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12.07.03 by Dindrane @ 1:43 am   Written by: Bruno Bettelheim Written by a child psychologist, The Uses of Enchantment investigates how faery tales affect children, including a story-by-story analysis of many of the most common tales. It is Bettelheim's claim that faery tales are invaluable in educating, strengthening, and supporting children. He argues that the frightening aspects of faery tales, including their unadulterated violence and sexual aspects, should not be removed; rather, such things enable children to grow up stronger, believing that every conflict has a resolution. Trying to isolate children from the reality of violence, the author claims, does them a very real disservice; faery tales can serve to redress this imbalance. There are, however, some problems with Bettelheim's claims. While many of his claims regarding the symbolism of the tales are interesting, claiming the source of a given mytheme, ripped from its story-context, is dangerous even for the most seasoned analyst, particularly when only one possible reading (the Freudian one) is accepted. In typical Freudian fashion, he neglects the fact that sexuality isn't the only issue in growing up. Undoubtedly, faery tales can be quite valuable to a child's progression, or even an adult's, but the author does not always succeed in making his more challenging points. Bettelheim does not address the fact that many faery tales, even some of those included in common anthologies, do not end well for the hero/heroine. How, then, could a child, consciously or otherwise, learn to believe in the power of goodness or even their own power to find resolutions? Also, faery tales were not originally just for children; they were for adults as well. To claim, then, that they were intended to teach children valuable lessons is fallacious. Perhaps they can be used in the manner he suggests, but that would be a modern use, not an ancient one. Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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12.07.03 by Doc @ 1:19 am  Written by Bruce Campbell. Up front, I must confess that I'm not much of a (auto)biography reader. Sure, I'll watch the occasional A&E special to find out about somebody famous and of interest, but to invest the time to read an entire book dedicated to some single individual. Not unless you're talking about James Joyce, brother. Nobody who made their name in Hollywood gets that kind of credit and commitment from me. Except Bruce Campbell. The man is a patron saint of mine, and I've seen just about everything he's committed to celluloid (or thought I had before I read this). So when I got a chance to scope out his new autobiography, I was game. I knew, vaguely, the story of making the Evil Dead films with his buddy Sam Raimi, and was curious to hear the insider's scoop on that process. And given Campbell's well-documented wiseacre wit, it promised to be pretty amusing, too. What followed was a whirlwind read of the 300-page tome, over the course of a day and a half. I didn't read this book - I inhaled it. And it was all I had hoped for. Campbell glazes over his early life pretty quickly, and moves on to the fateful conjunction of Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, and himself in a normal, Michigan high school. I knew, before reading the book, that these guys had hooked up early in life, but to think of how much history exists between them is a little staggering. He talks about their beginnings making Super-8 films, and their first couple of attempts to make something "bigger." But the bulk of the book's first half covers the creation of the cult-film legend, Evil Dead. Beating the streets for money, the neverending shoot from hell in the hills of Tennessee, all the way through the first screening and the movie's eventual cult-blockbuster status, you can tell this story means a lot to Bruce, and it should. The sheer guts and determination are impressive. Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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12.07.03 by Dindrane @ 12:16 am 
Subtitle: Pretty & Practical, Whimsical & Wonderful Ideas for Terra Cotta Pots of All Sizes An artist's dream: a flexible, cheap, readily-found material. Just a dream? No longer...the answer seems to be terra cotta pots! From holidays to special occasions to everyday, 102 Terra Cotta Projects has something for every reader's needs. Not just pots, but also the saucers and so on are utilized in this clever and inspirational book. You really have to hand it to the author; she's turned these humble, ubiquitous household objects into something interesting--a tall order indeed. The book's inside front cover gives the reader a bit of information about the author, lists of necessary general supplies, and some tips for working with terra cotta pots. The rest of the book is devoted to the titular 102 projects, representing such a wide range of uses and styles that even the most finicky of readers is bound to find some things to make. Some of my personal favorites were the Peal Votive Cup, Bubbler Fountain, Gum Ball Machine, and Bird Feeder. Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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02.16.02 by ScottC @ 3:36 pm 
Written by: Connie Willis Death is the ultimate mystery, a conundrum that unites us all. Many feel a clue to this riddle is the Near Death Experience. Dr. Joanna Lander is trying to conduct a scientific study of the phenomena. This isn't helped by the familiarity the public has with the classic NDE. She is further hindered by pop psychologist and best-selling author Maurice Mandrake. With his leading questions and constant preaching of his New Age pseudo-Christian version of the afterlife, most of the patients Dr. Lander want to talk to only have Mandrake's vision in their heads. Even the subjects that give untainted descriptions cause her problems. Maisie, a child with a failing heart which takes her near death too often is a master of keeping adults around to keep her company. So Dr. Lander needs all the help she can get. Dr. Richard Wright seems to be that help. His project involves a drug that stimulates the brain in the same pattern as an NDE. He has volunteers taking the drug then telling their experiences. Unfortunately, the volunteer pool is full of crackpots, Mandrake followers, and other unsuitable candidates. So, Dr. Lander volunteers herself to take the drug. What she experiences and the doctors' work to unravel those experiences could change the way we perceive NDEs and maybe life and death itself. Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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01.29.02 by ScottC @ 6:04 pm  Written by: China Miéville In the front of the book Perdido Street Station, you are given a simple map of the city of New Crobuzon: its precincts, rail lines, and rivers. But it does nothing to illustrate the complexity of this city built under the ribcage of a gigantic skeleton. The architecture is a confusion of grand houses, billowing factories, crowded markets, and grimy rookeries. The population is an unruly mix of humans, khepri (women's bodies with insect's heads), vodyanoi (amphibians who shape water like clay), cactus-men (self-explanatory), and other more unusual inhabitants. Even science includes the psychic Remaking of flesh into bizarre and obscene forms, computers made of gears and sprockets, and alchemy is studied alongside atomic theory. New Crobuzon is a city always on the edge of crisis and all that is required to tip it over is a little push. This push originates from Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, a scientist whose controversial theories have gotten him shoved from the mainstream. So he takes jobs where he can find them. One job comes from Yagharek, an outcast member of the garuda (a noble race of nomadic birdmen from the desert). For the crime of 'choice-theft in the second degree', he had his wings cut off. Yagharek hungers for the sensation of flight and offers a lot of money to Isaac to make it possible. Isaac begins by getting all manner of birds and winged insects to study their modes of flight. One particular specimen is a multicolored grub that will only eat dreamshit, the newest drug on the street. What the grub becomes when it emerges from its cocoon will lead Isaac, his friends, and the city itself into a waking nightmare they might not awaken from. Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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01.09.02 by ScottC @ 6:18 pm  Written by: Connie Willis I've looked over the books I have reviewed so far, and found they are rather serious and somber. I'm going to lighten the mood with To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, a novel that tells the story of a temporal paradox that could destroy the space-time continuum. But this is not another Star Trek time travel rehash, trust me. In the mid-21st century, time travel has been developed, but Time doesn't like to be messed with. It is impossible to take anything from the past into the present. Because of this, time travel has become consigned to cash-strapped universities, such as Oxford. However when a researcher, Verity Kindle, returns from 1888 with a cat, this impossibility should have caused a huge uproar. Unfortunately, the wealthy and demanding Lady Schrapnell has commandeered Oxford to help her rebuild Coventry Cathedral, destroyed during a Nazi air raid. Since the cathedral is to be an exact copy (Lady Schrapnell's favorite saying is "God is in the details!"), everyone is working to exhaustion including Ned Henry. Ned has been traveling to 1940 and back so much looking for the "bishop's bird stump" (an ugly Victorian decoration), his brain has become addled with "time lag". To get him away from Lady Schrapnell's badgering, he is sent back to return the cat to 1888 and avoid the possible destruction of the universe. Ned's brain is so addled by the time lag he doesn't think to ask "How did the cat get to the present?" or "Where do I return the cat to?" or "How do I get out of this mess?" of which there are many in the book. Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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01.09.02 by ScottC @ 6:00 pm  Written by: Simon Winchester Professor James Murray was given a daunting task, to edit and compile The Oxford English Dictionary, the most complete and accurate dictionary ever. It took 70 years to complete the first edition (published in 1928); it contained 414,800 words and 1,861,200 quotations (the second edition published in 1989 contains 615,100 words and 2,436,600 quotations). While there were other dictionaries available (most notably Samuel Johnson's famous work), the OED was unique since it not only defined words, but also traced the history of words through quotations obtained from literature and non-fiction. Murray was helped by a Dr. William Minor, who like 2000 other volunteers, submitted appropriate quotations that showed the word's first appearance or illustrated the word's meaning. Dr. Minor's quotations were plentiful and well researched. So Professor Murray figured the doctor had plenty of free time. Since Minor was committed to Broadmoor Asylum for shooting a man he believed to be an assassin, he did. This is the odd relationship that frames The Professor and the Madman, a relationship between two very different men. Murray was a son of a tailor, a self-educated Scotsman who spoke 25 languages and was a pious Congregationalist; Minor was an aristocratic American, educated at Yale, a surgeon during the Civil War, an agnostic and libertine. But both were brought together by a love of language. Such was Murray's regard for Minor that it took years to see that the return address on his correspondence was from an asylum, not a county house in the area. Winchester delves into the lives and motivations of these two men, especially Minor's paranoid dementia; he also delves into the dictionary, the third member of this triangle. Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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12.17.01 by ScottC @ 9:10 pm 
Written by: Otto Bettmann Last year, there was a PBS miniseries called The 1900 House. A modern family in England went to live in a house where everything they did and everything they used was from the year 1900. You got to see them operate a coal burning stove, cleaning with a manual vacuum cleaner, and of course wearing a corset. The 1900 House effectively fractures the myth of the "good old days". If The 1900 House fractures the myth, The Good Old Days - They Were Terrible disintegrates it. The book briefly touches on the ills of the late 1800s, many that are still with us today: industrial pollution, the working poor, and inadequate public education, etc. Fortunately, many problems in the book are no longer with us or at least lessened in severity: child labor, adulteration of food, and the treatment of the mentally ill, to name a few. Each dilemma is only given about a page or two because the book relies on pictures to tell the story. Otto Bettmann founded the Bettmann Archives (now unfortunately owned by Bill Gates). It encompasses over three million prints and photographs of everything from important historical events to pictures of medical tools and sunglasses. It is used by magazines, newspapers, advertising, and textbooks. Many consider it the visual record of the 20th century. Categorized as: Books and Reviews
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12.10.01 by ScottC @ 6:06 pm 
Written by: Tim Powers One of the charms of the Harry Potter series is that it depicts a world of haunted, mysterious castles, boy wizards, and strange, magical beasts alongside our mundane, everyday world. A world out of reach of all the boring, unimaginative people, but where you can escape to and experience all its marvels. However, what J.K. Rowling has created is wonderful, it is still in essence, a children's story. If you like the concept of a secret and supernatural world, but want a more complex, adult read, there are the works of Tim Powers. Tim Power's latest work, Declare, is an excellent example of his work. Like most of his work, Powers gives us a historical landscape to start with, some familiar territory. In Declare it is Europe and the Middle East during WWII and the Cold War. Andrew Hale is a British spy of the John le Carre mold, his profession both stimulating and numbing. But while he is battling Nazis and Communists in the shadows, there are other far older and powerful entities he has been enlisted to fight. The ancient Arabs call them djinn, beings composed of sand and fire and wind and what they imagine is done. Centered on Mount Ararat in Beirut, Kim Philby, head of British counter-intelligence and Soviet double agent, is working to strike a terrible bargain with the djinn to ensure Russia's stability and power. Andrew Hale seems fated from birth to be part of this battle, but can he win it? Can he trust his fellow spy and lover Elena Ceniza-Bendiga and his supervisor and mentor James Theodora? Can Hale complete Operation Declare without losing his life and his soul? Categorized as: Books
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