Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?

Does the world need a superman? This is the question both pondered and answered in the graphic novel and film, The Watchmen. I loved it! The story follows a parallel reality/history with our actual US history. The advent of a superhuman weapon in 1959 enables the US to win Vietnam and suppress the flower/power movement. What ensues is that by 1985 mankind is ready to rip itself apart. It's the US vs. the world (which isn't entirely fiction). You still have the issues of gangs, violence, and moral turpitude. Remnants of masked costume heroes attempt to stop the relentless tick of the doomsday clock while discovering that the very thing they set out to protect doesn't need protecting. Utopia is impossible and mankind needs a common enemy - else it will fight itself. Protecting mankind only succeeded in sustaining a different set of evils - that Americans were not responsible for their actions, and the result of their non consequential existence had made them even more morally deprived and decadent. The answer to the superman question is most decidedly "no."

Lady Susan - AKA, Austen with Attitude

I would like to state that film makers should consider making "Lady Susan" into a film. I've just recently begun this much overlooked work of Austen, and I have to say 'I LIKE IT.' Forget the endless barrage of random dogoodedness that prevails in most Austen works. There is no lace or frill here, but rather a morally ambiguous character. Lady Susan is anything but... She's controlling, conniving, and a bit on the horny side for most proper society. She's had flings with younger men, placed her daughter in a boarding schools so as not to be bothered by her, and generally causes familial conflict everywhere she goes. Captivator of men, bane of women, and the scourage of society. This is not the daffodil and roses Jane Austen you may be used to.

The Return of the Native

I'm in the midst of 19th century heath and happenstance amongst the counties of Wessex. I've been listening to Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native. Incredible read. While I often enjoy period pieces, I will also be the first to admit that some books known as classics are only named such because they were one of few titles released at the time. Many are verbose, tedious and downright dull. The Return of the Native is none of those things. It is simply amazing, and a startling reminder that dates, fashions and living conditions may change, but humanity never will.

TRotN offers a menagerie of characters you can identify with. They don't seem so far removed from reality - as to many of the Austenian figures. I have concluded that Thomas Hardy does for the rural landscape what Charles Dickens did for London. You have individuals in various circumstances that don't always receive a happily ever after. These are representatives of various degrees of society and they certainly aren't saints. Rather you are treated to the ambiguity that is the human condition.

Thus far, and bear in mind that I am still reading, so I don't wish for spoilers, I have found the character of Eustacia to be one of the most realistic female characters I have come across. She is not entirely honorable - rather she is both selfish and self-serving. But to this point, her motivations are not from a malevolent source. It is because she is a dreamer and refuses to be content with her current situation. So many of her attributes have struck a cord with me - and perhaps this says something about my own character. I only know this at current: I cannot make myself dislike the character.

What amazes me is that this work was written by a man. Too often, when men write, they represent women as the tend to percieve them or as they wish them to be. This causes female characters to often come across as either vapid or as vamps. Completely witless or completely bitchy. Whatever his perceptions, he has struck a realistic balance in the character of his (i'm assuming protagonist) [Eustacia].

I will follow up this sentiment as i continue in the story to see if my adiration is maintained.