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From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain
Starred Review. Masquerading as a self-help book for superheroes, this sharp satire of caped crusaders hides a deeper critique of individual treatment versus social injustice. Faust (The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad) provides funny and knowing caricatures of the famous figures of American comic books via an extended therapy session by Dr. Eva Brain-Silverman. Analyzing their various mental hangups, Dr. Brain attempts to help heroes like irascible billionaire crime-fighter Festus Piltdown III ("Flying Squirrel") overcome the rejection of his foster ward, Tran Chi Hanh ("Chip Monk"). But African-American hero Philip Kareem Edgerton ("X-Man") resists, insisting that recent events in "sunny Los Ditkos" are signs of a coup within F*O*O*J ("Fantastic Order of Justice") and not RNPN ("Racialized Narcissistic Projection Neurosis"). Faust's well-aimed jabs spare no super sacred cows nor many pop idols and pychobabbling media stars. Underneath the humor, careful readers will find uncomfortable parallels to real-world urban tragedies in the novel's "July 16 Attacks," where Faust gives a double meaning to the "Crisis of Infinite Dearths." (Jan. 30)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
416 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 30, 2007
12 people are currently reading
395 people want to read
About the author
Minister Faust
22 books68 followersMinister Faust is a long-time community activist, writer, journalist, broadcaster, public speaker and martial artist in several disciplines.
Minister Faust refers to his sub-genre of writing as Imhotep-Hop--an Africentric literature that draws from myriad ancient African civilizations, explores present realities, and imagines a future in which people struggle not only for justice, but for the stars.
He lives in Edmonton with his wife and daughters, where he also runs Canada's top bean pie bakery, Desserts of Kush.
Minister Faust refers to his sub-genre of writing as Imhotep-Hop--an Africentric literature that draws from myriad ancient African civilizations, explores present realities, and imagines a future in which people struggle not only for justice, but for the stars.
He lives in Edmonton with his wife and daughters, where he also runs Canada's top bean pie bakery, Desserts of Kush.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
November 20, 2009
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegal.)
I've mentioned this before, but for those who missed it and still don't know, the 1980s and '90s saw within science-fiction the development of what's now known as the "Dark Age;" informed equally by punk and postmodernism, it was a time of brooding introspection in the genre, when such traditional stereotypes as superheroes were psychologically examined to determine both the reason for their existence in the first place and in which ways these stereotypes could be cracked in our contemporary times. And sometimes this resulted in serious projects, such as Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, one of the seminal titles of this period that helped inspire the term "Dark Age" to begin with; but what has lasted much longer is the compulsion to create comedic material out of such fodder, from classic movies like The Specials and Mystery Men to Austin Grossman's recent and delightful Soon I Will Be Invincible. And now we have yet another example, absurdist author Minister Faust's From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain, which essentially covers the same ground as all the rest -- bored, petulant super-neurotics turn on each other once all super-crime has been vanquished, thus necessitating New Age psychiatric help lest they go too crazy and lose their lucrative commercial endorsements -- albeit to his credit, Faust inventively ties his particular look at this milieu metaphorically to the fate of the US after the end of the Cold War, giving us a confused and increasingly spoiled group of superfriends in the face of a complete lack of supervillains in their egotistical, entitled, all-powerful lives.
But there's a problem with this book, a big problem, which is that once Faust makes his metaphorical point, he has almost nothing else of originality to say; and so how he fills the rest of the novel is by having his utterly banal one-note characters endlessly spout tiresome dialogue reinforcing the one note of their personalities (a Britney Spears superhero who always talks in Valley-speak, a black superhero who always talks like Superfly, &c.), along with an infinite amount of petty arguments within the group therapy sessions constantly being forced on them by their superiors throughout the book. It's essentially 25 pages' worth of story surrounded by 375 pages of corny punchlines (and for ample proof of this, see the unbelievable 165 chapter and subchapter titles [yes, I counted:], every single one of which consists of a bad pun involving superheroism); or if you prefer, it's Alan Moore's Watchmen as rewritten by a playground full of 12-year-olds. Dr. Brain unfortunately misses its satirical mark by a wide margin, and it's my recommendation today that you skip it altogether.
Out of 10: 5.8
I've mentioned this before, but for those who missed it and still don't know, the 1980s and '90s saw within science-fiction the development of what's now known as the "Dark Age;" informed equally by punk and postmodernism, it was a time of brooding introspection in the genre, when such traditional stereotypes as superheroes were psychologically examined to determine both the reason for their existence in the first place and in which ways these stereotypes could be cracked in our contemporary times. And sometimes this resulted in serious projects, such as Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, one of the seminal titles of this period that helped inspire the term "Dark Age" to begin with; but what has lasted much longer is the compulsion to create comedic material out of such fodder, from classic movies like The Specials and Mystery Men to Austin Grossman's recent and delightful Soon I Will Be Invincible. And now we have yet another example, absurdist author Minister Faust's From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain, which essentially covers the same ground as all the rest -- bored, petulant super-neurotics turn on each other once all super-crime has been vanquished, thus necessitating New Age psychiatric help lest they go too crazy and lose their lucrative commercial endorsements -- albeit to his credit, Faust inventively ties his particular look at this milieu metaphorically to the fate of the US after the end of the Cold War, giving us a confused and increasingly spoiled group of superfriends in the face of a complete lack of supervillains in their egotistical, entitled, all-powerful lives.
But there's a problem with this book, a big problem, which is that once Faust makes his metaphorical point, he has almost nothing else of originality to say; and so how he fills the rest of the novel is by having his utterly banal one-note characters endlessly spout tiresome dialogue reinforcing the one note of their personalities (a Britney Spears superhero who always talks in Valley-speak, a black superhero who always talks like Superfly, &c.), along with an infinite amount of petty arguments within the group therapy sessions constantly being forced on them by their superiors throughout the book. It's essentially 25 pages' worth of story surrounded by 375 pages of corny punchlines (and for ample proof of this, see the unbelievable 165 chapter and subchapter titles [yes, I counted:], every single one of which consists of a bad pun involving superheroism); or if you prefer, it's Alan Moore's Watchmen as rewritten by a playground full of 12-year-olds. Dr. Brain unfortunately misses its satirical mark by a wide margin, and it's my recommendation today that you skip it altogether.
Out of 10: 5.8
June 27, 2008
My essential ethos with book recommending has been to let bad book fall into the obscurity they so richly deserve--any kind of attention a terrible book gets fans that spark of interest in it... and there are so many good books out there deserving of attention and praise.
So, I hardly (I think never) rate a book 1 star. I just leave it off the radar-you won't know I even read it.
But in the case of this book I have to make an exception.
Having read the delightful "Soon I will be Invincible" by Austin Grossman, I was disturbed by how poorly written this book was.
The tone was hackneyed and uneven; little episodic bursts meant, I guess, to emulate the "In the Meantime" of comic book narrative.
Like Grossman's novel there are allusions to existing superhero characters (Brotherfly = Spiderman, The Flying Squirrel = Batman)and teams, cute creator names-as-locations (Los Diktos), but what derails this book is a sense of agenda--I don't know if Faust means this as an homage to comic book culture or a bitch-slap wake-up call; there's an almost Scientologist-like glee in messing with the processes of psychoanalysis; a weak, ham-fisted attempt at addressing the racist mis-steps of Comic Books of yore. Ultimately ideas are retread again and again into flatness, ludicrousness.
The spur of my writing this was it's mind-boggling runner-up status for this Year Philip K. Dick Award. This book shouldn't have been on a short list, let alone a long one. I feel that Faust's editor should've sat him down and helped him trim the manuscript, tighten the narrative, and brush off that chip on his should before finalizing the book.
So, I hardly (I think never) rate a book 1 star. I just leave it off the radar-you won't know I even read it.
But in the case of this book I have to make an exception.
Having read the delightful "Soon I will be Invincible" by Austin Grossman, I was disturbed by how poorly written this book was.
The tone was hackneyed and uneven; little episodic bursts meant, I guess, to emulate the "In the Meantime" of comic book narrative.
Like Grossman's novel there are allusions to existing superhero characters (Brotherfly = Spiderman, The Flying Squirrel = Batman)and teams, cute creator names-as-locations (Los Diktos), but what derails this book is a sense of agenda--I don't know if Faust means this as an homage to comic book culture or a bitch-slap wake-up call; there's an almost Scientologist-like glee in messing with the processes of psychoanalysis; a weak, ham-fisted attempt at addressing the racist mis-steps of Comic Books of yore. Ultimately ideas are retread again and again into flatness, ludicrousness.
The spur of my writing this was it's mind-boggling runner-up status for this Year Philip K. Dick Award. This book shouldn't have been on a short list, let alone a long one. I feel that Faust's editor should've sat him down and helped him trim the manuscript, tighten the narrative, and brush off that chip on his should before finalizing the book.
July 28, 2020
I really wanted to like this book, but I struggled throughout with the style of the plotting/story. I also struggled with figuring out who was who because every character had two distinct names, often used in the same paragraph. I guess my review is that I eventually read it all the way through ... I highly recommend reading this author's first novel instead: Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad, which I adored.
November 3, 2015
This book reliably gets compared to "Soon I Will Be Invincible", which I feel is kinda inappropriate. Grossman's novel was an homage. It wasn't there to do anything new, and do nothing new is exactly what it did: it was silly, made jokes we already knew, made the punches we've seen in comics we've read put out by publishers who are still recycling those same ideas over and over in an industry that is terrified of doing anything different so they just get people who are very talented technically (Grossman's writing itself is certainly delightful) to do the same stuff. This is not a book that meets those needs, so it's not surprising that for people who hear it compared to that book they loved because it is just like those stories they loved only the same jokes are even funnier this time tend to find this book anywhere from disappointing to infuriating.
Unlike Grossman's book, it uses the idea of exploring superhero psychology as a jumping-off point for ideas, not zingy one-liners. Faust's writing isn't as fluid and fast as Coyote Kings, erring instead on the side of precision as he constructs a demonstration of how social privilege and invisibility and perception function, with a finger right on the comics industry (no wonder the people who love their comics world just as it is were unhappy). It's the kind of thing that is so often wanted in a two-sentence bite and that desperately needs a couple hundred pages at the bare minimum; here's that bare minimum and it's no bare minimum at all.
Unlike Grossman's book, it uses the idea of exploring superhero psychology as a jumping-off point for ideas, not zingy one-liners. Faust's writing isn't as fluid and fast as Coyote Kings, erring instead on the side of precision as he constructs a demonstration of how social privilege and invisibility and perception function, with a finger right on the comics industry (no wonder the people who love their comics world just as it is were unhappy). It's the kind of thing that is so often wanted in a two-sentence bite and that desperately needs a couple hundred pages at the bare minimum; here's that bare minimum and it's no bare minimum at all.
August 21, 2009
Sorry to say this did absolutely nothing for me; in fact, the language and self-indulgent style turned me off within the first dozen pages -- and I'm usually a superhero nut. Glad I borrowed this from the library instead of buying it.
May 11, 2014
This story begins on the premise that Comic Book Superheros are real, and have influenced recent world history in not so very pleasant ways. This idea is hardly new, and has had several recent writers explore the idea in other novels and graphic novels- most notably Alan Moore’s now infamous graphic novel “The Watchmen”.
This novel offers a new twist on the idea however. The Heroes in question are members of the Fantastic Order of Justice (or F*O*O*J*) and they have only recently defeated every supervillain in the world in a global war dubbed ‘the Gotterdammerung’; and imprisoned these Supervillians in an orbiting prison asteroid- Asteroid Zed. So all their troubles should be over, right? Wrong. Because without Supervillains to fight- what do Superheroes do?
In this case, the mightiest members of F*O*O*J* begin a mental meltdown of bickering and quarreling amongst themselves so badly they could constitute a threat to Earth itself. The situation has deteriorated so badly that the Fantastic Order of Justice Leadership Adminstrative Council (or the F*L*A*C) consisting of retired F*O*O*J members; has ordered the current active F*O*O*J* superhero team to seek psychological counciling or be kicked out of the organization all together. And thus our story really begins.
There is only one psychologist in the world who has devoted her work to treating the neuroses and mental quirks of superheroes; and that is Dr. Eva Brain-Silverman, who for over twenty years has treated 1000s of super powered individuals at her Hyper-Potentiality Clinic in sunny downtown Los Ditkos. For all her efforts, and published works, (including the now infamous Superhero self help book UnMasked: When Being a Superhero can’t Save Yourself ), she has become known to the world as simply Dr. Brain. And analyzing and bringing the F*O*O*J* team back to glowing mental health looks like the biggest challenge of her career.
The current F*O*O*J members are the planet’s mightiest Superheroes: including Omnipotent Man- a strange alien hero from the planet Argon with powers and abilities far beyond normal men- able to fly, is bullet proof
and is damned near indestructible; the Flying Squirrel – a dark night avenger conducting a one man war on crime, using a utility belt full of gadgets and a legendary crime fighting headquarters known as “the Squirrel Tree”; Iron Lass - a Norse Goddess and Valkyrie in her own right- who can at will become iron and her hands deadly swords. These are the big three who originated in the Golden Age of Superheroes during World War Two. They have been icons to adulating millions of people for over eighty years; and they are completely at odds with the newer heroes of the Digital Age.
These Digital Age heros of the F*O*O*J* (who have only been around ten years or less) are: the BrotherFly-
a hip talking black hero from the inner city ghetto of Stun Glass who has been gentically spliced half man half fruitfly; Power Grrrl – she uses a hypnotic singing voice, hidden speakers in her costume located in her bust and hips and a ray that turns villains into temporary clones of herself ; both to fight crime and promote a singing career; and lastly there is X-Man.
He is Kareem Edgarton, a black Africentric supremist and former member of the L*A*B* (League of Angry Black Men) who dresses in a simple black suit and a tie; with the power he calls ‘Logogenics’ or the ability to form solid objects out of words. They can take any form - from tiny word swarms to even a 1955 Ford Fairlane.
X-man wants to uses his abilities to sway the up coming election for leader of the F*L*A*C* and change the direction of the Superheros from fighting Supervillians to fighting social injustice.
But his chief rival in the election is the Flying Squirrel- who is also billionaire industrialist Festus Piltdown. As an aging white racist and owner of a mega-corporation with ties in everything from the arms trade, to genetic experimentation, to the fast food industry (Squirrel Burger is a huge national chain); Piltdown is everything X-man hates and strives against. The greatest schism in the F*O*O*J is their bitter racial rivalry.
The plot really begins to thicken however, when in the middle of a very dysfunctional group therapy session the startling news comes that Hawk King has died. Hawk King was the world’s ultimate hero- an immortal and mysterious Egyptian deity who recruited all the original F*O*O*J* members and its younger members. He is looked up to by everyone; and no one can understand how he died.
X-Man becomes convinced that Hawk King was somehow murdered and he and the Flying Squirrel begin alternate and rival investigations into how this murder could have happened. The only explanation seems to be that F*O*O*J* didn’t get all the Supervillians in the war- or that One Villain has escaped and is picking off the remaining heroes one by one…
Besides the intriguing mystery story that book then becomes, are Dr. Brain’s continued therapy sessions to all the F*O*O*J*sters and she empties every skeleton in their closets. The author has loaded each hero with a fascinating back story of mental traumas including drug abuse, dysfunctional family origins and sexual neuroses; which Dr. Brain packages through out the book as a hilarious series of self help questions and revelations. For example, Dr. Brain’s self help analogies are twisted and quirky similes about the mental turmoil of the characters; such comparing superheroes to hero sandwiches .
Despite the serious tone and action in the book; there is a tongue in cheek look at the superhero and comic book genre that is very refreshing. Just a simple list of Villains locked up in Asteroid Zed is extremely comedic
including such criminals as “The Infinity Farmer and his Time Tractor”, “Robot-Stalin”, “ and “the Iron Eunuch.” The author also invents similar humorous heroes for the F*O*O*J* and the L*A*B* membership.
Overall, the author Minister Faust, has cleverly crafted an amusing and complex story that reveals his deep knowledge of and love of Comic Book Superhero genre. The story never takes itself too seriously and has a very surprising ending. His book will appeal to anyone who lives comics. I hope he continues writing more books of this nature; and I would love to see him write a sequel or a prequel detailing the further adventures of Kareem Edgarton AKA X-Man- who is clearly the most unique superhero that I have recently come across.
This novel offers a new twist on the idea however. The Heroes in question are members of the Fantastic Order of Justice (or F*O*O*J*) and they have only recently defeated every supervillain in the world in a global war dubbed ‘the Gotterdammerung’; and imprisoned these Supervillians in an orbiting prison asteroid- Asteroid Zed. So all their troubles should be over, right? Wrong. Because without Supervillains to fight- what do Superheroes do?
In this case, the mightiest members of F*O*O*J* begin a mental meltdown of bickering and quarreling amongst themselves so badly they could constitute a threat to Earth itself. The situation has deteriorated so badly that the Fantastic Order of Justice Leadership Adminstrative Council (or the F*L*A*C) consisting of retired F*O*O*J members; has ordered the current active F*O*O*J* superhero team to seek psychological counciling or be kicked out of the organization all together. And thus our story really begins.
There is only one psychologist in the world who has devoted her work to treating the neuroses and mental quirks of superheroes; and that is Dr. Eva Brain-Silverman, who for over twenty years has treated 1000s of super powered individuals at her Hyper-Potentiality Clinic in sunny downtown Los Ditkos. For all her efforts, and published works, (including the now infamous Superhero self help book UnMasked: When Being a Superhero can’t Save Yourself ), she has become known to the world as simply Dr. Brain. And analyzing and bringing the F*O*O*J* team back to glowing mental health looks like the biggest challenge of her career.
The current F*O*O*J members are the planet’s mightiest Superheroes: including Omnipotent Man- a strange alien hero from the planet Argon with powers and abilities far beyond normal men- able to fly, is bullet proof
and is damned near indestructible; the Flying Squirrel – a dark night avenger conducting a one man war on crime, using a utility belt full of gadgets and a legendary crime fighting headquarters known as “the Squirrel Tree”; Iron Lass - a Norse Goddess and Valkyrie in her own right- who can at will become iron and her hands deadly swords. These are the big three who originated in the Golden Age of Superheroes during World War Two. They have been icons to adulating millions of people for over eighty years; and they are completely at odds with the newer heroes of the Digital Age.
These Digital Age heros of the F*O*O*J* (who have only been around ten years or less) are: the BrotherFly-
a hip talking black hero from the inner city ghetto of Stun Glass who has been gentically spliced half man half fruitfly; Power Grrrl – she uses a hypnotic singing voice, hidden speakers in her costume located in her bust and hips and a ray that turns villains into temporary clones of herself ; both to fight crime and promote a singing career; and lastly there is X-Man.
He is Kareem Edgarton, a black Africentric supremist and former member of the L*A*B* (League of Angry Black Men) who dresses in a simple black suit and a tie; with the power he calls ‘Logogenics’ or the ability to form solid objects out of words. They can take any form - from tiny word swarms to even a 1955 Ford Fairlane.
X-man wants to uses his abilities to sway the up coming election for leader of the F*L*A*C* and change the direction of the Superheros from fighting Supervillians to fighting social injustice.
But his chief rival in the election is the Flying Squirrel- who is also billionaire industrialist Festus Piltdown. As an aging white racist and owner of a mega-corporation with ties in everything from the arms trade, to genetic experimentation, to the fast food industry (Squirrel Burger is a huge national chain); Piltdown is everything X-man hates and strives against. The greatest schism in the F*O*O*J is their bitter racial rivalry.
The plot really begins to thicken however, when in the middle of a very dysfunctional group therapy session the startling news comes that Hawk King has died. Hawk King was the world’s ultimate hero- an immortal and mysterious Egyptian deity who recruited all the original F*O*O*J* members and its younger members. He is looked up to by everyone; and no one can understand how he died.
X-Man becomes convinced that Hawk King was somehow murdered and he and the Flying Squirrel begin alternate and rival investigations into how this murder could have happened. The only explanation seems to be that F*O*O*J* didn’t get all the Supervillians in the war- or that One Villain has escaped and is picking off the remaining heroes one by one…
Besides the intriguing mystery story that book then becomes, are Dr. Brain’s continued therapy sessions to all the F*O*O*J*sters and she empties every skeleton in their closets. The author has loaded each hero with a fascinating back story of mental traumas including drug abuse, dysfunctional family origins and sexual neuroses; which Dr. Brain packages through out the book as a hilarious series of self help questions and revelations. For example, Dr. Brain’s self help analogies are twisted and quirky similes about the mental turmoil of the characters; such comparing superheroes to hero sandwiches .
Despite the serious tone and action in the book; there is a tongue in cheek look at the superhero and comic book genre that is very refreshing. Just a simple list of Villains locked up in Asteroid Zed is extremely comedic
including such criminals as “The Infinity Farmer and his Time Tractor”, “Robot-Stalin”, “ and “the Iron Eunuch.” The author also invents similar humorous heroes for the F*O*O*J* and the L*A*B* membership.
Overall, the author Minister Faust, has cleverly crafted an amusing and complex story that reveals his deep knowledge of and love of Comic Book Superhero genre. The story never takes itself too seriously and has a very surprising ending. His book will appeal to anyone who lives comics. I hope he continues writing more books of this nature; and I would love to see him write a sequel or a prequel detailing the further adventures of Kareem Edgarton AKA X-Man- who is clearly the most unique superhero that I have recently come across.
September 17, 2008
I learned that it's possible to do a worse job than Mark Millar in deconstructing the heroic genre.
In fact, I disliked this book so much, I'm tempted to ruin the ending by giving away the BIG surprise, but nah, I'll spoiler it.
Spoiler:
After basically making mock of the entire genre and all associated with it, it then lets the bad guy win. It lets him completely and utterly destroy the good guy down to disgracing his name and legacy forever. Seriously, I wanted to find the author and punch him after finishing the book.
In fact, I disliked this book so much, I'm tempted to ruin the ending by giving away the BIG surprise, but nah, I'll spoiler it.
Spoiler:
After basically making mock of the entire genre and all associated with it, it then lets the bad guy win. It lets him completely and utterly destroy the good guy down to disgracing his name and legacy forever. Seriously, I wanted to find the author and punch him after finishing the book.
December 14, 2023
This is a novel about superheroes going to group therapy. It's also about 9/11. It's also about endless wartime and the military-industrial complex. It's also about race in America. It's also about privilege and the way the misery of institutional injustice is pathologized. It also contains so many superhero name puns that I suffered mild-to-moderate psychic damage. You should read it.
February 14, 2007
Ok, maybe not actual conspiracy theorists, but if you've ever been accused of being one, you'll enjoy this novel. Never has a book kept me so totally in the dark about how it was going to end, yet still managed to have a proper, satisfying (well, frustrating, but REAL) conclusion.
April 23, 2013
Fun characters and good post-modern super-hero action, offset by terrible, terrible psycho-babble and an unsatisfyingly unreliable narrative. Overall, still good, but could have been a lot better.
August 12, 2019
I read this after reading The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad by Minister Faust, which I really enjoyed. I was really looking forward to this, since I was going through a bit of a super-hero novel thing. It had it's moments, but in the end, it was a little disappointing. Good, not great. And not nearly as original as The Coyote Kings.
June 5, 2023
Het vraagt wat inspanning om in het verhaal te komen. Er zijn onmiddellijk zoveel verschillende personages en de hulp boek stijl met een hoop pseudo psychobabbel leest niet makkelijk. maar langzaamaan begin je toch een verhaallijn te ontdekken. En er zijn de vele naamgrapjes. Toch nog wel de moeite om te lezen.
November 13, 2017
Just couldn't seem to get into the writing style of this book. I love superheroes so this would seem like a natural book for me but it just wouldn't click with me. The writing seemed to forced and campy. Not recommended
January 20, 2019
You probably have to be a superhero fan to enjoy this one. I enjoyed the superhero angst very much.
August 2, 2022
A blatant rip off of most DC and Marvel comic superheroes wrapped around an inane story of betrayal and racism!
November 15, 2009
I finished reading From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain by Minister Faust on Shabbat evening, and it was good. This is thoroughly odd book: the premise is that this is a self-help book which has been written by the therapist of a group of superheroes whose internal neuroses are tearing them up - the supervillains have all been defeated in the so-called Götterdämmerung battle, you see, and the organization (analogous to the Avengers or Justice League) is not-quite purposeless at this time.
There is a plot to the therapy - Dr. Brain follows the heroes through a whodunnit and uncovers all kinds of hidden relationships and contradictory explanations as the mystery unfolds. The heroes and heroines are familiar without being directly ripped off from mainstream comics (although the origin of the BrothaFly owes more than it should to Peter Parker). The narrative is entirely from Dr. Brain's perspective, and is laced with all sorts of analysis-psychobabble which would be familiar to anyone who has endured mediocre therapy sessions, and this psychobabble is sufficiently realistic to be a turn-off for the book. Between that and the characters complete unlikability when they are introduced, there were a few points about 1/3 of the way in where I wasn't sure whether I would keep reading.
However, I'm glad I did.
X-man* is an obnoxious Black Nationalist who sees conspiracies behind every action, and projects his anger onto his relationships with the other heroes and is very much the caricature of the racial demagogue in his dealings and statements. He announces a hidden racial legacy of the now deceased Hawk King, and sees every other event which befalls the heroes as being a part of this larger conspiracy. He attempts to use this esoteric legacy as evidence that he should become the new chairman of operations, and in so doing paints himself as a paranoid schemer who is using all those around him to fulfill his own personal ambitions.
Think Rorshach, except Faust did a better job than Moore did of showing how unpleasant someone that paranoid is to be around.
Much of the action tracks X-man's descent into paranoid ravings and projection fantasies, and he provides the impetus for the group's adventures and is the most interesting of the subjects of Dr. Brain's analysis.
The plot narrative sets up two contradictory explanations for Hawk King's death - Dr. Brain clearly comes to the conclusion that X-man was manufacturing all of his paranoid explanations, and this is the track on which the book runs to conclusion. However, I believe that we were given a few glimpses near the end of X-man's life about how in fact his analysis was actually true. Is it still paranoia if they really are out to get you?
Imagine if the story of Adrian Veidt were to be told after the events in Watchmen - it might read a little bit like this...
The book has one of the best-plotted stories underlying it that I've read in a long time, and the the relationship dynamic between Iron Lass and Power Grrrrl is a wonderful subplot. As a bonus, it provides the best explanation for Kryptonite that I've ever seen (certainly since John Byrne's Man of Steel series, and I think that Faust's is actually more clever).
I recommend this for anyone who enjoys superhero comics.
* it took me a minute to figure out X-man's gimmick: X like Malcolm, not like Cyclops...
There is a plot to the therapy - Dr. Brain follows the heroes through a whodunnit and uncovers all kinds of hidden relationships and contradictory explanations as the mystery unfolds. The heroes and heroines are familiar without being directly ripped off from mainstream comics (although the origin of the BrothaFly owes more than it should to Peter Parker). The narrative is entirely from Dr. Brain's perspective, and is laced with all sorts of analysis-psychobabble which would be familiar to anyone who has endured mediocre therapy sessions, and this psychobabble is sufficiently realistic to be a turn-off for the book. Between that and the characters complete unlikability when they are introduced, there were a few points about 1/3 of the way in where I wasn't sure whether I would keep reading.
However, I'm glad I did.
X-man* is an obnoxious Black Nationalist who sees conspiracies behind every action, and projects his anger onto his relationships with the other heroes and is very much the caricature of the racial demagogue in his dealings and statements. He announces a hidden racial legacy of the now deceased Hawk King, and sees every other event which befalls the heroes as being a part of this larger conspiracy. He attempts to use this esoteric legacy as evidence that he should become the new chairman of operations, and in so doing paints himself as a paranoid schemer who is using all those around him to fulfill his own personal ambitions.
Think Rorshach, except Faust did a better job than Moore did of showing how unpleasant someone that paranoid is to be around.
Much of the action tracks X-man's descent into paranoid ravings and projection fantasies, and he provides the impetus for the group's adventures and is the most interesting of the subjects of Dr. Brain's analysis.
The plot narrative sets up two contradictory explanations for Hawk King's death - Dr. Brain clearly comes to the conclusion that X-man was manufacturing all of his paranoid explanations, and this is the track on which the book runs to conclusion. However, I believe that we were given a few glimpses near the end of X-man's life about how in fact his analysis was actually true. Is it still paranoia if they really are out to get you?
Imagine if the story of Adrian Veidt were to be told after the events in Watchmen - it might read a little bit like this...
The book has one of the best-plotted stories underlying it that I've read in a long time, and the the relationship dynamic between Iron Lass and Power Grrrrl is a wonderful subplot. As a bonus, it provides the best explanation for Kryptonite that I've ever seen (certainly since John Byrne's Man of Steel series, and I think that Faust's is actually more clever).
I recommend this for anyone who enjoys superhero comics.
* it took me a minute to figure out X-man's gimmick: X like Malcolm, not like Cyclops...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 28, 2012
From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain packs a superhero-sized punch. Artfully combining a comic self-help book geared towards hyper-sapiens seems like a great idea that would be entertaining standing on its own, but what makes this book such a joy to read is author Minister Faust's fantastic prose. Perhaps you will be taken a bit aback by the over-the-top language and unique character dialects, as I initially was, but I would urge the reader to stick with it, and you will be pleasantly rewarded with things like this: Inheriting a lugubriously legendary legacy impossible to leap above, but no longer possessing a substantial-enough organizing objective (or “mythic narrative”), the F*O*O*J's workplace dysfunction soon became a matter of public record (24) and a stunning departure from the factionalizing and the fractious fracas factory of the previous day (33).
The story deals with an especially dysfunctional group among the Fantastic Order of Justice, including billionaire industrialist The Flying Squirrel, hard as steel, yet dumb as rocks Omnipotent Man, Norse-she-warrior Iron Lass, the racially motivated X-Man, bisexual pop sensation Power Grrrl, and the walking and talking stereotype of The Brotherfly. All of the characters are riffs of better known superheros like Batman, Wonder Woman, Spiderman, but the ways that the characters interact in this narrative is definitely not juvenile. The story deals with sensitive topics like racism, sexism, and the struggles between rich and poor as well as young and old.
The main struggle is actualized in the fight between The Flying Squirrel and X-Man for control of the F*O*O*J. Although The Flying Squirrel is painted as an elitist and a racist – with outbursts like “Can you believe the nerve of that nattering negro nimrod?” said Mr. Piltdown to no one and everyone. “He's exploiting the death of our leader to advance his own political career! He's a goddamned polyp inside the colon of propriety!” (126). Of course X-Man, a homophobe, and a sort of jacked-up caricature of Malcom X, is hardly the model of sensibility, as he leads a maniacal investigation against the others in his investigation to find out who is responsible for the death of F*O*O*J founder Hawk King.
All the while our heroes are psychoanalyzed by narrator Dr. Brain, therapist to the super-powered, who often breaks from the narrative to give the reader juicy bits of wisdom, such as Trauma always reactivates the entire unexamined repository of unprocessed misery in the psychemotional cache, much in the way that the flatulence of a diseased colon is particularly fetid given the abundance of undigested organic material in its crevices. Our narrator does help most of the heroes become self-actualized hyper-humans, but for a few the ending is tragic. In the end this book shows what happens when one becomes totally consumed by their convictions, and loses sight of group-cohesion rather than personal pride.
Read it!
There are too many great excerpts from this novel, but I think that my favorite is just a real short line. Silence sandpapered a minute off the clock (229). Very good.
The story deals with an especially dysfunctional group among the Fantastic Order of Justice, including billionaire industrialist The Flying Squirrel, hard as steel, yet dumb as rocks Omnipotent Man, Norse-she-warrior Iron Lass, the racially motivated X-Man, bisexual pop sensation Power Grrrl, and the walking and talking stereotype of The Brotherfly. All of the characters are riffs of better known superheros like Batman, Wonder Woman, Spiderman, but the ways that the characters interact in this narrative is definitely not juvenile. The story deals with sensitive topics like racism, sexism, and the struggles between rich and poor as well as young and old.
The main struggle is actualized in the fight between The Flying Squirrel and X-Man for control of the F*O*O*J. Although The Flying Squirrel is painted as an elitist and a racist – with outbursts like “Can you believe the nerve of that nattering negro nimrod?” said Mr. Piltdown to no one and everyone. “He's exploiting the death of our leader to advance his own political career! He's a goddamned polyp inside the colon of propriety!” (126). Of course X-Man, a homophobe, and a sort of jacked-up caricature of Malcom X, is hardly the model of sensibility, as he leads a maniacal investigation against the others in his investigation to find out who is responsible for the death of F*O*O*J founder Hawk King.
All the while our heroes are psychoanalyzed by narrator Dr. Brain, therapist to the super-powered, who often breaks from the narrative to give the reader juicy bits of wisdom, such as Trauma always reactivates the entire unexamined repository of unprocessed misery in the psychemotional cache, much in the way that the flatulence of a diseased colon is particularly fetid given the abundance of undigested organic material in its crevices. Our narrator does help most of the heroes become self-actualized hyper-humans, but for a few the ending is tragic. In the end this book shows what happens when one becomes totally consumed by their convictions, and loses sight of group-cohesion rather than personal pride.
Read it!
There are too many great excerpts from this novel, but I think that my favorite is just a real short line. Silence sandpapered a minute off the clock (229). Very good.
April 23, 2008
I approached this book with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. On one hand, the idea of superheroes undergoing therapy is interesting, and great for comedic potential, but in the wrong hands, it could be a terrible foray into stereotypes and too-broad humour.[return]Thankfully, the author managed to avoid all of that, creating a book that is simultaneously a critique and love letter to comic book heroes, while at the same time lampooning self-help books as well, and providing some contemporary political commentary. Taking the format of the notes of a therapist to post-humans, Faust tells the story of heroes in therapy, dealing with their own convoluted back stories and family histories, while at the same time asking the question of what happens to someone after they've won all of their battles and faced all their demons.[return]The characters are all a lot more fleshed-out than I would have expected for something like this, and the plot fairly engaging as well (although there are a couple of bits where the internal logic of the story is a little held up by the therapy-notes format of the book). Overall, though, a good book if you're a fan of superheroes, and are willing to laugh along with another fan of the genre.
July 7, 2013
An interesting attempt at doing something different in the super hero novel genre, this book rapidly became a mess of deconstructed caricatures. It did tackle the issues of race and a privileged narrator interpreting everything via her own references, but it didn't trouble to make any of it particularly believable. Reading most of the characters' dialogue was actively annoying as the author seemed heavily reliant on vocal tics to distinguish the characters (one valley girl, one swedish accent, one "fly" black voice ... the two voices that weren't significant work to read still managed to, respectively, make every other sentence a racially-tinged diatribe from a black perspective and make every other sentence a racially-tinged diatribe from a white perspective).
At the end, I didn't care how it was resolved, just that it was resolved; it was an overly broad cartoonish attempt to convey a message but which completely failed as the novel. (I see other reviews suggest it might have worked better as a significantly shorter novel ; that alone would have helped but the offputting dialogue would have remained).
At the end, I didn't care how it was resolved, just that it was resolved; it was an overly broad cartoonish attempt to convey a message but which completely failed as the novel. (I see other reviews suggest it might have worked better as a significantly shorter novel ; that alone would have helped but the offputting dialogue would have remained).
July 30, 2011
The Notebooks of Dr. Brain chronicles the therapy sessions of the superhero team, F*O*O*J - The Fantastic Order of Justice. While the book is hilarious, it digs deep into topics that many writers have trouble finessing.
Meet The Flying Squirrel, Omnipotent Man, Iron Lass, X-Man, Brotherfly, and Power Grrrl, as they tackle racism, sexism, relationships, all while Dr. Eva Brain helps them work through their issues with each other, superheroing, and the world around them.
Minister Faust is an amazing wordsmith. The book is written as a pseudo-psychological self-help book by Dr. Brain: Unmasked! When Being a Superhero Can't Save You From Yourself. I feel that calling this book a satire would limit it - it's so much more. Faust's writing is riveting - not so much because you get lost in the story, but because you get lost in the writing itself. He weaves words together in an amazing fashion leaving a completely absorbing tapestry that the viewer must stare at in awe.
I highly recommend this to anyone who's into superheroes, who's dabbled in psychology, or just loves good writing.
Meet The Flying Squirrel, Omnipotent Man, Iron Lass, X-Man, Brotherfly, and Power Grrrl, as they tackle racism, sexism, relationships, all while Dr. Eva Brain helps them work through their issues with each other, superheroing, and the world around them.
Minister Faust is an amazing wordsmith. The book is written as a pseudo-psychological self-help book by Dr. Brain: Unmasked! When Being a Superhero Can't Save You From Yourself. I feel that calling this book a satire would limit it - it's so much more. Faust's writing is riveting - not so much because you get lost in the story, but because you get lost in the writing itself. He weaves words together in an amazing fashion leaving a completely absorbing tapestry that the viewer must stare at in awe.
I highly recommend this to anyone who's into superheroes, who's dabbled in psychology, or just loves good writing.
February 12, 2011
I loved Coyote Kings. I pretty much hated this book. At over halfway through, there was no discernable plot, and no character I cared about at all...it was more "if one of these characters survives, will I be OK with that? If so, which one?"
I think partially my dislike is because Faust wrote it from the perspective of the most annoying character. Which is saying a lot. Maybe she's only the most annoying because the reader's forced to be in her head, and forced to spend every moment with her; maybe if another character was the narrator, that character would get my award for most annoying.
Partially my dislike is that the conceit is a little too...hm. I thought the premise sounded awesome. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and where Faust expertly mixed culture references to taste in Coyote Kings, here he seems to just dump them in until no perceptible flavor remains.
I think partially my dislike is because Faust wrote it from the perspective of the most annoying character. Which is saying a lot. Maybe she's only the most annoying because the reader's forced to be in her head, and forced to spend every moment with her; maybe if another character was the narrator, that character would get my award for most annoying.
Partially my dislike is that the conceit is a little too...hm. I thought the premise sounded awesome. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and where Faust expertly mixed culture references to taste in Coyote Kings, here he seems to just dump them in until no perceptible flavor remains.
May 3, 2011
A clear departure from Minister Faust's first novel, "Dr. Brain" demonstrates an incredible range from the author. The novel is at once a hilarious satire of superheroics and psychology, and a complex, multi-layered analysis of the forces at work in our own world.
The novel reads like a self-help book for superheroes, which allows its fictional and eponymous author to deconstruct the superhero mythos in a way barely hinted at in Moore's Watchmen. At the same time, Faust infuses these failed, flawed superheroes with deep, complex psyches, thus making them work as caricatures, but yet possessing depth and complexity rarely matched in the genre.
"From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain" is a pleasing, funny, thought-provoking story, with character who have more depth than you'd think. Riddled with funny superhero culture references, it is nevertheless a well-constructed fable, a story as complex as real life but much larger than it.
The novel reads like a self-help book for superheroes, which allows its fictional and eponymous author to deconstruct the superhero mythos in a way barely hinted at in Moore's Watchmen. At the same time, Faust infuses these failed, flawed superheroes with deep, complex psyches, thus making them work as caricatures, but yet possessing depth and complexity rarely matched in the genre.
"From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain" is a pleasing, funny, thought-provoking story, with character who have more depth than you'd think. Riddled with funny superhero culture references, it is nevertheless a well-constructed fable, a story as complex as real life but much larger than it.
August 9, 2014
I really enjoy reading superhero fiction, and I'm not above some fast and fun, light-hearted renditions alongside the more dark and realist ones - but 'From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain' is too flippant and (dare I say it) too derivative.
It deliberately sets up to satirize pop-psychology/self-help books, and it does that in a fairly humorous way. But the psycho-babble and obvious stand-ins for classic superheroes (DC's The Big Three, for example) makes this more of a fan thing - something that is written to be deliberately funny for the simple sake of just being funny.
If you like that kind of thing this could be for you.
I thought it was just a bit of a waste of reading time.
On the plus side, for what it's worth, I did like the character of X-Man. But ... that's not really enough to sustain what is essentially a one-joke book.
It deliberately sets up to satirize pop-psychology/self-help books, and it does that in a fairly humorous way. But the psycho-babble and obvious stand-ins for classic superheroes (DC's The Big Three, for example) makes this more of a fan thing - something that is written to be deliberately funny for the simple sake of just being funny.
If you like that kind of thing this could be for you.
I thought it was just a bit of a waste of reading time.
On the plus side, for what it's worth, I did like the character of X-Man. But ... that's not really enough to sustain what is essentially a one-joke book.
August 18, 2015
Dr. Brain's notebooks starts off a bit slow. I was interested, learning all the characters, but then the learning keeps going; and going.
There's a plot twist involving a death, and from that point on the story really picks up. The last 100 pages are really strong and hard to put the book down from that point on.
Minister Faust hits all the comic book soap opera mile markers without becoming cliche or tiresome. He does this while juggling such themes as racism, classism, bigotry, and xenophobia.
He had me guessing through the novel as to what was actually going on. I had several different hypothesis, each one vying for the vanguard position, jockeying around with each new clue and plot development.
I also enjoyed some of his parallel superheroes, twisted parodies of heroes currently in print.
An excellent read for anyone, and a must read for all comic book fans!
There's a plot twist involving a death, and from that point on the story really picks up. The last 100 pages are really strong and hard to put the book down from that point on.
Minister Faust hits all the comic book soap opera mile markers without becoming cliche or tiresome. He does this while juggling such themes as racism, classism, bigotry, and xenophobia.
He had me guessing through the novel as to what was actually going on. I had several different hypothesis, each one vying for the vanguard position, jockeying around with each new clue and plot development.
I also enjoyed some of his parallel superheroes, twisted parodies of heroes currently in print.
An excellent read for anyone, and a must read for all comic book fans!
February 23, 2013
This is the book every kid from Cleveland wanted to write but didn't. The central concept is interesting, but Minister Faust doesn't stop with simply that interesting idea. He develops an interesting story that will keep readers reading while he gives them some interesting and off-the-wall ideas about psychology and the sociology of pop culture. His one attempt at political commentary is either a call to freedom or merely a clever interpretation of current events, depending on what you think he's actually saying, but that still stood up as at least acceptable. Worth reading, especially if you grew up reading Marvel, DC or Harlan Elison.
October 29, 2008
Fausts' sophomore novel, to the Cayote Kings. Here Minister Faust makes commentary on the socioeconomic, cultural, political and racial issues of todays society by using classic super hero archetypes. Characters everyone would recognize from both DC and Marvel comics, but with considerably more issues. And while he pokes fun of and creates decidedly more flawed versions of these characters, at the same time he pays homage to all comics and great hero's. A good read, though the divisiveness and hatefullness of the characters at times is hard to slog through.
January 24, 2009
A superhero novel written in the style of a self-help book for caped crusaders...I know, but trust me, it works. If you're even marginally familiar with superheroes, you won't have to stretch your imagination too far to recognize who the fictional heroes are based on (especially the big three). But the book is far more than a parody, the characters are all flawed with various degrees of narcissism, racism, sexism, and just about every other "ism" you can come up with -- but it's not played for laughs (and the ending is actually quite dark).
September 21, 2013
This is... not bad. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, and it wasn't quite as good as I hoped it would be, but it was still utterly worth reading. I was a bit thrown off by the fact that it turned out to be more of a parody than a satire - the main characters are clearly each mocking specific comic book characters. And that's a shame; the unique characters are so much more interesting and creative than the parodies. But the ending went in an unexpected direction, and made it worth pushing through the whole story. So yeah; I'll seek out his other book....
March 28, 2013
It was OK, the ending felt really forced. Of the books I've read in this genre (Confessions of a D-List Supervillain, Soon I Will Be Invincible) this was definitely the weakest.
July 14, 2014
Picked this up on a whim in a clearance sale. Turns out it's actually pretty darn good! Framed partially as a self-help book for superheroes, told by eminent super-shrink Dr. Brain, this features a great cast of characters, a surprisingly deep discussion of the politics of heroism, a huge amount of agonising and inspired puns, comic book homages (right down to awesome and always-appropriate alliteration!) and surprises that kept me guessing til the end. Great fun!
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