, with his “Yeah, I’m a big-time sports star and I’m just going to have fun with it”. You have to like any ballplayer who, while playing outfield, goes to run down a deep fly ball at the warning track and has the ball bounce off his head and over the fence for a home run.
Canseco is one of those borderline players who will appear on many Hall of Fame ballots before he’s eventually admitted, if at all. I suspect he’ll eventually get in, but it may take him years into his “Veterans Committee” eligibility. Anyway, best of luck to him.