The Planets: Mercury

As a mid/late summer project, I've decided to write a series of nine line poems about each planets and their "qualities". Even Pluto made the cut. I hope you return my return to blog poetry:)

Mercury

Gazing upon the frozen plain,

I pray to the fickle Deity for winter rain.

Winged feet occupied elsewhere, in comings and goings

Over stark, bare craters and mole hill mountains.

I drink from barren fountains

That don't satisfy my wandering winged feet

They tread endlessly, aimlessly

Over the broken landscape of garish Walmarts and petrol stained                                                                            service stations. 

The god only sheds one tear.

Capsule Book Reviews (William Blake, Fray, All Quiet on the Western Front)

Goodreads.com is a website that should be on every bibliophile's bookmarks. You can keep track of what books you're reading, have read, and want to read. Other features including seeing what your friends (or favorite authors) are reading, trivia, and forums. But my favorite feature is the review function where you can give a book a star rating (1-5) and write a little blurb about it. These capsule reviews come from my Goodreads page.

Blake: Poems by William Blake (Everyman's Library, 1994)

William Blake was a mystic poet who was not afraid to challenge the religious and political views of his day. Like the other Romantic poets, he creates beautiful images of nature especially in Songs of Innocence); but he is not naive and understands the natural and moral evil that haunts the universe and provides haunting imagery of evil and demonic power. Blake also brings up some interesting philosophical questions in his longer poems The Everlasting Gospel and Marriage of Heaven and Hell where he ponders if there is really a dichotomy between reason and desire and attempts to solve the ancient Dionysian/Apollonian problem. Blake's prophetic poems are slightly denser than his other works and derivative of other sources like the Bible and Paradise Lost, but they are a valiant attempt at world-building. 4/5 Stars


Fray by Joss Whedon and Karl Moline (Dark Horse Comics, 2003)

Not Whedon's best work, but it is interesting seeing a concept to see a "Slayer" who is even more amoral than Faith. The plot was a bit of a rehash of season 1 of Buffy and the art was shaky in spots. However, this cyberpunk world was extremely interesting and may have even influenced Firefly... The latter issues especially shine along with the relationship between Melaka and her siblings Harth and Erin. 3/5 Stars


All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (Vintage Books, 2009)


I read this book in 11th grade, and it has had a great impact on my thinking as a pacifist. Through reading this book, I realized that soldiers are pawns of their government and neither hurt nor hindered by the outcome. The humorous conversation among the soldiers about the war leaders fighting in a ring for each other's country especially proved this point. All Quiet also contains uncanny juxtapositions between peaceful nature images and brutal, grotesque battle scenes. It also reveals the vulnerable nature of humans because no character is spared from fickle death, not even the protagonist. In conclusion, All Quiet on the Western Front is an excellent, balanced look at the mind and actions of the "lost generation" of 1918. You will not look at war or good and evil the same way after reading this novel.


So what do you think of these books? Any books you would like me to review? Please comment below.

True Confession: I Am A Type I Anti-Hero

So I'm currently addicted to the Internet (what's new), especially this fun little site TV Tropes. I love going on this site and seeing all the little connections between all the books, movies, TV shows, and video games that I've watched/played. (And some that I haven't) After perusing the Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes page, I realized that I am Type I Anti-hero.

Type I anti-heroes lack the edge that make "stereotypical" anti-heroes such badasses. So don't expect me to shoot first or wear a tight skull t-shirt any time soon... They just don't want to be heroes and have deep, noticeable flaws. For example, Superman can fly, has super strength, heat vision, and still gets the big scoop for the Daily Planet. In contrast, Spider-Man still has cool powers like the proportional strength of a spider but can still get his butt handed to him by baddies like Doc Ock and Kingpin, struggles balancing "real life"with superhero-ing, and can never "settle down" with his lady friends. (*cough* One More Day *cough*). If I was a superhero, I would fall in the Spider-Man category.

Type I anti-heroes fall in the morally "good" category. Some quick examples are Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit, Napoleon Dynamite (who I've been compared to), all those lovable and not so lovable from Kevin Smith movies, and the main cast of The Guild. Overall, I am a moral person, don't do big "bad" things like cheat on tests/significant others, do my homework/chores, and abstain from violence. Yeah, what an interesting life. However, I lack the "hero" factor.

So I've done some "selfless" things in my life, like making study guides for my entire philosophy class in high school and helping feed homeless people my first semester in college. I quit that second gig for less than noble reasons because some overzealous folks called me a "socialist" and "liberal scum". If I truly cared about helping people, I would persist and not fall prey to simple words. But did I even care any more.

Caring is an interesting concept. The past few days I have come to realize that I truly "care" about few people. This is a major personal weakness. Honestly, I would rather see The Dark Knight Rises opening night that spend a week with my (extended) family in the Virgin Islands. This is madness. However, I know that the proven formula of Batman+ Christopher Nolan (along with possible Bat-breakage and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Azrael/Nightwing) will provide a solid two and a half hours of cinematic magic and conclusion to one of my favorite film trilogies. This is in contrast to time spent with my extended family who I have very little in common with and are way too "competitive" for me. They also didn't get the point of Hunger Games and maybe even Fight Club...

In conclusion, I have made two very long term personal goals. First, I want to upgrade from an anti-hero to a "real" hero while not losing the quirks that make me me. Do something to benefit society (not for a paycheck or "therapy") while keeping the sarcasm and pop culture reference overdose. I might maybe even rekindle my old "bleeding heart" nature and former faith. Second, I need to find some kind of "project". Existentialist philosopher Jean-Sartre described a good project as "acting on a concrete situation and modifying it in some way"in his essay "A New Authentic Way of Being". Despite how hard one tries, life has no overarching purpose and is a daily struggle. However, I can still find some meaningful to do with my time, like writing fiction or poetry, updating this blog, or something physical like running and feel like my life has some direction despite the chaos and nothingness. If hardened criminals can find redemption so can self-centered anti-heroes like me.

"If nothing we do matters, all that matters is what we do."-Angel in "Epiphany" from Angel

Reborn: Child of Light, Child of Dark

Golden rings around my head

Angel of light on a golden thread

Brooding like Boreanaz in the corner

Alone, a stranger, a foreigner,

Isolation spreads its wings.

A solitary rook sings.

I have lost my freedom,

Captivity stifles my lost soul.

On a quest for redemption,

I tread these shadowlands.

My path is desolate and darksome.

Drawing near to the void of days

Body bruised on the rocks of malice

They shattered my crystal palace.

But I can see the Northern Lights.

Cast away the barrow wights

I am the child of light and dark

Reborn, like a flying spark;

Soul and the Cage

I lose faith every hour.
As I sap my willpower
Dandelions float in the East Wind.
Aimlessly looking for his friend;
Soul, light as a feather
It can't live in this red, stormy weather
Southern gale washes over me.
Ripping me apart like a dying palm tree

Dying and Lying
Trying and Crying

Naked, I trudge to a cavern dark.
Skin scarred with unseemly marks
What's my line? What's my line?
What's my line, oh, God divine?
Unable to speak, unable to hurt
Atrophied heart throbs in the dirt.
Trapped in a guarded cage
I lament my age...

American Vampire

American Vampire

They drain blood from the faint-hearted.

Predators who devour the innocent

Teeth glinting like the watch of a rich man,

Feasting on the fat of the land,

Bloated with bodies, bodies, and bodies

"From beneath it devours".

And this beast never breeds.

Only attending to flesh needs

Every day, it lives to feed.

Stomach churns with boundless greed.

It tramples beauty, squashes truth.

Destroying the hopes of youth

Its defeat will come anonymously.

We must Occupy the beast.

Leaderless, we remain.

Who will bring a new day?

Interesting Nietzsche Quotes to Ponder (Part I)

I am currently reading Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra for my Existentialism class at The Master's College. In the early chapters of the work, Zarathustra tells the people of the village that "God is dead" which they laugh at and later hate. Even though I may not agree with everything he says, Nietzsche is extremely quotable and makes you think about who you are in this world, what are the point of morals, and if you're really yourself or just going along with the herd mentality. Without further ado...

"Ten truths a day you must find; else you will still be seeking truth by night, and your soul will remain hungry." (Chapter 2 "On the Teachers of Virture")

"Ten times a day you must laugh and be cheerful; else you will be disturbe at night by your stomach, this father of gloom." (Ibid.)

"Blessed are the sleepy ones: for they shall soon drop off." (Ibid.)

"The creator wanted to look away from himself; so he created the world." ("On the Afterworldly")

"The body is a great reason, a plurality with one sense, a war and a peace, a herd and a shepherd." ("On the Despisers of the Body")

"Instruments and toys are sense and spirit; behind them still lies the spirit." (Ibid.)

"... in the end all your passions became virtues and all your devils, angels." ("On Enjoying and Suffering the Passions")

"But what matter your good people to me? Much about your good people nauseates me; and verily, it is not  their evil." ("On the Pale Criminal")

"Write with blood, and you will experience that blood is spirit." ("On Reading and Writing")

"We are all of us fair beasts of burden, male and female asses." (Ibid.)

"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness." (Ibid.)

"It is by invisible hands that we are bent and tortured worst." ("On the Tree on the Mountainside")

"But it is with man as it is with the tree. The more he aspires to the height and light, the more strongly do his roots strive earthward, downward, into the dark-the deep-into evil." (Ibid.)

"Nobody speaks to me; the frost of loneliness makes me shiver." (Ibid.)

"And even the liberated spirit must still purify himself." (Ibid.)

"Know that the noble man stands in everybody's way. The noble man stands in the way of the good too: and even if they call him one of the good, they thus want to do away with him" (Ibid.)

"You should love peace as a means to new wars- and the short peace more than the long... Let your peace be a victory!" ("Of War and Warriors")

"In sarcasm the prankster and weakling meet. But they misunderstand each other." (Ibid.)

"... man is something that shall be overcome" (Ibid.)

"State is the name of the coldest of all cold monsters." ("On the New Idol")

"But the state tells lies in all the tongues of good and evil; and whatever it says it lies- and whatever it has it has stolen." (Ibid.)

"All-too-many are born: for the superfluous the state was invented." (Ibid.)

"They are always sick; they vomit their gall and call it a newspaper." (Ibid.)

"The earth is free even now for the great souls. There are still many empty seats for the lonesome and twosome, fanned by the fragrance of the silent seas." (Ibid.)

"Flee, my friend, into your solitude!" ("On the Flies of the Marketplace")

"Where solitude ceases the marketplace begins; and where the marketplace begins the noise of the great actors and the buzzing of the poisonous flies begins too." (Ibid.)

"In the world even the best things amount to nothing without someone to make a show of them..." (Ibid.)

"Blood is what they want from you in all innocence." (Ibid.)

"... you are the bad conscience of your neighbors: for they are unworthy of you." (Ibid.)

"It is bad to live in cities: these too many are in heat." ("Of Chastity")

"Chastity is a virtue in some, but almost a vice in many. They abstain, but the bitch, sensuality, leers enviously out of everything they do." (Ibid.)

"It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters." (Ibid.)

"Our faith in others betrays in what respect we would like to have faith in ourselves." ("On Friends")

"In a friend one should have one's best enemy. You should be closest to him with your heart when you resist him." (Ibid.)

"Compassion for the friend should conceal itself under a hard shell, and you should break a tooth on it." (Ibid.)

"As much as you give the friend, I will give even my enemy, and I shall not be any the poorer for it. There is comradeship: let there be friendship!" (Ibid.)

"Humanity still has no goal." ("On the Thousand and One Goals")