Theodore > Recent Status Updates

oh yeah baby

Made some headway into “The Country of Pointed Firs,” and I’ve been enjoying it. Very rustic. I particularly enjoyed the episode with the sea captain in the schoolhouse

Just wrapping up “The Yellow Wallpaper” this morning, utter classic. Such an effective psychological horror story, a protagonist who evokes absolute pathos from the reader. Included at the end is a note from Gilman, who writes that in her own lifetime the story saved at least one woman directly and many indirectly with its depiction of mental decline. Pretty inspiring!

The first story included, “Life in the Iron-Mills” by Rebecca Harding Davis, was really something special to read. Very sympathetic for the laboring class and it seems like it was a pioneering story for workers rights and realism. From 1861! Pretty good. “The Yellow Wallpaper” next!

i fucking hate reading this

Read a few more stories this morning. “He” being a standout, very arresting in its realism and the emotional burst at the end really got me. Porter was a gifted writer who creates very realistic (often tragically so) characters

Just read the first story for now, before I catch a bus for work. Porter is a good writer, I bought this volume out of pennance for not reading “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” in college. I’ve had this on my shelf now probably coming up on six years. Glad to finally be reading it!

That’s John Byrne’s “Man of Steel” relaunch finished! Overall I think it’s a good six-issue mini and sets the new status quo for Superman moving forward well. While I dislike some changes and disagree with Byrne’s interpretation of some of the narrative concepts of Superman broadly, I enjoy his writing and art enough to say it’s a “good” mini. By itself I give a 3.5/5, we’ll see for the rest!

“Heart of Darkness” finished, great novella. By itself it sits at a four. Complex and well-written, held back a little by the sentiments of its time but in other ways pretty forward thinking

My aim in starting this book has been completed but I’ll read “The Secret Sharer” too and see how it is

Read the introduction of this and slept on it for a week. Just finished up part one. Learning that my thinking of this book was very obtuse in high school. Didn’t see or try to see what Conrad was doing here. Liking it a lot now

Powerful, iconic, Miller’s pencils play perfectly with Janssen’s inks. Lynn Varley’s colors pop out to me on the second read. Muted tones, blacks and whites, until… BOOM! The blue of Batman… the yellow of the signal… the red of blood and Mutant-gang visors… great stuff