The Fantastical Tales of the Bloody Chamber.

Five years ago, I quietly glanced at Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber in my Fable and Tales class. I thought it was a very descriptive book from an extraordinary writer, but I never really immersed myself at that time. But with a more mature capacity for reading, I decided to revisit these tales that peaked my interest. And with Summer finally here, it’s perfect timing.

The Bloody Chamber is a collection of familiar fairy tales (mostly from Charles Perrault) translated with a more modern setting and somewhat feminist and sensual perspective. These stories are ripe with luscious descriptions, sinister settings, and ambiguously moral characters. They have a fantastical element because they evoke epic journeys from female protagonists. The most memorable is, of course, The Bloody Chamber (translated from the Bluebeard tale). Although quite long from the other stories, it’s still a very good tale of a recently married woman who tries to uncover her husband’s dark secret.

My favorites out of the ten vignettes are Snow Child (from Snow White), The Tiger’s Bride (from Beauty and the Beast), and The Company of Wolves (from Little Red Riding Hood). What I truly loved about these particular stories was that the endings had a slightly different twist (The Beast in The Tiger’s Bride is surprisingly not the creature who underwent a transformation) and there were definitely sexual undertones (especially with the female protagonist in The Company of Wolves as she plays a game with the handsome wolf). The other stories (The Courtship of Mr. Lyons, The Lady of the House of Love, The Werewolf, Puss-in-Boots, Erl-king, and Wolf-Alice) are mildly entertaining, but still can grabbed anyone’s attention because of their originality to captivate the readers with traditional fairy tales.

Many are quite funny, with classic but unpredicted endings. But the best part of all was that the female characters were not just bystanders.  Sure, they were extravagant in their appearance, but they had the relatability and common sense with anyone dealing with issues of marriage, sexuality, and identity. All in all, I would recommend anyone this book because the read will be swept away, one away or another.

My Rating: B+

GQ’s Geared Up For The Summer.

It’s summertime, and GQ finally published their June 2009 Issue! That means it comes with oodles of jam-packed info on exotic places, casual attire, and pretty pictures. For a slim 188-page issue, the magazine offered a lot with an inspiring Project Upgrade section, the Style Guy’s advice on nose hairs, and writer Will Welch’s cry against the douche bags that tried to reclaim prep style as their provocative lifestyle. Very intriguing, indeed. I also loved reading about the seven distinct types of pizzas with 25 great American locations (one in San Francisco), but detested the anti-Starbucks rant on their iced coffee. Summer is perfect for iced coffee, but GQ needs to lay off the Starbucks hatred (it’s the fourth time this yearon their corporate rant, really). Actor Chris Pine’s photoshoot was magnificently alluring while NFL star Mark Sanchez’s 70’s vibe photoshoot was appropriately summery. And kudos to the descriptive use of khakis for any time and the sly advertisement of the colorful woven striped belt on practically every page (I WILL get one).  Only downgrade I could give would be Christian Bale: as the cover story, his pictures looked atrocious. He’s a BEAR! ‘Nuff said.

Chris Pine:

Mark Sanchez:

Time For Some Summer Readings.

I remember anxiously waiting for summer to arrive, but dreading the possibilities of summer reading. Yeah, that atrocious leisure activity I would rather forget and actually go out and get some fresh air. But this time around, I’m going back to that little niche hobby because I have a few books/graphic novels I wanted to check out. Ad of course, times have changed where reading is enjoyable. Sure, I will be out and enjoying summer (Las Vegas trip, working out, tanning, film festival volunteer, Pride Day, and the reopening of the Cafe come to mind), but summer reading will be littered every time I crave some downtime. But I won’t ignore the show that I actually need to watch:  the first season of Queer as Folk. =)

Mostly, I’ll be catching up on some graphic novel anthologies:

• Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber: a sort-of modern retelling of classic fairy tales, but with a sexually explicit tone with a positive feminist perspective. Read it before in my Folklore class, but would like to revisit them for enjoyment.
• Marvel Romance: I just want to read some nostalgic 60s era romance tales drawn by greats like Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko mixed with absurd Douglas Sirk’s melodrama. And possibly read Marvel Romance Redux, a parody of these outdated tales.
• Flight: I’ve heard a lot of fantastic accolades about these tales. I mean there’s a sixth volume coming out soon, but I still have no idea what they’re about except that they are vignettes connected with the theme of flight. Really, worth a check.
• Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology: I’ve heard a lot of great acclaim about a new perspective of the Asian American experience, except with a positive superhero perspective. I will check this out soon.
• Essential Classic X-men vol. 2: I’ve read the first 21 issues of the original 1960s X-Men adventures and wanted to check out their kooky and bizarre Silver Age follow-ups, but not for $50 a graphic novel. So the Essential volume it is.
• Nick Fury: Agent of Shield: Always on the bottom of my list, but I might sometime. The legendary tales of Agent Nick Fury with psychedelic art from Jim Steranko. Perfect for the summer at Dolores Park.

With actual comic books, I’ll just be reading:

• Finishing Matt Fraction’s Sisterhood arc in Uncanny X-Men
• Selective issues (particularly 1 and 4) of Fantastic Four
• The Dark Avenger/Uncanny X-Men Crossover in Utopia
• The last issues of Xavier’s journey in X-Men Legacy
• Hex-centennial issues of Spiderman, Captain America, the Hulk, and Daredevil
• The first issue of Marvels Project and a commendatory issue of 1939’s Marvel Comics #1

Does anyone else have any leisurely reading to do?