The Incredible Hulk

Today's review is of the 2008 film, The Incredible Hulk (I need to finish off my MCU reviews).

Bruce Banner is in hiding.  His gamma radiation experiments went horrible wrong, altering his blood and creating a invincible/uncontrollable/dangerous alter-ego who comes out when he gets angry.  And so he seeks solitude and peace in Brazil, doing what he can to avoid both anger and the US military (who wants to weaponize him).  But, inevitably, they locate him, forcing him to flee.  He travels back to America, seeking his former love (Betty Ross) and desperately searching for a cure.  But as he does, the military performs a similar experiment on a military soldier . . . creating an Abomination that might just be more than Hulk can handle.

The second film in the MCU, this one is (to me) the worst by far.  Mystifying plot holes, poor character development, shallow acting, and confusing conclusion produced a real letdown.  Even the humor- a key aspect of the other MCU films- was off.  The best part was at the end, when Tony Stark shows up and foreshadows the Avengers (Iron Man had been released a few months prior).  But this can be avoided- and should be.

Rating: D

The Core (Leigh Bortins)

Leigh Bortins covers the basics of classical education in The Core.  After chapters discussing what's wrong with modern education and how a classical approach can help, she offers chapters on each element of a classical education core: reading, writing, math, geography, history, science, and fine arts.  She offers the key tenets of, an approach to, and resources for teaching each subject.

"Classical education is analogous to brain training.  When encountering new information, the brain must know how to store data (grammar), retrieve and process data (logic), and express data (rhetoric)."  These three skills are the core of the approach- memorization, analytical, and communication skills.  The ultimate goal of education, quoting Andrew Kern, is "the cultivation of wisdom and virtue, and it is accomplished by nourishing the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty."  The classical model seeks to do so by raising a "culture of clear thinkers."  Bortins summarizes: "the ultimate goal in a classical education is to lead a child through knowledge and understanding to wisdom and virtue."

The book makes a lot of interesting points.  The gist seemed to be "kids should know stuff," where stuff = basic facts about math, history, science, grammar, etc., and then learn to apply that stuff to further learning.  I agree.  However, it is a sales pitch for homeschooling via a specific method.  At times, the generalizations (about the state of public education or the beauty of classical education) irritated me, as did the promises that 'anyone can do this' (the final chapter offering ideas for how to do this as single parents or two working parents seemed hollow indeed).  I see the benefit of the approach, but felt the difficulties and drawbacks were inadequately addressed.

Rating: A-

The Meaning of Marriage (Timothy Keller)

Whether or not you're married, it's good to read marriage books every now and then.  Timothy Keller's work looks at:
- the secret of marriage
- the power for marriage
- the essence of marriage
- the mission of marriage
- loving the stranger
- embracing the other
- singleness and marriage
- sex and marriage

He bases his book on 37 years of marriage, his experience with his inner-city New York church (4,000 attendees, 75% of whom are single), and the Bible.

At its core, the book argues that "Jesus's sacrificial service to us has brought us into a deep union with him and he with us.  And that . . . is the key not only to understanding marriage but to living it."  "This is one of God's great purposes in marriage: to picture the relationship between Christ and His redeemed people forever!"  What does that mean? That "each partner is called to sacrifice for the other in far-reaching ways.  Whether we are husband or wife, we are not to live for ourselves but for the other.  And that is the hardest yet single most important function of being a husband or a wife in marriage."  Because we're inherently selfish, that means a successful marriage (or relationship of any kind, frankly), will require us to "undergo a radical change in the way [we] relate to people."  The book goes on to discuss ways that needs to happen, from both our understanding of to our actions in marriage.

We need to hear the gospel in different ways, applied to different situations; this is a good look at marriage through that lens.  And I like Keller's quote defining the gospel: "It is that you are so lost and flawed, so sinful, that Jesus had to die for you, but you are also so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for you."  Marriage involves two lost and flawed people, who (if they truly love and value each other) will gladly sacrifice for the other, to the point of death.  A lofty goal to be sure!

It's a good work; I expect nothing less from Keller.  It's insightful and challenging.  I especially appreciated the chapters on loving the stranger (how we change through life and can become unrecognizable, and how to handle that) and singleness (how to neither over- nor under-desire marriage).  Check this one out.

Rating: A

You Know You're Dutch, When . . . (Colleen Geske)

You Know You're Dutch, When . . . provides a humorous look at the foibles of Dutch culture.  Most statements come with a picture and accompanying explanation for foreigners.  Through this, I learned things I never knew (despite several visits to the country), to include:
- Dutch love putting chocolate sprinkles on bread [and I can now verify it is indeed tasty]
- They congratulate everyone in the family at a birthday party (not just the birthday boy/girl)
- They swear using ancient disease ("Typhoid on you!")

I was interesting, amusing, and insightful.

Rating: B

Batman: Absolution

Ten years ago, a terrorist attack rocked Wayne Enterprises and left dozens dead.  After a decade of searching, Batman has finally located the ringleader . . . who has repented of her crimes and now lives in India doing good.  Can someone change; can their be absolution?  Or will it be "no miracles, no mercy.  Above all: no redemption?"

The art here is excellent (and what drew me to check this out), but the story doesn't quite deliver.  It promises to rock Batman's beliefs about justice and retribution, but only scratches the surface.  Batman does ask some good questions (internally), but pushes on with his worldview without overly wrestling with them.  What does justice look like?  Can people change?  I was hoping for a more thorough- or at least interesting- treatment.

Rating: B-

Jack the Ripper (Rick Geary)

In 1888-9, a series of horrific murders terrified London.  The victims- female, often prostitutes- were hideously carved and missing organs.  The serial killer was never caught, but sent letters to the police signed "Jack the Ripper."  The tale grips us to this day, and is retold by Rick Geary through the eyes of a fictional contemporary.

It's a good story; the black-and-white art is basic but works (and avoids being overly graphic), and the facts are conveyed well.  This is a good way to learn about these events.

Rating: A

Creatures of the Night (Neil Gaiman)

Creatures of the Night is a short (46-page) graphic novel adaptation of two short stories from Neil Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors collection.  Story 1: a mysterious cat shows up at a farmstead and protects the family from the supernatural. Story 2: a mysterious girl, abandoned and raised on a convent, has a supernatural affinity for owls.

Both stories were okay; the art was excellent (which is what caught my eye at the library).

Rating: B

Learning to Look at Paintings (Mary Acton)

Ever look at a famous, revered work of art and say "I don't get it"?  Me too.  I need to learn how to look at paintings . . . and Mary Acton's book is a good introduction.  Using plenty of examples, she dedicates chapters to:
- composition ("the artist's method of organising a subject, of deciding what to put in and what to leave out in order to make an effective picture").  Here, she looks at lines like horizontals and verticals, harmony and balance, curves and diagonals, and more.
- space ("the creation of the illusion of three dimensions on a flat surface").  Things like linear perspective, geometrical space, aerial perspective, distortion, and disorientation.
- form ("the feeling of volume in a painting")
- tone ("the contrast between light and shade in a painting")
- color (primary and complementary colors, how colors contrast (degree of brightness, etc.))
- subject matter (learning the historical/cultural background and the original physical setting/frame of a picture to more fully understand and appreciate its messages)
- drawing and its purposes (it's not just about sketching for painting prep)
- looking at prints (lithographs and related styles)

Her goal is to give readers the basic understanding and vocabulary to analyze art.

This book is valuable; it gave me some fresh insights and things to look for.  Some things hadn't occurred to me- like the importance of the brushstrokes and surface itself (it may be deliberately layered or rough; impossible to convey in a print), the original setting (could have been a church, and part of a larger series of pictures), and other things.  On the downside, by necessity all examples are reproductions (can't work artistic surfaces into a book) and most are black and white (keeps costs down, but makes it harder to understand her analysis).  I learned a bit, but some art (especially modern/abstract) still baffles me.

Rating: B+

Rabenstarke Erstlesegeschichten für Jungs (Claudia Ondracek)

My reading total is down this year, in part because I'm devoting more time to learning German.  Today's review is of the first book I've read 'auf Deutsch.'  It's a kids book with two stories (about a pirate and talking car).

I can't judge quality in a language I don't know; I read this to practice and improve.  I was able to understand it (pictures help!), and learned some new words along the way.  Fluency is difficult (more on this in future posts), but it's a long road.

Rating: B

The Thirty Years Wars (C.V. Wedgwood)

"Poverty, political unrest, religious divisions, conflicting interests and individual jealousies- these were tinder for a war.  Fire was not lacking."

The Thirty Years War (1618-48) is a seminal conflict in European history.  Fought largely on German soil, it embodied the tensions of and involved nations from the entire continent.  Its convoluted and complex nature defies summarization; it's easiest to point to the general condition of man- our innate selfishness- and the horrors it can unleash as nations, dynasties, and religions all vied for prominence and expansion.  This was a conflict of the Holy Roman Emperor vs. rights of German princes, Catholic vs. Lutheran vs. Protestant, Hapsburg vs. Bourbon, the United Provinces (Netherlands) vs. the Spanish Netherlands & Spain & Austria vs. France vs. Sweden, and more.  Competing interests led to shifting alliances as one power appears to gain the upper hand, throwing religious opponents into temporary alliances and once-mortal national foes into bonds of friendship.  The power shifts, and new truces are formed.  Armies, more mercenary bands than national protectors, fight for whoever pays the best (or at all), and plunders the countryside to ruin.  And for what?

In Germany the war was an unmitigated catastrophe. In Europe it was equally, although in a different way, catastrophic. The peace . . . was totally ineffectual in settling the problems of Europe . . . the Peace of Westphalia was like most peace treaties, a rearrangement of the European map ready for the next war.

Wedgwood continues:

As there was no compulsion towards a conflict which, in despite of the apparent bitterness of parties, took so long to engage and needed so much assiduous blowing to fan the flame, so no right was vindicated by its ragged end.  The war solved no problem.  Its effects, both immediate and indirect, were either negative or disastrous.  Morally subversive, economically destructive, socially degrading, confused in its causes, devious in its course, futile in its results, it is the outstanding example in European history of meaningless conflict.

She wrote this in the 1930s, just after WWI, lending her claim greater significance.  Indeed, the war ultimately set Germany back centuries and aided the creation/rise of Prussia, which (one can argue) in turn set the stage for the horrific war three hundred years later.

Brilliant in her prose and assessments, Wedgwood had me entranced from the introduction.  Highly recommended.

Rating: A