Lucas Blogs About Books

Hey! Check out these assholes with their well-known books and easily recognized writing styles! You're joking! Usually. . . Wait, what am I joking about? You expect us to just sit here and listen as you wax rhapsodic about being transported by an author's prose? Of course not, Hypothetical Reader. I just wanted to talk about prose style because I often find that it can be a major component of or stumbling block to enjoying a writer's work. But isn't this a little close to the previous Load-Bearing Elements ? The one on narrative voice . I'll grant you that there are similarities, but it's what I felt like writing about when I sat down to write this. Besides, a writer with just about any style can still use just about any narrative voice. Before we jump into any examples, how about you describe my prose style on this blog. You're sure you want this? Yes. Would you mind terribly? Okay, you asked for it. I did. Okay, so you definitely pr...

Huh, five ads from five actors' parents? What are the odds? So, what's this book's deal? Well, actually, Hypothetical Reader, this isn't a book, it's just the program from a high school play! Oh, so that's a big, fat — That's fair. Maybe this is more of an Oddaptations : Slightly trimmed! Some people like to complain about the inevitable changes that occur when a story is adapted from one medium to another. But let's be honest, sometimes, the less faithful an adaptation is, the more memorable it is. So, in this series I'll be taking a look at adaptations where creators took one look at the source material and said, "FUCK THAT NOISE!" to see how that turned out. Today's Oddaptation: The Canterbury Tales ( Tales of Caunterbury ) (1387-1400ish) by Geoffrey Chaucer into The Canterbury Tales (2002) by Lindsay Price, dir. Stacy Castiglione (performed October 18-20, 2018) So how did the tale of pilgrims swapping ...

Squirrels in SPAAAAAACE!!!!!! So, what's this book's de—oh, fer cryin' out loud—another comic book? I know, right? Whatcha gonna do? I guess there's no accounting for taste, let's get this over with. So, the deal with The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 8 — My Best Friend's Squirrel  is that it collects Erica Henderson's final story-arcs as the artist on The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl . For some people, this may be a good thing, but I'm going to miss her cartoon-y style with its (I know it's a cliche for my comics reviews by now, but) expressive and dynamic faces and poses. The good news is that she's still been doing the cover art for subsequent issues. What a relief. Well, you're lucky that I'm discussing something I like, Hypothetical Reader, because I'm not going to let your snappish attitude ruin my good mood. Anyway, this volume finds Nancy Whitehead and Tippy-toe, the best human and squirrel friends of Doreen Green ...

Okay, so like I get why they put the dapper pig on the Beauty and the Beast cover, but why is the Porco Rosso  cover so brooding? And why don't they show the fucking plane? It's like Disney didn't even want people to buy this movie. Some people like to complain about the inevitable changes that occur when a story is adapted from one medium to another. But let's be honest, sometimes, the less faithful an adaptation is, the more memorable it is. So, in this series I'll be taking a look at adaptations where creators took one look at the source material and said, "FUCK THAT NOISE!" to see how that turned out. Today's Oddaptation: The Story of the Beauty and the Beast (1740) by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, translated by James Robinson Planché, adapted (?) by Rachel Louise Lawrence into Porco Rosso (1992) ( 紅の豚 Kurenai no Buta ( Crimson Pig )) dir. Hayao Miyazaki Or, why everything is better with airplanes. The Original: So, there's...

Pictured: Examples to be discussed below. Narrative Voice, eh? Yeah, Narrative Voice. Why? Is that not a good topic? Well, it's a little broad isn't it? And I'm not sure it's something that can "bear the load" of a work of fiction, so to speak. Well, maybe not on its own, but to belabor the metaphor, the individual support beams don't hold up the entire weight of a building either. Hmm. You may continue. All right, so let's begin by distinguishing point-of-view from Narrative Voice. Umm, aren't they the same thing? Kinda. They're related. Point-of-view is a component of Narrative Voice. While point-of-view determines just who is telling the story, Narrative Voice is more about how they tell it. An obvious example is Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . Huck Finn narrates the story in his own words and in his own dialect. This is different from the presentation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer  which has a third-per...

WITNESS ME! My feverish pursuit of MOAR content brought forth this feature: Simplified Series. Here's the pitch: quick synopses (I'll try and keep them spoiler-free, but, you know, most of these are past the statute of limitations on spoilers) of the entries in a series followed by the reasons you should or shouldn't read it. This week: The Wastelanders Duology by K.S. Merbeth Background Info: Not a lot really, K.S. Merbeth published her debut novel, Bite  in 2016, and followed it up with Raid  a year later. They're a couple of fun (depending on your definition of the term) sci-fi novels set in a Mad Max-ian post apocalyptic wastleland. Only the twist is, instead of seeing this world through the eyes of a heroic figure who tries to bring order or rebuild society, we're seeing it through the eyes of people who are thriving off of the chaos, bloodshed, and cannibalism of the new world disorder. So yeah, if you've ever seen movies like  The Road Warrior , ...

Depicted: a scene which does not appear in the book. So, what's this book's deal? Well, Hope Never Dies  by Andrew Shaffer is a detective novel pastiche in which former Vice President Joe Biden investigates the death of his friend, an Amtrak conductor on the Acela Express, with a little help from another old friend, that's right, former President Barack Obama. We begin with ol' Uncle Joe in what he calls "a black Irish mood," stewing over a video of Obama parasailing in South Africa, believing that the 44th president would rather hobnob with celebs than play a round of golf with his dorky former VP. Who should turn up in his backyard but Barack himself, and he's got some bad news: Amtrak conductor Finn Donnelly was hit by a train with a baggie of heroin in his pocket and a map to Joe Biden's house at his desk. From there Biden and Obama undertake an ill-advised investigation into Donnelly's death,  while rekindling the bromance which has bee...

Oops! Whaddayamean, "oops?" I forgot to prepare content for today. So no Simplified Series or Oddaptations ? Sorry to let you down. It's just my birthday was this week and I was traveling to visit family and even though I try to keep up a buffer of finished content, I find myself with nothing to post today, so it looks like I'll have to deploy the inOpportune cOntent rePlacement proceSs. Or OOPS for short. That may well be the most ill-conceived acronym ever constructed. So what exactly is your process for inopportune content replacement? I'mma blog about my other interests. So, on a blog entitled "Lucas Blogs About Books" your plan for shoring up gaps in coverage is to blog about things besides books?  Yup! So, today we'll have a brief discussion about bicycles! Bicycles? Bicycles!  So, I don't own a car. My primary means of transportation are bicycle, bus, and rides from friends and family. One sticks ou...

Pictured: a selection of metafictional texts. Whoa! You can't just jump into the deep end like that! What'd'ya mean "the deep end?" Metafiction as a concept is neither new nor esoteric. Well, no, but the name is crazy pretentious. As is any word that begins with "meta-." What about "metamorphosis?" Fine! Any jargon from any humanities discipline that uses the "meta-" prefix is crazy pretentious. Just call it a "conceit" or a "framing device." No, we're sticking with "metafiction." So let's jump in, shall we? If you insist. What's the deal with metafiction? Well, while the term  "metafiction" may have arisen from Post-Modernism ( Wikipedia says it did, anyway ), the idea predates the term by centuries. As you pointed out, any work of fiction with a framing narrative is  metafiction. Let's look at a few examples. Yes, let's . So, let's start with Mary...