Book Review - 'Asterios Polyp,' Written and Illustrated by David Mazzucchelli - Review - NYTimes.com

Today I read this in a bookshop, curled up in an armchair. Feeling guilty, might have to stump up some cash and actually pay for the thing:

Enter “Asterios Polyp”: a big, proud, ambitious chunk of a graphic novel, with modernism on its mind and a perfectly geometrical chip on its shoulder. The tension between formalist rigor and emotional subtlety is not just the theme (and method) of the cartoonist David ­Mazzucchelli’s decade-in-the-making opus; it’s basically the plot. The book is a satirical comedy of remarriage, a treatise on aesthetics and design and ontology, a late-life Künstlerroman, a Novel of Ideas with two capital letters, and just about the most schematic work of fiction this side of that other big book that constantly alludes to the “Odyssey.”

Asterios Polyp himself is adorably dislikable, an egocentric, condescending, irritable “paper architect” and academic who sees everything in terms of dualities. (“Anything that is not functional is merely decorative,” he declares.) When Polyp’s father came to America, we’re told, “an exasperated Ellis Island official had cut the family name in half.” That name would have to have been Polyphemus, as in the Cyclops. Asterios himself is a metaphorical cyclops, lacking the ability to perceive emotional depth. Even his head is drawn as a two-dimensional construct: half a perfect circle, interrupted by two equally proportioned curves.

The artwork was beautiful, and a world away from Mazzucchelli’s previous scribblings on Daredevil and Batman comics. There are sequences in it that don’t immediately make sense, and then a couple of hours later the meaning becomes clear, sneaking up on you like a pickpocket. I liked it very much.

Batman: Arkham City review - Edge Magazine

The reviews for Batman: Arkham City are trickling in, and the critical consensus is positively glowing. This is from Eurogamer:

It’s a role-playing game, when you get down to it. Not just because you gain XP, engage in a little light levelling and are free to sharpen your combat skills one upgrade at a time. It’s a role-playing game in the most literal sense of the phrase, a game in which you’re encouraged to give in to the fantasy, and to see what life is like when it’s composed of rooftop brawls and zip-line getaways. Animations, traversal mechanics, takedowns: they’re all building towards the same thing. In Arkham City, you become Batman.

When all is said and done, I find the characterisation of this particular Batman to be laughable - a steroid-addled psychotic, wrapped up in leather and expensive toys. But I can excuse the window dressing if the game design lives up to the buzz. 

Also, I’m most intrigued by the recreation of Gotham City (albeit only a small part of it). In the comics and films the city is practically a character in its own right. Here, we’re given a unique opportunity to explore it for ourselves. This is from Edge magazine:

But after its introduction, Arkham City places you on the highest floor of a skyscraper, with a city at your feet. The effect is very nearly disorienting, if only for the sumptuous level of detail on offer. The wintry Arkham City is a carved-up and cut-off hunk of Gotham, a glorious mix of neon and sodium, rusted metal, soot and black stone. And the structure you’re standing on, by the way, is the Ace Chemicals building: the place where a no-name hoodlum fell into a vat of chemicals and the Joker emerged. Your first objective, meanwhile, is the district courthouse where Harvey Dent was cruelly disfigured and became Two-Face. And a little distance away, as the bat flies, is the alleyway where a young Bruce Wayne watched as his mother and father were murdered.

Just as Asylum’s madhouse setting allowed Rocksteady to bring a host of Batman’s villains together in a relatively confined space (a trick repeated here), Arkham City has allowed the studio to pick and choose landmarks from Gotham’s history in the creation of its environment. This is a city in which every street corner feels lovingly authored, visually unique and dripping with DC lore, trumping Asylum for detail and character despite the increased scale.

As the seasons turn and the days grow shorter, this should be just the ticket for those chilly winter nights. Cannot wait.

London Riots: Social Media Mobilizes Riot Cleanup | Mashable

This fair warms the cockles of the heart, it really does:

After days of riots in London, thousands of Londoners and worldwide supporters are taking to social networks to help reclaim the streets of London.

While rioters took to the underground paths of BlackBerry Messenger to organize, the highly spreadable mediums of Twitter and Facebook have shown to be the perfect platforms for mobilizing cleanup organizers and followers in the early aftermath of the rioting.

For the most part, organization has been very smooth, with a few key hubs across social platforms taking root. The @RiotCleanup Twitter page has amassed more than 50,000 followers in fewer than 10 hours and is consistently broadcasting cleanup locations and times, along with other pertinent information regarding the initiative.

As one commentator says, “Last night we needed Batman. This morning we need The Wombles”.