In recent years, the graphic novel genre has become popular. Compared to the regular comic book, graphic novels are novels with the same twists and turns of plot as the traditional novel forms in fiction, science fiction and fantasy with the story told through graphic illustration (aka comic drawings.)  And the length of a graphic novel can be as long as a traditional novel.  Many authors have transformed literature classics into graphic novels.  For example, Manga, THE name in Japanese anime, has a new series of Shakespeare’s plays written by Adam Sexton.  I purchased MacBeth, and this version of the play is not meant for your average eight year old.  Sexton’s MacBeth adapted to Manga is really meant for adults.  Other Manga versions of Shakespeare’s plays by Adam Sexton are:

Hamlet
Romeo and Juliet
Julius Caesar

Manga published all of these plays, including MacBeth, in February of 2008.  I think it’s a great idea and wonderful way promote Shakespeare to the general public.

Another excellent graphic novel is Fun Home by Alison Bechdel.  This book really isn’t fiction–it’s autobiography, but it reads like fiction because Bechdel presents her personal story in comic book form.  The comic book light Bechdel throws on the serious topics she presents in this book lighten the mood and make this autobiography disguised as fiction fun to read.

And of course, there is the classic Maus by Art Spiegelman.  For those readers unfamiliar with this book relates the history of one man’s experience in the Holocaust.  Jews are depicted as mice and the Nazis are depicted as cats.  Other nationalities are represented as animals as well.  Per Wikipedia, the reason for using the graphic novel form to relate the history of the holocaust and tell his father’s story of survival is this:

The use of animals may also be used in order to detach the reader from real life. This may have been done to appeal to a younger generation of readers, yet still telling a story of survival and death during the holocaust. But instead of fully detaching the reader from the book, he shows a human aspect by illustrating how his father tells his story and by showing the emotions and relationships of the characters throughout. –Maus, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have also read elsewhere that Spiegelman’s use of animals to depict people provides detachment so that people who read this story are shocked out of their usual assumptions about stereotypes. Using mice and cats causes readers to pay more attention to the story. I think of his use of animals to tell his father’s story of survival as a splash of cold water: why mice? Why cats? And so on. This curiosity draws the reader into the story to find out the answers to these questions.

So all of the above brings me to Peter Kuper’s adaptation of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.  Random House published this version of Kafka’s classic in August 2003.  Kuper uses the graphic novel form to bring an interesting spin to The Metamorphosis.  I have not read this version yet, but I stumbled on the following link and I am intrigued.  Check out Franz Kafka’s THE METAMORPHOSIS adapted by Peter Kuper. This link takes visitors to Random House’s promotional site of the book and presents the visitor with a short introductory movie version of the story. Keep the sound on while you view the movie–the music adds an extra creepy feel to the story (at least for me it did.) If you visit the site, let me know what you think.  Some people really like the preview of the book and other people believe it’s a travesty–that Kuper destroys Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.  So far, I find the idea intriguing, creative, and refreshing.  If I can get a copy of this book, I will definitely review it.

For those of you who cannot have enough book and reading clubs to belong to or book forums to post to here is yet another: LitMinds: A community of readers, authors, and indie bookstores. According to their introduction to LitMinds:

LitMinds is a community of people who are enthusiastic about reading, sharing their book endeavors with others, connecting with authors and independent booksellers, and participating in literary events and activities. Through our website, blog, and community-based events and activities, LitMinds is constantly discovering new ways to celebrate reading and enrich the reading experience. –From the vision statement at LitMinds.

I checked out the forum boards which are categorized by fiction, non-fiction, short reads, etc.  Unfortunately, the boards don’t seem to be too active.  However, it also seems that this site is fairly new–the copyright date is 2007 so maybe it’s just a matter of getting the word out.

Now, I’m going to go read!

Check out the The Essays of Francis Bacon 1601. Sir Francis Bacon, philosopher, writer, and historian held a number of official offices during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I, such as: Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England (“Francis Bacon – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 30 Sep. 2008 .) During Queen Elizabeth’s reign, Bacon fell into and out of her favor at regular intervals (so it seems.) However, Bacon received more consistent good favor from King James I. Ahhh–the life of a courtier. A tricky business.

Bacon is also known for promoting and defending the scientific revolution. He developed “. . .a complex methodology for scientific inquiry which is often called the Baconian method.” (“Francis Bacon: free web books, online.” eBooks@Adelaide: Free Web Books, Online. 30 Sep. 2008 .) For biographical information, please see this link at Wikipedia. This link will also provide a detailed explanation of the Baconian Method. While the article about this method is not cited, it was the best explanation I could find. I tried to find another source that explained the Baconian Method, but I could only find basic dictionary definitions that were circular. For example, something like: The Baconian Method is the fore-runner to today’s scientific method. Not very helpful.

Anyway, the first link listed at the beginning of this post is an index to Sir Francis Bacon’s writings. I hope you find it interesting and useful.

This Link Cataloged
The Essays of Francis Bacon 1601 is cataloged on the Literature page of The Reading Room.

Well, today I did a little reading, a little blog maintenance, and a little whatever. I’ve been searching for “quality” poetry sites, but they seem to be hard to find. If you know of any, please let me know. Also, I’ve been taking a look at Second Life a virtual world where you can build anything and be anyone.  Well, what was the first place I went to?  You guessed it:  The library! Lol!  The University of Cleveland (I think that’s who it is) has a virtual site on Second Life and there seem to be other virtual libraries as well. I also saw ads about Stephanie Meyers newest book. Go figure.

This week’s selection of Blacklin’s Weekly Find From 3QuarksDaily is the article: 50 Greatest Villians In Literature. Please see the end of this excerpt for the link to The Telegraph.co.uk to read this piece (originally published on September 20, 2008) in its entirety.

Compiling a list of the 50 Greatest Villains in Literature, without too much recourse to comics and children’s books, proved trickier than we’d imagined – but gosh it was fun. It’s perhaps the nature of grown-up literature that it doesn’t all that often have villains, in the sense of coal-black embodiments of the principle of evil. And even when it does, it’s not always so easy to tell who they are. Is God the baddie, or Satan? Ahab, or the white whale? Yet even writers as subtle as Vladimir Nabokov have spiced their work with a fiend or two. And here they are. We hope you’ll furnish a few more we missed. These are the best of the worst: bloodsuckers, pederasts, cannibals, Old Etonians…the dastardliest dastards ever to have lashed damsel to track and waited for a through train.

“Who’s bad?” Michael Jackson asked. “They are,” we can at last, with confidence, reply. SL

48 Shere Khan from The Jungle Book stories, by Rudyard Kipling

His name and character, if not his physical appearance or his species, are based on a Pashtun prince. And there is something refreshingly simple about his aims: to eat Mowgli. To this end he sows dissent among wolf pack (enough alone to get him down to the eighth circle of Dante’s hell) and causes Mowgli all sorts of trouble. TC

47 Long John Silver from Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson

The former sidekick of the pirate Captain Flint (for whom his parrot is named) may have one leg, but he is physically brave, likeable and a natural leader of men, especially after he kills one who won’t join his mutiny. Switches sides whenever he can, and gets away in the end. AMcK

46 Moriarty from The Final Problem, by Arthur Conan Doyle

Got a chair at one of our smaller universities after his work on the Binomial Theorem, but the criminal strain in his blood won out. The “Napoleon of Crime”, motionless “like a spider at the centre of his web”, until his fall in Switzerland, may be called James. Or that may be his brother. AMcK
Posted by Azra Raza at 06:42 AM 3QuarksDaily on September 27, 2008.

Many people have added their own villians in the comments section to this article at The Telegraph.co.uk which makes for interesting reading as well.

The Literature Network looks like a useful site for students and teachers. In their own words:

We offer searchable online literature for the student, educator, or enthusiast. To find the work you’re looking for start by looking through the author index. We currently have over 1900 full books and over 3000 short stories and poems by over 250 authors. Our quotations database has over 8500 quotes.–The Literature Network

The Literature Network also has discussion forums that seem to be pretty active. Visitors will see many advertisements on the site, but subscriptions are available for purchase so that users of The Literature Network may use the services offered ad-free.

This Link Cataloged
The Literature Network is cataloged on the Literature page of The Reading Room.

Middle Ages – Medieval Resources contains many short articles about the Middle Ages, including The History Of The Fork. You can also find articles about warfare, literature and famous people of the Medieval period.  Some of the links, especially the ones related to famous people are inactive, but it seems that most links are active.  I can’t tell if these links are inactive because the information has been shifted to another page or because the author has not posted the information yet, but there’s still much to explore.  So have fun exploring the site, and learn all about The History Of The Fork.

This Link Cataloged
Middle Ages – Medieval Resources is cataloged on the History page of The Reading Room.

I’m always searching for new resource links to add to my blog. I especially like to add links about language and writing systems. Yesterday, I discovered KryssTal : Writing. This site contains many links with information about writing systems/scripts and their history. The KryssTal site discusses writing systems from around the world, ancient and modern. You can look at tables and charts for language comparisons and you can click on individual language links. For example, if you want to learn about Amharic, the writing system for languages in Ethiopia and Somalia, click the link and you will see a table of Amharic script (as well as two other writing scripts for Ethiopia and Somalia.)  Amharic is not the same as Aramaic. Aramaic was the common everyday language spoken in Israel during the time of Jesus (and earlier.) Aramaic is also the language used along with biblical Hebrew in Jewish religious texts. Today in Israel, the people speak modern Hebrew which is called Ivrit.

In addition to information about writing systems/scripts, KryssTal has many, many links about the evolution and history of the various world languages. Of course, KryssTal discusses English, but you can also click on links for specific dialects of English such as Cockney English.

This Link Cataloged
KryssTal : Writing is cataloged on the History of Writing and Language page of The Reading Room.

The following short article is from IOL, an online publication.  I found this article originally at UNRV History while surfing the discussion forums. I have provided the actual link to the article at IOL at the bottom.  In today’s market, I wonder how much the following would be worth?  (Jokes about saving money under your mattress are skipping through my mind.)

2 000 year-old find…

August 11 2008 at 07:29PM

Jerusalem – Archaeologists on an Israeli-German dig south of Jerusalem have uncovered a cache of 15 silver coins dating back 2 000 years and lying in a pot hidden in a pigeon hole.

Describing the find as “exciting”, Professor Manfred Oeming, co-director of the excavations at Ramat Rahel, said on Monday that “if you are lucky, you can find a treasure like this (only) every 20 years”.

Professor Oded Lipschits, the head of the dig, believes the pot was hidden in a hurry, around the time the Romans destroyed the Biblical temple in 70 AD and the owner of the coins possibly intended to return for them.

Jews commemorated the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple – on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av – on Sunday.

The dig at Ramat Rahel is in its fourth season. The team at the site also found 380 coins from the Byzantine period, the fourth and fifth century AD.

Ramat Rahel is located about halfway between Jerusalem’s Old City and Bethlehem, on the border between modern Israel and the West Bank.

Archaeologists believe some sort of palace may have existed there around 700 BC, which may have served as an administrative office, a summer palace, or a palace for women.

In the 5th to 7th centuries AD the site houses a Byzantine church and monastry.

A kibbutz was founded on the site in 1926. – Sapa-dpa

News – Discovery: 2 000 year-old find….

Title: Galileo’s Daughter, A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love
Author: Dava Sobel
Genre:  history,  science
Note: This review originally posted on an old blog of mine on July 31, 2007

This book is no dry read.  Galileo comes alive on the page.  We see him puttering around in his garden.  We see him rely on his daughter for emotional support as Galileo goes through his trial at the Holy Office courtesy of the Inquisition.  Through his daughter’s letters we learn about his favorite foods and his love of wine.  But most importantly, we learn about his close relationship with his eldest daughter Virginia who later took the name Suor Maria Celeste after taking vows at the San Matteo convent.

The 1600’s saw the continuation of the Protestant vs. Catholic conflict/reformation which in Germany gave birth to the Thirty Year’s War, the result of which drew in every major power of time including the Vatican.  We learn how these politics affect a pope whose reaction affects a well respected Tuscan scientist, mathematician and teacher who only seeks to explore the universe and share his discoveries with students, friends, family, and the world at large.

In Galileo’s Daughter, Galileo himself becomes a multi-dimensional person placed in context with his times.  He is fully human–not just a dry cardboard fact in a text book.  He rejoices, suffers, worries, and networks with Italian aristocracy.  He watches over and cares for his children, in particular Suor Maria Celeste who lived a life of cloistered poverty in the convent of San Matteo.  She was Galileo’s confidante who prepared medicines for his various illnesses, who prayed for him during his trial and who rejoiced in his successes and who provided compassion and hope during difficult times.  Father and daughter were each other’s intellectual equal relying on each other for getting through the nitty gritty details of everyday life in 17th century Italy.

May they rest in peace.