Eric Mesa’s Reviews > Battle Royale Slam Book > Status Update
Eric Mesa
is 10% done
"Blood in the Classroom" - Intro essay to the book. Discusses how the subversive books of yesteryear are today's boring books that kids are forced to read in the classroom. Mentions that Battle Royale probably won't suffer this fate.
"Death for Kids" - A guy who lived through an evil police state in Argentina sees death at 8 years old and realizes how the world is. Sees BR as a lesson kids need to experience.
— Jun 05, 2017 03:46AM
"Death for Kids" - A guy who lived through an evil police state in Argentina sees death at 8 years old and realizes how the world is. Sees BR as a lesson kids need to experience.
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Eric’s Previous Updates
Eric Mesa
is 91% done
"Buelller" - The author starts off with the same criticism I had when Hunger Games first got popular - It's a rip off of Battle Royale. Then used this to go back through the history of teen movies since they're all riffs off each other. Then ends with an absurdist version of Battle Royale containing characters from nearly every movie he mentioned.
— Jun 14, 2017 03:39AM
Eric Mesa
is 78% done
"List, Combination, Recursion" - a strange, stream of consciousness essay I did not enjoy. Perhaps something was lost in translation.
— Jun 12, 2017 08:12AM
Eric Mesa
is 75% done
"Children Playing with Guns" - uses BR as a reason to talk about gun violence in schools in America (with a few world examples). Best case I've heard yet as to why all the gun laws we can come up with won't do a darn thing to stop it from happening again.
— Jun 12, 2017 03:10AM
Eric Mesa
is 71% done
"The Postwar Child's Guide to Survival" - An analysis of BR as a criticism of what the post-WWII generation did with the country. I'm not sure it resonates as well as the author posits, but it certainly has merit.
— Jun 09, 2017 08:58AM
Eric Mesa
is 65% done
"Dead Sexy" - The author essentially posits the same theory that eventually came to guide how I understand sex and violence in art. There is a difference between the gratuitous and the story-rooted acts. Take, for example, The Handmaid's Tale. It's key to the story that the sex scenes both in the book and TV are depicted the way they are. That is not gratuitous.
— Jun 09, 2017 03:08AM
Eric Mesa
is 60% done
"Seeing the Sequel First" - The writer had a bad childhood in school and talks about how BR2 was a spark of inspiration for him.
— Jun 08, 2017 07:57AM
Eric Mesa
is 55% done
"Killer Kids in Jeopardy" - the essay explores how we have been OK with kids being in trouble in novels, but not movies. Or rather that it's been a reluctant march towards acceptance in movies of that which has been happening in novels for hundreds of years.
— Jun 08, 2017 03:11AM
Eric Mesa
is 50% done
"Generational Warfare" - The author of the essay takes a look at the societal issues that drove the zeitgeist as the author of BR composed his book. Also inadvertently taught me the origin of the motorcycle gangs in Akira.
— Jun 07, 2017 07:58AM
Eric Mesa
is 44% done
"Girl Power" - A great example that with art, each person takes something different out of it. While many have criticized BR as mysoginistic, this author sees strong women in some of the female characters.
"Over the Top" - An exploration of how wrestling in the USA and Japan inspired the author to write Battle Royale.
— Jun 07, 2017 05:27AM
"Over the Top" - An exploration of how wrestling in the USA and Japan inspired the author to write Battle Royale.
Eric Mesa
is 33% done
"From Dangerous to Desirable" - A look at where BR fits in with gender norms in Japan via various media that is its spiritual ancestor. There's a lot I missed as an American reading the story and applying my ideas of gender to the story. My takeaway after reading this essay is that the author was a bit more adventerous with the male characters.
— Jun 06, 2017 09:14AM
