Monday, December 19, 2005

Planetary

If the great achievement of Watchmen was to bring psychological realism to the improbable notion of costumed super-heroes, the achievement of Warren Ellis' Planetary is to dissolve the barrier between our reality and the sphere of the super-powered without compromising the weirdness of the uber. Drawing on the high paranoia of postmodern classics like The Crying of Lot 49 and the reality-meddling of Dick, Ellis creates a secret history in which versions of Doc Savage, the Shadow, Fu Manchu, Sherlock Holmes, Godzilla, and various other famous characters coexist and interact. In one of the title's most brilliant maneuvers, the Fantastic Four have their echo in an inscrutably villainous group known only as The Four, who apparently became the "secret chiefs" of the planet a long time ago. The four-member Planetary team (our heroes) in turn echo The Four. The distinction between the ideologies of the two groups is subtle: while the Planetary team act as historians and conservationists of the bizarre (their motto is "It's a strange world...Let's keep it that way"), the Four horde and exploit wonders. "We're adventurers, my crewmates and I," one of the Four tells us, "on the human adventure. And you can't all come along." Ellis himself walks the fuzzy line between these positions, dropping just enough hints about the big picture to make you believe there is one, but not enough to let you see it.

The first 18 issues have been collected in three paperback volumes.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

The Alchemy of Empire

In the introduction to his recent novel The Dreamthief's Daughter, Michael Moorcock offers an explanation for the popularity of his work in Japan:
As a very early anti-monarchist and anti-imperialist I wasn't sad to see the institutions crumbling, but at the same time it is your culture that's crumbling, so it doesn't necessarily feel that good to you as an ordinary individual. It's a bittersweet thing, from my side, the end of Empire! It could also be why Elric was so phenomenally successful in Japan!
This shared experience of conflicted nostalgia for empire could also explain why the anime series "Full Metal Alchemist" uses a fantasy world heavily inflected with British colonialism to create moral ambiguity for its hero. "Alchemy" stands in for technology in this world, and helps a militaristic empire keep control of various subject cultures that include a thinly disguised muslim population. Our hero, a talented young alchemist, goes to work for the state but quickly finds himself sympathizing with its victims.

As in the best anime, there are few true villains -- just multiple competing interests and perspectives in a complex society. There's a sympathetic side even to the psycho-killers whose souls have been alchemically bound to hollow suits of armor to serve the twisted purposes of the state.

"Full Metal Alchemist" can be viewed on The Cartoon Network or on DVD.

Friday, December 02, 2005

Call It Sleep

This week I urge you to read Call It Sleep, by Henry Roth. This is my first almost complete departure from the scifi/fantasy theme of my recommendations so far (although otherworldliness does figure as a theme in the book), but so be it. The next proselytization will pertain to anime, I promise.

You could call this a book about a Jewish immigrant kid, but that would be like saying To the Lighthouse is about a British mom. The story is heartbreaking, but it's just an occasion for the transcendent games with voice and point of view. One moment you're listening to the mind of young David Schearl, and the next it's as if the New York cityscape has transformed into one big burning bush whispering revelations. High modernism in the ghetto, written by a janitor.