Feminist criticism has encouraged readers to focus on, and open up space for, "minor" female characters overshadowed by big male protagonists. Fiction based on this principle -- along with many other factors -- has led to the following titles, which I found in five minutes on an Amazon search. If you have a job, or were famous, there may be a book about your wife. Some of these are sexy books. I will let you guess which ones.
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Senator's Wife
The Diplomat's Wife
Ahab's Wife
Lady MacBeth
The Pastor's Wife
The Kitchen God's Wife
The Last Wife of Henry VIII: A Novel
The Saddlemaker's Wife
The Pilot's Wife
A Hustler's Wife
The Spy's Wife
Zipporah, Wife of Moses: A Novel
The Traitor's Wife
The Killer's Wife
Pilate's Wife
Shakespeare's Wife
The Prisoner's Wife
The Shopkeeper's Wife
Lord Byron's Wife
The Banker's Wife
The Editor's Wife
The Photographer's Wife
The Politician's Wife
The Samurai's Wife
The Salaryman's Wife
The Doctor's Wife
The Sniper's Wife
The Emancipator's Wife
The Nazi's Wife
The God's Wife
The Boss's Wife
The Inkeeper's Wife
Rector's Wife
Tales of the Allergist's Wife
The Fireman's Wife
The Consul's Wife
The Artist's Wife
The Shapechanger's Wife
Warwyck's Wife
Dr. Norton's Wife
Herod's Wife
Dr. Dumany's Wife
King Lear's Wife
The Trooper's Wife
The Missionary's Wife
Potiphar's Wife (poetry)
Wife to Mr. Milton
The Highwayman's Wife
Zeppo's Wife (poetry)
The Englishman's Wife
Colter's Wife
The Earl's Wife
The Captain's Wife
The Butcher's Wife
The Slave Trader's Wife
The Tomcat's Wife
The Stormtrooper's Wife
The Drover's Wife
The Translator's Wife
Lot's Wife
The Nabob's Wife
Nabokov's Wife
The Advocate's Wife
The Tycoon's Wife
The Farmer's Wife
A Mummer's Wife
Trader's Wife
Black Clone's Wife (not making that up)
The Coach's Wife
Einstein's Wife
The Burgomaster's Wife
John Ruskin's Wife
The Adventurer's Wife
Mr. Emerson's Wife
Mozart's Wife
The Undertaker's Wife
The Magician's Wife
The Drummer's Wife
The Circuit Rider's Wife
The Torturer's Wife
The Astronaut's Wife
The Carpenter's Wife
The Stranger's Wife
At some point I had to just stop.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Free Form Comments
Say whatever you want to in the comments to this post -- random, off topic thoughts, ideas, suggestions, questions, recommendations, criticisms (which can be anonymous), surveys, introductions if you have never commented before, personal news, self-promotion, requests to be added to the blog roll and so on. If a week goes by and I have failed to add you to the blog roll TELL ME TO DO IT AGAIN, and KEEP TELLING ME UNTIL IT GETS DONE. I can be lazy about updating the non-post parts of this site. Remember these comments can be directed at all the readers, not just me.
ALSO. You can use this space to re-ask me questions you asked me before that I failed to answer because I was too busy (but now might not be). That is often the reason I fail to get back to people, and on a blog, after a few days, the comments thread dies and I just kind of forget about it. Let's use this space to fix that, because it does need to be fixed; I look like a jackass sometimes, leaving people hanging. I will TRY to respond to any questions here.
AND you can use this space to comment on posts that are old enough that no one is reading the comments threads anymore. For example, if you thought of a great quote for the great quote commonplace book, but now no one is reading that, you could put it here.You do not have to have a blogger account or gmail account to post a comment -- you can write a comment, write your name at the bottom of your comment like an e mail, and then post using the "anonymous" option.
WRITING FOR THIS BLOG. If you think your free form comment here might be better as its own post, but you do not want it to be public yet, email it to me. My email address is available on my blogger profile page. If I think it will work on this site, your post will be published here with your name in the title of the post. You can propose what you will, I am always looking for reviews of games, tv, movies, music and books.
If you think what you have to say -- new topic or comment on an existing topic -- would be better to hear than to read, use the CALL ME button on the toolbar on the right.
ALSO. You can use this space to re-ask me questions you asked me before that I failed to answer because I was too busy (but now might not be). That is often the reason I fail to get back to people, and on a blog, after a few days, the comments thread dies and I just kind of forget about it. Let's use this space to fix that, because it does need to be fixed; I look like a jackass sometimes, leaving people hanging. I will TRY to respond to any questions here.
AND you can use this space to comment on posts that are old enough that no one is reading the comments threads anymore. For example, if you thought of a great quote for the great quote commonplace book, but now no one is reading that, you could put it here.You do not have to have a blogger account or gmail account to post a comment -- you can write a comment, write your name at the bottom of your comment like an e mail, and then post using the "anonymous" option.
WRITING FOR THIS BLOG. If you think your free form comment here might be better as its own post, but you do not want it to be public yet, email it to me. My email address is available on my blogger profile page. If I think it will work on this site, your post will be published here with your name in the title of the post. You can propose what you will, I am always looking for reviews of games, tv, movies, music and books.
If you think what you have to say -- new topic or comment on an existing topic -- would be better to hear than to read, use the CALL ME button on the toolbar on the right.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Met Conference Update
In my earlier post about the conference at the Met I will be at, I linked to the exhibition, but forgot to link to the description of the events of the day. CLICK HERE.
In an update it looks like the panel I am hosting will be joined by the guy responsible for Mystique in the X-Men films, in addition to the creators of the Iron Man armor.
This is going to rawk, as Fraction would say.
In an update it looks like the panel I am hosting will be joined by the guy responsible for Mystique in the X-Men films, in addition to the creators of the Iron Man armor.
This is going to rawk, as Fraction would say.
Jason Powell on Uncanny X-Men #132
[Guest-blogger Jason Powell continues his issue by issue look at Chris Claremont's X-Men run. For more in this series, see the toolbar on the right.]
“And Hellfire Is Their Name”
This issue is a triumph by Claremont and Byrne, containing an embarrassment of riches. With the exception of their utter masterpiece, Uncanny X-Men #137, this one’s their very best. It contains the return of the Angel, a beautiful love scene between Scott and Jean, a wonderfully suspenseful assault by the X-Men upon the Hellfire Club, the full unveiling of Sebastian Shaw (arguably Claremont/Byrne’s greatest addition to the X-Men rogues’ gallery), the payoff to Jason Wyngarde’s seduction of Jean along with the revelation that Wyngarde is actually Silver Age villain Mastermind, and to top it all off the best picture of Wolverine ever drawn.
The scene between Scott and Jean on the butte, in which Phoenix uses her power to hold back Scott’s, is so memorable that several writers (even Claremont himself) have attempted to exploit/recreate its power. Greg Pak’s Phoenix: Endsong riffed on it with a Scott / Emma Frost scene, which at least respected the source (the point there was that Emma’s attempt couldn’t live up to Scott’s memory of Jean). The film X3 nauseatingly co-opted the scene and turned it into a trap, with Jean controlling Scott’s power just before devouring him like a black widow.
In spite of all those dilutions, however, the original scene is so pure, so perfect, that it holds up, and a re-reading of it causes any memory of its imitators to melt away. The sequence opens with a surprising level of sexuality: Jean saying that “We’ve all grown up, Scott” as her costume changes into a few wisps of summer clothing. Scott’s first reaction is to be disconcerted at Jean’s ability to change her costume at will – a thought that foreshadows, speaks to character, and makes one laugh all at once. Claremont even gives Scott a great, self-deprecating line in the next panel. Jean observes that Scott is “brooding,” and he replies, deadpan, “It’s what I do best.”
When Jean removes Scott’s visor, he is more concerned about potential dangers than the continually rising sexual tension. Finally, the sexual suggestions on Jean’s part dissolve into a simple compliment. “You have a good face.” (Jean’s look as she says these lines is achingly gorgeous. Byrne and Austin’s level of expression is exquisite here.) And Scott can’t stop worrying about the power required for her to hold back his optic blasts, even as he falls into her arms.
This is superhero comics as metaphor, executed at a wonderfully eloquent level. Scott is the repressed male, his inability to let out emotion symbolized by the glasses that hold back his power (a metaphor pointed out by Morrison in “Comics Creators on X-Men”). He can’t deal with the stuff churning inside him, but Jean – the woman, the nurturer, much stronger than the male – can. She takes on the burden easily, even as he wonders how she can possibly handle it all. She assures him that she can, and the scene ends with the clear implication that they are about to make love – as well as the strong suggestion (especially in light of “A Love Story” in Classic X-Men #6) that it is for the very first time.
It is one of the most moving moments in the series’s history, and even though hackwork (like X-Men 3) now and again emerges that attempts to strip-mine it of all its power, the purity of the original scene will always cut through the accumulated latter-day effluvium like a laser beam.
The same can’t be said, unfortunately, of this issue’s final panel – Byrne and Austin’s phenomenal image of Wolverine emerging from a river of sewage. It’s the single most iconic Wolverine image ever, but it has become difficult to enjoy now that latter-day X-Men writers and artists have saddled the X-Men canon with countless weak recreations.
The Scott/Jean romantic sequence and the final Wolverine panel are enough to secure X-Men #132 as a classic installment in the canon, yet sandwiched between these two iconic bits of X-Men history are other, less overt moments that are no less clever despite the brilliant bits that overshadow them. The use of Angel here, for example, is quite clever: His home in New Mexico makes for an alternate base of operations since Cyclops – the master tactician – has figured out that the mansion has been compromised. Meanwhile, Warren becomes useful to the team not because of his mutant power – which is just a pair of wings, after all, at the end of the day – but because of his wealth. As the head of a “multi-million dollar company,” Warren is high society, and as such, he is a member of the Hellfire Club. That’s a fantastic idea, as is the logical next step: He can get the X-Men invited to the club’s next gala. It’s a quietly ingenious use of a character from the X-Men’s Silver Age who’d been neglected by Claremont up to now.
I also love that when the X-Men invade the Hellfire Club, they all arrive as guests except for Wolverine and Nightcrawler, who wade through sewage. How utterly perfect.
With so many glittering moments, it’s almost an afterthought that this issue features Jean’s transformation to the Black Queen, a subplot that had been simmering for months. It happens so fast amid so much other action, it’s anticlimactic in context. When the other shoe drops two issues later, however, that’s the true payoff.
[Whedon was draws on this issue heavily in his run – he pits Colossus versus Shaw, he does the Jean-Scott romance on sunset mountain scene, and he revises Wolverine rising in the sewer as the only one not taken out by the Hellfire Club by putting Kitty in the same situation and pose.]
“And Hellfire Is Their Name”
This issue is a triumph by Claremont and Byrne, containing an embarrassment of riches. With the exception of their utter masterpiece, Uncanny X-Men #137, this one’s their very best. It contains the return of the Angel, a beautiful love scene between Scott and Jean, a wonderfully suspenseful assault by the X-Men upon the Hellfire Club, the full unveiling of Sebastian Shaw (arguably Claremont/Byrne’s greatest addition to the X-Men rogues’ gallery), the payoff to Jason Wyngarde’s seduction of Jean along with the revelation that Wyngarde is actually Silver Age villain Mastermind, and to top it all off the best picture of Wolverine ever drawn.
The scene between Scott and Jean on the butte, in which Phoenix uses her power to hold back Scott’s, is so memorable that several writers (even Claremont himself) have attempted to exploit/recreate its power. Greg Pak’s Phoenix: Endsong riffed on it with a Scott / Emma Frost scene, which at least respected the source (the point there was that Emma’s attempt couldn’t live up to Scott’s memory of Jean). The film X3 nauseatingly co-opted the scene and turned it into a trap, with Jean controlling Scott’s power just before devouring him like a black widow.
In spite of all those dilutions, however, the original scene is so pure, so perfect, that it holds up, and a re-reading of it causes any memory of its imitators to melt away. The sequence opens with a surprising level of sexuality: Jean saying that “We’ve all grown up, Scott” as her costume changes into a few wisps of summer clothing. Scott’s first reaction is to be disconcerted at Jean’s ability to change her costume at will – a thought that foreshadows, speaks to character, and makes one laugh all at once. Claremont even gives Scott a great, self-deprecating line in the next panel. Jean observes that Scott is “brooding,” and he replies, deadpan, “It’s what I do best.”
When Jean removes Scott’s visor, he is more concerned about potential dangers than the continually rising sexual tension. Finally, the sexual suggestions on Jean’s part dissolve into a simple compliment. “You have a good face.” (Jean’s look as she says these lines is achingly gorgeous. Byrne and Austin’s level of expression is exquisite here.) And Scott can’t stop worrying about the power required for her to hold back his optic blasts, even as he falls into her arms.
This is superhero comics as metaphor, executed at a wonderfully eloquent level. Scott is the repressed male, his inability to let out emotion symbolized by the glasses that hold back his power (a metaphor pointed out by Morrison in “Comics Creators on X-Men”). He can’t deal with the stuff churning inside him, but Jean – the woman, the nurturer, much stronger than the male – can. She takes on the burden easily, even as he wonders how she can possibly handle it all. She assures him that she can, and the scene ends with the clear implication that they are about to make love – as well as the strong suggestion (especially in light of “A Love Story” in Classic X-Men #6) that it is for the very first time.
It is one of the most moving moments in the series’s history, and even though hackwork (like X-Men 3) now and again emerges that attempts to strip-mine it of all its power, the purity of the original scene will always cut through the accumulated latter-day effluvium like a laser beam.
The same can’t be said, unfortunately, of this issue’s final panel – Byrne and Austin’s phenomenal image of Wolverine emerging from a river of sewage. It’s the single most iconic Wolverine image ever, but it has become difficult to enjoy now that latter-day X-Men writers and artists have saddled the X-Men canon with countless weak recreations.
The Scott/Jean romantic sequence and the final Wolverine panel are enough to secure X-Men #132 as a classic installment in the canon, yet sandwiched between these two iconic bits of X-Men history are other, less overt moments that are no less clever despite the brilliant bits that overshadow them. The use of Angel here, for example, is quite clever: His home in New Mexico makes for an alternate base of operations since Cyclops – the master tactician – has figured out that the mansion has been compromised. Meanwhile, Warren becomes useful to the team not because of his mutant power – which is just a pair of wings, after all, at the end of the day – but because of his wealth. As the head of a “multi-million dollar company,” Warren is high society, and as such, he is a member of the Hellfire Club. That’s a fantastic idea, as is the logical next step: He can get the X-Men invited to the club’s next gala. It’s a quietly ingenious use of a character from the X-Men’s Silver Age who’d been neglected by Claremont up to now.
I also love that when the X-Men invade the Hellfire Club, they all arrive as guests except for Wolverine and Nightcrawler, who wade through sewage. How utterly perfect.
With so many glittering moments, it’s almost an afterthought that this issue features Jean’s transformation to the Black Queen, a subplot that had been simmering for months. It happens so fast amid so much other action, it’s anticlimactic in context. When the other shoe drops two issues later, however, that’s the true payoff.
[Whedon was draws on this issue heavily in his run – he pits Colossus versus Shaw, he does the Jean-Scott romance on sunset mountain scene, and he revises Wolverine rising in the sewer as the only one not taken out by the Hellfire Club by putting Kitty in the same situation and pose.]
Monday, June 02, 2008
Scott on Why Hip-Hop Doesn't Work Live (guest blog)
Hip-Hop may be dominating these days in record sales but, at the end of the day, Rock still rules the road. If you look at any listing of the top grossing live acts, you'll notice that Hip-Hop is conspicuously absent. I've often wondered why it is that Hip-Hop acts just can't bring in the crowds like rock bands and I've come to a few conclusions.
First of all, let me say, I completely respect Rap and Hip-Hop as artforms and this is a discussion of why most (not all) Hip-Hop acts just can't pull off live the same way as rock (or country... or Pop... etc.).
I, myself, have never seen or heard an exceptional live Hip-Hop performance. If you look at the rock canon, there is an endless list of great live albums: Live at Leeds, Cheap Trick At Budokan, Under A Blood Red Sky, Band of Gypsys, Allman Brothers Band Live at the Fillmore East, and dozens of others. Where are the great live Hip-Hop albums?
I think this weakness live can be attributed to two major factors:
1. Hip-Hop/Rap is largely a studio artform. Rather than being organically created by musicians playing in a room, the instrumentals of Hip-Hop are 'assembled' by producers. I'm not slighting this as an artform... but, when it comes time to reproduce the experience in a live environment, what ultimately ends up happening is that the sounds must be reproduced using a tape or a loop of some sort. Granted, there are many acts like The Roots and The Fugees that do use extensive live bands but, in the hip hop world, those acts are few and far between. So, what happens with most Hip-Hop acts is they just become a form of 'Karaoke on Steroids' live. Even the highest grossing live Hip-Hop acts realize the weakness of this and artists like Jay-Z and Kanye place the emphasis on the 'show' rather than the music. It's more about spectacle (MC Hammer would take this to ridiculous extremes in the early 90s). True, there are rock acts that use a great deal of spectacle in their stage shows... but it would be hard to imagine a Hip-Hop act doing what Springsteen does. I just saw him a few weeks back and he basically comes out and its just him and the E Street Band on a Bare stage... and they captivate everyone in the entire coliseum for a full 2 and a half hours. Now, try to imagine Wu Tang Clan doing the same thing. Them on a bare stage with nothing but their DJ. Would this work?
2. At the end of the day, most Hip-Hop and Rap is, in fact, dance music. There is nothing wrong with that but, in terms of a live concert environment, it puts them at a disadvantage. You see, the ideal enviroment to see or hear Hip-Hop is not a packed arena where you are either seated or packed like sardines on the floor but, rather, a club where you can, if you'll pardon a white boy for saying this, "get your groove on."
I realize that this is not a flawless arguement and much of this may be the result of my own personal taste. Still, it stands to reason, if Hip-Hop artists are outselling rock artist when it comes to records, why can't they compete in ticket sales? Thoughts on this?
Rolling Stone has some thoughts on this. CLICK HERE.
First of all, let me say, I completely respect Rap and Hip-Hop as artforms and this is a discussion of why most (not all) Hip-Hop acts just can't pull off live the same way as rock (or country... or Pop... etc.).
I, myself, have never seen or heard an exceptional live Hip-Hop performance. If you look at the rock canon, there is an endless list of great live albums: Live at Leeds, Cheap Trick At Budokan, Under A Blood Red Sky, Band of Gypsys, Allman Brothers Band Live at the Fillmore East, and dozens of others. Where are the great live Hip-Hop albums?
I think this weakness live can be attributed to two major factors:
1. Hip-Hop/Rap is largely a studio artform. Rather than being organically created by musicians playing in a room, the instrumentals of Hip-Hop are 'assembled' by producers. I'm not slighting this as an artform... but, when it comes time to reproduce the experience in a live environment, what ultimately ends up happening is that the sounds must be reproduced using a tape or a loop of some sort. Granted, there are many acts like The Roots and The Fugees that do use extensive live bands but, in the hip hop world, those acts are few and far between. So, what happens with most Hip-Hop acts is they just become a form of 'Karaoke on Steroids' live. Even the highest grossing live Hip-Hop acts realize the weakness of this and artists like Jay-Z and Kanye place the emphasis on the 'show' rather than the music. It's more about spectacle (MC Hammer would take this to ridiculous extremes in the early 90s). True, there are rock acts that use a great deal of spectacle in their stage shows... but it would be hard to imagine a Hip-Hop act doing what Springsteen does. I just saw him a few weeks back and he basically comes out and its just him and the E Street Band on a Bare stage... and they captivate everyone in the entire coliseum for a full 2 and a half hours. Now, try to imagine Wu Tang Clan doing the same thing. Them on a bare stage with nothing but their DJ. Would this work?
2. At the end of the day, most Hip-Hop and Rap is, in fact, dance music. There is nothing wrong with that but, in terms of a live concert environment, it puts them at a disadvantage. You see, the ideal enviroment to see or hear Hip-Hop is not a packed arena where you are either seated or packed like sardines on the floor but, rather, a club where you can, if you'll pardon a white boy for saying this, "get your groove on."
I realize that this is not a flawless arguement and much of this may be the result of my own personal taste. Still, it stands to reason, if Hip-Hop artists are outselling rock artist when it comes to records, why can't they compete in ticket sales? Thoughts on this?
Rolling Stone has some thoughts on this. CLICK HERE.
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