Platypus of Truth

And lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the Age. Today is the last day of 2014.  The big news of 2014 is that Western Culture has survived one-hundred years after the onset of the Great War.  The world is changed.  At least somewhat.  But in the shadow of that great anniversary, many other things have happened.  Here at the Platypus of Truth, it's been a pleasant, but low-volume year.  That may be due to the fact that 2014 was the first summer in some time that I didn't attempt any live-blog read-throughs.  Those raise the number of posts per year like nobody's business.  Instead, 2014 saw an uptick in poetic compositions and a continuation of 2013's travel-blogging.  That makes 2014 the year of memory and reflection at Platypus of Truth and that seems appropriate a hundred years after the end of one of the most astounding eras in Western history.  What will next year bring?  I don't know.  There will certainly be m...

My strategic reading of Garth Nix's Clariel  continues.  My goal with this reading is to find out how Nix creates an interesting novel with a heroine who persistently refuses the "call to adventure".  To this end, I've been taking notes as I read and sharing them here.  Those who have not read Clariel  may not wish to continue reading as I do mention major plot points in my remarks. *Dr. Song Says: Spoilers!* The last post ended with Clariel's first lesson at the house of Magister Kargrin.  This post will run to the end of chapter nineteen or Clariel's escape from the prison hole. 7. A reluctant hero often draws the wrong conclusion from valuable information since their focus is in the wrong place.  Nix manages to use Clariel's wrong conclusions in a way that still keeps her headed toward the "the call to adventure".  She consistently fails to realize that the threats posed by Kilp and Aziminil threaten any chance she has of living as a bo...

I'm about one-hundred pages in to Garth Nix's YA novel Clariel .  One purpose I have in reading this book is to discover how Nix gets us to invest in a story with a gruff and unlikable heroine who consistently resists the call to adventure.  That's a tall order for any author, but Garth Nix seems to have pulled it off.  So here I am, pen in hand, taking notes on how he does it.  Since it looks like I'll have quite the page of notes by the time I finish Clariel , I've decided to share my thoughts in several installments.  What follows takes us through the first one-hundred pages, or right up to her first lesson in Charter Magic.  If you haven't read the book yet, you may not want to continue reading. 1. To make an "unsympathetic character" "sympathetic", establish what they love and what their goal is early on.  Give them something they want that the audience can sympathize with.  For Clariel, it's a desire to go back to the Forest and ...

Christmas Vacation is finally here and with it some time for Winter reading.  Winter reading isn't the long, lazy, meandering sort of thing that Summer reading is.  For one, the time is too short.  For two, the holiday season and the end of the quarter leave little time for easy ambling.  Winter reading is the sort of thing that gets done in a busy airport, in the shotgun seat of the car, while relatives watch t.v., or right before bed.  It's a way of filling in the corners of holiday time, a way to savor the last bit of the season. So what have I crammed in to my Christmas Break? Smith of Wootton Major: We read this Tolkienic scripta minora in one go with the Inklings Club this weekend.   Smith of Wootten Major  is a melancholy tale about a boy who is given a passport to Faerie that he must surrender when he reaches old age.  Tolkien advised his audience to simply read and enjoy, but it's hard not to see this as Tolkien's musings on the limit...

Sherlock Holmes has been a perennial favorite since his creation at the turn of the last century.  Over the last few years, the super-sleuth's stock has risen higher than ever with an American movie franchise running side-by-side with the BBC's modern television adaptation.  Whether you're a fan of Robert Downey Jr. or Benedict Cumberbatch, the baseline for the part was set down by now-forgotten American actor William Gillette . William Gillette (1853-1937) led a rather colorful life that involved hanging out with Mark Twain, living for years on a river boat, revolutionizing American theater, having his posters done by the artist of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck, and building his own private castle on the Connecticut River.  He even had the cheek to dress up as Sherlock Holmes for his first meeting with Conan Doyle.  This singular gent over the course of 1,300 performances created the Holmes we know and love: deerstalker cap, bent briar pipe, hawk-like profile, and pr...

I can't really say that it's been a long December yet, and I don't really have any reason to believe that next year will be better than the last.  It may be some consolation that I've been out of the L.A. sprawl for more than five years now.  At any rate, Winter is coming.  Winter doesn't mean much in meteorological terms in Houston, but there is still a special sort of je ne sais qua that permeates the last month of the year.  Some books , some games , some movies, and some music (without special regard for their Christmas-i-ness) feel more appropriate in December regardless of where one happens to be. Now that the month has begun, my thoughts are turning toward the right artistic combination for the season.  In two weeks, my students and I will all be going to see the final installment in Peter Jackson's Hobbit  trilogy at the end of finals week.  In the meantime, my wife and I are in the middle of Akira Kurosawa's Kagemusha , a beautiful and sl...