Six books closer to the end of all things.
First, kaboom.
Then, ew.
Then, tzzzzzt.
Then, huh.
Then, hmm.
Then, yawn
.
091) After the Blast by Zoe Kazan, finished August 30
My search for the perfect dystopia play continues, this time with a play that is not only excellent but makes sense for the classroom. (play the first)
Little things make a difference when translating a play into the classroom. For instance, this one has scenes. Excellent. I really like the text to have clear places to pause. That's helpful.
This one deals with a lot of issues today's kids care about (eg, the environment, tech invading our minds, etc) without much preaching. And I think it will spur positive disagreement in the classroom, which is always good.
I have to apply for the relevant grant this weekend, so if I don't make it through the other two plays by then (it'll be tight), we have a winner.
(Read the first few pages here.)
one day
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092) The Nether by Jennifer Haley, finished August 31
This play took a while to really start working but boy does it work. But no way am I picking it. It deals with the intersection of pedophilia and onlineness and it's just not something teenagers are capable of dealing with. And even if they were, I wouldn't ask them to.
The play is literature so it's not making a case, but I think the likely takeaway of a simple read is that we should let pedophiles do anything they want virtually so real children stay safe. I've heard worse arguments, but I don't need that becoming dinner-table conversation. That will do none of us favors.
The play does cool things with chronology and dives into this icky stuff in ways I've never seen before. The production notes make a casting suggestion for a chilling reason.
Anyway, three down, one to go.
I can't find sample pages, but surprisingly the entire thing is on IA.
forty-five minutes into a second day
093) Mr Burns, a post-electric play by Anne Washburn, finished August 31
This one is more postapocalyptic than dystopian, but that's just one reason it's out. The crosstalk and naturalistic dialogue would be hard to pull off in class.
The story takes place shortly after the apocalypse as characters sit around a campfire trying to remember an episode of The Simpsons and ends a couple generations later as that episode is reperformed, having evolved into something like a passion play.
Conceptually, very cool. And I can see this working well on stage. But on the page? With people lacking experience in reading plays? Nah. Bad choice.
Again, no sample pages but yes the whole darn thing.
one day
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094) The Voynich Manuscript ed. by Raymond Clemens, finished September 4
After reading a recent article in The Atlantic about the famous manuscript, I followed its advice and found a copy of this book. It's weird to say I "read" this book when most of the pages are a reproduction of a book NO ONE can read, but I turned all the pages and then I read all the scholarly essays that made up its final signatures.
The manuscript itself? Very cool
The essays? Interesting.
The mystery? Barely touched upon.
I'm not sure I ever want it solved. It's good for uncertainty to remain in this world. We moderns are a little to confident in our own knowing, don't you think?
almost three weeks
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095) Brass Sun by Ian Edgington and I. N. J. Culbard, finished September 5
I read the first lil comic book in this series and liked it so much I had to find this collection. Unfortunately, the strength of the work peter out as time goes on. Up top, we're introduced to a fascinating world with a fascinating (and fittingly metaphorical) problem: this solar system is actual literal clockwork—and it's winding down. And unless our hero can figure out how to wind it back up, it will come to a stop. Life is already freezing to death, planet by planet, and their sun cools down.
The set up for adventure puts a young woman in charge of saving everything for reasons that are far from logical but exciting enough it's easy not to notice until much much later when the book starts collapsing under the weight of it's own worldbuilding, when long sections are just people giving exposition forcing us to admit how dang cool the worldbuilding is and how much effort the writer put into doing it. Story falls by the wayside.
A similar thing happens with the art. The backgrounds and robots and monsters are cool. But the main characters can be difficult to tell apart in some angles.
Anyway, it's very cool, but I doubt we'll be talking about it in twenty years.
a couple weeks
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096) Termush by Sven Holm, finished September 7
This is a postapocalyptic Danish novel that juuuust breaks a hundred pages and barely has enough to fill them. It's more of a long short story than even a novella, really. I was considering it for the dystopian-novel list I use in AP Lit but there aren't sufficient dystopian elements and what's there? Hard to tell what's going on. It's a very slight book. Students would be flummoxed by it, I suspect.
about a week