I learned a sad thing yesterday. Diana Wynne Jones, author of many wonderful YA fantasy novels, passed away at the age of 76. She'd been fighting lung cancer for a while, and it eventually got the best of her. I owe her a lot - through her books, she gave me many a happy reading experience, and opened up my mind to many new ideas. I've never read a book of hers that I didn't like, and I haven't even read all of them.
What I loved most about her books is that they were witty, humorous, real, fantastic, and gritty all at once. She didn't shy away from any of the nastier aspects of her stories. She was honest. She was tough. She was sweet, and thoughtful. She pulled no punches, but denied no rewards, either. Her characters are fallible, noble, inadequate, strong, and weak. They are, in fact, real people that just happen to be fictional.
I wish that more people knew Jones' work. I recently contributed two articles to Topless Robot, which were lists of YA fantasy and science fiction novels, respectively. Jones was featured on both of them, which is a testament to her versatility - and my fondness for her writing. It's unfortunate that one rarely sees any of Jones' "deeper tracks" on bookstore shelves - the tendency seems to be to cater to the popularity of Hayao Miyazaki's film adaptation of "Howl's Moving Castle." Both the film and the book are wonderful in their individual ways, but they barely scratch the surface of Jones' prolific history. For my part, my immediate recommendations would be "The Dark Lord of Derkholm" and her Chrestomanci books - those will easily get you hooked into the rest of her books, and you'll be better for it.
It seems trite and insignificant for me to write one single post to honor this amazing woman. It's odd to think about how much I've been influenced by someone I've never met - and now never will. But I would be remiss in failing to acknowledge such a person's passing. Rest in peace, Diana Wynne Jones. Thank you for everything. I'll leave you with a quote that, while not exactly fitting to send her into the void beyond, is a classic distillation of her style:
"I seem to have excaliburated this knife." - Enchanted Glass
Monday, March 28, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Fun With Electricity
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Supernatural RAW! In this corner, we have Dean Winchester: tough on the outside, vulnerable on the inside, repressing every horrible experience in his life beneath an exterior of machismo and alcoholism. And in this corner, we have Samuel Campbell, grandfather to the Winchesters, father to Mary, and somehow alive again after the Apocalypse with a mission to resurrect his dead daughter, for which he betrayed his grandsons in "Caged Heat".
Okay, so last night's episode, "And Then There Were None" wasn't so much of a smackdown as an opportunity to cut a few characters loose, but let's dive right in anyway.
SPOILERS!
After a recap to remind us all what a bastard Grampa Sam is and how much we hated the episode "Caged Heat", the episode begins with the soon-to-screwed guy, a truck driver filling up at a gas station. He's approached by a barefoot young woman in a white dress, who asks him for a ride. When they get into the cab of the truck, the woman introduces herself as Eve and throws herself at the truck driver. The virtuous driver gently rebuffs her attempts to turn his truck cab into a den of iniquity, and gives her a pamphlet about Jesus. Eve laughs and makes a little speech about fathers that abandon their children and how she, as a mother, would never do that, then jumps on the truck driver and transfers a brain slug monster from her mouth into his ear (EWWW!). Later that night, the truck driver returns to his home and bludgeons his entire family to death with a hammer.
Sam and Dean are hanging out at Bobby's place, tracking some disturbances in the Force by drawing circles on a map. The monsters are becoming restless, and are having their monster frenzies all over the place. Bobby notices that they're tracking along a major highway, however, and he and the Winchesters drive up to investigate. We get to see Bobby in his FBI disguise, with his hair combed and minus his trucker hat. He was actually kind of adorable. The three of them interview the truck driver who killed his family - he says that he blacked out, and remembers nothing about the murders. Just then, there's a flurry of activity in the police station - a guy at the cannery where the truck driver worked had just opened fire on his co-workers. Bobby leaves Sam and Dean to finish the interview, and drives out to see what's going on. At the cannery, he runs into Rufus, who's following the same trail. The two of them examine the bodies of the shooter and his victims and find a mysterious and nasty-smelling black goo in the shooter's ear. It's like nothing they've ever seen before.
The Winchesters join up with Bobby and Rufus to search the cannery, hoping to find whatever it is that is causing people to kill each other. They're surprised to run into Grampa Sam and Cousin Gwen, who are also tracking the monster. Dean immediately goes into smackdown mode, but is prevented from exacting his promised revenge by Sam. Grampa's surprised to see Sam wth his soul, and makes no apologies for what happened before. Sam tells Dean to go for a walk so that the rest of them can discuss the reason they're all here. Dean stomps angrily out of the room, and Gwen follows him. Gramps didn't tell her that he sold the Winchesters out to keep his deal with Crowley, and she wants to know if it's true. Dean confirms that it is, and she apologizes - she wouldn't be working with Gramps if she'd known. Dean accepts her apology and then shoots her in the chest. The gunfire draws the rest of the guys out, and Rufus tries to save Gwen. It's too late, and Dean is nowhere to be found.
When the group of hunters finally find Dean, he's disoriented and has no idea that he'd killed Gwen. Bobby, knowing what's what, gets them all to put their guns into a sack and locks it away. One of them has to have the monster inside them, and there's no way to tell who. They all hang out uneasily, waiting for one of them to snap. It turns out that Gramps is the one with the slug in his head, because he pulls a gun he'd hidden in his belt and makes a break for it. The Winchesters, Rufus and Bobby follow him cautiously, but Sam is seperated from the others during the search. He finds Gramps on his own, and immediately aims his gun, warning Gramps to stay away. Gramps pulls the "You're not going to shoot me - we're family" and the "You're named after me, you know" card, and when that doesn't work he switches to the "Betcha want to know what you did while you were soul-less" play. He doesn't stop advancing on Sam, though, so Sam shoots him in the head. Dean, Rufus and Bobby find him, and cuff his hands behind his back just in case he's got the monster now.
Rufus and Bobby dig into Bobby's bag of tools and come up with a cranial saw so that they can perform a rough autopsy on Gramps - if the slug is still in his brain, they can all go home. Bobby apologizes to Rufus for whatever happened in Omaha, but Rufus tells him that he'll never forgive him for it. Just as they start to cut into Grampa Sam's skull, Gramps comes back to life and throws Rufus into the wall and tries to attack Bobby. In the struggle, Gramps is electrocuted by the sketchy cord to the cranial saw, and the slug oozes out of his ear, leaving Gramps dead as a doornail.
No one saw where the slug went after it dropped out of Grampa's ear, so they decide that if they each subject themselves to an electric shock, it should show where the monster is now. Dean and Sam both touch the live wire to their arms: no monster. Rufus does the same: no monster. Bobby flips out before the wire can touch him and stabs Rufus in the chest. The Winchesters overpower him, though, and duct tape him to a chair. Here, we're treated to a creepy possessed-Bobby scene, where the brain slug basically tells them that the whole reason it started all this was to deliver a message from Eve: we're here and we're coming for you, you're all going to die, blah blah blah. Sam and Dean don't know how to kill the monster without killing Bobby too, and the monster taunts them for it. They decide to electrify him and hope that the monster dies before Bobby.
We're meant to wonder whether Bobby survived, and when we saw the fresh grave with Sam and Dean standing over it we still weren't worried - there were plenty of other bodies to bury. The one in the ground is Rufus, and Bobby comes up with a bottle of whiskey and tells the Winchesters how Rufus helped him when his wife was possessed by a demon. Bobby regrets what happened in Omaha, and Dean tells him that it doesn't matter - family is something that is earned, not something that's decided by blood. He then gives Sam and Bobby a blanket pardon for any bad things they've done in their lives. They're all going to die eventually, he says, and he wants them both to know that everything's forgiven. Even Sam, who started the Apocalypse. On this touching moment, the episode ends.
Questions that still need answers:
So is that it, with Gramps and the rest of the Campbells? Having Gramps come back to life was weird, having his deal with Crowley motivated by wanting to resurrect his daughter was weirder, and the whole "I'm a heartless bastard even though I'm your Grandpa" was weirdest. I'm still confused about this one.
Seriously, Gwen had to die? All people named Winchester or Campbell should just get a restraining order against Sam and Dean, just in case they might be distantly related. Apparently they are allowed no family but each other.
Why did Rufus have to die? He was cool! He brought experience to the table, and to have him killed by possessed-Bobby didn't seem fair, and was unnecessary to the plot.
Who is Eve? Is she Biblical Eve? Because that doesn't make sense - if they were going that route, they should have used Lilith, except OH WAIT - they already did. Come on, writers. What's going on with you? And I'm reaaally tired of the Evil Slut take on bad female characters. Can't they be bad in a straight-forward professional manner? Do they have to be bad through the use of sexual wiles? Is this only possible when the bad character is a male possessing a female, in the case of Rafael and his new vessel? This is tired and overdone, writers. Step it up.
No new episodes until April 15.
Crap. Now I have to wait for more than a month to enjoy the time travelling episode, and to see if Cas is going to get any more screen time.
Okay, so last night's episode, "And Then There Were None" wasn't so much of a smackdown as an opportunity to cut a few characters loose, but let's dive right in anyway.
SPOILERS!
After a recap to remind us all what a bastard Grampa Sam is and how much we hated the episode "Caged Heat", the episode begins with the soon-to-screwed guy, a truck driver filling up at a gas station. He's approached by a barefoot young woman in a white dress, who asks him for a ride. When they get into the cab of the truck, the woman introduces herself as Eve and throws herself at the truck driver. The virtuous driver gently rebuffs her attempts to turn his truck cab into a den of iniquity, and gives her a pamphlet about Jesus. Eve laughs and makes a little speech about fathers that abandon their children and how she, as a mother, would never do that, then jumps on the truck driver and transfers a brain slug monster from her mouth into his ear (EWWW!). Later that night, the truck driver returns to his home and bludgeons his entire family to death with a hammer.
Sam and Dean are hanging out at Bobby's place, tracking some disturbances in the Force by drawing circles on a map. The monsters are becoming restless, and are having their monster frenzies all over the place. Bobby notices that they're tracking along a major highway, however, and he and the Winchesters drive up to investigate. We get to see Bobby in his FBI disguise, with his hair combed and minus his trucker hat. He was actually kind of adorable. The three of them interview the truck driver who killed his family - he says that he blacked out, and remembers nothing about the murders. Just then, there's a flurry of activity in the police station - a guy at the cannery where the truck driver worked had just opened fire on his co-workers. Bobby leaves Sam and Dean to finish the interview, and drives out to see what's going on. At the cannery, he runs into Rufus, who's following the same trail. The two of them examine the bodies of the shooter and his victims and find a mysterious and nasty-smelling black goo in the shooter's ear. It's like nothing they've ever seen before.
The Winchesters join up with Bobby and Rufus to search the cannery, hoping to find whatever it is that is causing people to kill each other. They're surprised to run into Grampa Sam and Cousin Gwen, who are also tracking the monster. Dean immediately goes into smackdown mode, but is prevented from exacting his promised revenge by Sam. Grampa's surprised to see Sam wth his soul, and makes no apologies for what happened before. Sam tells Dean to go for a walk so that the rest of them can discuss the reason they're all here. Dean stomps angrily out of the room, and Gwen follows him. Gramps didn't tell her that he sold the Winchesters out to keep his deal with Crowley, and she wants to know if it's true. Dean confirms that it is, and she apologizes - she wouldn't be working with Gramps if she'd known. Dean accepts her apology and then shoots her in the chest. The gunfire draws the rest of the guys out, and Rufus tries to save Gwen. It's too late, and Dean is nowhere to be found.
When the group of hunters finally find Dean, he's disoriented and has no idea that he'd killed Gwen. Bobby, knowing what's what, gets them all to put their guns into a sack and locks it away. One of them has to have the monster inside them, and there's no way to tell who. They all hang out uneasily, waiting for one of them to snap. It turns out that Gramps is the one with the slug in his head, because he pulls a gun he'd hidden in his belt and makes a break for it. The Winchesters, Rufus and Bobby follow him cautiously, but Sam is seperated from the others during the search. He finds Gramps on his own, and immediately aims his gun, warning Gramps to stay away. Gramps pulls the "You're not going to shoot me - we're family" and the "You're named after me, you know" card, and when that doesn't work he switches to the "Betcha want to know what you did while you were soul-less" play. He doesn't stop advancing on Sam, though, so Sam shoots him in the head. Dean, Rufus and Bobby find him, and cuff his hands behind his back just in case he's got the monster now.
Rufus and Bobby dig into Bobby's bag of tools and come up with a cranial saw so that they can perform a rough autopsy on Gramps - if the slug is still in his brain, they can all go home. Bobby apologizes to Rufus for whatever happened in Omaha, but Rufus tells him that he'll never forgive him for it. Just as they start to cut into Grampa Sam's skull, Gramps comes back to life and throws Rufus into the wall and tries to attack Bobby. In the struggle, Gramps is electrocuted by the sketchy cord to the cranial saw, and the slug oozes out of his ear, leaving Gramps dead as a doornail.
No one saw where the slug went after it dropped out of Grampa's ear, so they decide that if they each subject themselves to an electric shock, it should show where the monster is now. Dean and Sam both touch the live wire to their arms: no monster. Rufus does the same: no monster. Bobby flips out before the wire can touch him and stabs Rufus in the chest. The Winchesters overpower him, though, and duct tape him to a chair. Here, we're treated to a creepy possessed-Bobby scene, where the brain slug basically tells them that the whole reason it started all this was to deliver a message from Eve: we're here and we're coming for you, you're all going to die, blah blah blah. Sam and Dean don't know how to kill the monster without killing Bobby too, and the monster taunts them for it. They decide to electrify him and hope that the monster dies before Bobby.
We're meant to wonder whether Bobby survived, and when we saw the fresh grave with Sam and Dean standing over it we still weren't worried - there were plenty of other bodies to bury. The one in the ground is Rufus, and Bobby comes up with a bottle of whiskey and tells the Winchesters how Rufus helped him when his wife was possessed by a demon. Bobby regrets what happened in Omaha, and Dean tells him that it doesn't matter - family is something that is earned, not something that's decided by blood. He then gives Sam and Bobby a blanket pardon for any bad things they've done in their lives. They're all going to die eventually, he says, and he wants them both to know that everything's forgiven. Even Sam, who started the Apocalypse. On this touching moment, the episode ends.
Questions that still need answers:
So is that it, with Gramps and the rest of the Campbells? Having Gramps come back to life was weird, having his deal with Crowley motivated by wanting to resurrect his daughter was weirder, and the whole "I'm a heartless bastard even though I'm your Grandpa" was weirdest. I'm still confused about this one.
Seriously, Gwen had to die? All people named Winchester or Campbell should just get a restraining order against Sam and Dean, just in case they might be distantly related. Apparently they are allowed no family but each other.
Why did Rufus have to die? He was cool! He brought experience to the table, and to have him killed by possessed-Bobby didn't seem fair, and was unnecessary to the plot.
Who is Eve? Is she Biblical Eve? Because that doesn't make sense - if they were going that route, they should have used Lilith, except OH WAIT - they already did. Come on, writers. What's going on with you? And I'm reaaally tired of the Evil Slut take on bad female characters. Can't they be bad in a straight-forward professional manner? Do they have to be bad through the use of sexual wiles? Is this only possible when the bad character is a male possessing a female, in the case of Rafael and his new vessel? This is tired and overdone, writers. Step it up.
No new episodes until April 15.
Crap. Now I have to wait for more than a month to enjoy the time travelling episode, and to see if Cas is going to get any more screen time.
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