Illimitable Library Zone: Critques, Current Reads, & Challanges..

[TheRedStranger]

I just finished James Luceno’s Darth Plagues and Matthew Stover’s redemption of a flawed movie, the novelization of Star Wars Episode Three: The Revenge of The Sith.  Darth Plagues is a tenebrous romp into the seedy underbelly of Star Wars lore. Where the prequels leave you in mysteries where nothing is solved and plot holes seemingly abound, both books respectively show you how the sausage is made, and fills the jarring gaps of the films, which were by way of their filmic trilogy nature were limited in their expression of some seriously respectable lore. 
 

In Darth Plagues the messy first draft jumble of Phantom Menace is bandaged up and molded (and a bit lampshaded) into a more cohesive narrative. We see how the Sith used all political ideologies respective weaknesses to their advantage, the rigging a privatized galactic banking system to gain increasing hegemony over a overly bureaucratic galactic senate. Both red tape and lawlessness are deftly manipulated by the charismatic upstart Palpatine (Darth Sidious) while his new master Plagues carries out an ancient evil plan from the shadows. So much of the politics is explained and embraced in a game of conspiracy, espionage, and wet works dripping with blood and venom. 
 

Luceno’s prose is freshly Latinate and erudite and flows well from the minds of his adroit characters and offers a novel juxtaposition from the zippy action-oriented focus of the traditional films. You feel like you are sitting aside Thrawnian mastermind perspective over their flashing of blisters and lightsabers,  yet all the more eldricht in its approach. The betrayals, the missing links connected, and the new depth you discover about old favorite characters will enrich your Star Wars experience, especially when it comes to the prequels. They only moderate flaw I see with the work is that it feels rushed at the end and deserved to be more than one book. Some plot lines seem to not be fully closed, one whole beginning-chapters character, for example, is literally on pause. There is. Sort of sequel called Maul , but I already know it should have been two books instead of one. Plagues-focused first and then perhaps a more Sidious focused one second. Sadly that is the way of corporate publishing of such a big IP with so many cooks in the kitchen, I can get a since of corporate bureaucracy hurrying the plot along about the end. Overall though this is made up for a bit by making Syfo Dias and Dooku’s characters be more than one dimensional plot points to further a plot, they are given presence and arcs upon the page. 

 As for Star Wars Episode Three, it really dominates the movie hands down. Dooku is fleshed out and his perspective given time to reveal, and Grevious is not a laughable goon with a wussy cough, but a soulless and graceless reflection of the coming Darth Vader . We get to climb into a fearful and doubting Anakin’s mind, and his descent into desperation and corruption in order to save his child and wife is given a more sweeping arc. The Jedi are way less dull and stupid, their dumber actions in the Lucas script lampshaded by Stover writing them as more weary and dogged of Palpatine and certain political mechanizations more detailed in the novel’s plot. Yet this is more aptly toned to Star Wars than Luceno’s more villainous spy-thriller vibe. The flash-Gordon bombast and heroism flashes across the page in dog fights in space and saber fights on warring capital ships. But this fades slightly with later.

Sidious looses some trademark cheese that makes him absolute cinema-redeeming fun in the movie. He is instead much more chilling and subversive, and given a more Flemming-esque makeover. He is still larger than life but not in a truly in your face kind of way. Which if both counter points were reconciled, would be absolute perfection to behold. Sidious in the novel has the robust peanut butter , but Sidious in the movie has the sugary junk-foody chocolate. Someone should have mixed them up. 

Another example is the ending lightsaber fight and an many ways the other more martial fights. Stover adds the technical perspectives and internal drama of the fights into them, which makes them uniquely novelic, and gives us the film version cannot in such deeper character perspectives. Yet the film does do better in showing warriors external complex martial prowess (in many ways too much to the point of some technically showy and soulessness drawn out fight scenes).  If Stover made the fights more visceral and martially-minded, diving into each juke and parry with more tension and stake-description, I think it would be another example of perfect synthesis. 

Sadly, nothing can redeem the needless plot point from the movie script on Utapau that led Obiwan on a carbon copy goose chase from episode two, and served no ultimate purpose but to enrich the villains. It makes Obiwan a useless character in the middle of the story.  Grevious in retreat has no meaning as it does not pose any ticking time bomb or big existential threat, it merely prolongs a war Sidious wants to speed up (and would have done anyways by killing the backers of the war on Mustafar).  He could and should have easily been a destructive and agenda-ruinous wildcard for both Sidious and a corrupted Anakin and the Jedi Order alike, and both a omen and lesson for a more sauve death machine to come, Darth Vader, in his defeat. Even though both him and Dooku seem to be particular apotheosis of Vader, this subtext does not chain into the plot in any actual and concrete way. The whole Grevious plot line sadly could not be relocated in a more cohesive manner to the story as a whole, but at least Dooku is not just a quickly decapitated waste of a cameo by the late great Christopher Lee in this rendition. 

And of course, Padame still feels like cheesy Hallmark cringe in some moments. Every love scene with her still oozes with N element of the film’s corniness. Its not how people who love each other really talk and comes off weird and alien sometimes. It feels like a parody depiction of love when expressed directly, though in Anakin’s ruminations it feels more heady and emotional than melodrama of Padame, who feels rather useless to the plot in an active way in her more mandatory from-the-script scenes. She partially has descended into a trope of a pregnant damsel alongside Anakin, which are all script-mandated scenes, yet treated more like an active counter to Sidious in new scenes and scene extensions in which Stover has boldly claimed his creative license. 
 

Overall, I recommend both books to any fan of Star Wars, even if not devoted in your love of the brand. If you must read one, read Plagues. But Revenge of The Sith will help to mend your jaded disposition of the Star Wars prequels. Both also flow really well into each other.

[TheRedStranger]

Anyone here read anything good lately? @Mike Arcade?

[MoKat]

After seeing this video (linked, not embedded, because it's over 1 hour long), I want to find a copy of The Gray Lady Winked: How the New York Times's Misreporting, Distortions and Fabrications Radically Alter History. It was written by Ashley Rindsberg, who is an American novelist and journalist (now based in Israel).

[MoKat]

Okay, I'm adding another book to my reading list. I read "Thinking in Pictures" over a decade ago, but I didn't know that Temple Grandin had written a book after that one until I stumbled across this video (once again linked, not embedded, because it's over 1 hour long).

A review at Good Reads seemed to break it down well:

Quote

This book is written as two parts. The first is an overview of the current state of research into the causes of autism, in turn divided into subsections on brain structure and genetics. The second is a personal and impassioned but not terribly coherent plea for Aspies to be defined as much for their strengths as their weaknesses, indeed for Aspie traits to be seen just as traits without any attendant value judgements about them at all.

{Edit: Apparently she's written even more books than that:

 

Edited April 23, 2022 by MoKat
added a video

[MoKat]

This just got bumped to the top of my reading list:

[MoKat]

After reading this article, I think I'll add Sara's book to my reading list:

Drama Queen: One Autistic Woman and a Life of Unhelpful Labels

Quote

Reading a checklist of autistic traits in girls and women was like reading a profile written specifically about me. I took a test online called the aspie quiz and had an unexpectedly high score. Thanks to being extremely lucky to have my husband’s work health insurance, I only had to wait a month for a diagnostic appointment where a clinical psychologist confirmed my suspicion that I was never lazy, spoiled, rude, dramatic or any of the other self-loathing labels now stuck to me with metaphorical superglue. I was autistic. And, according to the clinical psychologist, it was a miracle that I’d survived this far and carved out a place for myself in a society that isn’t built for me.

 

[TheRedStranger]

On 7/11/2022 at 2:31 PM, MoKat said:

Reading a checklist of autistic traits in girls and women was like reading a profile written specifically about me. I took a test online called the aspie quiz and had an unexpectedly high score. Thanks to being extremely lucky to have my husband’s work health insurance, I only had to wait a month for a diagnostic appointment where a clinical psychologist confirmed my suspicion that I was never lazy, spoiled, rude, dramatic or any of the other self-loathing labels now stuck to me with metaphorical superglue. I was autistic. And, according to the clinical psychologist, it was a miracle that I’d survived this far and carved out a place for myself in a society that isn’t built for me.

 It's common chatter nowadays that Autism is largely under-diagnosed in women. Yet with all the attempts at gender politics and such, I am not sure how scientifically accurate that claim is, compared to social movements that need intersectional narratives like that for political capital. It seems "political incorrect" to "genderize" autism but honestly, if men are indeed more likely to have it (like myself) then it could be a key empirical truth to better mitigating and understanding its issues. I would like to look deeper into that claim, given our current social milieu and its more non-scientific ulterior motives that could be there. There is a good case for many males to be under-diagnosed with certain mental conditions, such as BPD and GAD, and the hypothesis seems more intuitive, that men simply don't talk about their feelings as much to other people, and usually don't seek help for diagnosis. They usually try to "work out" their issues, rather than connect to others in a more social support group about said issues. Hence high-functioning and successful men having side issues like overeating and alcoholism (like Pelosi's husband), and more low functioning men expressing really making maladaptive choices (like your average school shooter, who is typically a man).

[MoKat]

On 8/1/2022 at 5:58 PM, TheRedStranger said:

It's common chatter nowadays that Autism is largely under-diagnosed in women.

Exactly where is this common chatter? Experts have been saying that for decades.

*drops a few examples from PubMed.gov*

Girls and women with autism [2019]

Are males and females with autism spectrum disorder more similar than we thought? [2017]

An investigation of the 'female camouflage effect' in autism using a computerized ADOS-2 and a test of sex/gender differences [2016]

 

We know a lot more about autism than we did 30 years ago, but there's still a lot we don't know - including a definitive way to diagnose or even test for it. Sara's book seems like it would present an interesting perspective on the matter. How many autistic females have gotten anything puiblished? Dr. Grandin is the only person who immediately comes to mind.

{Edit: There are a few interesting statements in the January posting of The Oracle:

Quote

A study published in September in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry noted that the number of people diagnosed with autism in the United Kingdom jumped by 787 percent between 1998 and 2018, likely due to increased recognition. The increase was greater for females than males. Researchers compared the rates of autism recorded in doctors’ records in England, covering over 9 million patients. The study’s lead author, Ginny Russell, Ph.D., from the University of Exeter, said that the definition of what “constitutes autism has changed over time, and females and adults were not often thought of as having autism 20 years ago.”

 

 

Edited August 3, 2022 by MoKat
added another link