Saturday, May 23, 2009
ON WALTON ON NEVER LET ME GO
I recently came across an interesting discussion of Never Let Me Go on Crooked Timber, sparked off by this post by Jo Walton, and specifically by this quote:
"Some critics have suggested it’s implausible that a whole class of people could be created to donate and die and yet been permitted to drive around from centre to centre and go into shops and service stations. I have no problem with it. The worst tortures are the ones you do to yourself. They are a class, they know their place."
Walton goes on to assert that the clones are modelled after the English working class, which likewise passively accepts its lot.
I disagree with Walton. I was surprised that nobody picked up on OO's clearly true observation, in the Crooked Timber thread, that "the clones did find possibilities other than having their organs harvested very attractive. ... the Cottages are pervaded with the clones’ desperation for an alternative other than dying." I would add that the students at Hailsham were not given an education which emphasizes submissiveness and knowing one's place. In fact the education Hailsham provided, with its emphasis on art and creativity, greatly resembled an upper middle-class education (allowing for the material poverty of Hailsham itself). If Kathy appears to never think of escape, it's not because she "cheerful[ly] accept[s]" her fate, as Walton claims. Rather, it's because she has already ruled the idea out as hopeless, and therefore thinking about it would be too painful.
Something else that occurred to me after reading the Crooked Timber discussion: As far as I remember, until the final scene with Miss Emily, the "donations" are always talked about as something that just happens, almost as if they were a natural process. This is even true of Miss Lucy's revelation and of the discussion of "possibles." Emily, in her final scene, is the first to acknowledge that the clones die because society has chosen to have them die, and society could have chosen differently.
My earlier posts on Never Let Me Go are here, here, here and here.
(1) comments
I recently came across an interesting discussion of Never Let Me Go on Crooked Timber, sparked off by this post by Jo Walton, and specifically by this quote:
"Some critics have suggested it’s implausible that a whole class of people could be created to donate and die and yet been permitted to drive around from centre to centre and go into shops and service stations. I have no problem with it. The worst tortures are the ones you do to yourself. They are a class, they know their place."
Walton goes on to assert that the clones are modelled after the English working class, which likewise passively accepts its lot.
I disagree with Walton. I was surprised that nobody picked up on OO's clearly true observation, in the Crooked Timber thread, that "the clones did find possibilities other than having their organs harvested very attractive. ... the Cottages are pervaded with the clones’ desperation for an alternative other than dying." I would add that the students at Hailsham were not given an education which emphasizes submissiveness and knowing one's place. In fact the education Hailsham provided, with its emphasis on art and creativity, greatly resembled an upper middle-class education (allowing for the material poverty of Hailsham itself). If Kathy appears to never think of escape, it's not because she "cheerful[ly] accept[s]" her fate, as Walton claims. Rather, it's because she has already ruled the idea out as hopeless, and therefore thinking about it would be too painful.
Something else that occurred to me after reading the Crooked Timber discussion: As far as I remember, until the final scene with Miss Emily, the "donations" are always talked about as something that just happens, almost as if they were a natural process. This is even true of Miss Lucy's revelation and of the discussion of "possibles." Emily, in her final scene, is the first to acknowledge that the clones die because society has chosen to have them die, and society could have chosen differently.
My earlier posts on Never Let Me Go are here, here, here and here.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
BOOK CORNER: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA
(Despite appearances, this hasn't turned into an all-Haruhi blog. That three posts of my last five posts, counting this, are on Haruhi is the result of chance as much as anything. Normal programming will return shortly.)
I had bought The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya [Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu], the fourth in the series of Haruhi Suzumiya light novels by Nagaru Tanigawa, before the U.S. licensing of the novels was announced. A few weeks ago, I had finished reading a couple of serious manga and was looking for a change, and decided to read Disappearance. By this time, of course, the license had been announced, and I could have waited for the book to come out in English (assuming that the first three novels get published and that they sell well enough to justify publishing the fourth). But the description on the back cover intrigued me and I was curious, the more so since this is apparently the novel that's being adapted for the second season of the anime.
Disappearance is set shortly before Christmas, and opens with a prologue in which, among other things, Haruhi announces in typically imperious fashion that the SOS Brigade is having a Christmas party. A few days later, though, Kyon goes to school as usual and finds that Haruhi is gone and no one remembers her, and there is no evidence of the SOS Brigade ever having existed. Not only that, but Itsuki has also vanished without a trace, Mikuru and Yuki are ordinary high school students, and a character who shouldn't be there* is present as if nothing had happened.
In the anime, Kyon mainly plays the roles of observer and Haruhi's unwilling flunky; only rarely does he take action on his own. In Disappearance, Kyon has to act on his own initiative from the start. His first impulse is to search frantically for confirmation that his memories of Haruhi and the SOS Brigade are true, but this only succeeds in terrifying Mikuru and convincing the rest of the school that he's gone insane. But eventually, with a lot of help, he finds a way to return things to abnormal. And he encounters versions, at least, of the familiar characters along the way.
Disappearance isn't great literature, of course, but it's an enjoyable book and a worthy sequel to the anime. The plot is ingenious, if not as much so as the anime (but that's a very high bar). Kyon's character gets some development, and another character is also developed in a way that's unexpected yet logical in retrospect.
Regarding spoilers: the book thoroughly spoils the anime and first novel. There is also extensive, and presumably spoiler-filled, description of an episode which is in the third novel but not in the anime.
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is 256 pages long and costs 514 yen. It's published by Kadokawa Shoten and its ISBN is 978-4044292041. Here's Google's machine translation of its Amazon.co.jp page. Interestingly, it has the highest customer rating of the entire series of novels, including the first novel. Note that there is a semi-intelligible spoiler in one of the customer reviews.
*I'm being vague to minimize spoilers for the anime.
(1) comments
(Despite appearances, this hasn't turned into an all-Haruhi blog. That three posts of my last five posts, counting this, are on Haruhi is the result of chance as much as anything. Normal programming will return shortly.)
I had bought The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya [Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu], the fourth in the series of Haruhi Suzumiya light novels by Nagaru Tanigawa, before the U.S. licensing of the novels was announced. A few weeks ago, I had finished reading a couple of serious manga and was looking for a change, and decided to read Disappearance. By this time, of course, the license had been announced, and I could have waited for the book to come out in English (assuming that the first three novels get published and that they sell well enough to justify publishing the fourth). But the description on the back cover intrigued me and I was curious, the more so since this is apparently the novel that's being adapted for the second season of the anime.
Disappearance is set shortly before Christmas, and opens with a prologue in which, among other things, Haruhi announces in typically imperious fashion that the SOS Brigade is having a Christmas party. A few days later, though, Kyon goes to school as usual and finds that Haruhi is gone and no one remembers her, and there is no evidence of the SOS Brigade ever having existed. Not only that, but Itsuki has also vanished without a trace, Mikuru and Yuki are ordinary high school students, and a character who shouldn't be there* is present as if nothing had happened.
In the anime, Kyon mainly plays the roles of observer and Haruhi's unwilling flunky; only rarely does he take action on his own. In Disappearance, Kyon has to act on his own initiative from the start. His first impulse is to search frantically for confirmation that his memories of Haruhi and the SOS Brigade are true, but this only succeeds in terrifying Mikuru and convincing the rest of the school that he's gone insane. But eventually, with a lot of help, he finds a way to return things to abnormal. And he encounters versions, at least, of the familiar characters along the way.
Disappearance isn't great literature, of course, but it's an enjoyable book and a worthy sequel to the anime. The plot is ingenious, if not as much so as the anime (but that's a very high bar). Kyon's character gets some development, and another character is also developed in a way that's unexpected yet logical in retrospect.
Regarding spoilers: the book thoroughly spoils the anime and first novel. There is also extensive, and presumably spoiler-filled, description of an episode which is in the third novel but not in the anime.
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is 256 pages long and costs 514 yen. It's published by Kadokawa Shoten and its ISBN is 978-4044292041. Here's Google's machine translation of its Amazon.co.jp page. Interestingly, it has the highest customer rating of the entire series of novels, including the first novel. Note that there is a semi-intelligible spoiler in one of the customer reviews.
*I'm being vague to minimize spoilers for the anime.
Friday, January 02, 2009
MANGA CORNER: THE MELANCHOLY OF SUZUMIYA HARUHI CHAN, VOL. 1
About a week ago Gia (via MangaBlog) reported that in Japan, the second volume of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi chan, the "official gag manga" for the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise, is expected to outsell the latest volume of the straight manga adaptation. As it happens, I bought the first volume of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi chan a few months ago, though I haven't read it yet. It's a mix of 4-panel strips and short stories. Gia stated that the second volume has an eroge*- playing Yuki. In fact, Yuki plays eroge in the first volume as well. What's more, she does so wearing headphones whose earpieces are shaped like bunnies. In another running gag, one of the characters from the anime returns, but shrunk down to only about a foot tall, and is treated like a toy by Yuki.
I can't really say much about the manga without having read it. But my impression, for what it's worth, is that its humor is:
1. very otakuish, and
2. dependent upon familiarity with the Haruhi Suzumiya anime and/or light novels.
I don't like the art, largely because I dislike the caricature-like style Puyo, the artist, uses here. However, the infrequent action sequences are well-done. Perhaps comedy is not Puyo's forte.
Volume 1 of Haruhi chan is published by Kadokawa Shoten. It's 164 pages and costs 540 yen, and its ISBN is 978-4-04-715062-1. Here's a machine translation of its Amazon.co.jp page.
*Erotic computer game.
(1) comments
About a week ago Gia (via MangaBlog) reported that in Japan, the second volume of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi chan, the "official gag manga" for the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise, is expected to outsell the latest volume of the straight manga adaptation. As it happens, I bought the first volume of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi chan a few months ago, though I haven't read it yet. It's a mix of 4-panel strips and short stories. Gia stated that the second volume has an eroge*- playing Yuki. In fact, Yuki plays eroge in the first volume as well. What's more, she does so wearing headphones whose earpieces are shaped like bunnies. In another running gag, one of the characters from the anime returns, but shrunk down to only about a foot tall, and is treated like a toy by Yuki.
I can't really say much about the manga without having read it. But my impression, for what it's worth, is that its humor is:
1. very otakuish, and
2. dependent upon familiarity with the Haruhi Suzumiya anime and/or light novels.
I don't like the art, largely because I dislike the caricature-like style Puyo, the artist, uses here. However, the infrequent action sequences are well-done. Perhaps comedy is not Puyo's forte.
Volume 1 of Haruhi chan is published by Kadokawa Shoten. It's 164 pages and costs 540 yen, and its ISBN is 978-4-04-715062-1. Here's a machine translation of its Amazon.co.jp page.
*Erotic computer game.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
TENSHI NI NARUMON'! ONCE MORE
My mention of the Tenshi ni Narumon'! manga in my last-but-one post inspired me to take another peek at it. In my original review, I had written: "the art for the manga is pretty conventional. Which is not to say it's bad." I was wrong -- it's bad.
(0) comments
My mention of the Tenshi ni Narumon'! manga in my last-but-one post inspired me to take another peek at it. In my original review, I had written: "the art for the manga is pretty conventional. Which is not to say it's bad." I was wrong -- it's bad.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST RECORDING
I liked "The Song That Goes Like This."
(0) comments
I liked "The Song That Goes Like This."
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
MANGA CORNER: THE MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA, VOL. 1
A few days ago I read the recently-released first volume of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya manga. (If you're unfamiliar with the whole Haruhi phenomenon, here's an introduction.) My advice, as a big fan of the anime who never gets tired of watching "The Adventures of Mikuru-chan Ep. 00",* is to stick to the anime or wait for the light novels, which are scheduled to be published in English starting in 2009.** And if you have read the manga but haven't seen the anime, don't judge the latter by the former. Even though the manga is written (at least ostensibly) by the author of the original light novels, and is presumably adapted directly from the light novels, it reads like a typical anime-to-manga adaptation. And that's not a good thing (despite my liking for the Tenshi ni Narumon! manga).
According to the article I linked to above, the manga's "target age group is younger than the original novels in order to expand the series' fan base." That isn't necessarily synonymous with being dumbed down, but in this case it is. The manga's story is basically the same as that of the anime (which, based upon what I've read of the first novel, seems to be faithful to it), though there are a lot of minor variations. But the manga's characters are not nearly as idiosyncratic as the anime's. They're more like the characters in a typical "wacky" high school comedy. In particular, Kyon's distinctive, sarcastic commentary, which sets the tone of the anime, is almost eliminated.
The manga's visuals add nothing to the story, and the art itself is generic.
*Not, incidentally, in this volume of the manga, which proceeds in strict chronological order.
**Though given the present state of the economy and its prospects for the near future, any reference to something being published in 2009 should have a "hopefully" attached to it.
(0) comments
A few days ago I read the recently-released first volume of the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya manga. (If you're unfamiliar with the whole Haruhi phenomenon, here's an introduction.) My advice, as a big fan of the anime who never gets tired of watching "The Adventures of Mikuru-chan Ep. 00",* is to stick to the anime or wait for the light novels, which are scheduled to be published in English starting in 2009.** And if you have read the manga but haven't seen the anime, don't judge the latter by the former. Even though the manga is written (at least ostensibly) by the author of the original light novels, and is presumably adapted directly from the light novels, it reads like a typical anime-to-manga adaptation. And that's not a good thing (despite my liking for the Tenshi ni Narumon! manga).
According to the article I linked to above, the manga's "target age group is younger than the original novels in order to expand the series' fan base." That isn't necessarily synonymous with being dumbed down, but in this case it is. The manga's story is basically the same as that of the anime (which, based upon what I've read of the first novel, seems to be faithful to it), though there are a lot of minor variations. But the manga's characters are not nearly as idiosyncratic as the anime's. They're more like the characters in a typical "wacky" high school comedy. In particular, Kyon's distinctive, sarcastic commentary, which sets the tone of the anime, is almost eliminated.
The manga's visuals add nothing to the story, and the art itself is generic.
*Not, incidentally, in this volume of the manga, which proceeds in strict chronological order.
**Though given the present state of the economy and its prospects for the near future, any reference to something being published in 2009 should have a "hopefully" attached to it.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
MPD-PSYCHO: TV SERIES VS. MANGA
I recently rewatched the TV adaptation of MPD-Psycho, which Takashi Miike directed. Then for comparison I read volumes 1-6 of the manga, which are all that are out in the U.S. if I'm not mistaken. The conjunction of the two made me realize two things. (Slight spoilers ahead.)
The first is that, aside from the basic attributes of the main characters and the "signature" images of the human flowerpots and the limbless woman, the TV series and the manga so far are pretty much independent of each other. Most of the events in the manga are absent from the TV series and vice versa. In particular, the pregnant woman murders, which are key to the TV series' plot, are not found in the manga. And while the group that plays a key role in the manga (I'm being vague so as not to spoil too much) nominally plays the same role in the TV series, it's dealt with so summarily that it's irrelevant for practical purposes. Amamiya/Nishizono's personality switches, which are common in the manga and crucial to the plot, are very rare in the TV series; in a sense, the series isn't about a "multiple personality detective" at all. The other characters are generally quite different in the manga and TV series, if they appear in both. In particular, this is true of Sasayama, who in the manga is just a policeman who leeches off Amamiya's work but in the TV series is a much more complex and interesting -- and important -- character. The manga and TV series are also quite different in tone and thematically.
The TV series was based not just on the manga, but on three MPD-Psycho novels, and these, along with the rest of the manga may be the source for those events in the TV series that aren't in the manga volumes which Dark Horse has published so far. But that doesn't explain why so much that's important to the manga is missing from the TV series.
My second realization is that I don't like the manga. Neither the individual arcs, nor the overall storyline, nor the characters interest me. Nor does the art do much for me. In fact, I'd been feeling dissatisfied for a while, but it took reading the whole thing at one go to make me realize just how little I was getting out of it. Also, I'd bought the manga in the first place because of the TV series, and it was only upon rewatching the TV series that I realized how little the two actually had to do with each other. In short, I was stupid and wasted a lot of money, especially since a local library recently acquired vols. 1-6 of the manga. (Yeah, my mind boggled too.)
I'll have some comments on the TV series itself in another post. Maybe.
(0) comments
I recently rewatched the TV adaptation of MPD-Psycho, which Takashi Miike directed. Then for comparison I read volumes 1-6 of the manga, which are all that are out in the U.S. if I'm not mistaken. The conjunction of the two made me realize two things. (Slight spoilers ahead.)
The first is that, aside from the basic attributes of the main characters and the "signature" images of the human flowerpots and the limbless woman, the TV series and the manga so far are pretty much independent of each other. Most of the events in the manga are absent from the TV series and vice versa. In particular, the pregnant woman murders, which are key to the TV series' plot, are not found in the manga. And while the group that plays a key role in the manga (I'm being vague so as not to spoil too much) nominally plays the same role in the TV series, it's dealt with so summarily that it's irrelevant for practical purposes. Amamiya/Nishizono's personality switches, which are common in the manga and crucial to the plot, are very rare in the TV series; in a sense, the series isn't about a "multiple personality detective" at all. The other characters are generally quite different in the manga and TV series, if they appear in both. In particular, this is true of Sasayama, who in the manga is just a policeman who leeches off Amamiya's work but in the TV series is a much more complex and interesting -- and important -- character. The manga and TV series are also quite different in tone and thematically.
The TV series was based not just on the manga, but on three MPD-Psycho novels, and these, along with the rest of the manga may be the source for those events in the TV series that aren't in the manga volumes which Dark Horse has published so far. But that doesn't explain why so much that's important to the manga is missing from the TV series.
My second realization is that I don't like the manga. Neither the individual arcs, nor the overall storyline, nor the characters interest me. Nor does the art do much for me. In fact, I'd been feeling dissatisfied for a while, but it took reading the whole thing at one go to make me realize just how little I was getting out of it. Also, I'd bought the manga in the first place because of the TV series, and it was only upon rewatching the TV series that I realized how little the two actually had to do with each other. In short, I was stupid and wasted a lot of money, especially since a local library recently acquired vols. 1-6 of the manga. (Yeah, my mind boggled too.)
I'll have some comments on the TV series itself in another post. Maybe.
