Paul Kirchner-The Bus (BONUS)

This is going to be a unique one for me, and I may file it under "bonus content" simply because this is so unlike everything I've done before. I'd like to continue the "bonus" section of my page simply because I'd like to expand the horizons of what I do. If that goes into film and television, scripts, plays, and comic strips, all the better.

The bus, styled simply as 'the bus' was a comic written and drawn by Paul Kirchner from 1979-1985 in the magazine Heavy Metal. Described as an anti-story between a hapless commuter and a demonic bus in Kirchner's own words. The Bus is a surreal and unique experience. As much as their is to take at face value, there is more to gain from the small details. Kirchner uses things like signs to show the passage of time. Or simply tears down the set all its own for a joke. Paul Kirchner continued the strips in 2013 and these too have been collected into an omnibus by Tanibis Editions.

Paul Kirchner has his own claims to fame, he's also written the well known comic "Dope Rider" which was published in High Times, which is totally understandable. Reading both I was certain Kirchner was on something. Reading Kirchner's resume is also a trip. He's done pornographic covers for Screw, illustrations for the likes of The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. This man did the art, backstories, and comics for toys like Robo Force, Dino-Riders, Crash Dummies, and Spy-Tech. He worked on comics for He-Man, Go-Bots, the Thundercats, and even Power Rangers. He's written non fiction books that cover everything from dangerous individuals, the history of sword and pistol dueling, and Bowie knife fighting techniques.

The Bus is a comic, so it's kind of hard to describe what makes it so great without showing you some of the comics to peak your interest. There is an album on Imgur that comes close to having the complete first omnibus. The reason I like The Bus is the odd situations that The Commuter finds himself in. The world he exists in being some sort of personal Sisyphean Hell of non Euclidean reality. Too often the gag will be the non rules of this world. Such as when The Bus pulls up to the stop and instead picks up his reflection in a puddle rather than The Commuter himself. In fact these strips tend to be my favorites. For every odd comic where say, giant man eating spider crabs grab someone from an open window (I'm not kidding), there's a strip where The Commuter leaves The Bus onto the stage of a full auditorium, only to step back onto The Bus and it's a cardboard prop set.

It's difficult to review The Bus in the same way it's difficult to explain a joke. Since it's such an absurdist setting any comments on what it does so well is like letting air out of a balloon. My best advice is to go buy the two omnibuses, or if you're strapped for cash, go to the Imgur album, and sit down and read. Grab a cup of coffee, maybe a bagel, and read and re-read these strips in an attempt to understand the joke. Like a Magic Eye poster you have to squint at for it to all come together. Though I'll be honest that's a bad analogy. No matter how hard I squint or strain my eyes I can't make anything out of those things.

The ride doesn't end.

Peter Handke-A Sorrow Beyond Dreams

This review is very late. On the week that I covered Maupassant's Afloat, that was the Thursday that the Nobel Prize in Literature ceremony was held. Sharing the win for the Nobel Prize in Literature was Peter Handke, the subject of today's review. I had made plans to either write up this review the day after, but decided to wait my weekly period so that my review of Afloat would get enough traffic. However, due to family circumstance, I was unable to write up my review, and lost track of time. Before I knew it the local fall festival, Neewollah, had begun and with it responsibility. After that, a call for submission for plays for the Summer's theater festival, of which I am still writing and hoping to make the deadline for. Checking my calendar I realized it been three weeks since I had written a review and struggled with the depths of my consciousness to pull this forward. For mercy's sake, I decided to reread a short work by Handke so that the review I typed up could be swift but still poignant. I apologize for the slip but sometimes these things make us human. Do not be fooled at the short length of A Sorrow Beyond Dreams; what it accomplishes with its clean, non romanticized prose has haunted me these last few days and made me reflect on my own mental health, loss, and mortality.

A Sorrow Beyond Dreams is a memoir/semi-autobiography of Handke's mother. She had committed suicide by sleeping pills in 1971, and this is Handke giving us her story. Handke gives us the reason at the very start, that he had to write it down for his sake. To assuage his own feelings of mourning. Though it seems not to have done its job, as when the time comes to wrap up Handke says: "It is not true that writing has helped me. In my weeks of preoccupation with the story, the story has not ceased to preoccupy me. Writing has not, as I at first supposed, been a remembering of a concluded period of my life, but merely a constant pretense at remembering, in the form of sentences that only lay claim to detachment." I speak without exaggeration when I say that this novel destroyed me. I have witnessed death, both from friends and family who have chosen to take their own lives and in unrelated tragedies. In the descriptions of his mother's condition, I can see them in her, and I lose them again. The word "Depression" does not come up in Handke's text. Nor do the words "Mental illness" but in the prose as his mother worsens these things become apparent. An aching, ceaseless tiredness that breaks you down to something inhuman. A formless cancer that rips away at you until you are reduced to the disease itself. Constantly suffocating and in the dark. That is what depression is. And depression and ruin have wedged itself into the ink of the letters that she writes to Handke. The same lines, all to familiar to those who have contracted this illness. The words cast a shadow like death himself, calmly arching back their scythe, you beg Handke to relieve you. You want Handke to just tell you it happened, so that it can be over. So that Frau Handke's suffering can end and it turns yours as you relive your darkness. She writes;

I can’t stand it in the house any more, so I’m always gadding about somewhere. I’ve been getting up a little earlier, that’s the hardest time for me; I have to force myself to do something, or I’d just go back to bed. There’s a terrible loneliness inside me, I don’t feel like talking to anyone. I’d often like to drink a little something in the evening, but I mustn’t, because if I did my medicine wouldn’t take effect.

I’m not logical enough to think things through to the end, and my head aches. Sometimes it buzzes and whistles so that I can’t bear any outside noise. I talk to myself because I can't say anything to other people any more. Sometimes I feel like a machine. I'd like to go away somewhere, but when it gets dark I'm afraid of not finding the way home again. In the morning there's a dense fog and then everything is quiet. Every day I do the same work, and every morning the place is a mess again. There's never any end to it. I really wish I were dead. 

These letters write like anyone suffering from the constant gnawing of your existence tearing itself apart. I've heard these words myself. It's always the same. Like a script prepared for some actor, a final monologue before their character walks off stage, forever. I've heard these words so many times, and offered what I could. Sometimes it's enough. Sometimes not. It's a sobering thing to think that you're going to die but you never really consider that someone would want to. Even when you have that same gnawing infectious condition. That black spot, you don't really want to die. The rational part of you is very afraid. It is in reading A Sorrow Beyond Dreams, and watching Frau Handke grow from a young girl to a woman too tired and broken to live, that I realize my own mortality. The mortality of those around me. Death is not something that I gave no thought to as a form of bravery. Merely it was the thing that I absolutely could not think about. Not only for myself but for others. As I near by thirties my parents near their fifties and their parents their seventies. I do not wish to picture a future without them but one day that future will come. Inevitably, marching slowly with no particular hurry or malice. What of their trials and tribulations? Will I, like Peter Handke, simply receive a letter that it had been to much? That while I was busy with my own egocentric nonsense tragedy had struck? Will I return to that feeling of numbness that Handke so perfectly describes as "Being startled that I was still holding an object" in my disassociation?

Usually in my reviews I discuss the author and their history. I could talk about Handke, the Austrian born writer. I could talk about the controversy surrounding him. Such as his support of Milosevic. Peter Handke is an interesting subject, and Lord knows I'm no stranger to controversy, having reviewed the works of Knut Hamsun and Joseph Conrad before. Handke will have his time again however, as I feel the most important thing I took from A Sorrow Beyond Dreams  is not Handke himself but a change of consciousness. A shift towards awareness of a universal truth. For a moment I turned my gaze and met Death's eyes, and the chill up my spine made me blink. It's actually kind of hilarious. Handke mentions in the book that his mother would read literature and see herself in the characters. That is exactly what has happened to me here. I see myself in Frau Hanke, but also my friends. Those that continue to struggle and those that have given up.A Sorrow Beyond Dreams is simple in concept, the life story of an Austrian woman, but it awakened a primal fear within me that is still haunting me. Damn the controversy, Handke earned the Nobel, this is a masterpiece.

Guy de Maupassant-Afloat

Here begins the trend of me reviewing books published by the New York Review of Books. I can confirm that the next few reviews will be under this publisher. Their covers are amazing and they offer great overlooked books and new translations and I've never been let down by the contents of their titles. Today we are going to be talking about Guy de Maupassant's Afloat. One of his very short travel novels.You could read this in an afternoon over coffee. Afloat is a travel diary of a man and two sailors going down the Cote d'Azur (The Azure Coast, or French Mediterranean). I'm very much a lover of travel and a Francophile, so this book struck several chords for me. I first heard of Guy de Maupassant through his short stories, of which he wrote hundreds but the most well known being Le Horla (itself an inspiration to H.P. Lovecraft's 'Call of Cthulhu') and The Necklace. Both of these short stories appeared in my High School English textbooks throughout the years.

Guy de Maupassant was born Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant in Tourville-sur-Arques, a township in the Normandy Region of France. He surname "de Maupassant" indicates nobility, as his mother had urged his father to get permission to style his name as such. His father was domestically abusive, and his mother left when Guy we eleven. This was a bigger deal than it was today because divorce was a social disgrace in the 19th century. His mother sent both Maupassant and his brother to boarding school for classical studies. Unable to stand this, Maupassant got himself expelled before he could graduate. When entering Junior High, Maupassant was encouraged by his mother to make himself known with Gustave Flaubert. The breakout of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 had him move to Paris and worked for ten years as a clerk for the French Navy. Gustave Flaubert took him under his wing and encouraged Guy's debut in journalism and literature. He introduced him to several well known authors of the period, including Ivan Turgenev (who we will cover later). In 1880 Guy published Boule de Suif, what is considered the first of his masterpieces. From that point on, Guy was explosively productive. Producing two to four volumes annually. Guy become wealthy very quickly. To give you a measure of his success, his second novel, Bel Ami in 1885 that thirty-five printings in just FOUR months. Guy, despite being in the in circles of French celebrities, had little care for society, and was naturally more at home travelling, preferring solitude and meditation, a common theme in the novel we are reviewing today. Hilariously, Guy de Maupassant hated the Eiffel Tower, and ate frequently at the cafe at its base as it was the only place he didn't have to look at it. Sadly, Guy de Maupassant developed a deep fear of death and paranoia of persecution caused by worsening syphilis symptoms, which he may have had congenially. Trying to slit his own throat, Guy was put in an institution where he died in 1893. Guy wrote his own epitaph which reads; "I have coveted everything and taken pleasure in nothing". So really a dramatic guy.

Afloat is a travel novel, a roman a clef of sorts. It details a week long cruise down the Cote d'Azur on the yacht the Bel Ami, which was Maupassant's real life yacht that he named after his most famous novel. The narrator is unnamed, but is clearly a stand in for Maupassant. Afloat is not quite a proper title, as for most of the novel they are docked and waylayed by bad winds or weather. Each day is broken down by the towns they visit. Setting off from Antibes, to Cannes, Agay, Saint Raphael, and finally Saint Tropez. The real person Afloat is Guy himself. The novel quickly becomes a treatise on his philosophy on several subjects. It's surprisingly relevant too, as in Cannes he shows disdain for the celebrity culture there, everyone obsessed with being or being around French nobility. I found this interesting as a tie to our own celebrity worship culture in the New Tens, but hilariously Cannes is still this way. It's a hotbed for the rich and famous. Some things never change really. In Afloat Guy explores love, death, modern society, war, history, and poetry. Just as Guy waxes about these philosophical subjects of these towns, so too does he go into the actual histories of them. Reading Afloat is not only a treat for the introspection to Guy's mind, but also for the travel reader for the loving descriptions of the Cote d'Azur and her people, and for the historic Fracophile.

Guy de Maupassant was an extremely prolific writer. He wrote near three hundred short stories, six novels, three travel books (of which this is one), and a volume of verse. Still though, Afloat remains among my favorites for its true to life origins. Ernest Hemingway once said "All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer." That is certainly true of Afloat, as it brings with it not only the soul of Maupassant, but the soul of France as a whole. Leaving me nostalgic for a place that no longer exists as portrayed here. Afloat is a masterpiece of human consciousness, and, as its only a real life account of Guy's cruise down the French coast, a testament to his skill as a master of prose.

Robert T. Bakker-Raptor Red

This is something a bit different! With my schedule with work, school, and a 2 year old, I've decided to end daily reviews and move simply to weekly reviews. This gives us the added benefit of either reading new books or revisiting the ones I've read before. All the books I have reviewed I've done from memory and research into the author's themselves,a  trend I wish to continue. So I begin weekly reviews with something you wouldn't see in a High School or College Literature course. Robert T. Bakker's 1994 Raptor Red.

This book is interesting because Robert T. Bakker is actually a paleontologist. His nonfiction The Dinosaur Heresies goes into depth about his theories of dinosaur behavior, from habits to intelligence. Raptor Red is a similar vein. It is a work on xenofiction that in spite of advancements in paleontology is said to hold up. In this book we follow Raptor Red, a female Utahraptor just trying her best to survive in the Early Cretaceous. We follow her from the first breaths she takes out of the egg. From the death of her first mate, to a reunion with her sister, to travelling with a male consort and eventually having children of her own. The journey is wrought with peril and death. This isn't a disneyficition of dinosaurs, it's almost like reading an Attenburough documentary. Bakker uses his knowledge to transport you to Cretaceous.

The narrative is also interlaced with chapters dealing with prehistoric crocodiles, turtles, even rodents. It approaches them mechanically. Seldom applying human logic or empathy to these animals and instead focusing on the two primal instincts of all living beings. Food and the need to pass your genetic material on. For example, Raptor Red's consort has an extreme dislike or Red's sister and her chicks. It's brought up often that the consort would kill the chicks if he could to ensure his brood survives. The main conflict of the novel, if you can be said to have any, is Man vs. Nature. Red is doing what she is programmed to do, survive. Yet despite this robotic logic, Bakker pushes forward his ideas that raptors were social animals akin to wolves. There is surprising intimacy from Red towards her sister. She's very protective of her chicks, even if they are not Red's own. Even after attacking a prey foreign to them goes horribly wrong, Red risks dying by staying in a cold wintery cave beset by Dinonychus, simply to protect her. In spite of its lack of a human element this story is full of tension and bathos that will having you returning again and again.

Usually I mention why I consider a book a masterpiece. Raptor Red, while I don't think will hold a place in the canon, is a unique gem. Eschewing my usual moonlighting as an English professor, I'll just tell you this. Raptor Red deserves to be read, and if you haven't, devote an afternoon to this incredibly unique book. A cute story for you, I first read this book in High School, and when I got my wife to read it, it rekindled her love of dinosaurs and sparked an interest in prehistoric life in general. Then she stole my book. A trend that happens a lot. Maddie if you're reading this put my books back on my shelf. I remember buying her Prehistoric Life, The Definitive Visual History of Life on Earth, just so that she could read more about dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. Raptor Red may not be considered high art, but you can't tell me that isn't magic.

Joseph Conrad-Heart of Darkness

Values dissonance is a funny thing with art. Literature, music, and film that stands today as timeless and classical can bring up jarring problems to its modern audience. It's easy to read Heart of Darkness in what is going into the 2020s. It's a short novel, my edition clocks in at a very humble 92 pages. It's a book you could read in an hour. Yet the thing that makes Heart of Darkness so difficult is not the page count or prose, it's the setting. Set in the heart of the Belgian Congo, it is not kind to the Native Africans portrayal. Famed Nigerian author Chinua Achebe (who we will cover later of course) was very vocal in his criticisms of the work. He had an entire 1975 lecture dedicated to criticizing this book's handling of colonialism and racism. Achebe considered it a work of de-humanization of Africans. He saw Conrad as portraying Africa as the antithesis to Europe, ignoring the broader culture of the Fang people that lived in the Congo Basin where Conrad visited and was inspired to write the novel. He argued that Conrad promoted an image of darkest Africa that continues to depersonalize a portion of the human race, and did not consider it a work of art. It's actually interesting to me that Chinua Achebe would be so opposed to Heart of Darkness; not because of its contents, Achebe was an Igbo Chieftain himself. What interests me is how Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart, his masterwork, is a perfect antithesis to Heart of Darkness. Touching on many of the same themes, portrayed on the opposite side of the coin.

The thing about Heart of Darkness I feel a lot of people miss out on, even Booktubers on YouTube who review novels, is that Conrad is just as unfair to those who run the Belgian Congo. In fact, the novel was written in 1899. The fact the Belgians are portrayed as being in the wrong at all is an extremely progressive view. Conrad's novel and prose I do think show a prejudice of his own, and perhaps I am wrong, but a prejudice of the world he is portraying. There are no good characters in Heart of Darkness. The Congo is not portrayed as being better off with the white man. If anything, Conrad's story shows a brutality, narcissism, and sadism in the colonists. Conrad's point in writing Heart of Darkness is not to criticize Africa, but to criticize mankind at their worst.

Joseph Conrad himself (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) was born in Berdychiv, Russian Empire. The concept of his nationality is a bit of a headache but suffice that Joseph Conrad is Anglo-Polish. Berdychiv existed in what is known to the Poles as the Stolen Lands, in what is now Ukraine. These lands however, did belong to the Crown Kingdom of Poland at one point. Despite being populated mostly by Ukrainians and Jews, most of the countryside was still owned by the Polish nobility, to which Conrad's family belonged. Conrad's father Apollo was a revolutionary against the Russian Empire for independence of pre-partisan Poland. Because of this his family was often on the move and in exile, but Apollo did his best to educates his son. Giving him Victor Hugo and Shakespeare and most importantly the Polish romantic poets. Eventually Conrad was able to establish himself in the Austrian side of the former Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth. After his father's death, Conrad's Uncle attempted to obtain his Austrian citizenship but was denied due to Conrad not being released as a Russian Subject. Eventually Conrad was able to find a home in England. Granted British nationality in 1886, still a subject of the Russian Czar it took several trips to the embassy for the Russian Empire to release him as a Russian Subject to continue is life as an Englishman.

Conrad's journey as a writer does not quite begin here however. In 1874 Conrad journey to Marseille, France and joined the merchant-marine. Here he met Dominique Cervoni, who would inspire several characters of his words such as the title character in 1904's Nostromo (that's right Alien references Conrad). Four years later and Conrad is now a part of the British merchant-marine and for the next fifteen years served under the Red Ensign. Eventually obtaining the rank of Captain. Conrad's sailing career is as well known as his writing career, and the former greatly affected the latter. References to his friends, jobs, and posts can be seen in many of his novels. For example during a three year stint with a Belgian Trading Company he worked in part as Captain of a steamer on the Congo River, just like the protagonist of Heart of Darkness, Marlow. Conrad's last voyage was completed when the clipper ship Torrens docked in London and Conrad was formally discharged from service.a It was here that Conrad began his literary career. His life, friends, accomplishments and more are a book itself and worth looking into. Suffice to say, Joseph Conrad was considered a master of his art despite writing in English and only having become fluent in the language in his twenties. He wrote dozens of novels and short stories and essays. At one point becoming depressed and in debt, Conrad attempted suicide by shooting himself in the chest with a revolver. He survived this attempt and would die of what is believed to be a heart attack in 1924. He was mourned by many. If you can name a famous writer in English chances are Conrad knew them and befriended them.

Heart of Darkness is considered one of his masterworks but ironically when it was published, it was bound with two other novellas. These two novellas received much more praise than Heart of Darkness did and Conrad himself did not consider it much. Which is hilarious due to the the critical backlash it receives today. Heart of Darkness follows Marlow, as mentioned a steamer Captain in the Belgian Congo. Marlow is recounting this time to his fellow sailors while anchored on the River Thames. What follows is ninety pages of brutality as Marlow walks among worked to death and diseased Africans forced to build the railroad along the Congo, or is beset by arrows on his boat by the Natives, or when he finds the severed head of natives on spikes outside the trading post of the novel's antagonist, Kurtz. Kurtz spends most of the novel as a ghost, being talked up to Marlow as a man among men, a champion who the natives worship as a God. A man who produces more ivory than any of the other trading posts combined. Deeper conversations reveal that Kurtz may not be as well liked as presumed. Kurtz was also tasked with writing up a report, which he did well with the added handwritten postscript of "Kill all the brutes!". When they finally reach Kurtz he is a sick and dying man and as they take him from his Trading Post down the river, he dies. His last words are "The horror! The horror!" to Marlow, and he is buried in a hole without much fanfare by the crew of the boat. Marlow returns to Europe contemptuous of the civilized world and withholds the papers Kurtz had given him. Eventually giving them to a journal to publish as seen fit. Marlow later visits Kurtz' widow who pressures him for his last words. Marlow lies, instead telling her that Kurtz' last word was her name. Sheltering her from the heart of darkness that had consumed Kurtz and enveloped Marlow. 

Heart of Darkness is a masterpiece for its on the nose political commentary and criticism of the Belgian Congo, its analysis of the human psyche, and the question it raises on the goodness of humanity as a whole. The theme of the civilized world and the true primal humanity found in the Congo are given several foils throughout the novel. As Marlow is exposed to the horrors of the Congo he becomes more and more like Kurtz, a man consumed by savagery. His lie to Kurtz' widow also proving that the civilized world is not ready for the true horrors of the human psyche lurking just below the surface, ready to consume any who linger for too long. In context of its racist overtones, the novel was written in a time where these aspects of society were common. The fact that Conrad even thought to call the colonists out for being no better than the 'savages' they brutalized was extremely progressive. Heart of Darkness had a film adaptation that updated the setting the the Vietnam War. That film was Apocalypse Now. Whether you see the setting update as putting the brutalization and innate horror of the human mind into perspective or simply see the colonialism replaced with American imperialism against Communism, and the blacks of the Congo with the Vietnamese is your interpretation. I feel the film helps drive home that black or white, we all have the capability for evil.

Daniel Keyes-Flowers For Algernon

-Apologies for the absence Constant Readers! I had the flu and had to take a few days off!-

In the world of reviewing literary fiction, genre fiction is often pushed to the wayside as not being highbrow. Flowers for Algernon, a 1966 novel by Daniel Keyes, expanded from his short story of the same name, is an exception to this rule. Flowers for Algernon is not the first science fiction story I have reviewed, and I find this elitist divide between literary fiction and genre fiction to be asinine. Flowers for Algernon was first published in the 1959 issue of "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science", and won the Hugo award 1960. Expanded into a novel in 1966, it was the joint winner for that year's Nebula Award for Best Novel. It deals with Algernon, a mouse given a surgery to give it super intelligence, and the same procedure given to a man named Charlie Gordon. Charlie Gordon is mentally disabled, and the novel touches often on the themes of societal acceptance of the disabled. This book was on the 100 most challenged books at number 43. Reasons given are not for it's portrayal of the mentally disabled, but because of scenes where Charlie explores his sexuality as he gains intelligence. Nothing scares America more than a vagina, or maybe communism. A communist vagina.

Daniel Keyes himself was born in New York City to a Jewish family in 1927. He attended New York University before joining the United States Maritime Service. He returned in 1950 and obtained his Bachelor's of Psychology from Brooklyn College. In the perfect example of "it's a small world after all", this happened. A month after graduation, Keyes joined publisher Martin Goodman's magazine company, Magazine Management. He eventually became an editor of their pulp magazine Marvel Science Stories (from Nov. 1950 – May 1952) after editor Robert O. Erisman, and began writing for the company's comic book lines Atlas Comics, the 1950s precursors of Marvel Comics. After Goodman began to focus on men's adventure books and paperbacks, Keyes became an associate editor at Atlas Comics, under none other than the legendary Stan Lee as his editor-in-chief. After Marvel Science Stories folded, Goodman offered Keyes a job under Lee. To quote Keyes;

"Since my $17.25-a-month rent was almost due, I accepted what I considered a detour on my journey toward a literary career. Stan Lee ... let his editors deal with the scriptwriters, cartoonists, and lettering crew. Writers turned in plot synopses, Stan read them, and as a matter of course, would accept one or two from each of the regulars he referred to as his "stable." As one of his front men, I would pass along comments and criticism. ... Because of my experience editing Marvel and because I'd sold a few science fiction stories by then, Stan allowed me to specialize in the horror, fantasy, suspense, and science fiction comic books. Naturally, I began submitting story ideas, getting freelance assignment, and supplementing my salary by writing scripts on my own time."

One story idea that Keyes came up with did not go to Lee for consideration. This piece was called "Brainstorm" and would go on to become the novel "Flowers for Algernon". The synopsis read ""The first guy in the test to raise the I.Q. from a low normal 90 to genius level ... He goes through the experience and then is thrown back to what was." Keyes thought the idea did not fit a comic book format. A favorite thing for me is the prose. At the beginning of the novel, Keyes writes in broken sentences and misspelled words. As Charlie's mental faculties improve so does the prose. Once he begins to regress and lose himself the prose returns to its original broken form. While this can be distracting for some it's a stylistic choice I really enjoy and really immerses you into what Charlie has to gain and is missing.

Flowers for Algernon follows the first human patient of an experiment to increase intelligence. The procedure was previously given to a mouse named Algernon. We follow this man, named Charlie Gordon, as the procedure changes him and his relationships with his peers. Charlie, whose previous co-workers at his job at a bakery used to mock and tease him for his low intelligence now fear and shun him out of envy and have his boss fire him. He confronts the scientists behind the experiment, saying that they did not see him a human before the procedure, as just another lab rat. Through the novel, Charlie is charged with writing up progress reports of Algernon, the mouse given the surgery before him. He notes a flaw in the operation, one that could cost him his new gifts. His theory is broken true as Algernon breaks down and slowly dies. Facing this fact, Charlie does his best to mend his broken relationships with his friends and family before he fully regresses. He manages to succeed with his sister Norma who hated him before his operation, but tragically finds his mother who wanted him institutionalized a dementia victim who only recognizes him once. His father who had cut ties to the family does not recognize him at all. As Charlie slowly regresses completely he remembers only that he used to be a genius, and intolerant of the pity of his circles decides to move into a State Home for the mentally disabled. He leaves instructions to leave flowers on the grave of Algernon in the postscript of his writings.

Flowers for Algernon is a masterpiece for how it handles the subject matter it does and for several other reasons. It shows the societal dismissal of those not considered "nuerotypical" and even with his newfound intelligence makes it clear Charlie is a victim to a system he cannot control. Charlie is now intelligent enough to realize the people using them for their own gain, and his only true friend through the novel is his teacher Alice Kinnian. Kinnian put him up for suggestion on the procedure based on his desire to change and learn. Through the novel Charlie works through his issues with his mother and her abuse to fall in love with Alice, and it's all the more tragic as he regresses and forgets everything about their relationship. Flowers for Algernon shows not only the darker side of society's obsession with intelligence, but the darker side of consciousness as a whole. It is said that there are things worse than death. As you see Charlie struggle and fight to maintain what he's earned, to have his happy ending, you are hostage and witness to a man who's mind is literally falling apart. In a twisted parallel to both Algernon the mouse, as Charlie is seen by his mentors and arguably himself, and his dementia ridden abusive mother. She who had scorned him for his mental faculties is herself prisoner to her own deteriorating mind. It's one thing to lose everything. It's another kind of existential fear to be fully aware of what's missing.

Knut Hamsun-Hunger

As the modern world advances and the memetic consciousness of society changes, more and more great works are considered 'old hat'. This is the case with Knut Hamsun's 1890 novel Hunger, and really most of Hamsun's early work such as Mysteries or Growth of the Soil. In 1890, most famous writers were writing flowery, purple prose about dramatic and fantastic themes. Hunger, in comparison was one of the first stream of consciousness novels. It simply tells the story of a would be writer; homeless, jobless, and penniless in the streets of Kristiana, what is now Oslo, Norway.

Knut Hamsun is a Norwegian author and Nobel Prize Laureate. He is (note the present tense) a very controversial figure for reasons we will get into later. What can't be denied is his worth as a writer. He pioneered the stream of consciousness and internal monologue style of writing. He was more interested in the modernist novel as a reflection of the human mind. To quote, writers should describe the "whisper of blood, and the pleading of bone marrow". He influenced people like Franz Kafka and Ernest Hemingway. Isaac Bashevis Singer said of him "the father of the modern school of literature in his every aspect—his subjectiveness, his fragmentariness, his use of flashbacks, his lyricism. The whole modern school of fiction in the twentieth century stems from Hamsun". Hamsun is perhaps tied with Henrik Ibsen for being Norway's most internationally known writer.

Hamsun was born as Knud Peterson in Lom, situated in the Gudbrandsdal valley in Norway. His family moved to Nordland due to financial difficulties to live with an Uncle on his farm. At the age of nine he was separated from his family and lived with his Uncle Hans Olsen, who was a very abusive man to Hamsun. Finally making his way back to Lom in 1874 he worked a laundry list of odd jobs before spending time in America. He published his first novel in 1877 and had a few successes. It wasn't until this novel, published in 1890 that he received wide acclaim. Breaking ground for its internal monologue and psychological aspect of its protagonist, a starving artist in Kristiana. Hamsun often features strength of prose and intimate connection to Norway and its features and people. Hamsun saw nature and mankind as linked together in a mythical bond. This thought influenced several of his works, including Growth of the Soil, which is credited for his Nobel Prize win in 1920.

Now here's where the controversy comes. Hamsun was not a good person. Hamsun in his early writings expressed racist opinions of Blacks, calling them 'rudimentary organs on the body of white society". His sympathies were influenced by the Boer War, which Hamsun saw as oppression by the British Empire. He had a dislike of the English and America, and expressed sympathy to Germany in both World Wars. In the 1930s much of Norway's right-wing publications supported European Fascist Empires like Italy and Germany, and Hamsun followed suit. During the end of WW2 he was 80, almost completely deaf and got all his information from The Aftenposten, which again, supported Italy and Nazi Germany. That's right. Knut Hamsun supported the Nazis. He wrote several articles over the course of the war stating things like "Germany is fighting for us all and crushing England's tyranny". In 1943 he sent his Nobel Prize as a gift to JOSEPH GOEBBELS to get an audience with Hitler. Which he GOT. He then proceeded to tell HITLER HIMSELF that the German civilian administrator to Norway was doing a crappy job and that Norwegian prisoners should be released.

Otto Dietrich describes the encounter as the only time someone could out talk HITLER and the encounter left Hitler enraged for THREE ENTIRE DAYS. After Hitler died Hamsun wrote a Eulogy for him praising the man. Which went over so great that Norway's citizens decided to have his books burned and him put in a psychiatric hospital and had him tried for national treason. Hamsun was forced to undergo psychiatric evaluation and was ruled to have his mental faculties permanently impaired. The charges of treason were dropped and he was fined 325,000 kroner for his alleged affiliation to Norway's far-right political party. Whether he was or was even mentally impaired is debated to this day. He was able to publish his last novel in 1949 where he criticizes the judges and psychiatrists and makes the point himself that he is not mentally ill. Hamsun died of old age at the age of 92, one of the most controversial figures in Norwegian history. A 2009 interview said "We can’t help loving him, though we have hated him all these years ... That’s our Hamsun trauma. He’s a ghost that won’t stay in the grave.". Regardless of beliefs or even awareness to what he was supporting (Hamsun himself claimed ignorance), Hamsun is one of the greatest and most influential writers. He is an important measuring tool to separate the art from the artist. I think it entirely possibly to praise Hunger and other works like it, and still detest him as a man. Norway certainly has, he's taught in their schools.

Hunger itself is a masterpiece of psychiatric fiction. We follow an unnamed vagrant who only wishes to write. He has no home nor money nor food. What he does have is a strange sense of honor. So adherent to social norms that he often cripples himself in the pursuit of his own happiness. He gives readily to charity and often hoists his own honor above asking for money. His Pride keeps him from explaining his situation. When he is found sleeping by a policeman he merely explains that he is a well off journalist who locked himself out of his apartment, and is able to spend the night in a cell but not receive a free breakfast for the homeless despite his empty stomach because of his lies. The central conflict of Hunger is Man vs Self. All of the protagonists issues are his own. His egotism and obsession with honor cost him opportunities at every point. Despite being hailed as a disturbing novel I was more exacerbated and even enraged. There are disturbing and sad scenes as you see him fall apart. Driven mad by hunger, but it's more the revulsion you would feel at a wounded animal, not a human being. When he bites his finger in his sleep and tastes blood he considers for a moment to just eat his finger, because you don't need all ten right?

Hunger is an interesting novel because never once does the protagonist blame society for his undoing. Sure there are moments where his pride brings him into conflict, such as when he receives an envelope with money in it, and he throws it in a terrible landlady's face who was cruel to him as a final biting of the thumb. It's only later that he bemoans this action because he could have used that money to eat. No, the protagonist moreover blames God. Cursing his misfortune and wondering why God does not punish others as he does himself. The character lacking the self realization and being more protective of his ego than his health is hard to watch. As he gains some money and is able to eat or has something fortunate happen to him, so does he begin to spiral back down. It's like a roller coaster designed by Kafka himself. Like the society around him, you too start to grow weary of his ego. The twists, turns, and loops the emotional journey almost turns what should be a horrifying novel into a postmodern comedy. Regardless if you read Hunger, you are sure to take something away. Whether it is pity, anger, disgust, or sorrow are all avenues that Hamsun has paved for you. Hunger is a masterpiece for it breaking ground but for also being one of the most depressing novels I've ever read, and I couldn't put it down. It no doubt inspired Kafka and other writers of the era that can still be seen to this day.

Of note, if you read Hunger, make sure that you use the edition that I have shown at the top of this essay. The George Egerton translation that I read at first I learned was a terrible translation something that I noticed as I was reading. The George Egerton uses the pound sterling as the currency, which Norway itself does not use, they use the kroner. When I review a book I try to use the cover that I actually own but unfortunately I cannot advocate for a bowdlerized and mistranslated work. If you read Hunger, find the Sverre Lyngstad translation.

Markus Zusak-The Book Thief

This one is going to be an Outlier here because it's what many consider a "Young Adult" or "YA" novel which tend to be looked down upon by the academics, but it really should not be. I first read Markus Zusak's The Book Thief when I was a junior in High School. My copy that I still own to this day was recommended and gifted to me by my lovely Spanish teacher. Senora McCoy, if you're reading this, thank you. This book had a lasting effect on me and I still consider it to this day one of the best books for at the very least, young readers.

First some background, you know how I like to do that. There's not actually a lot I could find on Zusak, probably because he's a living writer. He was born in Sydney to a German mother and a Austrian father who immigrated here in the 50s. He has written six books, The Book Thief his most popular but he is also well known for I Am The Messenger. He studied English and History at the University of North South Wales, and has a Bachelor of the Arts.

The Book Thief in an interesting piece of Literature because of its unusual nature. Set in Nazi Germany during World War 2, it follows a little girl by the name of Liesel as she grows up on Himmel Street surrounded by friends and family. Until they all die in a bombing run except for her. The books narrator however, is not Liesel, but Death itself. Death constantly waxes philosophical on the human condition throughout the novel and uses the life and story of Liesel to show us what he means. Liesel is a young girl who at the start of the story is an illiterate. Her mother is forced to give her and her brother up after being outed as a Communist, cause you know, Nazi Germany, and she moves into Himmel Street with the Hubermans, Hans and Rosa, who adopt her. Because the narrator is Death, we are no stranger to spoilers. Death outright tells you the story is tragic at the beginning and it only gets worse from there. It's not uncommon to see a sentence like "The child's blond hair waved in the wind, like trails of sunshine it was sad when he died". Which isn't to say the impact is lessened at all as Liesel climbs out of her basement to find all of her friends and family dead by a tragic happenstance. Because after all, who would bomb a street named after Heaven?

The book is an obvious take that to Nazi Germany, book burning in particular being seen as a heinous thing. Liesel herself acquires a book, titled The Shoulder Shrug from one such burning. It's this that sparks Hans Huberman to teach her to read. The Book Thief is a perfect representation of childhood wonder put up against the backdrop of one of the most horrific time periods in human history. So often you see children running around covered in coal claiming to be Jesse Owens or Liesel herself expressing her hatred of the Fuhrer for his cruelty and machinations. As the reader we can look at this with an adult lens and feel the tension of the era. Very much so in a To Kill A Mockingbird fashion. The coming of age story of Liesel is one of the most heartwarming and tragic tales I've read in a young adult novel, and I would definitely say even if you're not in the age bracket to pick it up and give it a read. Her friendship with Max, a Jewish boxer her family is hiding during the war is an innocent ray of sunshine in this bleak world, and even when Max is later taken to a camp their reunion is a cathartic release after the tragedy of the Himmel Street bombing. Proving that happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.

Another aspect of the novel is the childhood romance between Liesel and Rudy Steiner. Rudy is a young upstart child who has a bright future and a kind heart. He is in love with Liesel and the whole book teases their marriage and happiness only to rip it from you when Rudy's body is found among the wreckage of Himmel Street. Liesel giving his lifeless body the kiss he always wanted in the ruins was actually a scene that made me tear up as a child.

If you read the Book Thief as an adult, which you might as well try to do, look at the Book Thief for its deeper themes. Look at the childhood innocence played against the backdrop of Nazi Germany. Appreciate that the characters of the novel are not treated poorly for being Germans in this era. Look at the themes of censorship, family, imagination and knowledge, especially against the grain of those who would take it from you. The Book Thief is a terrific coming of age story and is a masterpiece in its story telling, prose, and design. It takes an almost postmodern bent with Death as its narrator, one of its strongest themes, as Death is affected by Liesel's story as much as we are. Zusak not only gives life and warmth to these characters but to a concept many of us fear. And as Death cradles Liesel's soul and tells her story he says this to close

"I am haunted by humans".

Italo Calvino-If On A Winter's Night A Traveler

-Apologies for missing a day Constant Readers, I had a brief fight with food poisoning!-

My senior quote in High School was "All I want of life is postmodern literature and single malt scotch". This still holds true today, and no one I've read has been more a master of that genre of literature than Italy's own Italo Calvino. Italo Calvino was born in Cuba to botanist parents. His mother gave him the unusual first name "Italo" to remind me of his Italian heritage, but since they moved back to Italy in Liguria before he turned two, Calvino found the name "belligerently nationalist". Calvino went to college reluctantly for agriculture like his family despite his urge to be a writer. In 1943 at the age of twenty, Calvino witnessed the German occupation of Liguria and the establishment of Mussolini's Italian Social Republic. Refusing military service, Calvino went into hiding. After reading on a wide array of subjects, Calvino came to the conclusion that of all the partisan groups, the communists were "the most convincing political line". He later joined the Italian Resistance in the spring of 1944, and because of his refusal to be a conscript, his parents were held hostage by the Nazis. Seeing the horrors of the war only deepened his loyalty to the communist cause, and officially joined the Italian Communist Party after moving to Turin after the war.

It was in Turin that Calvino's first works were published by Ello Vittorini in Il Politecnico, a University Magazine. After graduating with a Master's Thesis on Joseph Conrad (who's Heart of Darkness we will cover soon) in 1947, he began work an the Einaudi Publishing House and later as a journalist for L'Unita, the official communist rag. Finally publishing his first book The Path to the Nest of Spiders in 1947 he won Premio Riccione and sold 5000 copies, a huge achievement for post-war Italy. Calvino would continue to publish realist fiction until 1957, where he became disillusioned to communism due to the Soviet invasion of Hungary the previous year. Citing the violent suppression of the Hungarians and Joseph Stalin's revealed crimes, Calvino resigned from the Communist Party. Calvino would begin to write more and more outlandish works, and in 1968 he relocated his family to Paris where he became good friends and a contemporary to the Oulipo, whose numbers included Roland Bathes and Georges Perec. To go fully into Calvino's numerous awards, achievements, contacts, and honors, would be the length of a novel in and of itself. Notable among his awards was the French Legion d'honneur in 1981. Four years later, Calvino would die of a brain hemorrhage in a hospital in Siena.

Aside from its contents, If on a winter's night a traveler (and yes it is spelled as such for a reason) is not only astounding in its postmodern concept and prose, but also the fact that it was published in 1979, when Calvino was NINETY-THREE. If that doesn't tell you the kind of artist that Calvino was I'm not sure what else I could say to convince you. If on a winter's night a traveler centers on you reading If on a winter's night a traveler. Seriously. It opens with a description of you getting comfortable in your chair, getting the lights right, and sitting down with the very book you're reading, and it describes you reading this novel and your thoughts and bewilderment. There's one catch though. As you end the first chapter of If on a winter's night a traveler, you discover that another book has been stitched into it! How will you ever find out the ending? What could have been the cause? So you go back to the bookstore you bought it from, angry and upset, and you find out that there are no more copies of If on a winter's night a traveler. So you settle for the next best thing, the book that got stitched together with your copy; outside the town of Malbork. (and yes the spelling is important).

You bring outside the town of Malbork home and begin to read only for the same fate to befall you. Exacerbated, you go to the publisher directly. You can imagine how this goes. You get yet another book within a book that is interrupted by yet another book. This turtles all the way down nonsense has you really pissed, but there's another reader, a woman named Lumilla who is noticing the same problem you are. Together the two of you set off to discover the conspiracy of why all these books are being mismatched and ruined all for the quest of finishing If on a winter's night, a traveler. As you draw closer and closer and get dropped into story after story, Calvino seems to also dance a tango with your imagination. He takes you to erotic war stories, apathetic and dry westerns, philosophical waxing translations of Asian novels, and more. Each novel you read affecting the story at large in both prose and style.

As you near the end of the novel, the intentional book fraud is revealed, and you finally get your actual real copy of If on a winter's night a traveler. It ends as you would expect, the book describes you in bed with Lumilla, now happily married, finishing If on a winter's night a traveler. This book is a masterpiece for its post modern stance on the relationship between the author, reader, and all the middle men between such as translators and publishing houses. In the same vein that all these aspects are cogs in the experience of a book, so too are all the titles that you've been forced to slog through in your quest for the truth. As it turns out, they all form one, coherent sentence;

"If on a winter's night, a traveler, outside the town of Malbork, leaning from the steep slope without fear of wind or vertigo, looks down in the gathering shadow in a network of lines that enlace, in a network of lines that intersect, on a carpet of leaves illuminated by the moon around an empty grave; what story down there awaits its end?"

Which when you think about it, is a great first sentence for another book. Truly genius.

Ernest Vincent Wright-Gadsby

A lipogram is a literary work that puts a constraint on a writer. Ernest Vincent Wright's 1939 novel Gadsby, omits the letter "e", the most common letter in English. Aside from its novelty, Gadsby is a novel that stands very well on its own.

There isn't much I can tell you about this book. Gadsby was probably written sometime around the 1930s, as there is a reference to Wright writing the newspaper Evening Independent that he had written a masterful lipogram and that they should hold a contest with 250 dollars for the winner. They turned him down. Eventually Gadsby was published by a self-publishing vanity press in 1939 and the same year a warehouse that held most copies of the book burned down and Wright himself died. The book was never reviewed and to quote "only kept alive by the efforts of a few avant-garde French intellos and assorted connoisseurs of the odd, weird and zany.". The novels popularity in France actually surprised me doing research for this review. The French author Georges Perec, who will get to later, was inspired by the book to write A Void, his own lipogram omitting the letter "e".

Gadsby is an our town style novel that takes places in the fictional town of Branton Hills. John Gadsby is upset with the dying nature of his town and rallies an organization of youth to shape the town up into a thriving city. Through their efforts, through with some opposition to those who resist change, they succeed. Gadsby later runs for mayor and turns the population of Branton Hills from 2,000 to 60,000. It's a wholesome story, going through most of the early 1900s with World War 1, Prohibition, and Warren G. Harding's presidency. The strength  of this novel shrines through with its prose. You would think that without the letter "e" there would not be anything Wright could do to enthrall you. Yet the prose is clean. There is never a single hiccup or stop, unless you count the odd moments where the narrator lampshades just how clever he's being, and clever he is. At one point in the novel a wedding is able to be described in full without using an "e" words that runs for several pages, and at another Gadsby describes a horse drawn fire engine without using any of those three words. The prose flows like a river, and it's a comforting sort, like listening to an older member of your family muse about the good ole days. Gadsby stands not only as a gimmick for its style but as a coherent, moving and simple story that becomes a window to the past, painting a charming and Arcadia esque quality picture of American life in the time period. As you watch the townspeople grow and marry and have children and watch Gadsby himself age into a tired but beloved old man with grandchildren of his own; you'll hardly realize you've read a 50,000 word novel without a single "e".

Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a few other novels and sadly I haven't been able to track them down to read them. Much of his life is unknown as he and his novels fade into obscurity but ever you have the itch for the odd, Gadsby is a masterpiece that should not only be known for its quirks, but it's heart. Since I lack the information to make this review the essasys I normally do, I leave you with the opening of the novel.

"If Youth, throughout all history, had had a champion to stand up for it; to show a doubting world that a child can think; and, possibly, do it practically; you wouldn't constantly run across folks today who claim that "a child don't know anything." A child's brain starts functioning at birth; and has, amongst its many infant convolutions, thousands of dormant atoms, into which God has put a mystic possibility for noticing an adult's act, and figuring out its purport.

Up to about its primary school days a child thinks, naturally, only of play. But many a form of play contains disciplinary factors. "You can't do this," or "that puts you out," shows a child that it must think, practically, or fail. Now, if, throughout childhood, a brain has no opposition, it is plain that it will attain a position of "status quo," as with our ordinary animals. Man knows not why a cow, dog or lion was not born with a brain on a par with ours; why such animals cannot add, subtract, or obtain from books and schooling, that paramount position which Man holds today."

Ray Bradbury-Fahrenheit 451

In his 1967 essay "The Death of the Author", French literary critic Roland Bathes gave name to a 20th century phenomenon. Separating the intent of the Author from the reader's experience and take away from the work. Though later the movement gained traction to discredit authors and simply focus on interpretation than intent, Bathes viewed both as important aspects of the creation process. Some literary works are more cut than dry than others in this aspect. Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird was intended to be a scathing dismissal of racism, and is mostly appreciated as such. The interpretations coming from character's intents or actions. Compare this to John Milton's Paradise Lost, where Milton spells out his intention in the first paragraph. He wishes to "justify the ways of God to man". Yet scholars for centuries have come up with several interpretations, some of them even stating that it's SATAN that is the true protagonist and winner. Him having succeeded in corrupting creation and ruling his own throne in Hell. Such a statement would have Milton's head in the 1600s where it was written. I bring this to mind as to me, there is no work in popular culture that exemplifies this concept in action than Ray Bradbury's 1953 novel, Fahrenheit 451. 

Fahrenheit 451, the temperature at which book paper burns. Ray Bradbury's novel is often cited as a criticism of Fascism and censorship. Bradbury himself was vehemently against this idea. He reportedly walked out of a UCLA lecture about the novel when the students there insisted on this interpretation. Fahrenheit 451 is, in Bradbury's mind, a criticism and borderline satire of the modern age. Bradbury was a grumpy curmudgeon who despite being considered a sci-fi writer, loathed technology. The kind of the man who would write political comics about kids looking for the power button on a textbook. This raving technophobia shows up in a short story by him two years earlier, "The Pedestrian". This short story follows an author, deemed unemployed by the state (because no one reads get it?) walking through a town where everyone is glued to their tv screens. He is later apprehended by a robot police car (because of course it's a robot) that promptly arrests him for going against societal norms. This story is not the only example of Ray's fear of technology. You can find a criticism of the nuclear age in "There Will Come Soft Rains", "A Sound of Thunder" has the entire world thrown into chaos because of the hubris of the rich using a technology they barely understand, "Harrison Bergernon" has people made "equal" and oppressed by use of technology. 

Fahrenheit 451 follows Guy Montag, a fireman in the near future. Firemen in this Universe have a new cause, they burn books as people's homes have basically become fireproof due to advancing technology. Books are seen a dangerous distractions from the placated populace. As the powers that be would rather keep their populace distracted with television, the arch enemy of Ray Bradbury. One day after burning a woman's house down, Guy keeps a book from the burning and takes it home. Later in the novel its made clear that Guy has been doing this for a good while. Interestingly, Guy Montag doesn't act like someone in this kind of dystopia would. He openly tries to get his wife Clarisse to get away from her wall to wall television and in ear headphones (which actually didn't exist when Bradbury wrote this, so props to him). He even starts to read poetry at a meeting with one of her friends, and it gets chalked up to a mental breakdown and he burns the book. It's not the government that is forcing this, it's the will of the people. They don't want to read because reading would make them think, and making them think would upset them. Citizens in this world would rather be calm and placated and THAT is Bradbury's main pitch. 

Things do end up going south for Montag though eventually, as Mildred does report Montag to the firemen. Confronted by Beatty, his boss and foil, Montag is given the choice to surrender and burn his house down. Beatty is an interesting case in this world as Beatty does give the appearance of once being an avid reader before giving up on it due to the conflicting opinions and thoughts found there. Montag is goaded by Beatty to use his flamethrower, and Montag does, on Beatty. A search begins for Montag, who is able to escape to the house of Faber, an earlier ally and former English Professor. Faber urges him to to get to the countryside and escape with other book lovers that live there. The members of this group have each memorized a book in case society would ever need to be rebuilt. Montag realizes that he has memorized a book of the Bible. Staying with the exiles, they later watch as the city is obliterated by nuclear weapons, the leader of the exiles waxes poetic about the phoenix, and they go forth into the city to rebuild anew. 

Despite Bradbury's insistence, Fahrenheit 451 does contain instances of censorship. You can't think of book burning without thinking of fascist empires like Nazi Germany. Even during the McCarthy era that this book was written in, books 'supporting' communism were banned and sometimes burned outright. Book burning continues today with ISIS militants in the Middle East. Book burning was and always shall be a movement to censor knowledge to crush a populace's ability or want to rise up and take power back for themselves. At a late point in the novel, the exiles note that a "Montag" will be captured and killed to restore the peace, and Montag and the exiles watch as an innocent man is killed in his place on a tv. Falsifying media is another big sign of a censorship heavy government. 

Fahrenheit 451 is a masterpiece, even if I don't agree with the fear of technology Bradbury had, because despite it's old age it only gets more relevant as time goes on. Bradbury's media is condensed into easily digestible chunks which bring to mind things like Twitter and Instagram in our World. Even something as simple as people not reading books any more in favor of this entertainment, which was Bradbury's worst nightmare, has come true. Even now, our politics are run like bread and circus shows. Political opponents or threats to the government or erased or covered up. Recent to mind is the case of Jeffrey Epstein, who after being exposed to be running a pedophiliac sex ring committed suicide in his cell. It's widely believed that he was murdered so that he could not indict his followers. The following week there were two mass shootings to draw media attention away from the case. Ray Bradbury's world is a dark but approaching time, the biggest questions lies in what side you'll be on when the time comes. 

Ernest Hemingway-The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway is considered one the greatest American writers of not only his contemporaries but of all time. His iceberg theory style of writing, born on his time as a journalist, has influence on countless writers both amateur and professional. Clean sentences. Flat prose. He wrote what he wanted to say and nothing else.

Hemingway, despite his wide body of work of novels, short stories, and articles, is best known for four novels. These novels are of course The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and of course, The Old Man and the Sea. I consider the latter to be his best novel for several reasons. It's the pinnacle of his life, ideals, and theories. Old Man is his shortest novel, but it says the most about him. Most of Hemingway's novels follow protagonists of manliness, bravado, conviction, and honor. These ideals were of course important to Hemingway himself who threw himself into alcoholism, women, hunting, fishing, and the blood-sport of bullfighting.

Considered the pinnacle of men, Hemingway was born to a doting mother who for a good time of his life placed him in girl's clothes. Dresses and knickers and hats. It was popular fashion at the time, but young Hemingway resented this. It was his father who allowed him to wear men's clothes on their trips into the wilderness to hunt and fish and camp that Hemingway came into his own. As he grew up Hemingway discovered a knack for writing for his High School Newspaper and later joined the Kansas City Star at 17, and was given this style mandate:

• Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative.
• Eliminate every superfluous word.
• Numbers less than 100 should be spelled out, except in matter of statistical nature, in ages, time of day, sums of money and comparative figures or dimensions.
• Do not use evidence as a verb.

This mandate and his larger than life adventures would become the backbone for his literary works. Hemingway spent time with the Star until 1918, where he became an ambulance driver in Italy for the American Red Cross. Hemingway itched for action and to see the front lines, but tragically on a trip to the front lines Italian troops came under fire and a mortar shell wounded Hemingway. He would spend the next six months in a field hospital in Milan where he fell in love with a nurse there. Sound familiar, as that's a similar base line to A Farewell To Arms. The real life inspired elements and themes in Hemingway's work end up making The Old Man and the Sea the masterpiece it is.

The Old Man and the Sea follows Santiago, a fisherman in Cuba. Santiago is old and has long lost his edge for fishing, to the point of considered being cursed by the other fisherman. One day, Santiago tells his apprentice Manolin that he will go into the Gulf Stream to end his unlucky streak. While casting his line and bait, Santiago snares a huge marlin, and an epic battle between them erupts for two days and nights. Both exhausted, Santiago finally is able to reel in and harpoon the marlin, who he has now come to view as a similar spirited brother. Tying the marlin back to his boat, Santiago ventures back to Cuba. He is soon set upon by sharks attracted by the marlin's blood in the water, and despite his valiant efforts, the sharks eat the carcass down to its skeleton. Santiago arrives and carries his mast up the hill to his house and leaves the discarded bones on the beach and goes to sleep. The next day the fellow fisherman measure the 18 foot marlin and are in awe of Santiago's skill, telling his apprentice Manolin to apologize for them. Manolin goes to Santiago's home and finds him exhausted and battered, and cries for the old man. The two make plans once Santiago awakes to fish together, and Santiago returns to sleeping, dreaming of the glory of his youth, perhaps for the last time. 

The Old Man and the Sea is an obvious parallel to Ernest Hemingway's life at the time. Like Santiago, Hemingway had also lost his edge for his craft, being critically panned and having just written the failure of 1950s Across the River and into the Trees. Hemingway fell into a deep depression. Despite his thoughts that he could no longer write, Hemingway wrote his masterpiece, his swan song, and arguably, his suicide note. Similar to Santiago, Hemingway re-earned the respect of his colleagues by publishing The Old Man and the Sea, and it won the Pulitzer Prize in Literature the next year after its publication in 1953. Hemingway's standard bravado of handsome young men in war and strife had been replaced with what Hemingway had become, a tired old man in Cuba. The Biblical martyrdom on Santiago, such as the fishing line cutting into his hands and the carrying of his mast like the cross, was how Hemingway saw himself. 

The Old Man and the Sea was Hemingway's way of telling us that he was done, perhaps without realizing. Hemingway continued to struggle with writing after its publication and his depression worsened. Hemingway also suffered from two separate plane crashes that caused lasting harm for the rest of his life. With his poor health and worsening mental state, he was checked into a hospital where he was administered shock therapy. Once released he continued to have memory problems and lapses of anger and was readmitted for more shock therapy. Eventually admitting in a letter of his deadened senses to the world, Ernest Hemingway shot himself  in 1961. A mere nine years after The Old Man and the Sea's publication. 

The Old Man and the Sea's greatest strength lies in its truth. Hemingway was a man who could have had several books written that is just his life on the page, and he did just that. A Farewell to Arms tying parallels to World War 1, For Whom the Bell Tolls to the Spanish Civil War, and more. The prose of The Old Man and the Sea shines through and showcases a vulnerability that Hemingway had long refused to show. For all the hunting, drinking, boxing, and boisterousness that Hemingway put forward, he was only human, and due to the nature of his death, more human than most. It could be said that his vulnerability and insecurity were fronted by the features he is best known for. However The Old Man and the Sea and its truth, its admission of fatigue and the want of an end, a worthy fight, prove that those vulnerabilities were there.

In his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway writes the passage "The world breaks everyone, and those it does not break it kills, it kills the very good, and the very kind, and the very gentle impartially. If you are none of these things you can be sure that it will kill you too but there will be no particular hurry." These words applied to the broken Hemingway, who the world could not kill, body or spirit.