If you consume fiction in anyway you will inevitably come across what I have come to call “the void,” a stasis where after finishing some truly great film or television show for example, you are plunged into a mini depression (think sitting on a park bench feeding birds as violin music plays
softly in the background). If you are from my generation then you will probably have had this once you finished readingÂ
Harry Potter
 but it’s a feeling I have come across a few times and it has always followed something great; it is a sign
that I have found something special, and today I present to you one of these rare stories:
 13 Reasons Why
 by Jay Asher. It's time to fire up the projector and enter
the storyteller's theatre
Not long after the suicide of American high school student Hannah Baker, her fellow student Clay Jensen receives
seven cassette tapes (two sides each) in the mail. These tapes – recorded by Hannah – contain the names and stories of the 13 people whose actions pushed her to take her own life (hence the title). These tapes also contained the instructions to pass them along; the tapes where originally sent to number 1 on the list who sent it to number 2 and so on.
One of the great strengths of the book
is the characterisation of Hannah Baker. In the hands of a less skilled writer she might have been too cheery and funny in an attempt to get the reader to like her more, or too morose making it harder for the reader to relate. The balance between these two is struck perfectly and while yes, she isn’t just completely and utterly depressed, you don’t forget for a second that this is a deeply troubled young woman. And really this is the one thing that a book like this has to get right: when everything hinges on the thoughts and feelings of a character you have to make her feel real and this is done so well at some points that it feels like more of a memoir than fiction.
One of the few complaints I have is that the point of view character of Clay Jensen isn’t a developed character; rather, she is stripped of any defining personality traits to simply serve as a way for the reader to insert themselves into the novel (the Twilight series had the same problem
). However, this isn’t as glaring a problem as it would be if this were a traditional beginning-middle-and-end narrative. Instead, being told in the way it is, the character of Clay isn’t so much a character but a vehicle; without him the story could not be told even if his contribution is minimal.
Speaking of how the story is told, I think that it is the best thing the book
has going for it. You know how it is going to end and you have this knot in your stomach of fearful anticipation like watching a car crash in slow motion. You know what is going to happen right from the get go, and it has that effect of being difficult to put down that goes with any great story.
To be perfectly honest, even though I find it difficult to communicate my feelings, it’s the kind of thing that sticks with you, where experiencing the story is in itself an emotional experience
; it’s the kind of story that you don’t forget and I don’t know if better praise can be given.
One final note: I highly recommend the audio-book version of this story. The performances put in by voice actors is, well, incredible. The actress playing
Hannah Baker does such an amazing job that if you listened to just the tapes and nothing else you would think that they are one hundred percent genuine
To borrow a cliche unless you’ve been living under a rock then i feel safe in saying you have heard of “Welcome to Night vale” , the radio show style fictional podcast detailing the events of the small desert town, where the sun is hot the moon is beautiful and mysterious lights pass over head as we all pretend to sleep. But is this fine example of an audio drama simple entertainment or something more? Its time to fire up the projector and enter the silver screams theatre,
WTN Borrows heavy from a lovecraftian style, H.P. Lovecraft was a horror wrighter who delved heavily into the idea that the universe is governed by entitys far beyond understanding, he created the god cthulhu and wrote of gargantuan citys under our oceans. Now any listener of night vale will tell you that abstract and stange are used heavily and to great effect, for more on this please refer to this video produced by the pbs idea channel
That is not what i want to talk about however. Ok bare with me a second, once upon a time there was a french philosopher by the name of Albert Camus who wrote an essay called The Myth of Sisyphus in which he wrote about our need to derive meaning from life and the universe and life's inability to provide one, he called this the ubsurd, no matter what we do all the stars will go out planets will be destroyed and changed and created and we will all die and there is nothing we can do to change that... camus opens his essay by asking why we shouldnt all commit suicide, if life has no meaning then whats the point of it all just end it...
Camus wrote his essay in france 1941 and if you ever payed attention in history class you will now that a certain political movement was gaining power you may of heard of it “national socialism”... so ya you can kind of forgive him for seeing things the way he did, he lived in a world with vauge and menacing government agencys, secret police and people being made to dissapear... i take you now to the weather
now Camus created the philosophical idea of ubsurdism, the idea being that the only way to deal with the rampant meaningless chaos of life was to accept it, to make it apart of your life no more or less mundaine then ominous hooded figures or the faceless old women who secretly lives in your home (see i told you i was going somewhere)
Welcome to night vale is a modern embodiment of absurdism among so many other things it is an absoloute treat and it weaves a grand tapastry of mundaine horrors that i cannot compliment enough
so ladies gentlemen and others this has been the silver screams theatre, farewell and t'll we meet again
Boys and girls of every age wouldnt you like to see something strange come with us and you will see this our Theatre of silver scremas!.
Those summer days are behind us, winter is fast aproaching and as the days grow colder the nights longer and with the night comes the undead. While my taste for actual horror has developed relatively recently i have always nurtuerd a soft spot for the macarbe, hocky mask wearing murderes not really my thing but oh throw in some supernatural elements a good twist and some concepts to make you shiver and shriek... In any case welcome to silver screams month where i will be writing about the stuff that sends chills down the spine, so my friends let us fire up the projecter and enter the Silver Screams Theatre!.
I am not the first, nor will i be the last to point out that superheroes are modern mythology. They are tales to inspire and astound. But something that doesn’t get nearly enough appreciation is the meaning and philosophy of the caped and costumed crowd. More specifically I am talking about superman the template for all that came after, the original and the best. So let's fire up the projector and enter the story tellers Theatre
What you have to understand bout me is that I am both an optimist and a dientologist (a school of ethics where actions are judged to be moral by the action itself and not the consequences). This means that i don’t even support the death penalty. I bring this up because to understand what i see in superman you have to understand where i am coming from.
Superman, boyscout, naive and childish. This is a conception held by some people. Superman is not naive far from it he is aware of the depths humanity can sink to he knows what we are capable of but he can also see the good, superman faith in humanity is what sets him apart he knows that we can be better and he is there to light the way, to inspire, to protect. That isn’t naive, naive is thinking that you can make the bad men go away that you can stop it from ever happening again is superman was naive he would pronounce himself overlord of earth and vow for there never to be crime again, but that isn’t a permanent solution its a band-aid on a gaping wound (coughs*batman*coughs)
In ancient myths gods are given power by the faith and belief of mortals but not this god. What makes superman special is his faith in us he sees good in humanity when most find it hard to when day after day the worst is brought forth in front of us
since the nineties there has been a phase of dark and gritty realism in fiction. We are inundated with story’s of death and destruction in the real world. The planet is filled with some horrible people i am not denying that and some people want to see them punished they want them to be killed, the sad truth is that the world dose not believe in superman anymore... there is no place for the man of tomorrow...
but that is the beauty of mythology its something we all carry with us it is seared into our cultural knowledge and in our private moments as long as there are eyes to read lips to speak and ears to hear there will be tales of the man who showed humanity there was a better way that her is strength in compassion and not violence. That there is nothing naive about believing in good
Let me ask you a question dear reader, i don't have a good intro for this so I'm just gonna go ahead and let it happen, we cool?. but ya this is an essay that i wrote for English class and i am 1 relatively proud of it and 2 am feeling guilty that i haven't posted allot on hear so without further delay its time to fire up the projector and enter the storyteller's theaterÂ
When you talk about what qualifies as art it is hardly an easy thing to put your finger on. There is a conception that it is some nebulous classification of paintings and sculpture that the intelligent and pretentious people bang on about. Of course most people believe works of art are great creative endeavours in forms of sculpture and music and so forth. Scholars have been debating it since there where scholars to debate it. And I do have my own opinion on the matter, namely that any creative work (be it film, music, painting, theater, literature, the list is endless) qualifies as art; however the difficulty comes in when we talk about what is “high art” more importantly what deserves our respect and what is simple entertainment, and ultimately, that is in the eye of the beholder.
One definition is that a work of art is something that allows you to see the world from another persons perspective, so that you can better understand others and empathise with them, and become a better and wiser person for it. And there's credence, to that, art can serve as a touchstone for different people helping them relate. When you meet someone who likes the same things you do, there's an undeniable connection there, you have a common ground where otherwise there might not have been one, which ties back to empathizing with other people because hearing other people's opinions and world views helps you question your own, and why you think the way you do which can deepen your understanding of yourself and the world at large.
Of course, humanity itself has been engaging in impractical endeavours for a LONG time. Before we even had language we were doodling on cave walls, but as humanity developed so did various art forms, there was painting, sculpture and theatre and so on and so forth... and then the renaissance happened, and it was like an explosion of genius. Playwrights, painters, sculptors, writers one after the other and then we had Shakespeare and Mozart and with the advances in technology we had radio we had film we had television and beautifully wonderful works in all the art forms
Never for a moment did the genius cease. There have always be great artists who are masters of their form, creating works that can inspire you that can change you to your very core. All it takes is one moment: right now, somewhere in the world, a man is impassioned by a great song, a women stares In awe of “The Starry Night” and a child is crying life affirming tears at the death is Bambi’s mother. That's all it takes; one work shown to the right person at the right time in one moment can change a person, because entertainment, the unimaginative, uninspired drivel created solely for profit is a distraction, empty and meaningless; art, real art has the power to change people
Before I start this blog there is something that I need to establish about how I am going to be doing things here. When reviewing or evaluating anything something that is almost always present is a rating system of some kind, be it out of 10 score or the rotten tomatoes percentage, its something of a cultural norm, but assigning a value to a work is something I have always disliked. If I said something was a 6 out of ten that tells you nothing about why I like or dislike it, and it also fails to cover objectivity, when in my opinion it is the job of a critic to talk about something in a way that even if they had problems with it an individual will be able to tell if they would like it and vice versa. A score undermines the review as a whole and when ratings are presented by websites like IMDB right next to the movie as if its some kind tried and true unbiased fact it irritates me. And yes while I understand that you can argue that certain works have more artistic merit then others, and you could base the rating of that that brings up the issue of genre, yes boyhood is objectively a better movie then guardians of the galaxy but you cant hold them to the same standards. Basically it boils down to trying to fit something so complex as art and the difference between good and bad into an exact science which it really isn’t.
So in summation
I will not be using a rating system
we have learned that I like to go on long winded rants on just about anything
Greetings dear reader this is the storyteller's theatre, a veritable cornucopia (love that word so sophisticated) of reviews and articles on tales in all their forms be it film, television, web series, literature, audio drama, anime, graphic novel and if this blog lasts into the far future maybe some kind of weird hologram thing (kind of optimistic but a man can dream dammit). Essentially this will be serving as half creative outlet half platform for what I wright.my hope is to keep this somewhat professional but still be informal when I deem it appropriate and fair warning I may drift slightly into pretensions ramblings but I hope you can forgive me of such a heinous crime. So now that everything seems to be in order ladies, gentlemen and others allow me to formally welcome you to the storyteller's theatre Â
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