Joyride

Joyride
by Jack Ketchum

I did not care for this book. I don’t think the reader is supposed to. To paraphrase Mr. Weaver, I think disliking this book only indicates that I am still sane.

Wayne Lock didn’t interest me. His back story was cheap and tacked on (“oh, hang on, we need a reason for the crazy. Make his mom a nutter. There, that’s good enough”). He was physically weak, childish at times, and self centered. The God-complex and Love-with-a-capital-L he develops in the final chapter might be realistic psychologically speaking, but it didn’t fit his depiction in the rest of the novel.

Another issue is that this book really doesn’t give you anyone to root for. I wanted to feel sorry for Carole, but somehow that was difficult. The extent of her abuse was hard to process--it was too much, and I thought of her more as a character that the author decided to heap abuse on than as a real person. There wasn’t anything to her other than the abuse. Lee, likewise, was more of a shell than a realized character. He was ineffectual at pretty much everything. When Lock finally shot him, my response was “oh, finally.”

Lt. Rule spends so much time duffing around that it’s easy to dislike him. His scenes with the psychiatrist may have made him a more realistic character, but it also made him an ineffective one. He’s whining about a failed relationship while this murderer is killing half the town. His character in particular reminded me of Sheriff Bell in No Country for Old Men. But whereas Bell comes off as a realistic portrayal of a cop trying to make sense of senseless horror, Rule seemed almost like a caricature. His hopeful ending felt phony.

There were other things working against this piece. I have a hard time with sexual assault in general, and reading about it in this kind of lurid detail was almost as much fun as the spider-monster book I had to read last semester. Elements of the plot played out more like a B-movie than a book. The final murder spree, for example, struck me as basically a less hilarious version of this. All the details from the victims’ POV about how full of hope and possibility their lives were was repetitive and heavy-handed. Lock’s mother was a cliche.

Ultimately, I found the story of Wayne Lock and his victims lurid. The subject matter is grotesque and ultimately uninteresting.

Which, taken by itself, is kind of interesting. Why don't I find this as interesting as other horror books? Why is Hannibal Lecter more fascinating than Wayne Lock? I think it has to do with character. Lecter is more about the man, his reasons for what he does, his beliefs and ideas and thoughts. Lock is about the act. The focus of this book is on what he does, the gritty details of the murders and the torture and the rapes. At the end of the book we know almost nothing about Lock, other than he’s crazy. Admittedly, that was the point of the book -- people do evil, horrible things for no reason. But without characters we actually care about, it wasn’t enough to carry the novel.

The Killing Joke

The Killing Joke
by Alan Moore
Illustrated by Brian Bolland

The Killing Joke is one of the first graphic novels I ever read. When I was an undergrad and considering a career as a librarian, I decided I should educate myself in the genre, and the first one I picked up was the Watchmen, also by Alan Moore. The Killing Joke was next to it on the shelf, so I thought why not. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s my favorite graphic novel to feature the Batman (that honor belongs to the Dark Knight Returns), but it’s high on the list.

The Joker is a great villain, and I’m glad that Moore and Bolland took him out for a spin. While I side with those who say the Joker is a better character without a backstory, I love what they came up with and the open ended presentation. Probably the strangest (and best?) part of this book is wondering how aware of the flashback story the Joker is. He claims he doesn’t remember his own past - but he is also a pathological liar. His insistence that going insane is a reasonable response to the horrible things happening to Jim Gordon is, in itself, a rational argument for him doing the same thing. But if he’s making a rational argument, then it’s evidence he isn’t actually insane. He just wants to be. The fact that it isn’t laid out in black and white both adds to his apparent insanity and the depth of the character.

I purchased the hardcover deluxe edition to re-read for this post, and the artwork is gorgeous - especially the art on book cover itself, beneath the dust jacket (I used an image of it above). I can’t figure out why they covered it up. I sort of want to buy one of the earlier editions (the artist re-colored this version) to compare. It’s the details in the artwork that really tie this piece together, from a narrative standpoint. Each jump from scene to scene carries over a word, phrase, or image (as in the case of the Joker’s memories, where his facial expression is the carry over, or the switch from the dead carnival seller to the joker card). The only exception is the doors from Gordon’s train ride - although arguably those goblin faces represent the Batman as he investigates. The carry over elements invite comparison to other parts of each panel - the Joker’s pregnant wife is in the same place as “the fat lady” in one of the first jumps, underscoring his actual opinion of her.

One of the other things that stood out to me when I returned to this piece after reading more widely about the characters is the treatment of Gordon and Barbara. Both are ineffectual, almost pitiful characters. Barbara can be excused, on account of getting shot before she has a chance to react (although one would still expect the former Batgirl to put up more of a fight), but Jim Gordon has no excuse. He never even lands a punch against the thugs in the apartment - compare that to his strong presence after the bomb detonation in The Dark Knight Returns, or his fight against Detective Flass in Year One. One of the risks of working within a shared universe like this is that readers come with certain expectations based on other titles and other authors, and sometimes when those presentations clash it can jar the reader.

On that same note, it was also very difficult not to read the Joker’s lines in Mark Hamill’s voice. But I’m not complaining about that one.

All in all this is a great Batman title, and it does it without Batman being the main character. The Joker is center stage, and he steals the show.

Se7en

Se7en (1995)
directed by David Fincher

Se7en is a gruesome film that explores good and evil through the lens of a serial killer obsessed with sin. John Doe commits several stylized murders based on the seven deadly sins in an attempt to alert the population to their apathy toward sinful behavior. Two detectives try to track him down, and come symbolize different worldviews that are brought into deep conflict by Doe's crimes. John Doe is a compelling villain, but the detectives deserve some mention as well.

Detective Lt. William Somerset (whose name references the author of "Of Human Bondage", W. Somerset Maugham -- one of the books on John Doe's library list, and a favorite author of the screenwriter) represents a world-weary view. Somerset has seen the worst in humanity over the course of his career, and he no longer expects people to do good things. People are, at their most basic level, selfish and violent. Society exists because people agree, on some level, to reign in those baser urges with the expectation that their neighbors will do the same. We achieve safety only through mutually assured destruction. To use biblical terms, Somerset believes in original sin -- deep down, we're all evil.

Detective David Mills, on the other hand, is almost a caricature of the 'rookie' detective, right down to the short temper. He's young (watching this and seeing Brad Pitt that young made me feel SO OLD) and idealistic in some ways, epitomized by his belief that he can "do some good" and a conviction that he can make a difference in the city by working hard. Of course, this worldview comes to a screeching halt in the face of John Doe, who neatly illustrates that when the social contract is broken, all bets are off. When he destroys Mills' family, Mills reacts with violence. Although he claims to believe that people are good deep down, he demonstrates that people are capable of murder and extreme violence when they are pushed. His actions reinforce what Somerset has believed all along.

John Doe is a fascinating killer, and not just because he might be Kaizer Soze. I re-watched the scenes where the detectives first enter his apartment a number of times, to catch glimpses of what his day to day life was like. The most memorable images still stand out from my first viewing: the bright red cross over the bed, the photos hung to dry in the bathroom, the library piled high with his notebooks (interesting side note: the journals were all hand-made and cost the production $15,000. They only got used for the opening credits as an afterthought.) But some other details appeared that I didn't notice originally. John Doe has a pretty nice set of woodworking tools in one of his cabinets. He mounted trophies from each kill in what appear to be medicine cabinets. All of his clothes are covered in plastic. And that giant red cross is literally surrounded by smaller ones, too many to count. All of this background creates an atmosphere that neatly illustrates Doe's compulsions and bizarre behaviors without a single word of dialogue.

Part of what attracts the viewer to Doe is the extreme violence in his crimes. I've had arguments with people (and probably will again) about which victim suffered the most. Sloth has a strong case, but arguably he's insane after a while and no longer aware of what's happening. I think the male Lust victim had it worse, because he has to live with what he did. Each crime is unique and brings the same level of classical education that works so well for Dr. Lecter. One of my favorite scenes with Doe on screen is his defiant argument in the car, where he claims to be in complete control of the situation. And he was. The shocking ending remains one of the best I've ever seen and still packs a punch. Se7en holds up really well over multiple viewings, and there's a lot in the film to sort through. Although the voice over line doesn't quite fit the rest of the ending, it's still one of my favorites.