Word of Nathan

I really cringe at buying new books these days, because my attention span is too limited to bother re-reading most novels and therefore whatever I pay is for the one-time experience. It’s not that I’m unwilling to shell out $20 for a book, but rather that I hate to do so for a book I might not read ever again.

Still, occasionally I find myself in a bookstore browsing, and a couple months ago, Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale caught my eye. The cover is in stark red and black, and the silhouettes of a male and female stand beside each other under the jagged title. Eye-catching, to be sure, especially when swimming in a sea of lurid, Darrell Sweet-esque covers in the fantasy/sci-fi section. So caught my eye it did, and I picked it up. The storyline intrigued me: a bunch of students on an island are forced to kill each other. I resisted buying it until this past weekend, when I also failed to resist watching Ice Age 2 (I have a weakness for Scrat the squirrel). But I digress.

In any case, the novel was definitely my type of story. Take 42 junior-high students, toss ‘em onto a deserted island, randomly hand out weapons and supplies, and force them to kill each other. Oh, put explosive collars on their necks as motivation and control. Every few hours, parts of the island become off limits, enforced by the collars. Failure to play the game is a sort of no-win prisoner’s dilemma: if no students are killed within 24 hours, everyone dies.

The story largely twists and turns around how the island brings out each student’s inner motivations. From the sociopathic to the psychotic, nihilist to hero, the students all respond to the unimaginable stress in their own unique ways. To say more would spoil the joy of finding these things out for yourself, but the read is worthwhile.

Oh, did I mention that the story is relentlessly gory? If you can’t take a description of a cut throat sounding like a fresh lemon sliced with a very sharp knife, or jelly-like brains exposed from a massive head wound, then this book is probably not for you. If, on the other hand, Happy Tree Friends fills you with glee, then you don’t want to miss this story.

My largest complaint, if there’s really anything to complain about, is that the story is set in an alternate timeline where Asia’s political map is completely different and where the US is some sort of Mecca for rebellious teenagers. I realize that this may indeed be the case for people living outside of North America or Europe, but North America is rapidly descending into the sort of totalitarian, mind-controlled state that the Republic of Greater East Asia is depicted as being in the novel. There is also a small exploration of rock-as-resistance, where the “rebel” characters in the story that distrust the state use their knowledge of rock music as a way to identify each other and to communicate unapproved ideas. It’s cute, but a bit boring.

I think if you overlook the quasi-1984 aspects of the story and treat it purely as entertainment and a character study on a large scale, you’ll find Battle Royale well worth your time. It’s a novel that, for once, I’ll definitely read again.

I hit Yahoo! earlier today looking at the headlines, and just above the news on the right, a Flash ad caught my eye. I hate it when ads catch my eyes, especially stupid ones with cheesy dancing flowers. In any case, it turned out to be an ad for the 2007 Dodge Caliber, some sort of weird car-sized SUV-shaped thing. Which was made abundantly clear by the weird car-sized SUV-shaped thing mercilessly slaughtering flowers.

While I don’t have anything against slaughtering flowers, having done it myself with sticks and lawnmowers in the past, I take great amusement in observing Dodge’s commitment to the environment in action. I have taken a screen capture for you from the ad. Behold, the 2007 Dodge FlowerKiller in Action!

You may be able to watch this ad yourself for a limited amount of time - I’m not sure how long Yahoo! keeps these things up. Enjoy watching the dancing flowers perish under the wheels of a Dodge, providing a double boost in global warming: increased emissions and reduced greenery.

I finally had the opportunity and the time to see Neil Gaiman’s Mirrormask this evening. I was rather underwhelmed by Gaiman’s novel American Gods, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect seeing Gaiman on the screen. Still, knowing his graphic novel background, I was hoping for better screen translation of his imagination than I got with that novel.

First, I’d say this movie gets a 4/5 on the strength of the visuals alone. It’s just stunning. I’m sure that people have commented on how surreal it seems at times, and with good reason. There’s a lot of allusion to fairy tale in the story, but everything is couched in imagery that could have jumped out of a painting. It’s breathtaking. If you appreciate visuals, you will love it.

The soundtrack is a weird cabaret/trip-hop fusion; I suppose this is what happens when you try to fuse circus atmosphere with the darkness that pervades the story and imagery. Funny enough, it works really well, although my girlfriend in the other room asked me if I was watching porn when she heard the soundtrack without knowing that I was watching the movie.

The biggest failing, in my opinion, was the lack of innovation with the story line. You can predict everything that happens in this movie ten minutes in advance, and there isn’t really any moment where you feel real fear or suspense. Still, the visuals are lush enough to keep you watching just to find out what you’ll see in the next scene.

The bottom line is that if you like visually stunning films, you’ll like this one. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth your time.

Every now and then, I get the urge to draw, and so for better or worse, this is my latest attempt. Enjoy.

(Click to make it larger!)

(c)2006 Nathaniel Simpson

I’m still alive, yes.

A couple of things. I’ve completely finished my aforementioned second novel, including multiple editing posts. The only thing it lacks now is a title, and a publisher. With any luck, this will make it as my first novel to be officially published. Want to read it ahead of that? Send me an email and I might send you a digital copy to preview.:-)

Secondly, after reading about the New Orleans police killing a knife-wielding man, it occurs to me that every department should stock a medieval suit of plate armor, sword, and shield. No need to kill the knife guy; your metal giant can just sit on him. And if he’s carrying a sword, I’m pretty sure your knife-wielder will just drop it. I mean, there you are, with your little six-inch knife, and some huge guy in armor comes at you with a three-foot sword telling you to put it down or lose the hand. There, a relatively inexpensive* and non-lethal way to subdue criminals who are threatening you with knives.

*compared to lawsuits

Hope all of you out there have had nice holidays. Remember, New Year’s Resolutions are for the weak. Dont’ drink too much. Or at least don’t drive if you do. Cheers!

A while ago, I posted about Ann Coulter’s “Purpose-Driven Left”, where she went on for a while about how Ashley Smith, by reading aloud from The Purpose-Driven Life, “about serving God by serving others,” was able to save the Atlanta judge-killer’s life, and her own, after she was taken hostage.

I still get the odd hit on that story, so I thought it might be important to note that Jesus shouldn’t get all the credit for the tidy resolution after all; seems like meth deserves some credit too. I haven’t decided whether meth should get ALL the credit, or if it’s just that meth + Jesus = calm killers and churches everywhere should add meth to their regular services. “Did you hear Pastor Smith? Have you heard Pastor Smith…on meth?!“

Just a quick $0.02. Have fun!

I’d been browsing Wikipedia a few weeks ago looking for various authors, and noted with interest that Joel Silver had apparently purchased the film rights for Altered Carbon for a reported $1 million. Now, as a developing writer, I want to see what makes a million-dollar novel, so I thought I’d give it a shot and check it out.

Most of the reviews of the story say “gripping” - I think this is fair. True to its (post?)cyberpunk roots, there is a hell of a lot of noir influence on the story. The body count started building from the prologue, and never stopped. The main character, one Takeshi Kovacs, personally dies at least twice, is copied once, and switches bodies a few times for good measure.

Granted, this ability to switch bodies, to “resleeve” one’s consciousness in a new “sleeve” by transplanting a “stack” containing what might be best described as one’s soul (the exact functionality is never particularly spelled out), helps the body count along. Apparently a person can only be truly killed if the stack is destroyed, made “Really Dead” (a phrase which brings to mind the “Mostly dead” from the Princess Bride movie of yore). Of course, Mr. Kovacs (Pronounced Kovachs, with that “loch” sound for the “ch,” as we are duly informed shortly into the novel’s first chapter) seems to be somewhat heartless, and mercilessly “Really Deads” several people who tangentially inconvenienced him. Not that I have a problem with this.

I can see why the story attracted the producer behind The Matrix though. The novel has the same dark, gritty feel. Hell, Kovacs is “resleeved” in a gel-filled tank sounding remarkably like those little gel-filled tanks that the Machines stored their “human batteries” in (speaking of which, has anyone ever managed to make sense of why that was even remotely practical/efficient for advanced intelligent machines to do?). Kovacs shoots up a laboratory in the same fashion that Neo wastes the lobby of the building where Morpheus is held. Trepp seems to be the story’s Trinity, the ass-kicking female hardass who gets alternately detached and bubbly. (Hmmm…Trepp…tripp….triple…trinity? Too far of a stretch? It’s hard to say. In all fairness, Trepp is never attached to Kovacs romantically, that I’m aware of.)

The technology? At least there are no skul-guns. I can’t say why Morgan chose to arm his characters with spider venom monomolecular flechettes (wouldn’t these get tangled up at the slightest dense material?), either, as there are more efficient toxins out there, but hey, who am I to argue. Overall, I find the sociology to be more interesting, and the pharmacology. From betathanatine to hallucinogen grenades, there is enough exotic chemistry to make your neighborhood street pharmacist turn green with envy. And the Envoy mind-training, while sounding like a weird mix of the Force and NLP, is admittedly well-written.

Overall, the story is pretty well-envisioned, and the futuristic setting masks a standard noir feast of hard-boiled detective, big-breasted panting women, a murder-suicide mystery, and enough violence to make even a jaded person like myself raise an eyebrow at times. An entertaining read, to be sure.

I finished the rough draft of my aforementiond second novel a few hours ago. 71,049 words. Knowing me, it will grow somewhat in revision, but hopefully not too much! Like last year’s novel, this wrapped up around the same time as the National Novel Writing Month, but has nothing to do with that contest, as I began the drafting in earnest in late September. The title is still forthcoming, but I am celebrating quietly.:-)

To prove that I’m a workaholic, I am already launching into my third novel as I give the second one a brief (week or two) rest before hitting the rewrite process. I’ve had this one planned out for a while - a classic fantasy story with a dash of feline flavor for fun. The writing never stops!

The Toronto Zombie Walk is one of the more amusing things I’ve seen lately. Apparently this is a new trend happening throughout US and Canada. In any case, somebody took a video of a “Thriller” moment during the Toronto walk. The only thing that puzzles me is why they did it Oct. 23 rather than Oct. 30. Oh well. Be amused.:-)

I don’t really think I can say enough to do this band justice, so I won’t. Suffice it to say that if you haven’t heard The Receiving End of Sirens, you should give them at least half a chance. This band combines the best elements of punk, electronica, and progressive rock to come up with something that is distinctly their own. I’ve been playing this band nonstop for the past month. Definitely recommended. You can also catch a music video of the song Prison Break from the album if videos are your thing.

“…this is the last night in my body…”