Creeptastic Art (1 day late)

I've been admiring the costumes posted here and there on the web. Nate's cousin Miriam was Little Red Riding Hood. She bought this dress when she lived in Germany and made the cape herself.

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 Doesn't she look cute? I thought so too until I saw this picture and got really creeped out.

This is Miriam's cloak. She spread it out on the ground to show us the general shape.What's so creepy about a red cloak on the ground? Oh so much. Let me explain.

On our way to Maryland we made a stop in Chattanooga to visit my cousin. (I'm noticing a cousin theme.) While there we went to the Hunter Museum of American Art, and they had an exhibition of Beverly Semmes's art.

Beverly Semmes works with fabric to create oversized dresses (anywhere from 7 to 30 feet long) that pool onto the floor. They often have a period feel to them.

 On the Lake

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Pink Arms, Pairs, and Bumps (detail)

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Beverly Semmes's avenue into fabric installations actually began with her photography. She made the clothing that her models wore. In the exhibition that we saw most of the photographs on display were taken outdoors, in the woods.

Figure on Ground (front view)

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On the Blue

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So when I saw Miriam's red cloak spread out on the ground I had an immediate flashback to Beverly Semmes's photography. Bright red was obviously a very important color to her at this particular point in her career (late 1990s). And clearly these photographs are creepy with their prone, shrouded, faceless figures. The red stockings peeking out from beneath that drab cloak make me shiver.

And, as if Beverly Semmes's photography isn't creepy (in the best possible way) enough in its own right, while I was at the exhibition I could not help but recall M. Night Shyamalan's 2004 film The Village. The red, the cloaked figures alone in the woods. You get the idea. Here are some images from The Village:

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And here is one last photograph by Beverly Semmes:

Starcraft

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Are you sufficiently creeped out?

In summation, let's tally up the creepiness:

1. Cloaked figures alone in the woods: Little Red Riding Hood, Beverly Semmes's photography, The Village
2. Bright red against drab surroundings: Little Red Riding Hood, Beverly Semmes's photography, The Village
3. Scary creature who inhabits the woods: Little Red Riding Hood, The Village

This "Miriam as Little Red Riding Hood to Beverly Semmes's photography to The Village" is actually a perfect circle because I first saw The Village at Miriam's parent's house. Yes, the three shall always be inseparably and creepily connected.

Dsytopia Defined

With the abundance (dare I say over-abundance) of futuristic YA novels on the market there's been a lot of discussion about the definition of a dystopia, which is how many of these novels are being classified. Basically, dystopia has become the term for any futuristic, post-apocalyptic setting. My problem with this is that dystopia is really a much more specific term.

A dystopia is a society that masquerades as a utopia (a perfect society) while really things are not as awesome as they appear. A dystopia is dysfunctional utopia. 

Even wikipedia agrees with me on this folks. And we all know how error-proof wikipedia is.

I think the confusion comes in because many post-apocalyptic novels are also dystopias. In these instances, the world has experienced some horrible cataclysmic event and in rebuilding the world a dystopia arises. However, it doesn't always work the other way around. Just because you are reading something that's post-apocalyptic doesn't mean that it's a dystopia.

Let's look at a few examples.

Classic Dystopias
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)
1984 by George Orwell (1949)
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (1895)

In all three of these examples, those in charge strive to give the impression that their people live in an ideal world, but it's really not so great whether because of strict class-structure and indoctrination, Big Brother and lack of individual freedom, or violent subterranean creatures who make the idyllic life of the surface-dwellers possible.

YA Dystopias
The Giver by Lois Lowry (1993)
One of the classics of children's literature, in The Giver Jonas lives in a seemingly perfect society, no pain, no fear, no choices. Obviously giving up those things is not so awesome.

Matched by Ally Condie (2010)
Another world where the keepers of society are in complete control. The book begins with Cassia receiving her Match--her future husband, chosen, of course by The Society.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (2005)
Again, a shiny, shiny, seemingly perfect world where life is fun and everyone is equally beautiful but ... also equally complacent.

YA post-apocalyptic novels that are not dystopias
The Forest of Hands and Feet by Carrie Ryan (2009)
Sure the Sisterhood is a controlling government/ religion but nobody in this book thinks they live in an ideal world. As a result of the zombie apocalypse humans must live in cages to keep out the zombie hordes.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner (2009)
A bunch of boys are dumped into a ever-changing maze with deadly machine creatures. What sounds ideal about that?

Wither by Lauren DeStafano (2011)
In this novel the children and children's children of the one and only disease-free generation die at 20 or 25. Obviously the world does not seem like an ideal place.

Novels that are tricky to classify
Who wants everything to fit neatly into a little box anyway? 

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2009)
If Katniss lived in the Capitol and slowly came to realize that she'd been indoctrinated into thinking the Districts were inferior then The Hunger Games would be a dystopia. However, Katniss lives in District 12 and has no such illusion. She knows her world is a pretty crummy place to be. Thus, I'm not comfortable calling this series dystopian. Better just stick with post-apocalyptic. 

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (2007)
The characters who live outside of Incarceron in The Realm live in a seemingly ideal world. Those who live inside Incarceron, on the other hand, have a harrowing existence. Because we follow characters from both sides of the border, this novel has dystopian elements as well as non-dystopian elements.

Apocalyptic Novels
There are, of course, apocalyptic novels as well--novels that deal not with the aftermath of the cataclysmic event but with the actual event itself. 

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (2004)
Daisy's idyllic life in the English countryside come to an abrupt halt when the country is invaded. 

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (2007)
Miranda lives in a world just like ours until a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth causing all kinds of devastation.

Author Erin Bowman made a flow chart (that I can mostly get behind) to help determine whether or not the novel you are reading is, in fact, a dystopia.

Red Glove by Holly Black

I absolutely devoured Holly Black's first book in this series White Cat. Red Glove was also pretty darn good.

In the second novel Cassel Sharp returns to school for his senior year, and after the insane events of last spring, he has a few, shall we say loose ends, with which to deal. Firstly, Lila is still cursed to love him, and this puts Cassel, who has loved her his entire life, in a really sticky situation. Secondly, Phillip, Cassel brother is murdered and the Feds want Cassel to help them with their investigation. And, as if those last two issues weren't enough, Zacharov, Lila's father and leader of the curse workers mafia, wants Cassel to work for him.

This series is all about the con, and Cassel is a master con artists, and so I can't say much more without giving things away. Suffice it to say, there were plenty of surprises. Red Glove like it's predecessor had me racing through the pages (or discs to be technical). I like Cassel. I like his friends. I love the alternate curse worker/mob family world. I love the fear of hands and the gloves. Even the politics of this world are interesting. And, true to form, Holly Black writes an ending that will leave many readers wanting more.

I listened to this book on audio. It's narrated by Jesse Eisenberg of The Social Network fame. He does a pretty good job. I think his voice really suits Cassel.

Reading Order:
White Cat
Red Glove
Black Heart (expected publication 2012)

Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt

Basically Gary D. Schmidt is a genius. The Wednesday Wars was a five-star read for me and made it onto my favorite reads of 2009. Okay for Now is every bit as good.

Okay for Now follows Doug Swieteck, a character in The Wednesday Wars, to a new town and a new beginning. Doug has a rough family life, a volatile father, one brother in Vietnam and one who is always picking on him, and a loving, but powerless mother. Needless to say, Doug is rough around the edges, but Marysville, despite ...moreBasically Gary D. Schmidt is a genius. The Wednesday Wars was a five-star read for me and made it onto my favorite reads of 2009. Okay for Now is every bit as good.

Okay for Now follows Doug Swieteck, a character in The Wednesday Wars, to a new town and a new beginning. Doug has a rough family life, a volatile father, one brother in Vietnam and one who is always picking on him, and a loving, but powerless mother. Needless to say, Doug is rough around the edges, but Marysville, despite his initial disdain for the town, ends up being so very good for him. I couldn't not love this battered kid who has such a good heart and so much potential.

As with The Wednesday Wars, Gary Schmidt brings in so many details that probably make me predisposed to love this book even more, such as great teachers, libraries, Jane Eyre, horseshoes, running, and John James Audubon (American art history!). Each and every one of these things helps Doug strip away that tough kid facade.

Okay for Now is a companion novel to The Wednesday Wars but not a sequel, Holling Hoodhood only makes one appearance, but it is a worthy one.

Doug's voice is so strong and so funny but also so vulnerable, and it's one of the things that makes Okay for Now poignant and real and amazingly good.

My Harry Potter Identity

Today I finished the 7th book in the Harry Potter series. Again. While I was reading the book this time I noticed something I found rather interesting. In the chapter "Godric's Hollow" Harry and Hermione find the graves of Harry's parents. Inscribed on these graves are their birth and death dates. It's the death date that really struck me: "31 October 1981." 1981! That means that Harry was born in 1980. And that means that Harry is only one year younger than me, and that is a little mind-blowing because in 1997, when the first Harry Potter was published in The U.K., I graduated from high school. I suppose J.K. Rowling thought of Harry as 11 in 1990 when she first started working on the Harry Potter series, but I always thought of him as being 11 in 1997.

Why is this so striking to me? Well, because one day my sister and I were sitting in the movie theater waiting for one of the Harry Potter films to begin and to pass the time we began to discuss our place in Harry Potter's world. Paige, we realized, would be the age of Fred and George Weasley. Lucky girl. She would be at Hogwarts for some of the story. She decided she would be in Gryffindor, and we went on to discuss what classes and activities she would do. I, on the other hand, would probably have been the age of Charlie Weasley. So I wouldn't really be close to any of the main characters, but this didn't stop us from discussing what I would do at Hogwarts. We decided I'd better be in Ravenclaw. It just seems the best fit. We thought I would be really good at Transfiguration and that I would have ambitions to come and teach at Hogwarts someday. 

So you see this whole Harry-is-only-one-year-younger-than-me is throwing off my supposed time at Hogwarts. Paige and I discussed this problem on the phone today. On the one hand, now I could be at Hogwarts while Harry and the gang are at school. Paige mentioned that I would be Katie Bell's age. I guess I don't come off too bad in this adjusted time frame. Paige, however, said, "I would be Colin Creevy's little brother's age. No wait, I would be younger than Colin Creevy's little brother." She vastly prefers the earlier scenario we had developed (and who could blame her). At least, either way, Paige and I would get to go to Hogwarts together for a couple years.

Despite these musings, I can't really get my mind around the fact that, according to the grave marker, Harry Potter takes place in the 1990s and not the 2000s because if Harry leaves for Hogwarts in 1991 then the final battle takes place in 1998. (Does this look like 1998 fashion to you?)

And, as exciting as my new Hogwarts's identity could be, I think I prefer the one that Paige and I originally invented, perhaps just out of pure nostalgia. As I told her on the phone today, with my old identity I didn't go to school with Harry, but if I achieved my life's ambition, when Professor McGonagall became Headmistress (that's inevitable right) I could be the new Transfiguration professor and eventually teach Harry's children.

Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

In this sequel to Finn's harrowing escape from Incarceron and Claudia's narrowly aborted wedding to Prince Casper, Claudia, Finn and Jared are trying to hold together Finn's tenuous place as Prince Giles, heir to the Realm. Attia, Keiro, and the Warden are all trapped in Incarceron and trying to Escape. The mystical and mythical Sapphique is an ever-constant presence.

I really liked Incarceron but Catherine Fisher's follow-up novel, Sapphique, absolutely blew me away. This is science fiction/ steampunk/ post-apocalyptic dystopia at its finest.

I never knew what was coming and that is a huge compliment. So often in young adult literature I can predict the the twists. Not so with Sapphique. The Realm and Incarceron are never what they appear to be. Fisher has created a world with its own deeply entrenched mythology. The references to familiar fairy tales and fables create a tantalizing tie to our own time and place. The Sapphique Legend is a masterful creation. I found this book to be utterly magical.