2012 in Review

What a year!

I survived my remaining prerequisites, got accepted to grad school (one stop closer to Physician Assistant), wrote a "short" story (45 pages) that actually stands a fair chance of being published, touched a live beluga whale, and got married! We've had quite the adventure.

Admittedly trivial, nevertheless here's the second annual I Shot a Moose "Best Of" list...


BOOKS
With the heavy courseload and a number of wedding plans during the spring, I did not read as many books as I would have liked, but still churned through a number of them. A surprising amount of nonfiction this year. I didn't keep very good track, but titles included Suck it, Wonder Woman! (Olivia Munn), Why is the Penis Shaped Like That? (Jesse Bering), Born Standing Up (Steve Martin), Last Words (George Carlin), as well as the fiction marvels Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (both David Mitchell).

The big find for the year was Harlan Ellison. I'd first heard of him years ago from the credits of James Cameron's The Terminator, which apparently so resembled a couple of Ellison's Twilight Zone scripts that the film producers had to list him as an inspiration or face litigation. Many felt the similarities were cursory, but Ellison's name stuck in my memory nevertheless, and this year - as I began my own science-fiction work - I finally delved into his strange world for inspiration. What a treat it has been! After flying through literally every piece available at every local library (short story collections Deathbird Stories, Strange Wine, Shatterday, Angry Candy, and Slippage, and the novella Mefisto in Onyx), I'm still hungry for more. Some pieces are decades old, but they remain fresh and interesting. Staggering imagination. And the discovery of a new genre (to me, anyway) - literary impressionism. Ellison is considered a master of the short story, and after reading so many of them I think I know why: he only gives what is necessary. He doesn't give a lot of details, there are usually very few characters - he gives enough so that you can understand the feeling, the mood, the atmosphere of a piece. I've read better writers, but he's made a huge impression. Can't wait to get my hands on more.

Favorite Long Fiction: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (David Mitchell)
Mitchell's Cloud Atlas is the more revered title, and he even revisits a few of the same themes in Thousand Autumns, but Autumns is the more engaging novel. While extremely well-written and fascinating, Cloud Atlas at best remains a technical accomplishment. By its very nature (breaking stories apart so you read consecutive first halves and consecutive conclusions), there is almost no emotional involvement. It is a book that impresses you; it does not engross you. Autumns, on the other hand, retains Mitchell's virtuosity, and imbues it with a touching humanity... even fragility.

There are a few too many "stock" supporting characters for it to be a "great" novel, and a couple diversions don't contribute as much to the whole as they should, but Mitchell puts you through the story with a deftness that belies his technical experiments. At the surface, this should be a slog to get through: the titular de Zoet is a clerk and interpreter for a Dutch trading company working in Japan. (Sounds like Melville.) He falls for a local girl, and is willing to give up his comfortable life to be with her (if not for propriety)... Don't worry, it's not as cheesy as it sounds, and the novel is far from a love story. There are several side plots, including a mysterious order of nuns which may be complicit in infanticide, the inevitable culture clash between the private East and the boorish West, and even a standoff with a British frigate trying to force their own brand of commerce. I'm not one for historical fiction, but Mitchell's prose creates a vivid, bustling world, and also a touching story of feeling versus duty, love versus sacrifice. A lovely, loving book.

Favorite Short Fiction: The Deathbird (Harlan Ellison)
Ellison has won hundreds of awards. Literally hundreds... The Deathbird is one of his most celebrated, and in my opinion it is also his best. If you're looking for a fast, thought-provoking read about nothing less than the nature and relationship of God and Man, you've got to check it out.

The story is simple enough: Ellison simply reverses conventional Christianity by supposing that God is the bad guy and the "Devil" got a bad rep. Where it goes from there, and all the little tricks and diversions he employs on the way, are all part of the joy of reading it. There are (seemingly) inexplicable paragraphs addressed to a class, even false essay questions; there's a tiny story within the story that perfectly captures and parodies manipulative melodrama; an omnipotent alien race with little regard for our measly planet; the hero's journey takes him through life, death... rebirth? It is a masterpiece of the form, and among the finest pieces of prose I've ever read.

Honorable Mention: Dog Stars (Peter Heller)
The wife got this for me on a whim. Neither of us had heard of the author, or the book for that matter, but she thought it sounded right up my alley... She was exactly right (as she often is). Heller crafts something kind of similar to McCarthy's The Road, modern TV shows like The Walking Dead, and other survivalist/post-apocalyptic horror, but still manages to create a story which is new and unique. I don't want to give anything away, but he seems to be saying that - Yes, this life is worth living. No matter what, no matter the circumstances, life is instrinsically valuable, which is a value I share... And stylistically, I love what he's done. Minimal dialogue, minimal punctuation, double spaces between paragraphs (no first line-spacing). The pages have a nice clean "look" which underscores the minimal nature of the prose and the sparse environment of the story. (Little details, I know, but they go a long way.) A wonderful read.


MUSIC
There were few musical standouts this year. My interests were focused primarily on reading and studying; I even cancelled my Pandora One membership because it was falling into disuse.

I found a new appreciation for Rob Zombie, downloading all of his albums, and discovered a marvelous new talent in Esperanza Spalding. We even saw her live - what a talented girl. She is the epitome of jazz. Larger-than-life afro, diminuitive body, a high sweet voice, thoughts and conversations that seem to kind of wander around the point, touch on something profound, and then circle back to normalcy... She looks as though she could float away if the wind were strong enough.

But what a performer! She pulses with rhythm, beauty, energy. And I like that she uses her voice as an instrument, not just to sing. Does that make sense? A lot of her songs don't feature actual words - more that she's making vocal sounds to harmonize with the music. Not quite "scatting," but similar.

Favorite Album: Clockwork Angels (Rush)
Kind of a default choice, as this was really the only new album I went out of the way for. But don't think I list it here because I have to - it's still a great album! From my "Fistful of Reviews" entry: "Fast-paced, hard-hitting, endlessly listenable and entertaining - everything a good album should be. And it's a concept album! So if you really want to, you can delve into the lyrics and examine a fully fledged narrative about oppression, suppression, and the triumph of free will (pet topics of lyricist/master drummer Neil Peart) - but each track also manages to stand on its own, drawing comparisons to The Who's Tommy."


MOVIES
This will be tough. Quite frankly, I was disappointed with nearly every release I saw this year. I had high hopes for Prometheus, The Dark Knight Rises, The Master, and Silver Linings Playbook... But again, for some reason or another I was let down by just about everything. Maybe I was expecting too much, but considering the pedigree of a number of these films, I don't think I was. They just didn't deliver. As such, only a few to list.

Favorite Movie (in theaters): Cloud Atlas (dir. Lana & Andy Wachowski & Tom Tykwer)
I know a lot of people feel differently, but for me this movie is head and shoulders above everything else I saw; it's the only one I actually saw multiple times, and would go out of my way to watch on video. You have to overlook a lot of things (bad make-up work, some iffy character motivations), but the picture as a whole is so wondrous, so magnificent, such an accomplisment - I don't think any serious movie-goer can hate something like this. I can understand disliking it, but no one should hate it, and at the very least you have to respect it. This is a massive undertaking of an incredibly complex, dense, and difficult novel, and they actually made a movie which is better than the book! Please check my "Finally ... Greatness!" entry for a more in-depth look.

Favorite Movie (on video): All the President's Men (dir. Alan Pakula)
Incredible! Simply incredible! Great performances, an amazing script, and efficient, no-frills direction. Every time I think about this movie, I'm amazed - it's a movie about fact-checking! Fact-checking! The whole thing is about scoring interviews, clarifying details, following leads, sorting out dead-ends - fact-checking! And yet somehow it's incredibly fast-paced, vivid, and suspenseful. Such a good movie.




Honorable Mentions: Looper (dir. Rian Johnson), Robot & Frank (dir. Jake Schreier), The Master (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson), Jack Reacher (dir. Christopher McQuarrie)
Johnson's Looper gets the award for most interesting concept of the year - for the last several years. I like that he creates a future which is still believable. People still drive cars, the world is nasty and polluted, people still behave like people - it's not the clean, logical future of 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it's not as dirty or gritty as Blade Runner either. It still feels lived in, just not squalid. The script has its issues, as do some more questionable make-up decisions, but the film is just so interesting that I couldn't forget about it.

Robot & Frank was such a delightful little find. Funny, heartfelt, engaging - another interesting concept pulled off beautifully with great work from Frank Langhella... The Master is a paradox: considering Anderson's output, it is a bit of a shortfall. A big, sprawling, messy film that does not wrap up nicely or neatly, and has too many weak elements to earn a recommendation... and yet, even with all that, it is an absolute must-see for any film-lover. Great performances, a mesmerizing soundtrack, and impeccable cinematography allow the film to stand out above most others, even as an ambitious failure... Jack Reacher was a nice bit of fresh air - a quaint action movie reliant on character, plot, and pacing rather than outrageous stunts or special effects. It is not a great movie, but it welcome relief from the "bigger, faster, louder" brand of modern action.

Gun Control: An Honest Discussion

As I've done a number of times on potentially controversial entries, I'll start here with a Disclaimer: I'm not trying to be incendiary or offensive for the sake of being offensive. This entry is not unlike any other - an earnest inquiry from a mind grappling with certain issues. My intention is to have an honest, frank discussion about firearms, their problems and benefits, and the issue of gun control at large.

It's no secret, I'm somewhat of a liberal. Not a bleeding heart, not a tree-hugger, but when it comes to the "big" issues (ie, most social and economic issues), I tend to side more often with the left than the right. Not that the left is not without its own problems, but more often than not, that's where I stand.

That said, I feel I can speak pretty honestly from a more conservative viewpoint. The vast majority of my family is conservative (extremely conservative, in some cases), my parents are fairly middle-line, and the area I grew up in is about as smalltown conservative as they come... Not to generalize, but I can pretty well understand the conservative mindset.

(Also, let me say at the outset: as with most things, I want to keep this fairly intellectual and idealistic; I'm not looking for appeals to emotion, negative or positive. I lost my sister to a terrible gun tragedy, so for reasons I think you can understand, I'd rather not go down that road... not here on the Internet, anyway. Let's keep things civil and on-topic.)

So, without further ado, let's have at it...


Guns: What's the Deal?
Let's start with the basics: I'm not a gun guy. I've never owned one, do not ever plan to own one, and have held one/maybe two actual guns in my whole life, and even then fired only one shot (a pathetic attempt to hit a "skeet")... But do not think I am anti-gun (more on that below) - I simply do not desire one, and no one in my family does either. Just that simple.

Obviously, not everyone feels the same way. Some people take comfort in owning a gun. It provides them a feeling of protection which is sorely lacking from other defensive measures. Some people use them for hunting. Some people collect them. Some people just like them. And there's nothing wrong with that.

No serious solution to gun violence would involve banning guns. As gun owners are wont to say, "Guns don't people; people kill people." An oversimplification (the platitude fails to take into consideration accidental gun deaths), but there's truth to that.

What is the solution, then? Or rather, before we get ahead of ourselves, what's the problem? ...Is there a problem?

Perhaps surprisingly, I (and I suspect a lot of other people) would say that gun violence on the whole is not a big issue, this year's mass shootings notwithstanding. Most gun owners are law-abiding, responsible citizens, and (believe it or not) gun violence and violent crime in general are on the decline... and have been for some time. (Some fascinating statistics here.)

But let's not paint a false picture: though some are perhaps too quick to cry for strict restrictions or even outright banning, even in the best scenario things are not perfect. Guns by their very nature are machines of violence. That's not an attack, it's simply a fact: guns were invented for large scale, efficient killing... This is what irks me about those arguments which draw comparisons between gun control and drunk driving - ie, gun restrictions are akin to punishing sober drivers for the irresponsibility of drunk drivers. There's a world of difference! (First, really look at the analogy: drunk drivers are being compared to murderers. That right there should be evidence enough for you to abandon the analogy. Drunk driving deaths are terrible, but they are not intentional.)



Gun Control: What to Do
People have the right to own firearms. I get that. And I'm perfectly fine with that, but let's be honest - we can do better than this. Right? Isn't the point of any society to strive toward its ideals? And shouldn't we ideally live in a peaceful world? Naive, certainly, maybe unattainable, but it's a goal. Here's a thought exercise: picture your perfect world. Try not to be pessimistic or cynical - your perfect world... Are there guns? Is there death? If so, maybe you should aim a little higher.

I'm no politician, and I fully welcome any gun-owning readers to correct me, but what follows are some ideas/solutions that I think might help... Not solve (I don't know that we'll ever be without gun violence), but help.

(1) Obvious stuff - background checks, keeping guns out of the hands of convicted criminals/mentally ill, waiting periods, etc - should be mandatory.

(2) Graduated licensing... This is my alternative to an assault weapons ban. People cannot even agree on the term "assault weapon" - let's remove the semantics by introducing graduated licensing. Similar to graduated driver's licenses, a graduated gun owner's license would simply mean that the longer you've been a gun owner, the fewer restrictions you would have on future gun purchases. Say, for instance, that for the first two years you can only own a revolver (or some sort of low-capacity, long-reload weapon), then after that you can "graduate" to a rifle, and so on. Like I said, I'm not a gun guy, so the details could be hammered out by people with the proper experience, but I like the idea.

As anyone who's done his homework is fully aware, most mass shootings are done with legally purchased weapons. What a graduated license would help prevent (at least in theory) is the man who plots out a mass killing, and then goes about exacting his plan by legally buying up everything he needs. Is the plan perfect? Of course not - there is the obvious possibility of someone planning a mass killing and then waiting the requisite years rather than months - but the lengthy wait is a deterrant.

(3) Required training classes... Again, this could be similar to drivers' education. If "required" training for everyone is too much to ask, what if we decreased the wait time for those who've taken the training course? The whole idea behind this, again, is to keep guns out of the hands of those who are acting hastily, or at the very least, to slow them down.

(4) Annual certification... Basically, this whole list is modeled after the DMV, haha. I don't know what it takes to get a gun license, much less what it takes to prevent one from expiring. But I think an annual eye test and perhaps a practical (ie, you know how to properly disassemble/reassemble, clean, etc) might be a good idea. The idea for this one is to encourage responsible gun ownership, as I'm sure the vast majority of gun owners do these things already (though they probably substitute the shooting range for an eye exam).

(5) A universal ban on high-capacity, rapid-fire weapons, unless you've had requisite training/licensing... I realize this is extremely unlikely, which is why it's listed lower than the others, but I really don't understand why a civilian would need a military-grade weapon. I know hunters - you don't go hunting with an AR15. You can defend yourself just as well with something less conspicuous... So why do these need to bought by regular people? Simply because they can? Maybe a gun owner can explain this one to me because I just don't get it.


Concluding Thoughts
That's all I got. It's not much, but I really just wanted to open up a dialogue and put a few ideas out there. As always, I welcome criticism, corrections, and the further exchange of ideas. That's the wonderful thing about this country - we can talk about anything. Let's take advantage of that opportunity.

...And, lest you think me complete naive and short-sighted, a word to those who jump up and say, "Criminals will always find a way around the law" - Yes, you're absolutely right. If someone is bound and determined to hurt others, nothing will stop him. Even if guns never existed, he'd use a knife... he'd use a rock... he'd use his bare hands... and so on. Some people simply want to hurt people, and there's little we can do to stop that.

What we can do, however, is make it more difficult for them to hurt people. (Again, analogies: you can kill someone with a rock, certainly, but not nearly as easily, and not nearly as quickly. It's hard to commit a mass killing with a rock, or even a knife for that matter.) That's the whole reason we have laws - to restrict, deter, or otherwise slow those who would hurt or exploit others. Very little to do with those who follow the law.

Violence will continue to happen. I get that. But I don't think the solution is to simply throw up our hands and say, "Well - that's just the way it is!" We have to do something. And if we fail, then we try something else... and something else... and something else. Social well-being is up to us. It's our cross to bear. The whole point of this entry is not to go on some anti-gun rant because (as I hope you noticed) I'm really not anti-gun; I'm pro-responsibility. And what I hope we can do is foster an environment of responsibility and accountability, and hopefully that can help prevent future tragedies from happening.