Birfday gudness!
I love my guys!
My guyzorz were especially generous to me this year, knowing that I've had it a bit rough with my thesis and schooling and whatnot, so they pitched in and got me a bunch of books that I was really, really wanting. Since a few of these work perfectly for my thesis, I though I'd share some pics with you on one condition; please to ignore the large pile of laundry behind me. I hadn't gotten around to putting it away. D'oh.
Anyway, my first book was The Drifting Classroom by Kazuo Umezu. This series of manga tells the horrifying tale of a school full of children and faculty suddenly ripped from modern Japan and put... somewhere else. It's a barren world with no signs of life, leaving the characters to face the pressure of survival against the land and each other. It's gruesome to be sure, but the point of it is to remind us what we can become when faced with such harsh situations. We become the monsters; we will kill, steal, lie, and worse to preserve our own lives unless we work together.
7 Billion Needles by Nobuaki Tadano tells of a girl who is forced to coexist with an alien life form (here, coexist as they share the same body and have full mental contact). The alien is hunting a murderous alien lifeform which consumes all life it comes into contact with. This is the 'monster within' trope; both aliens are indistinguishable from humans as they live within a human shell, focusing on the paranoia and fear that resides between each of us. Eventually the story changes gears to a larger scope, though I'm only up to vol. 3. Beemer tells me that this is a manga version of another book, though the name eludes me at this point. Hey, B-kun? What was it again?
Ah, Monster Theory by Jeffrey Cohen. I'm using this a structured guide in my evaluation of bakemono and yokai as his thesis for monster tropes is general enough that I can apply it to Japanese monsters, resulting in a fun analysis of the creation of the myths from a Western perspective that seems to fit their origins well.
And finally is this exceptional tome called Mythical Beasts of Japan, a collection of paintings, scrolls, and other artwork containing many types of beasts, figures, and lore from Japanese mythology. It's predominately written in Japanese, but there are some annotations in the back which I could use to seek further information. This text has images of the Hyakki Yakou, the One Hundred Demon Parade illustrations which show several bakemono dancing. This will be quite useful.
Not shown is a copy of Picross 3D for the Nintendo DS, which I'm just starting to get in to. It's quite clever! I'll be adding this to my OGODOY entry soon.
Oh, and then we went and gorged ourselves on Smashburger. OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM!!!
Thanks guys!!
My guyzorz were especially generous to me this year, knowing that I've had it a bit rough with my thesis and schooling and whatnot, so they pitched in and got me a bunch of books that I was really, really wanting. Since a few of these work perfectly for my thesis, I though I'd share some pics with you on one condition; please to ignore the large pile of laundry behind me. I hadn't gotten around to putting it away. D'oh.
Anyway, my first book was The Drifting Classroom by Kazuo Umezu. This series of manga tells the horrifying tale of a school full of children and faculty suddenly ripped from modern Japan and put... somewhere else. It's a barren world with no signs of life, leaving the characters to face the pressure of survival against the land and each other. It's gruesome to be sure, but the point of it is to remind us what we can become when faced with such harsh situations. We become the monsters; we will kill, steal, lie, and worse to preserve our own lives unless we work together.
7 Billion Needles by Nobuaki Tadano tells of a girl who is forced to coexist with an alien life form (here, coexist as they share the same body and have full mental contact). The alien is hunting a murderous alien lifeform which consumes all life it comes into contact with. This is the 'monster within' trope; both aliens are indistinguishable from humans as they live within a human shell, focusing on the paranoia and fear that resides between each of us. Eventually the story changes gears to a larger scope, though I'm only up to vol. 3. Beemer tells me that this is a manga version of another book, though the name eludes me at this point. Hey, B-kun? What was it again?
Ah, Monster Theory by Jeffrey Cohen. I'm using this a structured guide in my evaluation of bakemono and yokai as his thesis for monster tropes is general enough that I can apply it to Japanese monsters, resulting in a fun analysis of the creation of the myths from a Western perspective that seems to fit their origins well.
And finally is this exceptional tome called Mythical Beasts of Japan, a collection of paintings, scrolls, and other artwork containing many types of beasts, figures, and lore from Japanese mythology. It's predominately written in Japanese, but there are some annotations in the back which I could use to seek further information. This text has images of the Hyakki Yakou, the One Hundred Demon Parade illustrations which show several bakemono dancing. This will be quite useful.
Not shown is a copy of Picross 3D for the Nintendo DS, which I'm just starting to get in to. It's quite clever! I'll be adding this to my OGODOY entry soon.
Oh, and then we went and gorged ourselves on Smashburger. OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM!!!
Thanks guys!!