Midnight Struck!

WARNING! 

What follows may be a lure... a snare... A TRAP! 

The bait is the mirrored opportunity of potential gain 

flashing before your eyes like an ephemeral dream! 

The appeal may be prove to be impossible to resist. 

YOU HAVE BEEN DULY WARNED... 

^^^^^^

Verily, the only thing missing here 

is a curvaceous sales rep 

to seal the deal...!!! 

As routinely seen in almost 

any other advert... 

Somebody like this: 

Hmm... NOT a good example there; at all. 

Torrie Wilson, of WCW and WWE ''fame'' 

has never been known for her brains,  

lit wit or culture, I am afraid... 

But you get the idea!

May it not be just another New York Minute 
as far as ''NYCMidnight'' goes...

Translations - Volumes I and II

cover art by 

Bogdan Mavrodinov

We are sometimes viewed as ''negative reviewers'' here, 

on the ''blogosphere'' (or Blogger, more specifically) 

for we blast rather than praise, oftentimes...

Well, today, it shall be at least 99% praise - okay? 

Because today we shift our focus upon the hard task 

of translating literary works 

particular to a certain era, 

certain region, 

certain culture. 

It is a most daunting task indeed - 

and it is not easy to get it just right.

Two great examples of this, 

which have come close to utter perfection 

conveying the original meaning 

onto an English version,

are these ones right here:

the translation of six short stories

(headlined by HOT NOON...) 

penned by Yordan Radichkov  

(translation by Peter Tempest) 

and 

chosen extracts from the 

Notes on the 

Bulgarian Uprisings 

by Zahari Stoyanov

(chosen by one Lyudmil Angelov 

but translated by Maria Rankova)

both off the esteemed 

Sofia Press.

cover art by:

Kuncho Kunev and Peter Rashkov

Since the French language is so appraised in Sofia, Bulgaria, we shall begin with a French expression indeed... Or donc... À tout seigneur, tout honneur... We have to start with the invaluable historical documentation that constitutes the body of work of one Zahari Stoyanov. Verily, his work is saturated with the mark of a humanist, the idealistic view of the revolutionary in its purest form, the most luminous desire to achieve happiness and freedom when faced with tyrannical oppression of the basest kind. Many are those who believe that this testament will resonate for all time to come with all manners of people; be it the persecuted, the set-asides, the downtrodden in our societies or the irremediably poor layers of the populace - and they are right. For throughout the often graphic but, also, quite often poetic -or poeticized- passages chronicling those traumatic events that took place between 1876 and 1889, the year of the author's death during imprisonment, the tension is deftly rendered and the hope kept alive, despite all that occurs. Each poignant chapter tells of the Turkish brutality in trying to quell the Bulgarian population that had had enough of this barbaric occupation which had reached four centuries of bloodshed already. Stoyanov conveys each and every emotion during this dark period in Bulgarian history in such an effective way that the reader can only feel as if he was personally involved in the uprisings himself. How could it be otherwise when one has such a masterfully rendered first-hand account of those events that saw so much Bulgarian blood spilt each time a nation tried to change its fate and reclaim its land, its identity, its freedom? The uprisings had its heroes and, invariably, they were all its tragic figures as well: how ironic that its chronicler would become one such, too, in time. Professor Alexander Balabanov, an eminent classical scholar, hailed Zahari Stoyanov as the ''Bulgarian Thucydides'' and a classic of Bulgarian prose, back in 1922. In the foreword to the ''Notes...'' this is recalled, as well, by one Ivan Popivanov who concludes that Stoyanov is unquestionably ''an immortal part of Bulgarian culture'' as the text resonates through time with so many facets of life that are still very much of actuality: for there is still oppression in the world, there is still strife. Popivanov concludes: ''in many respects it is in harmony with our own times'' - and it so obviously, so painfully still is, indeed.

With Yordan Radichkov's writings, we get something totally different: anecdotal, sometimes moralistic, folklorish fictional accounts of everyday life under a communist regime - complete with all of its absurdities. contradictions and deeply-ingrained passions, too. It is said that, within the first decade of his penmanship, Yordan Radichkov developed his trademark style and an idiom all his own that set him apart from everyone else, all at the same time marking him as a profoundly original and modern voice of Bulgarian literature. He was a playwright and novelist too; although as a mere introduction to his world, the shorts are perfect in and by themselves. In this rather short collection of his nouvelles one can get a solid idea of the quality of the scribe with, for instance, The Leather Melon which masterfully blends social commentary with elements of science-fiction and even horror, no less! That comes with Radichkov's style; at the most unexpected moment, he will insert into his story some mention of folklore legends such as the vampire or the sprite, as in the case of the extremely-short and amusing The Sprite...! But the latter is an exception rather than the norm - for, usually, the supernatural is only an extra element inserted to spice up the ensemble and it is not the main focus of the tale. In the headline short, Hot Noon, we have a spontaneous rescue operation that quickly becomes a metaphor for the entire planet; is it not the wordsmith's task, after all, to convey subtle and not-so subtle messages to his readership on how to better all facets of humanity?  And it can certainly and assuredly be said that Radichkov was one well-placed sage to advise his fellow man on how to better the everyday and general fate of the human condition. The author passed away just over a decade ago - it was about time he garnered some praise on the literati blog!

A portrait of Zahari Stoyanov 

circa 1888

Now, for the 1%... For you know it was coming! It remains unclear (even with the case of one ''Peter Tempest'' - penname?) where the translators of these works grasped the English language - and since it is, in my own personal case, my third language, I shall not be too harsh at all... However, some passages are just a trifle more than awkward and one wonders if it is not due to the fact that the translation process got stuck in the time-honored trap of trying to convey as much of the original meaning as one could... being in total respectful awe of the source material and its author... and failing to find any possible cultural equivalent in the language one is translating into?  I will dispense with any specific example here - when you read either book, they will jump at you by themselves! And this should not be made into such a big deal at all either: for these two books are gems for all of posterity to look up to - and learn from.

My sincerest and highest regards to 

Sofia Press -

and its editors 

Georgi M. Grigorov 

Vesselin Tsakov 

Velichko Velichkov 

Peter Velchev 

Dimiter Kartalev 

Maria Pavlova  

Krassimira Noneva

and a very special nod to the proofreaders 

Ilina Mirkova (Stoyanov)

and 

Pravda Pesseva (Radichkov)

- for what would an author do without you!

(An author - or a translator!)

Sempre Por O Melhor

+++

Heaven Forbid That X-Mas Morn' Would Find Thou So...!

And God Almighty Forbid 

That This Luminous Blogger's Own Play 

Should Remain In The Attic 

As Long As The One In This Flick 

Right Here, Offered As A Present 

On This Christmas Morning:

Lost World Pictures presents
- in conjunction with Charley Gap Films -
an adaptation of the book by
Lois Gladys Leppard
- courtesy of iOn Television, too -
a film by Joy Chapman and Owen Smith,
laced by so-so acting,
criticized for lacking realism and ''natural''
along with other editing problems,
''Mandie And The Forgotten Christmas'' 
(SPOILERS! SOILERS!) 
asks the absurd question ''what if Christmas was forgotten?''
- and that is not even the true focus of the story here!
This story takes place in a boarding school in the 1900s
and it is about scroogy Mrs Heathwood
and her dislike for the Joyous Season
coupled with the fact that she keeps
a hell of a lot of Christmas decorations
up in the attic; thus, ''Mandie'' here
smells a mystery...
Not that she's much of a teenage sleuth, mind you
(regardless of those Young Mandie Mysteries and all)
but the attic sure is noisy
when all that should be up there
are a mouse or two -
and all those unused decorations!
Thus, she investigates and finds...
well, most importantly of all,
she finds, inside of a treasure chest,
a play, without an ending.
The play's author is the headmistress of the school
and it has been so ''shelved'' due to misfortune;
the sort of misfortune all authors can sympathize with!
You see, it seems like Mrs Heathwood's
deep dislike for all things ''merry''
stems from her disillusions
with dreams that didn't come true
even though she was quite
pro-active about it all...
Makes... total.. complete... sense.
And, so, our heroine Mandie here
will make things right for
everyone around here, really...
The End!

Since this version is completely without end credits,
let's take an extra second or two, here, to underline
the wholesome performance by Kelly Washington
(convincing enough as Mandie Shaw;
she took over the role from Lexi Johnson
when the latter departed after portraying the part
in not one but two distinct films...!)
Amazingly enough, Mandie's best friend, Polly,
is portrayed in all three films by the same
unsavory talent: Amanda Waters.
who's previously starred in Godfilms'
''Becoming Jesse Tate''
so, she may actually be a worthy talent...?
Completing the trio of young damsels,
Glennellen Anderson is ''Celia of the Attic'' here;
she comes off as far more genuine than
the blonde and the brunette -
with true innocent nymphette quality...
One wonders, though, if author Leppard
wasn't playing around when she named
the part Anderson inherited of
''Celia'' - as in ceiling, perhaps...?
But that's not important right now...
Mrs Heathwood is played by Joanna Daniel:
who looks like a veteran actress,
acts like a veteran actress,
but, if one judges by her IMDB résumé,
is anything but a veteran actress...?!
Joy Chapman is listed as a co-producer
on top of playing the part of Miss Prudence
and editing the film, too:!
Her ''official'' co-producer, Owen Smith,
triple duties himself as he is
the cinematographer of service
while also providing the score for the film!
Truly a laborious production, all in all...

As for the source material:
well... who has heard of Lois Gladys Leppard,
Christian author from the Bible Belt, before?
Really?
Good for you.
She was a playwright, too - among many other things.
Hence, she knows what the Heathwoods among us
have all gone through, to whatever degree...
The author passed away a full year
before the first of those three God-awful
movie adaptations of her work was released -
which is good for her, too...
Her estate is handled by fellow bloggers, too.
And, from what we read here,
their dealings with pub-leech-ers
are about the same, too...
But that's another story...!

Merry Christmas, everyone...!

Don't Forget...
the Reason for the Season!
+++

Sequential Review 1.0

1989 

wasn't a terribly good year 

for DC Atlanteans - 

so why would we pick 

this ''special'' issue 

published that year 

which could easily be  

the worst Aquaman tale ever 

as our very first 

*official*

luminous review 

of sequential art 

material 

here, on the 

Literati Blog...? 

Well, because from this point onwards, 

after we've dealt with this here,

the buoyancy can only be fine! 

Hence, let us proceed immediately...

Another admitted and obvious reason to pick this one 

is the fact that these guys publish drivel, 

for years on end, 

(heck, for decades...!) 

and then they have the nerve to pretend 

that they are in an elite of sorts 

and that their readers have no clue how it's done...

Or how it should be done! 

Well, suffice it to say, 

back in 1989, 

little luminous me 

was a reader, an avid one at that...

And an extremely disappointed one, too, 

once I'd finished perusing this atrocity here...! 

The cover is just fine, even classic: 

for a George, Freeman wasn't a bad artist at all

- but then, we do not judge a book by its cover; 

much less a comic-book! 

For to do so, would be to fall (back) 

into a time-honoured trap...! 

Well, not that time-honoured, really; 

comic-bookies, as they have been 

for several decades now, 

have only existed since World War II 

- as they were the ideal propaganda vehicle 

to deliver the messages the Establishment 

wanted promptly delivered, back then... 

Aquaman himself was born in 1941, 

as one of several anti-nazi, 

four-color disbelief-suspending bashers! 

There were Daredevil (not the one Affl-aa-ck! portrayed) 

Silver Streak, Flint Baker, Magno

Captain America, The Shield, The Phantom, 

The Spectre, The Vision, 

several other aquatic derring-doers, 

Wonder Woman, Ms. America, Nevana, 

as well as Batty and Superman, of course. 

All of them were valiant and brave, 

as they thwarted the Nazis with ease! 

If only it had been so easy in real life...

But we have digressed already...

In 1989, somehow, I've no idea how, 

Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn 

tricked the powers-that-be at DC 

into believing that they were good at what they did 

and that they had not one but several 

good stories to tell, about a myriad of characters... 

They got published on many occasions indeed: 

rehashing material they would pilfer from just about 

everywhere: from Tolkien to Mattel! 

When DC thought it would be good to 

do something with Aquaman fast, 

just to keep him (somewhat) in the spotlight 

three years removed from the widely-successful 

and critically-acclaimed 1986 mini-series 

that saw him sport a new BLUE costume, 

these two scoundrel-swindler-scribes came along 

with this worthless, unreadable story - 

and since they succeeded, primarily and solely, 

in creating an uneasy symbiosis 

between the two Aquamen 

(the classic orange & green guy 

and the new blue-look guy) 

the abominable script got the go 

and was approved for publication! 

Journeymen Freeman & Pacella were assigned 

the vital art chores - and though they tried to,

they couldn't truly flesh out this horrible 

mish-mash of a tale, the script they'd been given, 

to anyone's satisfaction... 

Mishkin & Cohn penned an unnameable atrocity here 

and Aquaman had to pay the price for it - 

it was back into limbo for him after this 

until a mid-1990's so-so effort 

saw him inherit the 80's artistic team 

that did woeful things for the 

Superman books published back then...!  

And then he got another shot 

with some homegrown talent 

that fizzled as quick 

as the Kevin Maguire covers 

-meant to sell the stuff-

came to irritate the eye, instead... 

And it was limbo once more 

for a number of years after that - again.

Poor Sea King... 

It wouldn't be until the late 1990's 

that he got a bankable shot 

with Peter David 

and an artist deemed ''cool'' by the readership! 

But that is another story... 

As for Dan & Gary here... 

Just like other four-color scribes, 

wordsmiths such as 

Peter B. Gillis, 

Jeph Loeb 

and  

Peter Tomasi, 

this dynamic duo de merde 

can be credited with turning off ''comics'' 

an astronomical number of readers... 

Indeed, these guys did more for the demise 

of both the medium as the industry that it is 

than any other negative 

said ''industry'' has got going against it...! 

The thing to marvel about here is that,  

unlike the other dudes, 

D&G had to be two 

in order to get it done! 

Most other crappy so-called wordsmiths 

of this misbegotten craft and medium

could manage the feat 

all by themselves 

- with the consent and invaluable assistance 

of their editors and publisher, sure, 

but still, they did it alone! 

DC's D&G act had to be perpetrated as a duo 

in order to produce so much abysmal material 

(Amethyst, Blue Devil - to name but two) 

that very nearly destroyed the DC Universe -

and, these days, I am one of those 

to say that perhaps 

it should have...!

It boggles the mind, too, that they had to be four 

officially, but really six or seven 

(counting letterer & colorist) 

in order to produce this unsavory tale 

doubled of a sub-par product 

(so much so, you'd think it's a 

Sub-Mariner book!)

- a pathetic clash ''that never was'' 

between the Sea King and a certain Magus -

most certainly lifted straight up 

from the John Fowles novel!  

(Certainly not from Jim Starlin's stuff -

although this would be one more thing 

Aquaman has in common with Adam Warlock;

besides the hair and bad karma, that is.

But we're just getting side-tracked now...)

If only Steve Skeates had done this instead, 

circa 1969, at least it would have been bearable; 

it would have suffered from other  

problems, as all Skeates fare did, too, 

to be truthful - but it would have been better. 

Way better than this drivel in cheap print! 

$1.50 was already incredibly overpricing it, 

and this applied to all DC and Marvel comic-bookies! 

Imagine by today's pricing standards...

Two thumbs waaaaaay down 

- below the waves! 

So sorry, AQ! 

+++

Dany Boy & The Devil Itself

Guérin publie... La Croix de Lucifer. Une trilogie - en plus. QUOI...?!? 

This ''vitrine'' that we saw the copy pictured above in... 

It doesn't seem to think too highly of this fluff, either! 

It lists its ''tale of the tape'' as - 4 chapters and... 0 pages!!!

Maybe it would have been for the best indeed - not to waste the paper...

How low can Guérin go?!? And to think that, once upon a time, one would not hesitate to put this publisher on the same level as Scholastic... Saint-Benedict Press... Penguin Books!!! 

Dany Desjean simply molds together all the elements of an old recipe here - affixes it different names, a few twists all his own - and serves it up to the fans of the wretched genre.  There really isn't any more to say about this story - if you want more, click on the red book above to read it all - and weep, too, for it is both in French only *and* quite boring as well...

One constant chuckle I get is with the name of the demonic creature that he came up with (or pilfered from somewhere - it really doesn't matter)... Hagarim?  HaHaHaHaHaHa - it was my invented word, as a toddler; instead of crying like any other baby, I would say ''ha-ga-rinho'' quite literally. Still not sure what I meant by that or how I came up with it (most likely it was just a bit of improvised gibberish - like so much of the stuff that finds its way into print nowadays! But that's another story.) One thing is for darn sure: I sure as heck wasn't invoking any demons, you fools!  For, in my best moods, I would invoke ''O Kiko'' which was my baby version of ''O Cristo'' - The Christ! See?  But enough about me - back to Dany Boy now!

In short, Dany Boy here came up with names (or stole them, outright) that I was mumbling myself when I was a babe quite literally born yesterday - and then he came up with stuff (he called it his storyline) that I was having nightmares about at my most darkly influenced teenager days (or nights, in truth) when I was *this close* to becoming a full-fledged Millenialist myself...! 

And to think that vast amounts of publicity money were engulfed trying to promote this as the ominous dates of 12/12/12 and 21/12/12 were fast approaching...  Yet, there is no real connection as this silly tale has no resonance with these dates, Mayan lore or even the Holy Bible (this, despite the atrocious title it bears, somehow...)

Better luck next time, Dany Boy...  Rating: 1 out of 7.

A New Promo Page On The Block!

Lest it is on Facebook indeed - aye, aye, it is most certainly on FB - indeed!

But what is this blurb really trying to say here - more importantly, how is it trying to say it?

Susanna Kearsley

The bestselling author of MARIANA & THE WINTER SEA more is now on Facebook. Stop by!

Like · 1,434 people like this.

Now wouldn't it be nice if whoever wrote that short blurb to merely promote the promo page would take the necessary time to proofread just a tiny bit... hmm? 

Historical author Susanna Kearsley (S.K. for short - nearly as heart-warming as ''JKR'') is one of those authors who genuinely loves history, loves telling stories - and, surely, she loves telling them in a way that makes total and complete sense - it goes without precising! Alas, her support crew saw not that as necessary and failed her completely - refusing to proofread one single sentence, rendering it nonsensical with one superfluous word: "more" which, ironically enough, proves that they never truly adhered to the adage which says that less is more...! (Though one suspects they were trying to keep it short, as they do on Twitter! Same rules apply to FB publicity, sure, but still...!) And, perhaps even worse: we can see them daring to follow that up with a two-word non-sentence! They couldn't try to put just a tiny little bit of effort into it, like coming up with "please feel invited to stop by whenever and as often as you please, dear readers - Susanna loves you all!"

And that love sure is reciprocal  - as evidenced by what her fans are posting, uploading over on YouTube: now just look at this and you will see how much they love her writing, her characters, her fiction and her universe overall - and want to see it "fleshed out" if you will...

As it so happens, to add insult to injury (perhaps) 

Miss SK's most famed novel is available on 

YouTube of all places - as an audiobook 

totally free of charge.

No wonder Susanna gives such 

outrageous interviews afterwards...!

SCANDALICIOUS...

indeed!

*LOL*

When Captain America Throws His Mighty Shield...

Copyright: Marvel Entertainment
Why no Human Torch on the cover, though?  That's not the Torch - that's Toro!  Don't try pulling wool over my eagle-eyes, Marvel!  Torch, being an android, wouldn't look so scrawny  next to your Mr.Sub-Scrawny there  Yet-Made-Out-To-Be-So-Impossibly-Strong  (it proves my theory that he and Impossible Man  were indeed separated at birth!  But that is another sordidly impossible story...)  BRING BACK THE REAL HUMAN TORCH! I say!
He's much more spectacular than scrawny pointy ears there...!
Said misbegotten mutant wannabe is blocking the view of the
sanctimonious shield on top of all that...! Sheesh!
The nerve of that irksome misbegotten mutie mixed breed!  Between him, powerless Bucky and the beefed up former nerd Cappo,  what could the Axis possibly have feared, really?
Truly, the Invaders were one of the most boring teams ever...
The Nazis could have won in the Marvel Universe! But that's not the, er, point here... really!

With the resurgence of patriotism (thanks to Anonymous - the 99% - which does NOT comprise Marvel execs, Brian Michael Bendis or Joe Quesada, fear not!) one simply had to expect a resurgence of Cappo in the 21st Century as well. Now helmed by the finest pens four-color can afford, Cappo & Co. are shining once again - and we at the Literati Blog simply had to, at the very least, leaf through the pages once more, just in case... Click on the picture above for a complete, thorough and even insightful review of issue #622 of "Captain America"... (Man alive - 622 issues! How much paper has been used here - how many trees sacrificed for... THIS? For, as we all know, Captain America and most comic-bookies were born, in the 40s, as mere propaganda fare: the cheapest and easiest to produce for the entire USA: nothing too good for the morale of our troops and peeps, folks! Uncle Sam said so. And we're digressing already.)

Thus, Captain America is BACK! Pardon, it is now titled "Captain America & Bucky" indeed - even though both characters were rumored to be dead for the longest time (and, in fact, they really should be and should have been for quite a while now! I mean, being World War II veterans and contemporaries of Roosevelt, Churchill, Piaf, Cerdant, Chevalier, Hayworth, Astaire, Nin, Henry, June, Tracy & Hepburn (to name but those) - they would be close to 120 years-old or something, these days? You can be in shape and all - but come on! Nobody lives forever: super-soldier serum coursing in your veins or not! And besides, as this issue emphasizes (or overemphasizes) so well, Bucky had no such thing in *his* veins and no special abilities whatsoever - so how could he have lived for so long?!? Marvel made a booboo - again.)

Well, truth is, Bucky died - again. And this time, he will likely stay dead. However, that doesn't stop Marvel to milk the cow for all it is worth, while the recent movie is still in some theaters, somewhere, and it won't impede them from having some flashback stories that were, supposedly, "never told" before... Them Nazis are a never-ending source of inspiration, it seems - and they have made quite a comeback in fiction, particularly the seventh art, generally speaking. In movies alone, indeed, they have been at the core of several hit films in recent years (from the Inglorious Basterds remake to the Marvel byproduct "X-Men: First Class" - both employing actor Michael Fassbender, coincidentally! Quite the shame (pun fully intended) that he did not participate in "Captain America: The First Avenger" - it would have been another first, one supposes: an actor indulging in triple Nazi-bashing within a mere two years or so! But maybe Steve McQueen or John Wayne did that, already...? Let me check... I might not be back...)

In sequential art, Nazis are understandably at the core of several heroes' mystique: from Cappo here all the way to Hellboy! And let's not forget MAÜS. So it is not surprising or astonishing at all that they are, once more, the villains of choice... Such retro action is not surprising at all, also, especially when one is revisiting the origins of a hero who was "first" in his illustrious star-spangled category...! Well, never mind the fact that there have been way too many "firsts" on the Marvelous firmament lately... But that is another story.

Issue #622 (wow - so many issues you've got, Cap! Most notable now that DC is axing everything they've accumulated -which is considerable as they'd gotten started even before you did- and restarting fifty-two titles just like yours all at issue number ONE. Everybody wants to be number one - but that's another story too) and its long, drawn-out (and overdrawn) flashback is actually firmly focused on the character of Bucky, mind you - not Cappo at all. And, as such, it can be even more boring than any single Invaders tale of old (that group. I tell you, lacked a lot of talent that was readily available over at the competition's Justice Society of America/All-Star Squadron! But that is, again, another story entirely...) - however it is, admittedly, the best that this medium can get to be right now and the closest it gets to literature, at any time, so...

Click on the picture abo... er, below, already!
:-)



Copyright: Marvel Entertainment
I know I said it lacked something in many ways:
in common sense, displaying boring members only
and not focusing on the true star of this issue,
it lacks in background art too,
going for the easy way out there,
and it lacks plain old "oomph"...!
But you didn't have to cast Bucky out of the spotlight, Marvel!  This issue was all about him,  and yet he's relegated to the background - again.
That's cruelty to Bucky!
And Lord Knows he suffered enough of that...!
So, then,  why bring him back - for yet MORE...?!?  He was dead - had paid his dues - but you just had  to dig him out and inflict some more  punishment on the wee lad, didn't you?
(Okay - that is DEFINITELY an entirely different story -
for another time, another post, another blog!)

But really now...  We thought we'd add to this post rather than waste space and time putting together another post on the same tired old subject: Cappo here and America! 
For this post has to be more than a mere review of one of them tired old comic-bookies (their medium sure is getting tired - and old! But that is another story...)
I used to say that Cappo was totally out of place on the roster of teams with such names as ''Invaders'' and ''Avengers'' - because I used to think that he belonged on a team with an august name such as the JUSTICE League of America. That was the young idealistic me speaking...  Nowadays, the evidence is so clear: plus, as we grow older, we grow wiser, more astute, more observing... A character named Captain America NEVER belonged on a team with JUSTICE in its designation. He truly was at home with the INVADERS - which is exactly what Americans are, most of the time, in all of their interventions worldwide, falsely disguised as brave fights for freedom, liberty and... justice.  The JUSTICE LEAGUE (note that I have stopped saying ''of America'' a long time ago - even longer than DC actually cut it out of the name themselves!) being a team chock-full of aliens of all sorts (probably spear-headed by a powerless psychopath on a huge power trip since he is, after all and above all, a control freak - Batty.) is hardly better than the AVENGERS - but, at least, it still vehicules a noble concept, not merely the abysmal desire for vengeance. CAPTAIN AMERICA should indeed be all that AMERICA is, if he is to represent it faithfully: over all those long years he has been embellished in various traits to reflect what America wants to be viewed as, but is definitely not. If other such characters are virtual amalgams of all of their nation's denizens, then Cappo here should be a far-less idealistic depiction nowadays - a revolting and grotesque figure would come out of this creative process (or deconstruction?) and so it is better not to be. After all, the damnable Avengers already have the HULK for that purpose and effect. In that sense, with a technocrat, a hulkish brute, a norse stranger, a redheaded backstabber, an intense marksman probably untrustworthy and a paranoid patriot (which is what Cappo should be, at best) the AVENGERS probably represent the sad, lamentable U.S. of A. better than the old JLA aka JUSTICE LEAGUE ever did or ever will. 

And all that simply makes the boy that I used to be, still alive inside the man that I became, incredibly sad and disillusioned with most of it, if not it all... 
However, just like Cappo, I will survive...!

Our Friends Over At OPEN CULTURE...

What does a high school English and History teacher in a foreign land dream of when he is not teaching to his audience or *unaudience* for that matter - hmm?

He dreams of one day being vindicated - like Russian authors were.

Russian authors like Nabokov.

Matthias Rascher is German and must have either a fixation on getting something difficult published in the classic sense - or he has a huge one on pubescent girls too. Lolitas being less and less fascinating these days, I wager that it is the former rather than the latter that afflicts him - like so many other authors out there, verily. And so he idolizes Vladimir Nabokov for his obvious accomplishments - even those that are post-mortem indeed. For Nabokov had quite a tough time convincing someone to pick up his Lolita for publication. It is safe to assess that no one ever received such rejection letters as he did. And he had a tough time in other areas as well... Did you know that Nabokov's "day job" was being the curator of lepidoptera at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology? That had him thinking of other things than just lolitas; indeed, in his obsession, he sort of crossed them over and had both lolitas and butterflies occupying his every waking moments - and maybe his dreams too. He did not say much about his dreams, mind you: only that they were vastly different from what Freud spoke of. But that does not say much, nor is it all that relevant here...

As the curator of lepidoptera at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, Nabokov elaborated a theory concerning butterfly migration that stood out from the previous beaten ground in that field. Biologists flat out ignored his ideas on the subject, back then. But, these days, genetic research has come and vindicated him quite spectacularly - as you can read here. And so the author was not only a misunderstood wordsmith; he was also an underrated scientific thinker.

And he got the last laugh in both cases.
No wonder he's an inspiration to Rascher - and to so many others as well.

The results of these triumphs over adversity were amusing to the main party involved, years later especially. Watch as he admires various odd editions of the book no one wanted to publish, at first:





The harshest pre-publication literary review it ever got suggested the book "be buried under a stone for a thousand years," nothing less!

How many agents, editors, leeches and preditors have sent you away with your writing with thinly-veiled similar sentiments, hmm?

What do they know - indeed.

Book invites whole world to party - and they come
Dec 23, 10:25 AM (ET)

By Arthur Spiegelman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It's almost like every party you have ever been to, everyone crowds into the kitchen. Except in this case there are 6 billion guests.

New Yorker magazine cartoonist Bruce Eric Kaplan, who specializes in anxious moments, adult-like children and child-like adults, poses a simple question in his new book -- what would happen if the entire world showed up at a Brooklyn apartment for a holiday party?

The answer in "Every Person on the Planet: An Only Somewhat Anxiety-Filled Tale for the Holidays," combines common sense with comic surrealism and fits in the tradition of cartoons books aimed at adults.

The genre was made famous by the late New Yorker cartoonist James Thurber and continued on by artists such as Jules Feiffer.

The hosts, an unremarkable couple named Edmund and Rosemary, decide to invite the whole world because they're afraid of leaving someone out. They wear themselves out writing out the invitations but figure that at least 1.5 billion of the 6 billion invited guests won't show up.

When everyone arrives, the food runs out and Edmund and Rosemary wish they had left out two continents.

The party, like normal parties, divides between people who have eaten dinner but are still nibbling on the hors d'oeuvres and those who had come expecting a full dinner and are wolfing down whatever they can find.

'I CAN'T DRAW A CAR'

The line for the bathroom is nightmarish and Rosemary is outraged at the end of the night at the shape the world has left it in. One billion people have run into their exes and more than a quarter of the world's population has had too much to drink.

Kaplan, 41, who pens his cartoons in the morning and then goes to work as a writer for television series such as "Seinfeld" and HBO's "Six Feet Under," said he was inspired to write the book by Feiffer's and Thurber's work.

He added that he would feel a lot better if he thought he were a better artist. To hear one of the stars of the New Yorker cartoon stable tell it, he cannot draw basic objects.

"I can't draw a car. I can't draw sheep. I can't see the shape of a car," he said ruefully.

He does draw cats and even has a book about them -- "The Cat That Changed My Life: 50 Cats Talk Candidly About How They Became Who They Are."

Over the years, Kaplan's cartoons have won praise for their nearly shapeless characters' musing over life, death and almost everything in between.

A typical Kaplan cartoon, signed BEK, might show a boy with a shovel standing next to an elaborate sand castle on a beach. "It's incredible," his mother exclaims while the boy thinks "Then why do I feel like such a hack?"

Another cartoon has a boy angrily clutching a paper graded F with a teacher explaining, "Look I'm sorry, I didn't respond to the material."

Kaplan says his technique is simple: "I think of something that would interest me, and then I think of the worst that might happen."

The approach might also apply to his television writing -- after all, "Six Feet Under" series end with the writers killing off every character that the audience has come to love.

FROM THE SAME AUTHOR: