Abraham Lincoln: The Good of the Many . . .

Title: Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

Author: Seth Grahame-Smith

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

ISBN: 978-0-446-56308-6

Pages: 336

Last April, my husband and I were in New Orleans for a conference. On the way out to the zoo, we stumbled onto a movie set. It was clear the movie was set in the 1800s. The horse and wagons, the period dress, and building architecture seemed both in-congruent and completely plausible in a city like New Orleans. I guess it is not an unusual thing to find a movie set in New Orleans. The week we visited, there were almost a dozen movies being filmed in and around the city, or so we were told by an extra. Like most other tourists, we took pictures of the actresses in long dresses, bonnets, and corsets while they listened to their iPods and texted on their smart phones. Then filming began and I saw a tall gentleman in a cream colored three-piece suit and top hat. It was clearly Abraham Lincoln. However, come to find out, he was a vampire slayer! Who know?

Benjamin Walker as Abraham Lincoln - wrapping for the day.

That brings me to today's book - Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith, first known for his book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Many people want to read a book before seeing the movie, or end up reading the book because of the movie. I picked up this book because I saw the filming of the movie. Reading the book reminded me of paging through the historical book Then and Now: The Wonders of the Ancient World Brought to Life in Vivid See-Through Reproductions by Stefania Perring, which has pictures of historical buildings and places with a transparent overlay that shows what the place looked like in history. I recognize the Coliseum with chunks of it missing and looking like a relic, but with the overlay it became a vibrant theater filled with cheering people watching the gladiators bleed to death. I know the story of Honest Abe - his humble beginnings, his struggle to become a lawyer and president, and the tragedies in his life. Grahame-Smith overlays a secret life of vampire hunting, weaving an interesting combination of fiction and nonfiction. I was constantly lifting the overlay to check what was real and what wasn't. There was enough reality to make it plausible and enough fantasy to delight the Buffy-fan in me.

For some reason, Grahame-Smith bookends the story with an explanation of how this story came to be, with himself as the main character receiving secret diaries of Abraham Lincoln. It is his duty to take the ten journals of Lincoln and write a book that tells the truth about Lincoln's life. As Grahame-Smith says,"it turns out that the towering myth of honest Abe, the one ingrained in our earliest grade school memories, is inherently dishonest"(p. 15) "Vampires exist. And Abraham Lincoln was one of the greatest vampire hunters of his age"(p. 14). And thus begins the "true" story of Lincoln.

Lincoln was propelled into vampire hunting when his mother was poisoned by vampire blood in retaliation for his father's debt. His motivation for learning to read and write was to learn the secrets of vampires to hunt them down and destroy them. In one of his early killings, he becomes friends with a "good" vampire, Henry, who recognizes the deep infiltration of vampires into the foundation of America's constitution and government. It seems slavery was a boon to vampires as there was easily available blood without retaliation. Therefore, the Civil War was not necessarily fought over the freedom of slaves but rather a war between factions of vampires for control of the country, with humans being the pawns. Lincoln may be the Great Emancipator, but, according the Grahame-Smith, the emancipation was actually to reduce the food supply for the Southern Vampires. Some of the most famous figures of the Civil War, such as Jefferson Davis and John Wilkes Booth, were either in league with vampires, or vampires themselves. If you are looking for an alternative reality book - this one clearly is for you!

I think I have forgotten how to read books just for pleasure, or fun. My analytical mind would not turn off while I was reading and I continually tried to sort out how much was fact and how much was fiction. Grahame-Smith has done an intriguing job of tweaking famous pictures of Lincoln in ways that made me think, "But wait, is that ax really in the picture of him talking to the General? " (The ax being his choice weapon to behead vampires). Or, taking famous speeches and reinterpreting them to indicate the subtext of the war with the vampires. Like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I used to watch faithfully, he is a tragic figure who knows the implausibly and impossibility of his situation yet continues to forge ahead, so the ignorant majority of the population can enjoy the daily pleasantries of life. His secret work takes a toil on his health and family, yet he continues to sacrifice as (in Spock's words, echoing John Stuart Mill's utilitarianism) "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one."

The movie should be in the theaters this summer. I'm looking forward to seeing the scene I saw being filmed in New Orleans, and as an action/fantasy film, it is based on a solid premise. Here is the trailer for the film:

If you want to know a little more about the book, this is a good review:

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter: Surprisingly Fantastic

When I finished reading, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, I felt much like I did when I finished reading Wicked. I had the MGM techno-color version of The Wizard of Oz in my psyche since childhood and Gregory Maguire shattered that image. Yet, his new creation was intriguing and I've often thought of his portrayal of the images of good and evil, and the difference between intentions and consequences. Grahame-Smith similarly made me confront how much my image of Lincoln was based on the Disneyfied version of history and how much can actually be hidden from the general public. How much of our political system is generated and run by interests outside of the good for the many, and instead for the good of the few or the one?

The Glossy Version of Being The Help

Title: The Help

Author: Kathryn Stockett

Publisher: Penguin

Pages: 534

ISBN: 978-0-425-24513-2

As a reader, I tend not to jump on the current band wagon. I tried reading Oprah's picks, and tend to dislike most of them. Actually, despise is a more accurate word for several - as I threw a few across the room in frustration of the inane writing or plot (or lack thereof). If it is on the New YorkTimes bestseller list, I try to avoid it. Why? I think it is the adolescent willfulness that is still in me - I don't like to be told what to do or read. At the same time, there has only been one person who has understood my taste in books, my brother. He has always found me obscure but great fiction and non-fiction and I delight in his Christmas and birthday presents. However, most other people press books in my hand that they loved and I slog through them at a snail pace; finally giving in to skimming and skipping pages just to say I finished it. When they ask how I liked it, I use the duplicitous tactic of turning the question back on them, so I don't have to tell them how much I disliked it.

When The Help came out as a movie, suddenly I saw the book being read on buses and in coffee shops. Even my mother picked up a copy, which surprised me because she generally doesn't read popular books. She was quite anxious to see the movie, but is one of those people who needs to read the book first. One weekend I popped by mom's house to catch a ride to the airport and found the book waiting for me. Now, airplane time is prime "fun" reading time for me, but I had already been geared up to read Nine Parts of Desire:The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks. The cheery yellow movie poster cover of The Help did not entice me to abandon a journalist's experience of living and working with Middle Eastern women during the first Persian Gulf. In fact, the cover led to think of pretty birthday cupcakes, when all I wanted was some solid mash potatoes and gravy.

This week, I began reading The Help. At first I felt a bit like a voyeur. I am a Northerner born and bred, and although I've lived overseas for a long time, I've had few direct racial encounters personally, though I well aware of the racial, social and cultural struggles non-white Americans face every day, and especially black Americans. As a child, I grew up in a typical small town of European descent and hadn't met an African-American until I joined the Army. The overt discrimination I then witnessed was eye-opening, though I continued to enjoy my white privilege through college and into work. It was with this awareness of white privilege that I began reading The Help and wondered how a white author could realistically and accurately portray the voices (even fictional) of the African-American experience from 50 years ago.

The book is narrated by three main characters. Aibileen and Minny are both African-American maids tasked with running the houses and raising the children of two white families in Jackson, Mississippi. Freshly graduating from college, with no husband or career, Skeeter returns to her disappointed parents on a small plantation, to find her childhood maid has been fired and disappeared. As she tries gathering information from the maids of her friends about what happened to her maid, she begins to recognize the cruelty, hypocrisy, and ignorance of her white friends in their treatment of their domestic staff. At first, Skeeter leaps on the opportunity for a good story, "I'd like to write this showing the point of view of the help. The colored women down here . . . They raise a white child and then twenty years later the child becomes the employer. It's that irony, that we love them and they love us, yet . . . We don't even allow them to use the toilet in the house . . . Everyone knows how we white people feel, the glorified Mammy figure who dedicates her whole life to a white family. Margaret Mitchell covered that. But no one ever asked Mammy how she felt about it." (p. 123).

Both Aibileen and Minny recognize the danger in speaking about their work. Not only could they get fired, but with Jim Crow laws still in force, jail, beatings and lynchings were normal responses to uppity black action. However, with several local black beatings and a murder, plus a local initiative to build black only bathrooms for the domestic help, both women believe this could be an opportunity to have their voices heard. When Skeeter proposes the article to a publisher, the publisher requests a full book of interviews, to capitalize on the soon-to-come march onWashington, DC led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. To fill a book, Skeeter requires about a dozen maids to be willing to talk about their work. When one maid is accused of stealing and sent to jail for an excessive amount of time, the several maids agree to participate in the book. It is at this time Skeeter finally realizes the danger she has put herself and, especially the women, in. Particularly, the maid of the town's queen-bee, Hilly, who has a vendetta to create a fully separate but equal society because she feels strongly that "they are not us." The book is jointly edited by Skeeter and Aibileen with all names changed. The initial publication of a few thousand copies did not fulfill the demand, once the book was talked about on TV.

SPOILER ALERT - If you haven't read the book, and don't want to know the ending, skip the next paragraph.

In the end, Hilly recognizes the book is set in her town (though she can't admit is because of the Terrible Awful) and tries to have all the maids involved fired. However, a few of her white friends refuse, because of what they believe is a positive relationship with their maid. But, Aibileen is fired, which pushes her into considering doing something new and Skeeter gets a job in New York.

On the whole, this is a redemption and coming of age story for Skeeter (and the author), who feels guilty for the way her family treated their own maid. Both Aibileen and Minny allow Skeeter to leave Jackson with a sense of having accomplished something. However, the two women must continue to face the daily disrespect, discrimination and degradation of being black in America. I think one of the most powerful parts of the story is Aibileen's determination to re-educate Mae Mobley, the white toddler she is raising. Aibileen tells Mae Mobley secret stories about how people are people no matter what color their outsides are. Although this may seem like an obvious statement, discrimination and hatred are not inherent, they are taught and reinforced by the people around us. However, that also means that respect and love can be taught and model to counteract the evil actions of bigotry.

Association of Black Women Historians issued an open statement regarding many issues concerning the book and movie including the use of dialect, trivialization of the black experience, and lack of attention to the issues of the Civil Rights movement. It is a worthwhile read.  There are several other critiques of the book also, many which are justified.  The Help is marketed as a "beach read" but the actual experiences of the women who had to endure the constant degradation deserves more than a cheery cupcake cover. Although my breath was taken away by some of the ignorant and hurtful comments made by some of the white characters to and about the black characters, I would guess that was only the tip of the ice-burg of reality. And, like all beach reads, the story ends happily for all involved, wrapped-up like a 30 minute sitcom, which does not reflect the prevalence of modern discrimination.

2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge hosted by The Book Vixen - I'm on Fire!

What’s your reading goal for 2012? If it’s to read more books, then this is the reading challenge for you There were 227 readers who wanted to outdo themselves in 2011. Are you up for the challenge?

Details:

• Runs January 1, 2012 – December 31, 2012 (books read prior to 1/1/12 do not count towards the challenge). You can join at anytime. Sign up on The Book Vixen’s blog.
• The goal is to outdo yourself by reading more books in 2012 than you did in 2011. See the different levels below and pick the one that works best for you. Nothing is set in stone; you can change levels at any time during the challenge.
• Books can be any format (bound, eBook, audio).
• Re-reads and crossovers from other reading challenges are allowed.
• Grab the reading challenge button and post this reading challenge on your blog to track your progress. Please include a link back to this sign-up post so others can join the reading challenge too. You do not have to be a book blogger to participate; you could track your progress on Goodreads or LibraryThing.

Levels:
     Getting my heart rate up – Read 1–5 more books
     Out of breath – Read 6–10 more books
     Breaking a sweat – Read 11–15 more books
     I’m on fire! – Read 16+ more books

My Goal . . .

As I already mentioned, I want to read more fun books than the last few years of graduate school.  Therefore, I'm on fire! I will read more than 16 fun books than last year, which was a pitiful few (like 5).  I will not count the academic books I will continue reading for my dissertation.

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Quiescit Anima Libris - The soul (spirit) finds respite in books.

I was born into a world of reading. Some of my earliest memories involve sitting on my father's lap and reading the comics. Or, going to the library with my mother to check out the same book every week just because I loved the illustrations. I had a library card by the time I was three and have always had one since. My mother became my school librarian and later worked at a bookstore. In our house, the entry hallway was lined with five tall bookshelves brimming with books. It is no wonder that I am a bibliophile.

However, the last few years has seen a decline in my own readerly life.  What is a readerly life you might ask? Although there is not one set definition, having a readerly life means being immersed in reading, excited about books, and eager to share your reading. As a graduate student, I am currently doing research in an elementary classroom. During the first quarter of the year, the students explored what it meant to have a readerly life. They learned about choosing books at their appropriate level, having a plan for reading, responding to what they were reading, and sharing their reading with others. This is something very typical for many elementary classrooms that are using the reading workshop format. Lucy Culkin is the guru of the readerly life for elementary teachers. However, I am much more well-versed on the reader workshop model by Nancie Atwell and Linda Rief, who are better known at the secondary level. In my own classroom, I have tried to set up an environment where students are immersed in books of their own choosing, given time to read, and have the opportunity to talk with their peers about their reading.

Strangely, as a graduate student I have not had these opportunities. I have been told what to read, how to read it and how to respond to it. The only time in the past few years that I have read" fun" books was at the and of the semester or on vacation. Recently, I was paging through Nicholas Carr's book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains and recognized that many of the things he identifies as changes in how we think because of the internet are true for me. I have not engaged in sustained silent reading for a long time. It seems my concentration is lacking. And I have only responded to book in soundbites. Book sharing sites, such as the reviews on Amazon or, one of my favorites, Goodreads.com are nice, but it is basically Facebook for readers - comments are limited and superficial. I have found that I greatly miss my readerly life.

It is the beginning of the new year. Although many people make resolutions, I tend to shy away from resolutions. Eric Zorn, a columnist and blogger for the Chicago Tribune is attributed with saying, “Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self-assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle." It is almost a joke to make a resolution and then break it. I think Tom Morris, a turn-of-the-century professional golfer, summed it up well when he said, "A goal is not the same as a desire, and this is an important distinction to make. You can have a desire you don't intend to act on. But you can't have a goal you don't intend to act on." I think resolutions are desires - to quit smoking, to lose weight, to become a vegetarian. Therefore, this year I am setting intentions. According to the dictionary, an intention is "a course of action that one intends to follow." My intention for this year is to read more" fun" books. In other words, I would like to read the books that I have chosen to put on my bookshelf.  And being the good teacher that I am, I know that having a goal of “more", is not Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, or Timely. So my SMART goal or intention for this year is to read one "fun" book a week, and to make myself accountable, I will blog about it.

So, what are these books that I'm going to read? They are the books that have been piling up on my bookshelf for the last four years. I had lived overseas for 10 years before returning to the States. The first week I moved into my new home, the local library had a used book sale. After 10 years of walking into foreign bookstores that had thousands of books that I could not read, I went a little crazy and bought grocery bags full of books. Since that time, I have also joined Paperback Swap, which is an amazing website to swap or recycle books. In addition I have both a mother and a mother-in-law who are voracious readers. They keep giving me books, then asking if I've read them. I feel both sad and embarrassed when I have to say that I have not. I have more" important" reading to do. But what could be more important than losing myself in a book? Fran Lebowitz, an American author and columnist said, “To lose yourself in a book is the desire of the bookworm. I mean to be taken. That is my desire.” It is my hope that you will become a bibliophilic bookworm with me!