The Illustrated Man

One thing I forgot to mention last night was that, for the first time, I managed to completely finish the daily crossword puzzle in the newspaper. I've done crosswords off and on for the last few years, since Mom got me interested in them one vacation, but I've never completed one before. It's not uncommon for me to not even get half of it. I was rather pleased with myself, and clipped out the crossword to keep on my bulletin board.

In other entertainment news, tonight I finished reading Ray Bradbury's collection The Illustrated Man. Avon released several Bradbury books in hardcover a few years back, and I picked up all of them, having previously only read The Martian Chronicles. Bradbury, after all, is one of the most influential American science fiction writers, perhaps only equalled by Harlan Ellison in his recognition in the mainstream.

The Illustrated Man's stories were written in the late 1940s and early 50s, and have not aged very well. The constant reference to "rockets" seems quaint, but more seriously, the stories themselves feel simplistic and dated. The fatalism ingrained in the plotting of most stories makes them darkly compelling (like a train wreck), and there's something admirable about Bradbury's anticipation of virtual reality in "The Veldt" (in which he invents Star Trek's Holodeck 35 years before Gene Roddenberry did), but mostly the stories feel predictable and not very ingenious. The best stories focus more on the "human condition" than on their science fictional premises, such as "The Other Foot", in which black colonize Mars and then react to the coming of the first white men, or "The Long Rain", which is a story about the triumph and failure of human will when faced with an untenable situation. But these stories are rare, and lack the vibrancy of, say, Alfred Bester's novels.

I think what put me off these stories the most is that Bradbury always keeps us at arm's length from his characters. We see them, we're given a sense of their desires and thoughts, but we don't really get to know them, or to particularly care about them. They're mostly ciphers. It's eerie.

So, I was disappointed. I have several other Bradburys to read, and in particular I feel I ought to read Fahrenheit 451. So, we'll see.

I've also drilled through the recent issues of Scientific American as well as stack of saved-up comic books I've been collecting, in particular Power Man and Iron Fist #48-64 and Doctor Strange vol 2, #1-16. Both were entertaining, though neither were as strong as I'd hoped, and save for a few issues of the former (mainly the ones drawn by John Byrne) I don't plan to keep any of them. The big disappointment was that I'd expected Frank Brunner's artwork in the Doctor Stranges to be more lavish. (I suspect he was an artist ahead of his time and that his art would be more appreciated today, especially with the higher printing standards.)

I must admit I've been running out of gas for comic collecting recently. However, I've been buying the things for nearly 26 years, and I do go through phases of enthusiasm, and my enthusiasm was at a high two years ago, so unsurprisingly it's fallen off somewhat. I think essentially I've got other things I want to focus on right now, and I'll get back to the comic books in good time...

By the way, I wrote a post at Comic Book Resources about the comics industry which I'm rather pleased with. The comparison of the comics industry of today with the used book industry seems very apropos, and is something that hadn't occurred to me before.

I realize this probably doesn't sound like the most exciting life in the world right now, but I'm actually fairly content. I'm keeping up with my hobbies, I'm socializing with my friends regularly, I'm playing with the cats... it's actually been a nice beginning to the year.

I still haven't gotten off my butt to get pre-approved for a mortgage, though. The branch of my credit union on campus is closing at the end of February, which is a bummer, so I ought to take advantage of their convenience and investigate their loan rates while they're there. Although after doing all my Christmas bills my finances are actually in slightly better shape than I'd thought, which makes me feel a little more confident that I could find something.

I just have to do it!

What is it with humans that makes us so fascinated with awards like the Diarist Awards, or the Emmies or the Oscars or the Grammies or whatever?

I've essentially ignored all the journalling awards since their inception, except for the fact that winners whose journals I read usually mention them, as do aspiring or hopeful nominees (otherwise I'd probably be complete ignorant of these awards). I'm not sure how I'd feel if I won such an award. Validated? By whom? Isn't the fact that my readers read me validation enough?

Back in my APAhacking days, one of my APAs had annual awards called "Egoboo Awards" (for "ego boost", natch). I rarely won any of these (except sometimes "best artist" just by default), and when I did it didn't make me feel much prouder of what I'd done. Getting comments during the year from other APAns was more rewarding, because it viscerally showed that they'd read what I'd written and found something to comment on. Moreover, the egoboos were sometimes used to play political games when people weren't getting along (sometimes called "egobash awards"). So it was at best a mixed thing. Only one of my APAs ever had awards, and as I aged from 19 to 25 I found they had less and less relevance, and didn't even seem "cool" anymore. It made that particular APA feel vaguely less meaningful than the other, award-less, APAs I was in.

I suppose this could be considered sour grapes, since I've never won a journalling award and don't expect I ever will. Still, I don't quite get it, just as I don't quite get why people bother to watch the Oscars (other than to see who's wearing the most hideous dress). If I must have concrete, public validation, I'd rather work on getting my hit count up (not that I spend real time doing that either...)

Still, I've never exactly played in the same "sandbox" as the journalling "community". It is kind of interesting to watch the community from outside, though.

Forum: What do you think about awards?