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The Drunken Odyssey

~ A Podcast About the Writing Life

The Drunken Odyssey

Monthly Archives: April 2014

In Boozo Veritas #37: Words and Whiskey

14 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Drinking, In Boozo Veritas, Poetry

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In Boozo Veritas, Leigh Anne Hornfeldt, Small Batch: An Anthology of Bourbon Poetry, Teege Braune, Teneice Durrant Delgado

In Boozo Veritas #37 by Teege Braune

Words and Whiskey

Small Batch

Two of Cups Press’ collection of bourbon-inspired poetry called Small Batch begins with a brief description and history of bourbon followed by this short piece by David S. Atkinson entitled  “A Bourbon Poetry Submission,”

I heard this press wanted poems about

bourbon.

This confused me, because I thought

bourbon

was already a poem.

Bourbon, like poetry, is something that should be savored, enjoyed slowly. A connoisseur will return to her favorite examples over and over again throughout her life. When done well, poetry and bourbon are both highly nuanced with a complexity that requires a meditative examination. Some are of the mindset that bourbon and poetry should both be reserved for special occasions. Others, like John King and myself, see this as blasphemy and consume either as often as is humanly possible. Sour mash and white dog can be seen as the various drafts a distiller has to go through to achieve a signature product, just as a poet must rewrite a piece several times before it’s publishable. If you want to take a more mystical approach, both bourbon and poetry go through a kind of transubstantiation, a handful of unspectacular ingredients that, through craft and perhaps at times sheer luck or divine intervention, become something much greater than the sum of their parts. Poetry is a smattering of symbols with no inherent meaning, arranged in such a manner as to bring forth, inexplicably, image, music, language at its most significant. Bourbon contains the same mystery. It isn’t just the alcohol derived from distillation, a process any chemistry major understands and can duplicate; it is the ineffable quality that comes from aging 51% corn based alcohol in new, charred oak barrels. Alcohol aged in anything else is not bourbon and inferior for that reason. It is why all the best bourbons still come from a small geographical area in northern Kentucky.

Untitled

But I digress. A distiller must follow strict guidelines to even legally market a whiskey as bourbon. Poetry, on the other hand, is more elusive a term, and the pieces collected in Small Batch exemplify this in their range and diversity. While many of the poems in this collection follow the American free-verse tradition and the confessional tone so popular with the post-MFA crowd, others experiment with voice and style such as Briana Gervat’s “Bourbon Style Green Eggs and Ham,” an amusing, adult-oriented parody of Dr. Seuss’ classic. Not unexpectedly, some of the work goes down like a shot of Old Crow,

Old Crow

harsh, unrefined, a bit painful, the only appeal being that any poetry, like bourbon, is better than no poetry at all, but you’ll be glad you endured these moments when you come to gems like Jeremy Dae Paden’s two poems “Smooth Pour” and “The Story of Uncle Frank,” truly top shelf work reminiscent of that deliciously obscure bottle one pulls out to wow friends at social gatherings. If you are expecting a collection of Bukowski knockoffs, look elsewhere. The Bard of Debauchery shows his influence here and there, winking slyly in Erin Elizabeth Smith’s “Drinking Poem” and Jude C. McPherson’s “Neat.” On the other hand, much of this work stands completely outside of Bukowski’s legacy. This anthology demonstrates that the nexus between bourbon and poetry is much larger than the romanticized notion of an alcoholic writer, though that character has a time and a place as well. As the unifying factor of every poem of this collection, bourbon takes on a myriad of roles: as an aspect of cultural identity in Ellen Hagan’s “Kentucky – You Be,” welcomed antagonist in Peter Fong’s “A Thirsty Man Considers his Future,” poetic muse in Parneshia Jones’ “Ode to Bourbon: A Writer’s Distillery,” and simply one lovely detail amongst many in Annette Spaulding-Convy’s incredible “The Spaulding-Criss-Potter-Craig-Sherer-Smith-Walker Women Ponder the Corrals They’ve Built Inside.”

Small Batch’s introduction invites us to “Pour a shot, open a page, and drink it in.” While the poems are divided into lose sections cleverly titled “drawing confessions,” “crack the wax,” “bourbon-strong fist,” “whatever’s open has to go,” and “this want travels,” nothing compels the reader to read these poems in any particular order. Reading any poetry anthology cover to cover is kind of like sampling from every bottle of a prodigious bourbon collection in a single evening. Discovering something new, returning to an old favorite, these are the twin joys of bourbon and poetry. Scan the shelf, pull off any bottle that strikes you for no good reason; peruse the table of contents, grab a title at random. I, for one, am finishing off the bottle of Elmer T. Lee that my brother gave me for Christmas two years ago while revisiting this delightful collection on a Sunday afternoon, as good a time as any for drinking and poetry. We all have our priorities, and I’m grateful for artists, distillers and poets alike, who take the time to create those things that make life worth living.

___________

 

Teege Braune (episode 72, episode 75, episode 77, episode 90) is a writer of literary fiction, horror, essays, and poetry. Recently he has discovered the joys of drinking responsibly. He may or may not be a werewolf.

 

Episode 94: Eleanor Lerman!

12 Saturday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Poetry, Shakespeare

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Alden Jones, Eleanor Lerman, Krystie Lee Yandoli, Leonard Cohen, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Shakespeare

Episode 94 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

On this week’s show, I talk to the poet Eleanor Lerman,

Eleanor Lerman

Plus Alden Jones writes about her time working in Cuba.

Alden Jones TEXTS DISCUSSED 

Strange Life

The Blonde on the Train

The Sensual World Emerges

Our Post Soviet History Unfolds

The Spice Box of Earth

The Blind Masseuse

Check out episode 48 to hear Eleanor Lerman’s essay about Leonard Cohen’s Spice Box of Earth.

NOTES 

Check out the indiegogo crowd-sourcing effort to bring St. Mark’s Bookshop to a new home in the East Village. Endorsed by this show and Anne Waldman.

I recommend Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s production of Julius Caesar, playing until April 20th.

Caesar

Check out Beating Windward Press’s call for essays for its forthcoming essay collection, The Things They Did For Money: How Writers, Artists, and Creatives Support the Habit.

___________

 Episode 94 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

The Curator of Schlock #35: Mortal Kombat

11 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Film, The Curator of Schlock

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Christopher Lambert, Jeffrey Shuster, Mortal Kombat, The Curator of Schlock

The Curator of Schlock #35 by Jeffrey Shuster

Mortal Kombat = Mortal Komplicated!

Okay. Time to roll out the big guns (err, fists) with 1995’s Mortal Kombat from director Paul W. S. Anderson.

Untitled 1

Oh man. Where do I even begin? Mortal Kombat was the game back the mid 90s. I remember getting my copy of Mortal Kombat II for Super Nintendo at the Suncoast Video in the mall for $59.99. It came with three posters and a cassete tape with the Mortal Kombat theme song on it. Cool beans! But then the Mortal Kombat movie came a few months later and, well, it was a movie. Or a two-hour music video. Ah, who cares? It’s Mortal Kombat!

What’s the plot? The evil sorcerer Shang Tsung is gathering the best martial artists from around the world so he can steal their souls and become all-powerful. He’s joined by Kano, a criminal cyborg, a pair of Chinese assassins named Scorpion and Sub-Zero, and Goro, a big, monster dude with four arms.

Untitled 2

The good guys are led by Raiden, the Chinese god of thunder (obviously, Christopher Lambert).

Untitled 8

Liu Kang, a Shaolin monk, Johnny Cage, a hotshot Hollywood action star, and Sonya Blade, a Special Forces officer are the film’s protagonists.

This makes things confusing since there are three of them and I don’t know which one I’m supposed to root for. Sonya kills Kano by breaking his neck (they don’t build cyborgs like they used to). Johnny Cage takes out Scorpion (who is really scary since he’s like ghost/undead guy who can breathe fire out of his mouth). Liu Kang fights Sub-Zero and puts him on ice (Ha!). Goro turns out to be rather intimidating since he can grab contestants with his lower arms and pound them with the other two. Johnny Cage avoids this fate by punching Goro in the sweet spot and sending him plummeting over a cliff.

I guess by this point Shang Tsung is getting impatient so he kidnaps Sonja Blade and flees to Outworld, another planet or another dimension or something to that effect.

Untitled 1

It’s the place where all the scary bad guys come from. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Shang Tsung isn’t from Earth. He serves the Emperor of Outworld, a mysterious figure who wants to conquer Earth for nefarious purposes. The emperor also has sexy daughter, Princess Kitana, who’s decided to aid Liu Kang in his quest to do something something. Aargh! I can’t keep track of any of this! Why do they have to make movies so complicated?

The highlight fight in the movie is Liu Kang vs. Reptile. There’s something to be said about a watching a guy get kicked through a brick wall, especially when he gets kicked in the face right after getting through the brick wall. It’s the little things life that something something.

 Ten Thing I Learned from Mortal Kombat

  1. Don’t trust shape-shifting sorcerers.
  2. When the shape shifting sorcerer turns into your dead brother right before your eyes, it’s not really your dead brother.
  3. Christopher Lambert is good in anything.
  4. You don’t get second chances in Mortal Kombat…unless you’re playing the video game.
  5. Bad guys love to mess with Shaolin monks. Just ask Kwai Chang Caine!
  6. Cyborgs with Australian accents are more intimidating than cyborgs with American accents.
  7. Techno music always accompanies kung fu battles.
  8. Don’t fight a monster dude with four arms. Just don’t do it.
  9. Don’t fight a guy who can freeze you to death with his bare hands.
  10. Don’t enter tournaments hosted by soul eating sorcerers.

___________

Jeffrey Shuster 2

Photo by Leslie Salas.

Jeffrey Shuster (episode 47) is an MFA candidate and instructor at the University of Central Florida.

 

Heroes Never Rust #36: The Playboy

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Heroes Never Rust

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Fantastic Four, Heroes Never Rust, sean ironman, Unstable Molecules

Heroes Never Rust #36 by Sean Ironman

The Playboy

The third issue of Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules switches things up, and, instead of the point of view character being a member of the Fantastic Four, the point of view character is Johnny Sturm’s best friend, Richard Mannelman. I’m a fan of stories where the protagonist is not the point of view character, and this is no exception. In the regular Marvel Universe, Johnny is popular with women and enjoys the team’s popularity in pop culture. People look up to him, so it’s fitting to see Johnny through the eyes of Mannelman.

Untitled 1

The two are pretty normal boys for the 1950s. They get bullied. They try desperately to see sexualized women, regardless of whether they are nude or not. They search for something new. The difference between the two is that Johnny is lost but still has something going for him. He’s bored with the town, but he could easily be one of the popular kids. “Johnny could have been popular—he could fix cars and girls thought he was cute. And yet he hung out with me.” Mannelman, on the other hand, has nothing. He has no other friends, no real skills to speak of, no real family. It’s a sad life, and because of it, he clings to Johnny, hoping that when Johnny makes his way in the world that he’ll take Mannelman with him.

In the end, Johnny has the turning point, not Mannelman. Johnny decides to split town, to “escape for good.” He doesn’t quite make it this issue due to some bullies catching up with him. The issue ends with Mannelman and Johnny getting beaten on the beach. But Mannelman isn’t upset about the scuffle. “If they broke all of our bones then Johnny couldn’t go. He’d have to stay. Stay with me. In Glen Cove.”

Reed and Ben don’t appear this issue, and Sue’s only in it briefly. But that makes sense, even in the regular universe, because Johnny started as a person more concerned with goofing off and with the fame then whatever serious things the others were going through. This issue also heavily features an old boyfriend of Sue’s named Joey King. A beat poet, Joey is back in town briefly and ends up convincing Johnny that he needs to leave town.

At the end of each issue, the writer, James Sturm, includes fictional information about his research. This issue features spotlights for Joey King and Mannelman. Joey’s writing is described as a pale imitation of Jack Kerouac and that he was “a minor beat poet at best.” James Sturm was unable to find Joey for an interview. Turns out (although fictionally) that Mannelman wrote a book called Hot Times and Hot Rods, My High School Years with the Human Torch. That book was his claim to fame. In a way, he did follow Johnny out of Glen Cove. James Sturm did try to interview the now fifty-two-year-old Mannelman for the comic and describes a scene in Mannelman’s New York apartment where Mannelman refuses to answer questions ,and then Mannelman’s mother calls from the other room. It was a sad scene, and made all the sadder with the photo accompanying the article of Mannelman as an adult overweight and with glasses. He looks like the cliché comic book nerd.

Untitled 2

Mannelman and Joey King wanted fame. Mannelman focused on Johnny. King focused on Kerouac. Both became blips on the cultural landscape. King published a few poems and started a failed artist’s commune. Mannelman became an author, although his only book was about his old friend. Johnny became the famous one—the basis for a member of the Fantastic Four. But even with that, no one gave a shit about Johnny Sturm, other than someone using him as a superhero. In Joey King’s section at the back of the issue, James Sturm wrote, “King’s lasting contribution was the inspiration he provided for others.” That seems to be the case with everyone. Johnny inspired Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to create the Human Torch and Mannelman to write his book, which added to this James Sturm’s tale. Joey King inspired other artists and beatniks. Perhaps the only escape a person can really have is through inspiration.

___________

Sean Ironman

Sean Ironman is an MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida, where he also serves as Managing Editor of The Florida Review and as President of the Graduate Writers’ Association. His art has appeared online at River Teeth. His writing can be read in Breakers: An Anthology of Comics and Redivider.

 

In Boozo Veritas #36: The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

07 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in In Boozo Veritas

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In Boozo Veritas, Teege Braune, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

In Boozo Veritas #36 by Teege Braune

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

It is a shame that no one can talk about Edward FitzGerald’s best selling nineteenth century poem The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám without weighing in on the famous controversy surrounding the former’s admittedly un-literal translation of the Persian poets original quatrains. The never ending debate about FitzGerald’s poetic license and the accusations that he puts blasphemies in the mouth of a highly moral and devoutly religious intellectual by way of espousing alcoholism as means of overcoming life’s existential dilemma are perfect examples of scholarship missing the poetry by focusing on the minutia surrounding it, and indeed, FitzGerald by way of Khayyám, comments on the uselessness of such activities in the very poem inspiring them:

Why, all the Saints and Sages who discussed

Of the Two Worlds so wisely – they are thrust

Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn

Are scattered, and their Mouths are stopped with Dust.

What’s more, attempts at “proper” translations, such as Robert Graves’ clunky, self-righteous blunder, have routinely failed to match the poetic beauty of FitzGerald’s own. On the other hand, Sufi scholar Abdullah Dougan has championed FitzGerald’s translation as the instrument Allah chose to introduce Sufism to the west. While I have deep respect for Sufism and find Dougan’s assertion that the poem is “divine inspiration… a miracle,” appealing on some levels, I do not care for interpretations of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám as a religious text and would, in fact, argue that it is the opposite.

Untitled 2

Others who revere FitzGerald’s translation, or “transmogrification” as he referred to it, for its poetic achievement often misinterpret it as pessimistic and fatalistic, summing it up as an elaborate expression of the sentiment, “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we’ll die.” Never mind that truncating a 404 lined poem into a cliche misses the point and joy of poetry in the first place, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is much more than the barroom philosophy of some simple-minded hedonist. While the poem certainly does come to the conclusion that perpetual indulgence in wine is the best way to live, it only does so after rigorous attempts to understand the nature of life and death, God, and our own purpose in this world have proved futile. Omar, as the narrator of FitzGerald’s interpretation, if not the historical and original poet, spends as much time discussing his own folly as a student of philosophy and theology, referring to the afterlife as “the Veil through which I might not see” and comparing humanity to clay pots in that both are made of earth, exist as empty vessels, and one day are returned to the dust and forgotten, as he does in drunken revelry.

When I discovered this poem as a young man of nineteen, I was going through a similar existential crisis as FitzGerald’s Khayyám. I had recently left Christianity due to a personal lack of faith, which I saw as a rejection by a Calvinist God, and discovered my own love of all things fermented including, if not especially, the grape. The certainty of my own death was terrifying to me.

Untitled 3

For the first time in my life I could not cling to some approximation of Heaven to cushion the blow of its mystery. Alcohol, I found, eased the discomfort of this anxiety. Studying The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám allowed me to see drinking not as an easy escape hatch, but rather the ecstatic celebration of life that it can be. Omar is not hiding from hard truths and difficult questions. When he says,

Indeed, indeed, Repentance oft before

I swore – but was I sober when I swore?

And then and then came Spring, and Rose-in-hand

My threadbare Penitence apieces tore.

we can see that he is past fear. He has left those concerns behind to revel in the hear and now. What better way to do this than by drinking wine?

In class I grew frustrated with my colleagues who interpreted The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám as a symbol of communion, who equated the wine with the blood of Christ. This interpretation ignores Omar’s regular and devastating criticisms of religion and a legalistic deity who would “Sue for a Debt he never did contract, / And cannot answer…” And yet, communion may be closer to Khayyám’s or FitzGerald’s meaning than base hedonism. I have always found it disturbing that scholars of English literature, a group trained to look for metaphors and symbolism, are so quick to take Omar’s wine at face value. Perhaps every reader of The Rubáiyát will not be an oenophile. I do not think that this needs detract from the value or beauty of the poem; wine is the perfect stand-in for joy. Around the same time FitzGerald was transmogrifying Khayyám’s Rubáiyát, the French poet Charles Baudelaire was commanding his readers to get drunk “with wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you please!” Neither poets are equating drunkenness with sloppy inebriation; on the contrary, it is associated with an all-encompassing, passionate exuberance.

Untitled 1

His contributions to algebra, geometry, and astronomy are widely celebrated, but little is known about the personal life of the historical Omar Khayyám. He was a skilled poet in his native Persian and wrote over a thousand quatrains, some that look like this. When FitzGerald’s translation of a few of these quatrains introduced Khayyám to the western world, undoubtedly a romanticized interest in Orientalism in Victorian England led to its immense popularity. The exoticness of Omar Khayyám’s name was all these early western readers needed to know about him. Over a century later, scholars continue to argue whether or not he was a deeply religious orthodox Muslim, a mystically inclined Sufi, or FitzGerald’s fellow agnostic, a man who, like myself, craved earthly joy is lieu of cosmic security. Wine is often used as a symbol for divine communion in Sufi poetry as it is in Christian liturgy and pagan Dionysian-cult rituals, and yet for Omar, at least FitzGerald’s Omar, wine is not transcendent. It is of earthly origin for the pleasure of humanity, ourselves earthly beings made of the same clay as the cups from which we drink, in which the grape grows. Understanding this struck me as pessimistic at one time in my life, but now I see it as mysticism and materialism in perfect synchronicity. Religion, a promise of heaven, these may bring joy to lives of other people, but for me:

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,

A Jug of Wine, of Loaf of Bread – and Thou

Beside me singing in the Wilderness –

Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

___________

Teege at Grand Floridian

Teege Braune (episode 72, episode 75, episode 77, episode 90) is a writer of literary fiction, horror, essays, and poetry. Recently he has discovered the joys of drinking responsibly. He may or may not be a werewolf.

 

Episode 93: St. Mark’s Bookshop!

05 Saturday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, New York City

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Bob Contant, Dan Lauer, New York City, Positively 139th Street, St. Mark's Booshop, Terry McCoy, The East Village

Episode 93 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

On this week’s show, I talk to Bob Contant and Terry McCoy, the owners of St. Mark’s Bookshop,

Terry McCoy Bob Contant

Plus Dan Lauer writes about identity and New York City.

Dan Lauer

NOTES 

Check out the indiegogo crowd-sourcing effort to bring St. Mark’s Bookshop to a new home in the East Village. Endorsed by this show and Anne Waldman.

I recommend Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s production of Julius Caesar, playing until April 20th.

Check out Beating Windward Press’s call for essays for its forthcoming essay collection, The Things They Did For Money: How Writers, Artists, and Creatives Support the Habit.

___________

Episode 93 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

The Curator of Schlock #34: Double Dragon

04 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Film, The Curator of Schlock

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Alyssa Milano, Double Dragon, Jeffrey Shuster, Robert Patrick, The Curator of Schlock

 The Curator of Schlock #34 by Jeffrey Shuster

Double Dragon: Two for One!

I’ve been getting some complaints that I don’t do enough kung fu movies. Well, I’m afraid my kung fu knowledge ends with Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, the greatest television show of all time. There was this one episode where this evil stage magician was killing audience members with evil magic tricks and it was up to Kwai Chang Caine to stop him. That was a great episode. Anyway, this is a movie blog, not a TV blog. I don’t know much about kung fu movies, but I do know a bit about kung fu video games. And I know that movies have been made off of these kung fu video games. So this week’s kung fu extravaganza is none other than 1994s Double Dragon from director James Yukich.

Double_Dragon_1994_movie_poster

Okay. So there’s this magic medallion that will give the wearer total control over the body and total control of the soul which means you take total control of a major American city. That city is New Angeles, a post-apocalyptic version of Los Angeles. You see, after the great earthquake, the gangs swarmed the remains of the city. I guess Paul Kersey wasn’t around to take care of business and work some overtime. The police brokered a deal with the gangs. They leave the city alone during the day and they can do whatever they want at night. Combating these gangs is a group known as the Power Corp led by Marian Delario (Alyssa Milano).

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If the gangs aren’t bad enough, there’s an evil criminal business tycoon by the name of Koga Shuko (Robert Patrick).

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He wants the Double Dragon so he can rule over New Angeles. Unfortunately for Shuko, he only owns half of the medallion, the part the controls the soul. The other half of the medallion(the one that controls the body) is in the possession of two brothers, Billy Lee (Scott Wolf) and Jimmy Lee (Mark Dacascos.) Shuko wants that medallion and will stop at nothing to get it. He pumps the head gang leader so full of steroids that he turned into this mutant freak named Bo Abobo.

Untitled 1

There’s a scene where Marian is force-feeding him spinach to make him talk. It’s quite disturbing.

Anyway, as hard as Billy and Jimmy fight against Shoku, he eventually gets both medallions. And then bad things start to happen like Shoku sucking all electricity from the city and summoning demon warriors. Will Jimmy and Billie Lee join up with Power Core and fight with them to save the city? You’ll have to watch to find out. Hey, it’s free on Netfiz.

Ten Things I Learned from Double Dragon

  1. The 90s did not suck.
  2. Scott Wolf acted before Party of Five.
  3. When Robert Patrick gets his tips frosted, he goes to the root.
  4. Double Dragon did not shed light on my Alyssa Milano dream.
  5. Robert Patrick can be surprisingly animated when he’s playing a supervillian.
  6. If your name is Abobo, you deserve the worst the world has to offer you.
  7. Virtual reality games will be all the rage by 2007.
  8. Vanna White makes a swell TV news anchor.
  9. It doesn’t do you any good to stare at photos of bikini wearing women when you’re a mutant freak.
  10. Super villians shouldn’t wear bathrobes. It’s undignified.

___________

Jeffrey Shuster 2

Photo by Leslie Salas.

Jeffrey Shuster (episode 47) is an MFA candidate and instructor at the University of Central Florida.

 

Heroes Never Rust #35: The Invisible Woman

02 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Heroes Never Rust

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Heroes Never Rust, sean ironman, The Fantastic Four, Unstable Molecules

Heroes Never Rust #35 by Sean Ironman

The Invisible Woman

Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules #2 switches focus from Reed Richards to Susan Sturm. We see that the four-issue miniseries takes place in one day, with this issue beginning with Reed’s phone call to Susan from last issue. We also get a little bit of superhero action with panels from the fictional Vapor Girl comic, which Susan’s younger brother, Johnny, read in the first issue. It opens with a short excerpt from Vapor Girl. The heroine is imprisoned by aliens and shot with an “atomic manipulator ray.” When the comic switches to Susan Sturm, she wakes on the couch and doesn’t recognize the room for a moment. “It’s an odd sensation waking up and feeling as if you are a stranger in your own home.” She goes about her tasks of preparing for her book club by reading the book and baking a coffee cake.

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On the surface level, this issue could be seen as the typical story of a woman wanting more than being a housewife. But, this issue succeeds (and it’s the best of the miniseries) because Susan isn’t concerned with female rights. At no point, does she say or think anything about the treatment of women at the time. It’s there because it’s integral to the story, but she doesn’t vocalize that idea. Instead, Susan deals with a life she doesn’t want, and in the end comes to realize “I do not like my life and I want it to change.” By avoiding talking about feminism directly, the story gains in two different ways.

First, the story becomes relatable to anyone. Each of us, at times, has wanted more than the life we had. It’s why we learn things, go to school, get a new job. It’s why we pretty much do most things in life. So the story is able to become more universal.

Second, the story is able to get more specific, which, I know, may be confusing since I just said the story became more universal. But, remember, specificity breeds universality. The character doesn’t act as a mouthpiece for feminism. We get specifics about Susan’s life—her relationship with the neighborhood women, with her brother, with Reed. Today’s readers are smart enough to pick up on the feminist aspect of the story. We’ve seen that story a hundred times. But we haven’t seen Susan Sturm’s story before.

Untitled 2

Instead of trying to be herself, Susan tries to be her mother, who died some years earlier. Susan does what her mother would have done. She takes part in a book club, even though she doesn’t like the other women. She deals with Reed’s uncaring attitude, even though there seems to be no love between the two. Other than the phone call, we get nothing more about their relationship. There isn’t anything more. Unstable Molecules is about people wanting more for their lives. They seek happiness in roles they think they should live in, and they all know deep down it won’t help. At one point, looking out at the neighbors Susan hates, she thinks, “I allow myself to hate them.” Allows herself to hate. She has trouble even allowing herself the freedom to feel.

In the end, I think one of the things this comic says is that it’s okay to hate, to be emotional. Throughout the issue, Susan doesn’t let herself feel. On the phone with Reed, she just accepts things the way they are. With Johnny, she does the same. She says nothing when Johnny tells her that he hates her. But by the end of the day, she can’t continue anymore. She breaks down on the couch, waiting for the dinner party to start. “I miss my mom. I do not like my life and I want it to change.” She takes no action this issue, but she’s reached an important moment. She’s come to terms with this not being the life she wants, and we’ll see by the end of the mini-series what she does to change things.

___________

Sean Ironman

Sean Ironman is an MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida, where he also serves as Managing Editor of The Florida Review and as President of the Graduate Writers’ Association. His art has appeared online at River Teeth. His writing can be read in Breakers: An Anthology of Comics and Redivider.

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Recent Posts

  • Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #181: Energized and Anthologized Vol. 4
  • Episode 529: Kathryn Harlan!
  • The Curator of Schlock #387: The House on the Edge of the Park
  • Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #180: Doing Something to the Trend
  • Episode #528: A Discussion of Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends with Rachael Tillman!

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