review of Thor God of Thunder: The Accursed-volume 3

Malekith of the Dark Elves has been sprung from prison and has gone about the scattered tribes of his own people to massacre them.  A league is formed with Thor, a Dark Elf survivor, a Light Elf, a troll, a dwarf, and a giant.  They try to stop Malekith in the usual hacking manner which does not work.  Thor then bands them together through drink.  He employs some amazingly sneaky thinking that would have made Loki proud and this is how he then stops Malekith.  The tribes finally band together to take a king, Malekith.   The Dark Elf from their group then volunteers to take his place in the pits, so that their people can know peace amongst themselves.

Review of Thor: God of Thunder volume 2-Godbomb

Written by Jason Aaron, artwork by Esad Ribic

This graphic novel is a continuation of the story of the Godbutcher.  The back story of the villain is revealed.  His ideas of worlds without gods is finally understood and developed into something truly twisted.  The bomb built is one that will go throughout time and kill each and every god before and as they are born.  The problem is that the Godbutcher has become a god himself in the process which leads to his own destruction as he had three Thor’s (all from different times in the time stream) converge on him. 

Thor the Avenger is the one to destroy him by the dying gods seeing him fighting for their lives and praying to him; giving him the strength and energy to absorb the godbomb.  He then has to expel the bomb that he had absorbed and the Necrosworld that had been used to kill the gods was destroyed also.  

The Thor’s return to their time lines and forget of what transpired after they see that Asgard is full of gods.  The gods who do not remember what worlds they come from are sent to worlds without gods to make them their own.  The action is dynamic and the artwork brilliant, especially with the three Thor’s and his granddaughter’s.

Review of Life, the Universe and Everything (Ultimate Edition)

Adams had in down to an art on how to make something important into something trivial.  He would do it in an obvious way and then make fun of himself for doing.  He would even put it off on his heritage as on page 396, ‘Of all the races in the Galaxy, only the English could possibly revive the memory of the most horrific wars ever to surrender the Universe and transform it into what I’m afraid is generally regarded as an incomprehensibly dull and pointless game.’

He also knew how to draw on the mundane and monotonous aspects of life.  He used reverse bigotry in an immensely sarcastic tone that was undeniable as seen on page 416, ‘The past,’ they say, ‘is now truly like a foreign country.  They do things exactly the same there.’

Adams played on the idea of being aggressively absent or even passive aggressive through absence on page 417, ‘They obstinately persisted in their absence.’

To be annoyed means that a person cares and has a personal interest (hence, they care).  They have such a deep personal interest that they get to the point of being obsessive and delusional in the case of page 424, ‘It was an annoyance of epic proportions.’

He displayed over dramatization to a great degree while stating the obvious and employing the rhetoric.  The character here projects his own thoughts and beliefs about the situation to the other to induce guilt.  It only serves to confuse him further on page 428, ‘You know what you’ve done?’ he gargled painfully, ‘you’ve gone and killed me again.  I mean, what do you want from me, blood?’

He showed the power given to death by the humans who run from it.  The fear of death only leads to the fear of everything else since it is a part of the ‘cycle of life’ and is required.  This is seen on page 433, ‘He ran with the fear of death in him, under him, over him and grabbing hold of his hair.’

474-475, Marvin’s bored and depressed lullaby.

‘Now the world has gone to bed, Darkness won’t engulf my head,

I can see by infrared, How I hate the night.

Now I lay me down to sleep, Try to count electric sheep,

Sweet dreams wishes you can keep, How I hate the night.’

Review of Thor: God of Thunder volume 1 Godbutcher

Written by Jason Aaron, artwork by Esad Ribic

This graphic novel is very well written due to its pull of the past portrayals of how Thor is shown and the delving into mythology.  The artwork is beautifully done.  Each panel is a painting.  The action is conveyed with force and the stillness is full of emotion.  There is a sense of a strong story developing into a legend itself within the Nordic pantheon.  

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets review

Rowling once again goes into the coming of age story mixed with good versus evil that we all know as Harry Potter.  The wisdom of Dumbledore is unparalleled and yet, there are profound flaws.  Those will be discussed later, in the last book to be precise.  As he says on page 333, “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”  So basically, our actions outweigh our possibilities.  Just because a person is capable of becoming something does not mean that they will become such a thing.  Their environment must enforce their actions in order to become whatever is expected of them.  The fact that Harry could be the heir of Slytherin starts to break the relationships between him and the other students, the ones who do not know him as well.  The Weasley’s and Hermione stay by his side because they know him personally and that, at the time, he did not have such an ability.  All anyone else focused on was the mystery of what happened when he was a baby that turned Voldemort away.  They used to say that it was the goodness of him and then they started to whisper of the badness that must be within.  Voldemort met a greater evil in Harry as a baby and was extinguished from it.  This theory drives them away in fear not because of his actions, but because it is a possibility.

Dobby is an idea that was ingenious to include within a children’s book along with the idea of ‘Mudblood’ versus ‘Pure blood’.  The idea of tolerance and acceptance to be introduced so early on in the series is important for the development of the characters and the readers.  It becomes hypocritical with their prejudices against Snape, but that is something to go into in later books.  Dobby should represent blind obedience, but instead he represents the idea of bad being done for the ‘greater good’ of a situation.  This is something that Harry and his friends come to understand later in the series as what adults also know as ‘necessary evil’.

The author takes from mythology and lore in order to form creatures that symbolize important aspects within the books.  On page 207, Dumbledore explains something very symbolic about Fawkes. “Phoenixes burst into flame when it is time for them to die and are reborn form the ashes.” The Phoenix is a representative of rebirth and rising above from death and destruction.  He is something great coming from love and compassion.  Loyalty and courage and wisdom.  He is called at the end in the Chamber when Harry shows loyalty and faith in Dumbledore.  He heals Harry with his tears suggesting that the mourning of others through tears is in fact a healing process.

Aragog speaks to Harry and Ron on 279, “My sons and daughters do not harm Hagrid, on my command.  But I cannot deny them fresh meat, when it wanders so willingly into our midst.  Good-bye, friend of Hagrid.” He is a monster with a sense of humanity.  He feels bound to and loving towards Hagrid and yet, he is not bound by human laws and sensibilities.  He still puts the physical above all else, but he is an in between that is evolving from the cave, as it were.

The Diary is an object that would symbolize secrets and shame.  It is something that is made in order to hold secrets and inner thoughts.  It is supposed to bare the inner shame of our decisions.  A part of the mind and soul that is made literal within the book.  Riddle puts his own awareness and soul within it in order to be able to arise again with youth and new knowledge.  Shortcuts and impatience to be found from this approach.

The Basilisk is representative of blind obedience within the book.  He blindly (and is even blinded by Fawkes, the independent one, for his actions) obeys when Riddle tells him to attack.   This is a monster that can only be controlled by the one that can speak to it.  He speaks to it as one does to a friend who is beneath them but needed (as Draco speaks to Crabbe and Goyle).

Faith is something that could be considered to be represented by Fawkes and the sword of Godric Gryffindor.   Faith is hard to describe, but a person needs this in order to ‘grow as a person’.  Harry Potter is primarily a coming of age story and as such, he must become more.  He must have his expectations and beliefs constantly challenged (as they constantly are with Professor Snape).  The faith that Harry has in Dumbledore saves him through the appearance of Fawkes and the Sorting Hat (which sees into the inner workings of the mind, but not the soul).

In short, Rowling goes into the turning of expectations in this book.  She starts to explain that good versus evil is not so clear all of the time.  The good guy can seem like the bad guy because that is how people choose to perceive them.  Evil can be necessary for the greater good.  Faith is a driving force that conquers in a lasting manner while fear fades away.

Return of the King review

The Lord of the Rings series does some very important things for our understanding of humanity.  Tolkein was able to show us how we are as people without all of the readers being consciously aware of the fact that he was doing as such.  It was not obvious that it is his comment on the good and bad of human nature. 

The concept of overcoming our own personal pasts could be found within the character of Smeagol.  Yes, he was a warped creature who took to the possession of the Ring far too quickly for anyone’s liking.  The Ring wants to be found and returned to its master, but it does make the reader wander if the Ring meant to be found by Smeagol at all.  To someone who would kill so quickly for it and to be overcome with love for it.  That was the big difference with Smeagol.  He loved the Ring and therefore, he was cunning and insane but never truly evil.  (To be evil is just a matter of perception any way.  No one who is evil thinks of themselves as such.)  He is consumed with his love for the Ring and because love is a positive force Smeagol is not lost when Gollum starts to take form.  If there was no good left in him, there would have only been Gollum for the hobbit, Frodo and Sam, to contend with.  The results of the books would have changed drastically if that were the case.  Frodo saw not only that he could end up like Gollum (empathy/sympathy), but he saw the little bit of goodness that was left to be taken of within the creature that was Smeagol.  Another point in Smeagol’s side is that he kept and cherished the Ring (the Precious), but he did not use it.  He did not abuse its power.  It never seemed to occur to him to do as such which seems to be another sign of someone that has goodness still within them in possession of the Ring.

Tolkein also showed how we could transcend expectations with the characters of Meriadoc (Merry) and Eowyn.  They were simply a hobbit and a woman to contend with the leader of the Nazgul.  They were people who did not have much expected of them, but who were exceptional and rose above it all to do what they felt had to be done.  This action turned the tide of the war.  Meriadoc froze at first, but he acted when he was needed and he did it stealthily and without any trace of clumsiness as would be expected from a hobbit.  Eowyn knew what the consequences could be, but she did what needed to be done to avenge/save Theoden and those within the battle.  She was overcome with love and hate and these opposing forces worked together within her in order to give her the needed courage.

Smeagol was not the only one to be overcome by love.  Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, was overcome with love and regret when he saw the war not turning in his while he watched his youngest son dying.  Faramir was very much alive and fighting off the poison within his body, but because Denethor let emotions other than the love he felt take over him; he made the wrong decisions.  Pippin was the hero in this regard because he did the right thing by going against Denethor and thinking straight.  He went to the perfect people to be able to save Faramir(a man whom he knew loved and respected Faramir.)

The consumption and temptation of power was quite prevalent within the third book also.  Frodo gets to the Precious stage with the Ring while Sam watches.  Sauron and Saruman still want the Ring because to them it is power.  Frodo loved the Ring, as Smeagol did, and he only used it when he needed to. 

Another big them laid within was subservience.  Denethor had respect and fear. Faramir had respect and love.  Gandalf had respect, fear, and love.  He was the one who did not want to take charge and yet was the only one truly suited to at times.

749, 'Hope and memory shall live still in some hidden valley where the grass is green.'(Hope and memory are representatives of Utopia.)

755,‘The Darkness had begun.  There will be no dawn.’

767,‘A cage,’ she said, ‘to stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.’

789,‘We who have lived long under the Shadow may surely listen to echoes from a land untroubled by it?  Then we may feel that our vigil was not fruitless, though it may have been thankless.’

1007, ‘I will not say : do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.’

review of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Douglas Adams reviewed human nature and pointed out the strange contradictions in hilarious ways.  He played with how we think of things.  Our strange perception that limits the world around us.  He understood human nature to a bizarre degree, so he presented his knowledge in a bizarre fashion.  It could be argued that he was the savior of science fiction by making it into something comical that people who don’t like sci-fi would be able to listen to and read.

One of his many understandings of human nature could be found in the quote, ‘Life is wasted on the living.’  (The idea that people do not value what they have and take things for granted.)  People do take life for granted these days.  Since it is something that is a part of our existence, we are stuck with it.  Life is simply something to go through to us when it should be something that is lived.

The idea of being controlled is something that people also struggle with on a daily basis.  If someone feels as if another is controlling them, they start to act differently.   It would depend on the person, but it tends to lead to rebelling attitudes.  ‘I’m not going to be anybody’s puppet, particularly not my own.’  (He doesn’t want to be owned even by himself.  He doesn’t want to be something/someone to be simply used.)  We get so blinded with the idea of something such as being controlled that we don’t even consider who should have it.  We simply resist.

Regret and anger are also dealt with only a daily basis.  Especially, blaming ourselves.  The mantra in our head of ‘why did I do/say that?’  This is what makes us unsure of ourselves. ‘If I ever meet myself, I’ll hit myself so hard I won’t know what hit me.’  (Playing with the strange sayings that we use and still understanding that we make our own mistakes and go on from there.)  We are so afraid of being wrong that we can’t even risk being right at some points.

 ‘”Future Perfect” has been abandoned since it was discovered not to be.’ ( A play on grammar and the idea of time and how it is something that we try to define and live our lives by but cannot.)

‘In an Infinite Universe anything can happen.  Even survival.  Strange but true.’

‘One’s never alone with a rubber duck.’

‘Totally mad, utter nonsense.  But we’ll do it because it’s brilliant nonsense.’

‘We were just about to do nothing at all for a while but it can wait.’

‘You could say I’m more differed from than differing.’

‘Please don’t hesitate to get lost.’

‘The Guide is definitive Reality is frequently inaccurate.’

‘Oh fine, if you happen to like being me, which personally I don’t.’

‘What a depressingly stupid machine,’ said Marvin and trudged away.

‘He was clearly a man of many qualities, even if they were mostly bad ones.’

‘I’m afraid you cannot leave, you are entwined in the Improbability Field.  You cannot escape.’