"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly."
--G.K. Chesterton
Friday, December 31, 2010
Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale
This is a hard back graphic novel which gives the back story of Derrial Book, one of the characters in Firefly and Serenity. The production values are good and the story does, as promised, reveal Book's history. The art is not inspired; I've seen better, but I've also seen worse.
That's the good part. Now on to the bad parts.
It's thin. It feels to me as if Joss Whedon handed over some sketchy notes and refused to do anything further, and Zack Whedon didn't dare to add anything beyond those notes. It's not the sort of thing where you'd go back and savor the story and find new aspects to it that you like.
It was written backwards. You start with the last few minutes of Book's life and then have successive flashbacks, going further and further back in time, with the last sequence being when he is about ten years old. It's a confusing format, and of course you can't properly interpret the later part of his life when you don't know about the earlier part. I wonder whether it was written that way because it would be even more thin if it were straightforward; at least this way you can stay bewildered for a bit and think about it for forty seconds after you finish reading it.
And the conversion scene is unconvincing. Whedon is an atheist and Ron Glass, the actor who played Book, is a Buddhist. In watching the series, I never got the feeling that either of them understood Christianity at all, and the "how Book found God in a bowl of soup" part of this tale does nothing to remedy that. I might go along with "Book realized there are things bigger than himself" but there was no reason given for why he would have become a Christian layman, much less a pastor.
I'd like to support the Firefly franchise but I can't recommend spending money on this. If you really need to know Book's back story, borrow a copy. Or just ask for the five-sentence summary instead of reading the whole thing--you won't be missing much.
That's the good part. Now on to the bad parts.
It's thin. It feels to me as if Joss Whedon handed over some sketchy notes and refused to do anything further, and Zack Whedon didn't dare to add anything beyond those notes. It's not the sort of thing where you'd go back and savor the story and find new aspects to it that you like.
It was written backwards. You start with the last few minutes of Book's life and then have successive flashbacks, going further and further back in time, with the last sequence being when he is about ten years old. It's a confusing format, and of course you can't properly interpret the later part of his life when you don't know about the earlier part. I wonder whether it was written that way because it would be even more thin if it were straightforward; at least this way you can stay bewildered for a bit and think about it for forty seconds after you finish reading it.
And the conversion scene is unconvincing. Whedon is an atheist and Ron Glass, the actor who played Book, is a Buddhist. In watching the series, I never got the feeling that either of them understood Christianity at all, and the "how Book found God in a bowl of soup" part of this tale does nothing to remedy that. I might go along with "Book realized there are things bigger than himself" but there was no reason given for why he would have become a Christian layman, much less a pastor.
I'd like to support the Firefly franchise but I can't recommend spending money on this. If you really need to know Book's back story, borrow a copy. Or just ask for the five-sentence summary instead of reading the whole thing--you won't be missing much.
Blog Stats
It's end of year, so time to look back at how I did for the year.
If you're someone I don't know and decided to be a follower (Sky, zara, No More) or commenter (Blair), I'm be curious to know how you got here and what you like about it.
I had 238 posts (plus 17 at Ficton) last year, and 246+20 this year, so I'm averaging 3 posts per 4 days.
All stats are as provided by Blogger and are for "All Time"--they give stats for Week and Month but not Year.
Top posts by pageview:
If you're someone I don't know and decided to be a follower (Sky, zara, No More) or commenter (Blair), I'm be curious to know how you got here and what you like about it.
I had 238 posts (plus 17 at Ficton) last year, and 246+20 this year, so I'm averaging 3 posts per 4 days.
All stats are as provided by Blogger and are for "All Time"--they give stats for Week and Month but not Year.
Top posts by pageview:
- Absurd beliefs (126)
- Classical values blog (64)
- "If I had ten thousand dollars" (59)
- Hidden Meanings (32)
- Ironclads AAR (23)
- Bing.com (397)
- Blogger.com (119)
- Google.com (113)
- Google.com.ph (Filipino) (86)
- Ask.com (28)
Search Keywords:
- Chris DeBoe (417) (what a suprise, eh?)
- what to do with ten thousand dollars (13)
- absurd beliefs (8)
Total 4369 Pageviews, with Pageviews by Country:
- United States (3440)
- South Korea (143)
- Philippines (119)
- Canada (107)
- Australia (83)
- Russia (61)
- UK (57)
- Germany (29)
- Netherlands (24)
- India (23)
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Braving the snow
We'd intended to come home Sunday, but six inches of snow on Saturday night put an end to that plan. Today we borrowed Mom's four wheel drive car to come home. Had a bit of sliding between the farm and the main road, but once on Rte 221, no major problems--the highways were completely clear in all the rural areas. However, in Portsmouth, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, the interstate isn't entirely clear and even on Virginia Beach Boulevard (an eight lane highway, one of the two main east-west artery) there's still ice an inch thick or more, plus snow on top of that. That should be really fun to drive on tomorrow morning.
But someone shoveled our sidewalk, and there's a guy with a mini-bulldozer clearing our complex's parking lots. The house is intact, and the Christmas tree didn't fall over while we were gone. All is good.. Merry Christmas to all.
But someone shoveled our sidewalk, and there's a guy with a mini-bulldozer clearing our complex's parking lots. The house is intact, and the Christmas tree didn't fall over while we were gone. All is good.. Merry Christmas to all.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
White Christmas
Arrived at Mom & Dad's place on Christmas Eve, had an early supper and went to Christmas Eve service at Elizabeth's church. That was followed by some last minute present wrapping, cheese and crackers (which included ham sandwiches for some of us) and talking till nearly midnight.
Somewhere between midnight and six am, we got about an inch of snow.
Breakfast was pancakes and eggs and country sausage, followed by opening presents. Josh got me Monster Hunter: Vendetta (with a label that said "Not A Book") and Broadsides ("Definitely Not Another Book"). Diana got me In Search of the Old Ones, about the Anasazi, plus a couple of tour itineraries for my upcoming trip to Arizona. There were also sweaters and socks and such.
Josh got, from various relatives, a batch of tools ("which will be useful when you move out") and several cookbooks and cooking utensils ("which will be useful when you're in your own place"). He's wondering if that's a hint.
Elizabeth and David and their kids came over and we had Present Opening Round II, followed by Christmas dinner. Turkey and stuffing, rice and gravy, spinach salad with mandarins and dried cranberries. Several kinds of pies for dessert, and almond pound cake. I did refrain, virtuously, from sampling all the carbs there.
More snow started falling around 11am and is still falling now, now perhaps three inches total. Took a walk with the mutt bounding through the snow, the tiny dry patter of snowflakes on my shoulders, and a woodpecker going tock tock tock high on a tree behind the house. Otherwise it was silent. When you walk through it, you don't just make footprints; the snow crust fractures like a dinner plate around every footprint.
In the evening light, the snow looks blue.
Somewhere between midnight and six am, we got about an inch of snow.
Breakfast was pancakes and eggs and country sausage, followed by opening presents. Josh got me Monster Hunter: Vendetta (with a label that said "Not A Book") and Broadsides ("Definitely Not Another Book"). Diana got me In Search of the Old Ones, about the Anasazi, plus a couple of tour itineraries for my upcoming trip to Arizona. There were also sweaters and socks and such.
Josh got, from various relatives, a batch of tools ("which will be useful when you move out") and several cookbooks and cooking utensils ("which will be useful when you're in your own place"). He's wondering if that's a hint.
Elizabeth and David and their kids came over and we had Present Opening Round II, followed by Christmas dinner. Turkey and stuffing, rice and gravy, spinach salad with mandarins and dried cranberries. Several kinds of pies for dessert, and almond pound cake. I did refrain, virtuously, from sampling all the carbs there.
More snow started falling around 11am and is still falling now, now perhaps three inches total. Took a walk with the mutt bounding through the snow, the tiny dry patter of snowflakes on my shoulders, and a woodpecker going tock tock tock high on a tree behind the house. Otherwise it was silent. When you walk through it, you don't just make footprints; the snow crust fractures like a dinner plate around every footprint.
In the evening light, the snow looks blue.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Christmas prep
I'm off from work, my presents are wrapped (yes, all three of them), the car has been emptied of the usual stuff preparatory to being packed for the expedition up the mountains. The current weather prediction for my parents' place this weekend is "snow showers", which will no doubt be pretty...right up until Sunday when I have to start the drive back. Josh has got my car and is off doing last minute shopping.
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