Forgotten Books

Every now and then, I like to mention books that seem to be forgotten. Not in the Classical canon, mind you, just fine stories worth note.

First, Peter Straub's wonderful mystery, The Throat. The book is long, over 800 pages, and I had no idea who did the deed until the last 2 pages. The rest of the book is a beautifully written, page turner. Straub builds tension slowly, adding clues here and there, leading down many roads, all of them very dark. many of those roads are false leads, but all of them are worth the trip. Straub is mostly known as a horror  writer and this book, while not in that genre, reminds us that most monsters walk on 2 feet. Some even live next door. This is just a great mystery novel/

Next, I want to remind you of a fine novel written by Larry McMurtry. A lot of people read his fine book, Lonesome Dove, but I doubt as many read the sequel. Streets of Loredo. This, in my opinion, is a far better novel. It is shorter and McMurtry allows himself no side stories, no beautiful descriptions of the Prairies, nothing but the story. Woodrow Call, from Lonesome Dove, is growing old, but still works as an outlaw hunter. He is assigned the job of catching a young, violent robber and killer. I'll tell you no more of the plot, but I will tell you that the book is realistic, brutal, harsh and bleak
The most impressive part of the story is McMurty's refusal to romanticize the Old West. There are no illusions of heroic gun fighters, no noble Indians, no clever criminals, just humans trying to survive, not just the harsh physical conditions, but the mind numbing boredom  of their day to day lives. It is a finely crafted novel.

Last today, I'd like to mention a few works of Frank Herbert. Most of you are familiar with Herbert's awesome sci-fi novel Dune, but not the 3 sequels to it, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, and God Emperor of Dune. To those who have only read the first of the series, do yourself a favor and see how Pau's ambitious plans worked out. Herbert also wrote another series, with a poet named Bill Ransom, a trilogy. The books are Destination Void, The Jesus Incident, and The Ascension Factor. The books deal with about every subject imaginable, religion, computers, genetic engineering, cloning, human rights, and the nature of consciousness and are beautifully written.

That's it for today. I hope you will give these fine books a read. It would be a shame if they were forgotten

The Watchmen and Dune

Saturday night, I saw The Watchmen. It was the third time I saw the movie and I am sure most of you have seen it. If not, give it a look. It is a long movie and can be a nit confusing, with its flashbacks and flash forwards, but it is worth the effort.

Years before, I read Alan Moore's brilliant graphic novel  and really didn't think it could be made into a movie, but they did a very good job of it. The acting is just fine and the special effects work well, impressive and surprisingly restrained. But, that is not the important thing, the message is.

Without giving away too much of the plot, all I can say is that Moore seemed to set out to destroy the 'superhero' myth. The superhero is one of humanity's constant archetypes, usually taking the form of a religious figure, a redeemer, messiah or world teacher, who leads mankind from the dark of their current era into an new age, a golden age. It is easy to forget that when Jung wrote about archetypes, he was stressing the dangers of identifying with them. Turning to a superhero, in whatever form the present themselves is dangerous and The Watchmen makes that danger very clear.

This brings to mind another film, Dune, a much better film than many originally thought it to be. In that film there is a superhero, Paul Atreides, who finds super powers through a psychedelic experience and then leads a revolt against evil, ruling powers. The movie is based on Frank Herbert's incredible novel and stops where the novel does. At that point, Paul is a great hero. However, Herbert wrote a series of sequels and, as things turn out, Paul's seemingly heroic actions turn into a disaster of monumental proportions.

I find The Watchmen to be a disturbing movie because we are currently in a time of global turmoil. Many of the plot lines that have been woven for long, long years seem to be on the edge of either fruition or of unravelling. The time is ripe for a demagogue, a seeming superman, Hitler's Ubermensch, to make an appearance. So far, would be pretenders to this position, such as Donald Trump, are showing themselves to be sorely lacking but, somewhere, soon, someone will raise their head and begin shouting 'follow me.' Don't do it.