Denise’s Comments (group member since Jan 23, 2009)

Denise’s comments from the The Reading Rainbow Coalition group.

You know the procedure...

Book three: Suggest away! Voting commences next week.

i've had discussions (arguments) about how the ending was treated in the movie and in my humble opinion, i think the movie ending worked quite well. i will, however, defer to the previous comment of the giant squid being a great homage to older, campier comic books -- i hadn't quite considered it that way. when i finished the book i was actually quite underwhelmed, if not disappointed, by that big reveal. thinking back though, i now understand that the squid didn't matter. the book has always been about the characters, and how they portrayed morality and corruption. on the other hand, i didn't see a huge problem in the movie's use of dr. manhattan as a scapegoat. in the story that the *movie* told, it tied things up rather nicely. i also think there is value in arguing whether peace would work in the Watchmen universe in the movie compared to the book. the squid being a universal threat would, in theory, be a more logical "uniter" of nations than the threat of dr. manhattan. i never experienced the Cold War scare but i think it would be safe to assume that the Russians could have easily still blamed the US of an attack, being that dr. manhattan had always been a weapon of the US government.

it's interesting to me that Watchmen stands heads and shoulders *still* above most renditions of what it would mean if superheroes walked among us. they are in politics, merchandising, and they are superstars but they are also lonely, mocked, abused. not very many tv shows/movies/books show this range and scope of reality.

on a sidenote, i really want to watch the movie again if only to see Rorschach terrorize prison inmates. scary mofo!

i've yet to make a full post on Watchmen. i have so many ideas and comments that i am tempted to write an thesis-length study on it. but that will wait for a little while longer as i am busier than usual lately.

for now, a question... (spoilerrific)

do you think that the ending of the movie was a better or worse ending than the book's? why?

here's a poll i created... it's a bit easy to miss since it shows up at the bottom of the page but go and vote! it will be interesting to see what people think...

http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/10...

"Considered the quintessential graphic novel by fans and critics alike, Watchmen is Dave Gibbons's and Alan Moore's dark and complex tale of superheroes and vigilante justice."

Since the movie is coming out this month, you are more than welcome to post observations about it too! Even if you haven't read the book but watched the movie, please chime in here as well! It will be interseting to hear what non-comic book readers thought about it.

thanks for the great discussion guys! zombies have never been so fascinating :)

if you haven't finished the book, of course you are still welcome to post here. i will not close these threads as i think an ongoing and open discussion will do nothing but enhance our dialogue.

Poll is up! Don't forget to vote!

HAH! Zombie haiku, i love it!

Four more days, to our slackers out there! :)

Reminder!

If you want to make suggestions do it soon! I'm going to put the poll up by Thursday so that we can decide on a book by Sunday!

Aaron wrote: "The idea that there could either be a whole country flourishing underground or overrun by 23 million dead is ..."

Well, if they were overrun by zombies, the book would just 300 pages of "braaaaaains..." ;)

I almost forgot about the North Koreans. Pretty ingenious touch.

Besides this book (and the accompanying Zombie Survival Guide), are there any other zombie books out there that you've read and enjoyed? I must admit that before WWZ, I didn't even know this sub-genre existed.

Also, what's your favorite zombie movie? Do you enjoy the realistic, explanation-laden types (Rage Virus) or do you prefer the sillier old-fashioned brain-obsessed monsters? Do you think zombies should be fast like in 28 Days Later, or slow and bumbling like in the older movies?

It probably doesn't count as a movie but my current favorite zombie film is Dead Set. We talked a lot about this in the HE Podcast but if you missed it, it's a 5-part TV series aired in the UK. Make sure to check it out if you can.

Ok so after thinking about how to go about this, I think this might be the cleanest way to figure out what books to put in the poll.

Every month there will be a thread like this "Book the (#)" which will act, for lack of a better phrase, as a book dump.

Anyone can make two suggestions each for the month. After a week I will condense the suggestions down to 4 or 5 options that we will then vote for. You are welcome to repeat your suggestion several months in a row (until it just starts to get annoying).

Suggest away!

Roe wrote: "Do we have any word on what next month's book may be? "

A post will be up for that very shortly!

Brigid wrote: "... but with Zombies instead of Vaginas."

GENIUS! Copyright that shit!

Lots of good feedback so far, hooray!

Underwater zombies are definitely new, although they never did explain why they are so resilient to damage. Everything else (organic, anyway) disintegrates and falls apart underwater, why not them? Seems like it should have been just moldering bits and pieces floating around after a while.

Keep in mind that we only have until the end of next week to wrap this bad boy up! Get to reading please, those that haven't finished yet!

The stories about the soldier dogs were really sad to me because I love dogs and it reminded me of one article I read a long time ago about a soldier who was partnered up with a "wardog" and was eventually forced to leave him behind (I believe it was in Asia). I think he tried to go back for him but for some reason he couldn't.

I can see this book becoming a great movie if treated right, since it leaves an awful lot for flexibility since it is a global problem. So many stories can be explored. If film makers can resist turning this into a gore-fest and focus on the political, military, and personal aspects then I think it would make for one of the best zombie movies. What do you guys think?

Great discussions here guys! I can't wait for everyone to finish this so that we can really get into the meat of things.

As you read, a few questions I'm curious about (no spoilers please)...

1. What was your favorite story? Mine was the blind Japanese badass. Coz it was BADASS.

2. So what IS your zombie survival plan?

"The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years."

Post comments here!

Looks like our winner for Book 1 is World War Z. Commence reading! Post comments here throughout the month. Let's set a deadline of March 1... unless you think you can read faster than that! ;P

There were a lot of really good suggestions but of course we have to limit ourselves a little to maintain focus. :) I tried to pick books of different styles and genres. We are also going to start a little small in that a.) no epics just yet (books of 500+ pages), and b.) no series just yet. This will change as we get into the swing of things, of course; I'm fully aware that some of the best Sci-fi and Fantasy books out there are in series form, and also in weight equaling that of any holiday ham (I'm looking at you, George Martin and Robert Jordan). I think I made an exception to the Dexter book because from what I can understand, it seems like it can stand alone. I might be mistaken, but we can all find out together. :)

Vote away... polls close on Saturday.