The Pearl is a fairly simple tale, a parable, of the destruction wrought upon a family by colonialism, capitalism, and wealth. Kino is a hardworking, but impoverished, man who works as a pearl diver. When his infant son, Coyolito, is stung by a scorpion, Kino seeks help from the village doctor. They are turned away for lack of funds, and Kino and is wife, Juana, make the best of the situation with an herbal poultice. He returns to the ocean in the hopes that he’ll […]
Murder in a grove / Unreliable viewpoints / Mifune will rise
While technically a short story, I think this still qualifies for the Cannonball. If graphic novels count, then I’m including this. And I’m a bit of an iconoclast, so there. This classic of Japanese literature formed the basis for the iconic Akira Kurosawa movie, Rashomon. It tells the story of a young man’s murder via the viewpoints of seven different individuals, ranging from the woodcutter who found the body to the spirit of the victim, himself (via a medium). That fairly well sums up the […]
I urge you to stay so far away from this book you might not even want to read this review.
What in the ever-loving shit is this? First off, I didn’t expect much, here. It’s about explorers discovering a world hidden in the vast stretches of the Amazonian rain forest, replete with dinosaurs and ape-men. This isn’t Virginia Woolf. But I’ve been subsisting on a diet of H.G. Wells and H.P. Lovecraft, so I’ve been spoiled by less dense material that is still highly enjoyable and intellectually satiating. And then I fall into this sinking morass of blithering idiocy and overwrought pomposity. This book starts […]
No, not that Martian. The other one.
If you’ve somehow made it this far in life without at least hearing of this book, you are both a marvel and curiosity. To give you a basic run down of the plot: the world is invaded by Martians around the turn of the previous century, and humanity is woefully ill-equipped to fend off the invaders. In other words, have you ever seen a movie or read a book or heard someone tell a story in which aliens invade earth? It no doubt owes at […]
Where we’re going, we don’t need any… actually, yeah. Why don’t we at least bring some supplies.
The 1960 Rod Taylor film, of the same name, was in steady rotation when I was a kid. I don’t think I’ve seen it in 25 years, though, so I only have the vaguest memories of it. In my mind, the Morlocks looked like Blanka from Super Street Fighter II, and the access points to their underground layer looked remarkably like the concrete sewer risers in my hometown. When I was 10, the city began work on a large system of culverts just outside my […]
Guess who’s coming to dinner…..
*Spoilers below* I have a complex relationship with H.P. Lovecraft. I love the quietly brooding and tremulous fear that pervades the Lovecraftian world, which allows me to tolerate his dense and often impenetrable language. Like much of his work, there is a simmering horror in the background of this story. It’s barely glimpsed in the beginning, and swells throughout. Like the best of his works, there’s something unsettling that slowly envelops the reader in its darkness. Lovecraft doesn’t knock you over the head with terror, […]
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