Review of Death Note Volumes 2 - 5 by Tsugumi Ohba

After reading Volume 1 of Tsugumi Ohba’s manga Death Note, I was eager to continue reading the story and so far have completed reading volumes 2 through 5 of the twelve volume series (VIZ Media 2003, illustrated by Takeshi Obata, available for $9.99 per volume at https://www.viz.com/read/manga/death-note-vol-1/5360).  At this point, I thought a review was in order.

In addition to being an interesting cat-and-mouse detective story, the first volume presented many fascinating ethical dilemmas (see my review http://stevesofgrass.blogspot.com/2017/04/review-of-death-note-by-tsugumi-ohba.html).  In volumes 2 through 4, the detective games intensify, and I found my allegiance shifting away from the anti-hero Light and toward the now less mysterious but eccentric detective “L.”  The introduction of a “second Kira” in the 4^th volume complicates the plot even further, providing another perspective on what could happen if a human were to be granted god-like powers.

The plot also reveals an unexpected weakness of the Shinigami or death gods.  The gods can be killed!  A series of stars must align for it to be possible.  I will not spoil the read by revealing what those circumstances are here but I will comment that said circumstances are surprising.

The battle of wits between the two Kiras and L is resolved in a most spectacular and satisfying stalemate, opening a new plot line where Kira and Misa voluntarily assist L with the hunt for a “third Kira” who does not share the first two’s motivation for killing.  This third Kira, an executive of a major Japanese corporation, uses his death note for his own personal and his company’s financial gain by killing off executives in rival companies.  The shift of the story to this rather mundane, non-idealistic reason for murder was a bit of a letdown for me, transforming a philosophically and ethically challenging plot into more pedestrian fare.  For that reason, I admit I was a bit disappointed with volume 5 but not disappointed enough to stop reading the series.

Review of Death Note 1 by Tsugumi Ohba

The fascinating, mind-blowing, and thought-provoking plot of Death Note 1 by Tsugumi Ohba (VIZ Media 2003, paperback, 200 pages with black-and-white art by Takeshi Obata) is centered on Light aka Kira, a seventeen-year-old Japanese student who is one of the top high school students in the world.  He finds the Death Note, a notebook of the Shinigami (Japanese gods of death), deliberately left on earth by rogue Shinigami Ryuk. 

The Note comes with instructions explaining how to use it:  write down a person’s name, picture that person in one’s mind, write down that person’s manner and time of death, and the death will happen as written.  If one does not specify the details of the death (I simplify here), the person will die of a heart attack in six minutes.

Kira uses the Note to kill evil people in massive numbers mysteriously and from afar. He reasons correctly that this will provide a strong incentive for criminals to curtail their bad behavior.  As Kira anticipates, a utopian society begins to emerge where the truly evil will all be dead and the potentially evil too scared to act. Kira, the god-like possessor of the Note, is pleased to be secretly in control of this new, peaceful, safe, and law-abiding society.

This had me thinking:  What if I found such a magical item when I was seventeen?  I would like to think that I would do what Kira decided to do, do nothing at all, or destroy the book.  However, to put it mildly, I was not awfully popular in high school.  I know what I probably would have done....

Fortunately for the fictional world of Death Note, an idealistic if Machiavellian teenaged intellectual finds the Note and uses it as a righteous angel might.  The police are simultaneously happy about the drop in crime and appalled by the circumstances.  The lawmen turn to the mysterious world-renowned detective known only as “L” to find and stop Kira.

The world’s greatest detective pitted against one of the world’s smartest teenagers possessed of god-like power--what a match-up!  Mystery lovers such as I will really enjoy the L vs. Kira plot, as it makes for an interesting game of cat and mouse; and it is never clear who is the cat and who the mouse.  Kira is willing to kill L for standing in his way--the only thing stopping him is that he does not know L’s true name or what he looks like.  

L believes he is righteous and that Kira is evil.  Kira believes he, Kira, is righteous and that L, while well intentioned, must be eliminated to ensure the coming of utopia.  As for who is truly righteous and who evil, the reader must decide.  I am not sure.  Death Note 1 is available from Shonen Jump https://www.viz.com/read/manga/death-note-vol-1/5360 for $9.99. 

Review of The Missouri Review, Winter 2016 Edition

The College of Arts & Sciences of the University of Missouri publishes The Missouri Review once a quarter.  The magazine may be purchased for ten dollars an issue, or thirty dollars for a year’s subscription, or a subscription may be obtained by entering one of the magazine’s literary contests (a subscription is included with the contest fee).  The magazine is 200 pages in length and printed on high quality paper in trade paperback format.  The magazine offers mainstream short stories, interviews, essays, art reviews, book reviews, and poetry. 

The theme of the Winter 2016 Edition is “upstarts.”  Editor Speer Morgan provides an interesting and illuminating forward to the issue that explains what an “upstart” is in the context of the various and sundry individual pieces and does a good job of pulling the theme and the disparate literary pieces together. 

In K. C. Fredericks’ short story “The Tongues of Angel”, a Polish priest in 1940s Detroit must deal with an “upstart” African American from Louisiana who--with hat in one hand and baptismal certificate and money in the other--wants to join his all-white Catholic congregation.  In Alix Ohlin’s short story “Money, Geography, Youth”, an eighteen-year-old girl has to come to terms with her father and her “upstart” former best friend who has become her father’s live-in lover.

My favorite essay is Brandon R. Schrand’s “Through the Glass Clearly”.  Here we learn that that ordering a martini in the wrong place--such as a backwoods cowboy roadhouse--can brand you as an “upstart”, as in “who the @#$% do you think you are ordering THAT in HERE?”  The theme aside, the essay is a fascinating account of the history of this iconic cocktail as well as a primer on the various and hotly debated terms that accompany its history and that of its cousins the Gibson (substitute a cocktail onion for the olive or twist), the Charles Dickens (no olive or twist), or the ultra dry Winston Churchill (made by glancing at the vermouth bottle or turning towards France and then filling the glass entirely with Gordon’s gin).  As for me, I am dying to visit one of Kansas City’s upscale watering holes to try the author’s recommendation for the perfect martini:  Gordon’s gin and Noilly Prat vermouth in a four to one ratio, a (lemon) twist, and three drops of orange bitters, vigorously shaken James Bond style (not stirred).  BTW, James insists on putting Vodka as well as gin in his martinis--a real faux pas among true aficionados according to Schrand.

Three lucky and talented poets enjoy their own separate sections in the magazine.  I particularly and surprisingly enjoyed Heather Derr-Smith’s work, poems that deal with “upstart” girl speakers struggling with issues of sex, gender, gender roles, and transitioning from adolescence to adulthood.  Her poems are raw, honest, shocking, violent, tender, and thought provoking--head spinning stuff yet not difficult to identify with and to understand.

The art reviews cover several “outside” or “upstart” artists whose works have only a small following or are on the cusp of being discovered.  These artists are/were untrained and in many cases uneducated, and some are/were even mentally ill.  None of them belongs/belonged to any movement or school of art; all of them have their own individual and unique forms of artistic expression.  I found it inspiring and uplifting that even people from such unfortunate circumstances are/were capable of creating beautiful and starkly original works of art.

Any aspiring writers out there should not overlook the book reviews.  Amy Day Wilkinson reviews several “upstart” books that make “art of the quotidian” with fascinating results.  I have heard of epistolary novels, but had never heard of a novel constructed from homeowners’ association committee meeting notes, nor had I ever heard of a novel made up of letters of recommendation.  With the apparent success of the books reviewed, we may be seeing more like them soon.

Review of The Art of Neil Gaiman by Hayley Campbell

The Art of Neil Gaiman (Harper Design, 2014, hardcover, $39.99) could have many uses. Depending upon whom one is and what one wants to get out of it, owning the book could be a worthy investment in many different ways. 

The volume could certainly be used as a coffee table book in the household of a Gaiman fan or science fiction aficionado.  The illustrations are plentiful and colorful, and there are numerous little side vignettes that make the book ideal for this purpose.  The price is in line with that of other such books, and the eclectic science fiction and superhero art within as well as the dark cover picturing Gaiman without would make for a good conversation piece or starter--say with the Goth girl one had invited over with the hopes of becoming more acquainted.

The book could also be placed on the shelf for use as a reference for hardcore Gaiman fans.  One would have to be a hardcore fan to justify the price as well as the modest space the book would occupy in this capacity.  The book is well indexed and has a useful table of contents and an extensive bibliography.

Fine artists, particularly those who are employed in or enjoy sci-fi/fantasy illustration, painting, drawing, and digital art would find this book quite valuable, both from an ideas standpoint and from a marketing standpoint.  There are no doubt better resources for those topics, but I do believe this is worth mentioning.

Writers, poets, playwrights, and screenwriters would definitely benefit from reading the text in the book, plus or minus looking at the pictures.  Hayley Campbell does a good job of chronicling the life from birth to the present of one of the world’s most successful living authors, and there is much to be learned by learning what worked for him and what did not.  It is probably safe to say that for every successful author such as Gaiman there are thousands of failure wannabes--this book, if carefully read, reveals what made Gaiman a success.  The path and principles Gaiman followed (and continues to follow) made his triumph almost inevitable.  One must read the book in detail to really understand this, but in summary here are what I shall call...

Gaiman’s Rules:

Read.  Gaiman was an avid reader from an early age.  Anything from comics to classics is fair game.  But read.  Read like crazy.

Write.  Take any opportunity possible to write.  One of Gaiman’s first gigs was as a journalist.  Not exactly illustrated novels, but still writing.  Have a good idea for a story?  Write it down, flesh it out a little, then maybe finish it or not, but write it down.  Gaiman sometimes came back to little ideas he had written down years prior and turned them into best-selling novels.

Collaborate.  Gaiman certainly would not have succeeded as he did in illustrated novels, radio plays, and screenplays had he not developed excellent collaborative relationships with many different artists.

Market.  Gaiman is a relentless marketer from attending humble book signings to full out promotional tours.

Write for love not for money.  This may seem to go against the “Write” principle.  Perhaps it does to some degree.  But Gaiman emphasizes that somehow projects accepted just for big money always turn out badly, and even the money somehow never materializes.  This is a lesson that Gaiman admits he has had to learn more than once and a lesson he must guard against having to learn again.

Escape.  Sometimes it is best to drop off the grid for months if need be in order to devote full attention to a project.

Finally, fans of Gaiman such as I who do not just love him but who are kind of in love with him will want to read every little part of this book and study every illustration--with a magnifying glass when necessary (as it often is for some of the text that appears on some of the illustrations).  For within this grimoire lie the secret magicks and thaumaturgy of all that is Gaiman, not to mention a comprehensive list and description of all of Gaiman’s creative work, published, unpublished, and as yet to be published.  Once thoroughly digested, remember the tome still makes for an attractive coffee table book slash useful reference.

Review of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

At my (then) teenaged son’s urging, I put Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (First Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition, 2006, first published by Harper & Brothers, 1932) on my reading list.  He had been required to read it for a high school English class and was deeply moved and disturbed by it.  The book finally rose to the top of my reading queue, and I can see why, as my son is a fine artist (painting and illustration), he felt the way he did about the novel.

As a poet, I share my son’s revulsion at the dystopian world depicted in the novel, but as a scientist and physician I am impressed by Huxley’s prescience.  In the world of the novel, war, disease, famine, poverty, and even the effects of aging and the fear of death have been eradicated by an all-powerful world order ruled by a loyal elite.  Through a disturbingly accurate prediction of the direction of biology, eugenics, and psychology for someone writing in 1932, the inhabitants of Huxley’s world also are devoid of jealousy, romantic love, appreciation of high art and literature, personal ambition, and loneliness.  Taking a psychedelic wonder drug called soma solves any rare breakthrough dysphoria.  There is also no room in this world for God as we understand Him.  His role has been replaced by the reverence of Henry Ford; the cross of Christ replaced by the T (a reference to Ford’s model T).

There are no family ties or obligations in this “brave new world,” as all its human inhabitants are bred in laboratories.  Acceptance of one’s assigned lot in life (there is a strict caste system) is bred into each individual.  This acceptance is hypnotically reinforced, and any residual rebelliousness is quashed by soma.  Happiness (of a sort) is therefore universal, and since “everybody belongs to everybody,” meaningless sex with anyone one desires is easily sought and freely given.

The novel really gets interesting when the bastard son of a high-ranking official is discovered in one of the uncivilized reservations of humanity, who basically live as the American Indians did long ago.  “John Savage,” or simply “The Savage,” an eighteen-year-old who has read all of the works of Shakespeare (one of many forbidden authors), is brought to civilization as an experiment.  He becomes an immediate curiosity and sensation and is given immediate and unwanted celebrity.  He is at once fascinated and filled with revulsion by the civilized world, and his inability to adjust eventually leads to a self-imposed exile.

The edition of Brave New World that I read is fortunate to have a “PS” containing a transcription of a letter from Huxley to George Orwell from 1949, the year 1984 was published.  In it, Huxley predicts that humanity is headed toward something Orwellian in the not-too-distant future, but that such a world will be temporary, a stepping-stone.  Huxley predicts that rule by the threat and application of pain depicted by Orwell will eventually evolve into rule by the elimination of pain.  This “utopia” will come at the terrible price described--a world without passion, poetry, painting, politics, personality, and preference--a cowardly new world.  Ford forbid!