3 Books

I've always been a voracious reader. Admittedly the internet has curbed this somewhat. Whereas I used to read an average of 3 books per month, now I'm lucky if I read 3 books per year. But I am always reading SOMETHING. Whether it be a political blog, a movie review, a graphic novel, or the few magazines to which I am a dedicated monthly subscriber. Reading has always been 1 of my biggest passions. Someone asked me recently what was the 1 book that affected me the most deeply. I couldn't really narrow it down to 1 when they asked me, and I'm not going to do that in this blog either. Instead I decided to talk about 3 books in particular that helped to shape me into the person that I am today. They will not be the "best" books I've ever read, simply a few of the titles that affected me. First up is a strange choice which will probably have you scratching your head in confusion, but let me explain...

When I was 13 my Nana took me and my brother to the Garden State Plaza Mall. This was looooong before the hip remodel it got in the 90's. It was still a fabulous slice of 80's awesomeness with a Woolworth's with an old fashioned lunch counter where you could get a grilled cheese sandwich and a milkshake for probably $3. On this particular day, my Nana allowed my brother and I to spend a small amount on whatever we wanted. Normally I would buy some comics from the comic shop or an action figure from Toys R Us. But recently I had gotten much more into reading, so I always wanted to hang out in the book store. I'd also begun writing a few years earlier, so the two went hand in hand. Every cool book I read was inspiration for my next story. I'd also begun watching General Hospital with my Mom and actually found it to be pretty exciting. These were the days when daytime soaps had the craziest batshit storylines. Nothing like the garden variety, but no less fascinating, melodrama of today. Luke and Laura fell in love while they stopped the evil Cassidine from taking over the world with his freeze machine (General Hospital). Clint bumped his head and went back in time to the Old West version of Llanview (One Life to Live). I mean, this shit was loopy. I only watched General Hospital, but I saw this book called Soap World in the store and became fascinated with the fact that sooo much had happened on the show before I started watching but most of the characters still on it were related to the original people. I still find that fascinating today. I've long since stopped watching General Hospital, but now I watch a Clif Notes version of Days of Our Lives to follow the coolest gay couple in daytime, Will and Sonny. And Days, in particular, is a show that all started with 1 family, the Hortons. And the Hortons are still 1 of the main focuses. I like that. I like the sense of history and nostalgia already built in. And this book detailed every soap that was on the air in 1983, which was a hell of a lot more than what is remaining today. It told detailed plotlines from start to present. Who had an abortion, who killed who's husband, who had an affair when they should have been minding the baby. It was pretty awesome, actually. But the capper was when I was looking through the General Hospital section I saw a pic of a very young Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker himself from when he did a stint on the show that I hadn't even known about. I decided to get it there and then. As I think back on it now, I cherish the fact that my Nana didn't even think twice about me reading the book. There was no "Oh thats not fit for someone your age" or "That's not a book boys want to read". She was happy I was reading and happy it concerned 1 of her favorite shows. I can't say the same for my friends. Sometime later when they found out I was an avid watcher of soaps (after eventually adding Dallas and Dynasty to the mix), they invented a fake disease which they said I had contracted that caused me to watch feminine shows. They called it "TremuaSHAWitis" which sounds stupid and should have been laughed off with a "Fuck you" but I remember it hurting at the time. Of course these were the same "best friends" who would later ask me to not talk or hang with them in school anymore now that they had joined the track team, though it was ok for me  to talk with them on the phone. But I digress. The book was fun and frothy, and I perused it all summer and later that year, began writing my own soap, THE INTRIGUE ADVENTURERS! Yea it was pretty cheesy...

I couldn't draw for shit. Every character looked the same except for their hair (though I at least knew enough to scribble on Michael Jackson's face so that he appeared to be of a darker complexion). Luckily my works of art only adorned the cover. Note also I copied the comics code authority seal and also patented my own logo: A STEVEN SHAW EPIC! They were fun times. I had kidnappings, affairs, murders, plots to take over the city of San Francisco, and much, much more.

Yes, I'm counting a comic as a book. It certainly meant as much to me at the time. I'd been reading comics for a while by then. This wouldn't be the comic that got me started. That distinction would fall on The New Teen Titans #1. I loved team books (still do) and that 1 was drawn by 1 of my favorite comic artists ever, George Perez. Plus the heroes were pretty close to me in age so it was easy to get caught up in their problems. But Avengers was, is, and always will be my favorite title. There were all the heavy hitters of Marvel in one spot: Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, The Scarlet Witch, Vision, Hawkeye. And the team was always changing so you always had new characters to grow to love. Plus they weren't averse to featuring soap opera elements in their stories, which I loved. Ms. Marvel was still a fairly new character at this point and a new addition to the team who'd been doubting herself ever since she joined. In this story, the 200th issue of the original run which started back in 1963 (the same year as Doctor Who, the Kennedy assassination, and the death of Marilyn Monroe), Carol Danvers suddenly becomes pregnant. Within a matter of days, she gives birth to a child which grows into a startlingly handsome space entity who I assume wants to rule the world (its been decades since I have read it) and a fierce battle ensues. If I remember correctly (talking about it now I see I'm going to have to buy a copy because its making me want to read it again), by the end of the story the entity falls in love with Ms. Marvel (technically his "mother") and whisks her away to an uncertain future. Ms. Marvel as a character would go on to have an amazing history getting amnesia, losing her powers, gaining new ones, joining and leaving several teams, until once again she was a powerhouse in the Marvel canon. The Avengers was being drawn at this time by another of my favorite comic artists of all time, John Byrne. But oddly enough, if I'm correct, George Perez was brought on to draw the anniversary issue. And it looked amazing. Perez has a way of filling every minute space of page with something intricate and fabulous to look at. He is a genius. And I was hooked. My interest in comics has waxed and waned over the years (its so goddamn expensive now to follow anything faithfully), but it all started as a passion with this issue. And it will never go away, thankfully.

I notice nobody ever puts It near the top when they list Stephen King's best work. Everybody loves the other heavy hitters: The Stand, The Shining, Carrie. Those are all awesome. But this was the one that did it for me. I was always into horror from the time my Dad woke me up in the middle of the night when I was 7 to watch The Thing From Another World on tv. Remember, this was looong before videos and 24 hour movie channels. Plus this was also the first massive book I chose to read on my own. It was over a 1000 pages. It was a fucking doorstop. But people had told me good things. I started to read the story of a group of people who were raised in Derry, Maine and who had all gone through something extraordinary there when they were children. If you haven't read the book before, without giving too much away, it concerns an evil being called Pennywise who appears to people usually as a clown, just before murdering them horribly. It is the story of what happens when Pennywise returns after a long absence and the children, now grown, who once vanquished him have to return to Derry and face their fears so that they can defeat him once and for all. Its packed with scary stuff, a heavy sense of nostalgia (which in case you haven't guessed already I absolutely love), and disturbing scenes. Luckily I do not suffer from coulrophobia or I might not have been able to finish it. It is an amazing book. Thinking back now, this was a time when queer novels were not easily obtained from the book store, let alone the library which were almost always rainbow free. And pre-Amazon or Ebay, you were out of luck if you couldn't travel to a big city to check out a gay bookstore. And I remember very clearly It having several queer themed passages in it. In retrospect, they're probably not very flattering. Pennywise's first victim upon returning is a man coming from a night out in a gay bar, and if I recall he is being gay bashed at the time. And the other scene involves two of the bullies who torment our heroes as children. When they are alone in the woods together reading dirty magazines, the older bully begins to masturbate his friend. The reaction is immediate and I'm sure (though I can't remember verbatim) "faggot" is thrown around quite insultingly, after which the older boy is killed by Pennywise. Its startling to me as I think about it now that a subliminal message from this (probably not the intended one) is that gay sex equals death. Luckily at the time I didn't see it that way. All I could think was "Holy shit the dude just started jerking off his friend that's hot!" I was always puerile, I guess. But beyond that, It is still an excellent read. Maybe one day soon I will pick it up again.

Why People Aren't Watching Agent Carter

I'm always leery when some Hollywood suit wants to make a television show, generally costing far far less, out of a multi-million dollar movie. For every M*A*S*H there is a Fast Times. Remember that show, a sitcom based on Fast Times at Ridgemont High? No? Know why? Because it was dreadful. It came out four years after the movie, could feature none of the bawdy content seen in the film (especially Phoebe Cates' boobs, not that I was lookin at em but certainly a ton of my straight classmates were), and involved absolutely no one from the movie in the creative process. Sure, it had Vincent Schiavelli and Ray Walston, but no Spicoli, no Damone, no Kashmir, no anything worth your time to tune in. Accordingly, it lasted all of seven episodes which is more than some get, but as a tribute to the excellent film it was based on it reeks of utter failure. Action and superhero movies are ALWAYS tough regarding this particular issue. The reason Captain America looks so good tranforming from 90 pound weakling into shield-baring bruiser on the big screen is because they have millions of dollars of CGI at their disposal to aid in the process. A prime time show usually has a big budget, but nothing close to what this would require. So what we're usually left with, unless they have extremely talented writers and creators at their disposal and some awesome world building skills, feels half-baked at best. At worst, God awful. I would term Marvel's Agents of Shield the latter. I tuned into the pilot fully expecting them to fail. And they did, as far as I'm concerned. Big time. They had world building, for sure. Marvel is very into world building since a ton of their characters and concepts are sold out to other studios so they are always desperate to create new things they can capitalize on in their own sandbox. I'm not knocking the MCU. In fact, I'm simply amazed by what Marvel has managed to do with their films. Some of my favorite comics and characters from my childhood have been brought to life with glorious results. The films vary in quality, this is true, but over-all you're never wanting for thrills, fun, or excitement. Agents of Shield had none of this. I fault the showrunners. And to be fair, it might have gotten better as the series went along, but I am an extremely stern critic for television shows. If you don't give me something to hook me the first time I watch, its almost certain that I won't give you a second chance. There are just too many quality shows waiting to be watched out there to spend 3 or 4 hours building up slight concern about why Agent Coulson is still alive. Which brings me to Agent Carter. The idea for this show started as a Marvel One Shot, one of the mini-films released on dvd with bigger titles. I was hooked immediately. I loved Hayley Atwell in Captain America anyway, but the writers took the topic of what it might be like for this courageous, intelligent army officer to return from war and find none of the applauds of her male counterparts. Instead, she finds sexism and is sidelined taking the coffee orders. I worried that Marvel would have the same problems with this show that they had with Shield. And to be honest, they did, but only just. The series picks up after the war. The macguffin that gets the plot rolling is the theft of Howard Stark's inventions. This leads to a complicated morass of criminals and super secret villianous organizations that can sometimes feel like you're going to be buried under exposition. There are Russian assassins, voice-boxless thugs, but most importantly, plopped squarely in the middle: Hayley Atwell. Simply put, she is awesome in this part. She's classy but tough, feminine but not fawning. And to see someone so accomplished be benched because she has breasts makes you mad. At least it did me. I rooted for her immediately. Along with her we have Dominic Cooper recreating the Howard Stark of the movies, and we meet the actual Jarvis, the first one anyway, the human one, Howard's butler. His Thin Man double act with Peggy Carter is fascinating to watch. Beyond that, the costumes and the set design and the period setting are all stunning. There is no other current show set in this period, which makes it unique in the television landscape right now. It also has a strong group of creators behind the scenes, though not the ones from the movies, definitely ones with a strong televisual pedigree. The two showrunners and the director of tonight's episode are all Law and Order: SVU veterans. So we're at the 4th episdode now, and the Howling Commandos have returned, and Peggy's private investigations have been discovered, and now I'm hooked. Yet this morning I read an article that broke the news that ratings are down and people aren't watching. Since I unloaded on Agents of Shield and am certainly guilty of being a harsh critic sometimes it is certainly possible that some people simply think the show is terrible. Hey, countless awesome shows have been canceled because they couldn't find an audience. Freaks and Geeks, anyone? But I'd like to posit a theory that makes me even madder than what Peggy faces in the show because it mirrors what she faces in the show some 60 plus years later. I think its a form of sexism. Peggy doesn't wear skintight spandex a la Black Widow. She doesn't have a complicated back story. She doesn't sleep around and use men to get where she wants to be. She, like Steve Rogers pre-serum, is an Everywoman who just happens to possess so many of the qualities that we as humans prize. The trick of the show, as with the character of Captain America, will be to watch her hold on to and strengthen her ideals in the face of pessimism and sexism. So far so good. The plot is still a little shakily complicated at times, but I'm holding on because Peggy is leading the way. The show's also been criticized for being too whitebread. Fair dues there, I guess. But admittedly most of the show involves high ranking government officials and I could be wrong but its probably pretty accurate that despite Peggy's femininity not halting her from getting her foot in the door a black man might not even get that far. But its true, the boarding house where Peggy lives or the automat where she eats lunch could most certainly feature a few more faces of varying nationality and color. Maybe even a queer or two. I don't see representation of me on the show either, but I'm not letting it stop me from watching. And you shouldn't either.