A review of DC's Weekly comic, Futures End

Is this a future worth reading about?

A comic book review 

By: Joshua Voshell

Edited by: Devin Heck

I've been an on-again, off-again comic book collector for a few years now, so it may not surprise you that DC’s Futures End only appeared on my radar after I picked up the 0 issue on Free Comic Book Day. At the time of writing this, I am on issue #13, and after hearing lots of criticism for the series I would like to point out what I like about it.

Before I get into the details about what I like and dislike about the comic, I feel it is necessary to give an overview. 35 years into the current DC future, a borg-like army has taken over the world, following the orders of a single intelligence known as Brother Eye. If you are familiar with the Terminator series, it’s much like the apocalyptic world you find there: a small band of resistance fighters trying to defeat Skynet. In the first issue, we see what may be the final push of this resistance movement, as it seems that most of the world’s population has been converted into these borg-like individuals. As a last ditch effort to save the world Batman sends back his apprentice Terry McGinnis. Terry McGinnis, who is also called Batman, is sent back to stop Batman and Mr. Terrific from building Brother Eye. Due to, complications he ends up not traveling far enough back to prevent Brother Eye’s creation. Thus, we have Terry 5 years in the future trying to stop something that he believes has already started.

This story is laden with questions such as, what exactly is Brother Eye? why did Batman build it? how did it take over the world and defeat its vast armies of meta humans? These questions are just a few that come up in the first issue. Throughout the series, these mysteries grow and multiply. Later on, when Terry is in the past, we learn that Brother Eye is some kind of defense satellite. Subsequently we find out that also that it has been shut down since some sort of invasion. This brings up so many questions. What will lead it from being a dormant satellite to conquering the world with its converted minions? What invasion? We also learn that there was some sort of global war involving earth 2. We see Superman has a mask and are told that he has been wearing the thing since the war. All these questions I find fascinating.

 In every issue, we seem to be learning something new about this world and some new clue or mystery shows up. At Ollie’s funeral, we see a number of heroes give eulogies. Each one works on the surface as summing up of his character by explaining who Ollie was, both his personal life and his superhero life. Now, I know Ollie is a well-established DC character but this is five years in the future, so we need to question who everyone is. Especially considering all that seems to have happened during that five-year period. The eulogies also help to establish the socio political landscape of the DCU. There was some sort of global confrontation with Earth 2 and now for some reason a bunch of Earth 2 characters live on Earth Prime and that this has caused a lot of strife. Now on the surface level of the eulogies nothing is happening, although I went into it hoping to get insight into what Green Arrow was working on before he died. Instead of learning about what specifically Green Arrow was working on, they subtly start building up the back-story of this DCU timeline.

The mysteries that are being teased thought the series are a big draw for me. Like what happened to superman that makes him wear that mask? Personally, I think he is Superman of Earth 2 and since that Superman is black and looks nothing like Clark, he needs to wear a mask to cover his face. Why do I think this? Superman outfit covers his whole body. The classic uniform has his hands bare as well as his face. This person has nothing showing because he wears gloves and a mask, and he doesn't wear a cape- another departure from Prime Earth Superman’s costume. My first reaction to reading the line “Lots of rumors why you wear that mask, Superman,” (Issue 6, Futures End) was to envision a Phantom of the Opera scenario. However, after thinking about it longer and seeing an ad for an Earth 2 comic, I realized it was quite possible that he is Earth 2 Superman. He seems to act a bit different from the current DC superman. In the same issue, we see him being very protective in a boyfriend way of Lois Lane and I believe he is with Wonder Woman in current DCU cannon. He is shown not remembering things superman should know. In addition, Earth 2 and Earth Prime had some sort of conflict so it is not unreasonable that Superman of Earth 2 would end up on Earth Prime. We also know that it was only after the war that superman changed his outfit. The information for this is nicely spread out through the book and is subtle enough to be enjoyable.

Each issue is split up into a number of stories, one following Grifter, one following Frankenstein, One following Lois Lane trying to figure out the meaning behind the items she was sent, and there are other plots going on but all of these stories help to build up the world surrounding Batman (Terry McGinnis). Each story reveals aspects of a larger story that of the coming apocalypse. This all puts Batman’s quest into perspective and makes you realize just how massive an undertaking it is. It looks like Terry is in way over his head. Each story is also interesting in and of itself. Because there are so many story lines in each issue, it can feel like week to week not much happens but it would be a mistake to skip an issue. I would suggest reading a few at a time if they feel slow to you.

If I had to complain about anything in the series, it would be the artwork and some of the design. Because the comic is a weekly instead of a monthly, the quality of the artwork on each issue waffles between very good to poor. On average, I think the art is decent but I also don't like some of the stylistic choices the comic goes with. The design I like the least is that of the Borg like followers of Brother Eye. One assimilated into the fold an individual has body parts removed almost at random and replaced with silly spider legs or other robotic nonsense. The big reason I don’t like this is because all these meta humans we see converted have been gutted of some of the very aspects that would have given them an advantage for Brother Eye. If you could convert all these meta humans and gain their vast powers why ruin them? The only good explanation I can think of is that they are being stripped of individuality and humanity.

In conclusion, I think this series is enjoyable, but you should keep a few things in mind while reading it. First, since the comic is essentially one long arc spanning 49 issues, so expect a slow burn. The story has a quasi-main plot but in order to flesh out this epic we are told the story largely through the lens of its subplots. Each of which are interesting in and of themselves. Next, you need to realize that what this story is excelling at is mystery and world building. How have things got to be the way they are? What will happen that leads to the grim outcome we saw in issue zero?  With each new issue, the story evolves, and some small questions are answered while others are raised. Finally, be aware the artwork is overall decent but can at time dip into poor territory. While some of the art is good and some of the designs are nice, overall this comic will not be making sales based on its aesthetics. With all that in mind, I suggest you give this series a change. I like it and hopefully you will too.

Finding Dante in a Novel by Joyce Carol Oates

Finding Dante in a Novel by Joyce Carol Oates

Written By: Joshua Voshell

Edited By: Devin Heck

After reading the novel Because it is Bitter, and Because it is my Heart, I noticed some striking similarities to Dante’s Divine Comedy. The Comedy is about Dante’s ascent from the Inferno to Paradise, and in in this novel, Iris follows a similar ascension trajectory. She ascends from low middle class to the upper echelons of society. Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart is both an illusion to the Divine Comedy and a rejection of some of its key precepts.

In Because it is Bitter, Iris fills the role of Dante, and her journey shares interesting similarities to that rough outline of his journey throughout the Divine Comedy. Because it is Bitter opens with the discovery of a dead body floating down a river. Although the body is not actually Iris’s, it does seem that this body is symbolic of Iris crossing the river Acheron. The way the reader can pick up on this is that the body belongs to Little Red, and when the reader looks back on this character's death, they see just how important this incident is to the rest of Iris’s story; it is the catalyst that propels Iris on her path through the book. The body of Little Red can be understood as the death of this little girl, and thus his body can be understood symbolically as her own body. It is also important to note that the person who first discovers the body floating down the river is not able to identify the body, furthering the idea that this corpse is meant as more of a symbolic device.

Throughout her life in Hammond, Iris’s life goes from bad to worse. When we see her as a young child, her parents are not very good at their duties but are passable; over time, the responsibilities of having a child is too much for them. This can be seen by the ever more absent father, which forces the mother to become the responsible parent. This inevitably causes the mother to become resentful, because all she wants to do is go to bars and mingle. She eventually does ignore her parental responsibilities so that she can paint the town red. After the father is completely absent and the parents are divorced, the two, mother and daughter, begin to sink into poverty as the alcoholism that plagues her mother makes its slow play for her life. Having moved many times as a child, Iris has been unable to take root in a group of peers and the secret of Little Red’s death helps to further alienate her from others her age. The secret also forms a strong bond between Iris and Jinx. The two feel close to each other, but also distanced due to period racial division. This forbidden love is never quite given a chance to be expressed, which has long-term effects on Iris, who feels she can love no one else.

The trials of Hammond climax with the death of Iris’s mother and the breaking of Jinx’s ankle. This climax ends the section of the book where Iris lives, endures the trials of Hammond, and begins her new life in New York, where she studies in college and climbs the social ladder. The climax and sudden shift in the book represent the same tonal shift Dante experiences when he passes through the heart of the Inferno to climb the mountain of Purgatory in order to reach Paradise. Her Paradise, unlike the Paradise of the Divine Comedy, is that of social status, wealth, and security. Her ascension is from the squalor of her family to the riches of the Savages.

Though both journeys of Iris and Dante begin with a death, they are different sorts of deaths and have different consequences. Dante’s death opens up for him the possibility of redemption because it is the death of the old self, giving the possibility for a new, better self. It is the purification of the soul, allowing him to reach the presence of his beloved, widely considered a symbol for righteousness, and therefore allowing him into Paradise. Iris’s story begins with a death but is that of another. This is not a story of purification of the soul: her soul rots and festers. But this festering personality leads her to Paradise. Little Red’s death inextricably connects Iris and Jinx for the rest of her journey, something that would not have otherwise happened in the society they lived in. Throughout the book, we see Iris mature very quickly, although this can be better understood as her growing cold and detached. The unfulfilled relationship with Jinx plays a large role in this process. She never feels able to open up to anyone else and this is what makes her heart so bitter: she knows that society would never accept the two together, but she also knows that black people are not inherently different from white people. While growing up in Hammond, she overhears her parents discussing how black people have different blood than white people. She finds this puzzling, and later she gets in a fight with a black girl and sees that her blood is red and the same as her own, it leads her to conclude that what she personally observes is more accurate than what other people tell her is true. This encapsulates her outlook on race and we can see that she has no problems with African Americans. Iris is at odds with a society she feels alienated from, but a big influence on this outlook is that Jinx saved her from the white boy who desired to rape her. His heroic actions color her view of him and extend to all those who look like him.

One of the most important elements in the Divine Comedy is the Inferno, because is only through it that Dante can reach Paradise. The Inferno is made up of levels that can be understood as constructed in descending concentric circles. When beginning his journey, he rides the river Acheron to arrive at the first circle of the Inferno, Limbo. This is a place relegated to Virtuous pagans, those who fall just shy of what is required to enter Paradise. Beyond Limbo, the Inferno has many declining levels, but what is important lays at the heart of the Inferno. At its center drain three rivers into a frozen pond where Lucifer is trapped. Because It Is Bitter mirrors the world of the Inferno in that it can be viewed as existing in concentric circles. The first circle, Limbo, is represented by the town of Hammond. Hammond is not a particularly bad place to live, but like Limbo, it’s not Paradise. The scene where Little Red’s body is found floating on the river is analogous to Dante crossing over to Limbo by way of the river Acheron. The rest of Iris’s life in Hammond, from the day of the murder until the day she leaves for school, forms the rest of the circles. Dante's Inferno goes down, but Iris's Inferno goes inward. A rough outline of these circles would contain the small town she lived in, social pressures she experiences, her dysfunctional family, and her shared secret about the murder. She learns to withdraw and hide deep within herself to survive. Dante finds Lucifer at the heart of his Inferno, but Iris instead finds her dead alcoholic mother. She has not dealt with her problems up to Persia’s death, nor does she afterwards. Therefore, before leaving the Inferno her problems are not cleansed; instead, they solidify into ice. While Dante is able to reach Paradise by traveling through Cocytus- the icy lake at the heart of the Inferno- Iris is able to leave Hammond by forming her bitterly icy heart.

After Dante leaves through the icy heart of the Inferno, he ascends through Purgatory to reach Paradise. Iris leaves Hammond after the death of her mother to attend college in New York. Here, Iris excels at her schoolwork, just like in Hammond, only now her talents are noticed and rewarded. Doctor Savage, a professor of art and art history, becomes quite interested in her. He is of the upper echelon, where wealth and beauty flow like water. His family represents Paradise. Dante struggles to ascend the Mountain of Purgatory, while Iris gradually works her way into Dr. Savage and his wife’s good graces. She sees them and what they represent as an opportunity to rise above her old life, but it’s only because of her old life, the experiences she had, and the way they shaped her that she can be accepted by the Savages. It is her icy heart that allows her to so easily fill the role the Savages desire.  

In the Divine Comedy, Dante's love, Beatrice, requests Virgil guide Dante to Paradise. In Because It Is Bitter, Mrs. Savage fills the role of Beatrice. Mrs. Savage is unsatisfied by the way her own daughter lives her life, and desires a daughter who will live up to her ideals; Iris is just what the mother is looking for. So she calls forth her son, who is off in Paris, to come and marry Iris. This will graft Iris into the family and thus solidify her place in Paradise.  

In the Divine Comedy, Virgil leaves Limbo to accompany Dante through the Inferno and Purgatory, but not all the way to Paradise. This is because Beatrice represents theology and Virgil, the height of mortal wisdom. In our story, the part of Virgil is played by Alan. We can see the similarities between Alan and Virgil in a few different ways. Virgil resides in Limbo far away from Paradise, but it is the best place a virtuous pagan can reside, because they are outside the family of Christ. Alan is in Paris, far away from the Savage family. It’s only in this distant city that he can live without following the rules dictated by his family and their society. Beatrice calls Virgil to guide her love to Paradise. Similarly, we see Gwendelyn Savage call for her son to leave Paris and move back home, where he is coerced into marrying Iris. This marriage prompted by his mother is what finally brings Iris from her low class status to the wealthy status of the Savages. For Iris’s metaphor, Paradise is represented by high society and the Savages live within that space. We can see they live not only with wealth but also with beauty, as Mr. Savage is only concerned with art as beauty, and this is what he surrounds himself with. It is the marriage to Alan that grafts Iris to this stratum of society- but Alan, unlike Virgil, does not leave to go back to where he came from and is also brought into Paradise by being enfolded back into his family via Iris.

As Dante travels through the Inferno and Purgatory, he is forced to confront his sins and is then stripped of the characteristics that keep him from Paradise, leaving him with only the righteous, core elements of himself. As Iris travels in her life, she is slowly stripped of her own admirable characteristics. She escapes Hammond and her dysfunctional family, as well as the societal constructs that pertain to her social class, and is able to move to a seemingly better city, with a better family and a better social class. However, rather than positively purifying her, it serves to strip her of individuality and gives her the ability to wear the mask that the Savages want- she becomes a hollow, bitter person. The final act of her purification takes place just before her wedding, the signification of achieving Paradise. She is drawn to a dangerous neighborhood, where she is assaulted by a group of African Americans. Just as the actions of Jinx solidify her uniquely positive views towards blacks as whole, so does this collective action reverse this view. She is no longer comfortable with African Americans, and this is the last of her admirable characteristic that is stripped before she is able to ascend into Paradise.

In the Divine Comedy, Dante is brought through the Inferno with the guiding hand of Virgil, but Iris has no such guide. Dante's travels purify him while Iris’s journey makes her cold and strips her of her ability to empathize with African Americans, which is one of her earlier defining and unusual characteristics. She is guided by no wisdom, because not everyone can be saved by wisdom; some people are condemned by circumstance. Iris is lucky and ends up in a circumstance where she can rise above her social status, but she lives a joyless life of meaningless beauty in her newly found heaven, because that is what was necessary for her to achieve her idea of Paradise.

Reasons I listen to vinyl and why you may want to also

 Reasons I listen to Vinyl

and why you may want to also

By:Joshua Voshell

Edited By: Devin Heck

  Over the last few years, vinyl records have emerged back into popularity. Known also as ‘LPs,’ vinyl are now more available than they have been since CDs replaced them as the popular medium for storing music. I have been collecting LPs for a few years, and considering how popular records are now, I would like to share my particular reasons for having this hobby. It is a reasonable question to ask why, with internet radio, digital distributors like iTunes and Amazon music store, or easily accessible physical mediums such as CDs, would someone want to use LPs. What sets vinyl records apart is the unique experience they offer as well as their historical value.

Records are big, fragile, and listening to them can be rather tricky. They skip, scratch easily, and require being flipped because each side is not long enough to hold an entire album. I think that these flaws are both what caused CDs to replace LPs as the most popular music storage medium, and are also part of the reason they have enjoyed such a resurgence in recent years. Most people, like myself, are not able to distinguish between the quality offered by vinyl records and that of CDs. If sound quality was the decisive factor, CDs would not have eclipsed LPs in the 90s. So, although I am sure LPs offer higher quality sound, it is not what I like about them. To better understand how clunky LPs are, I will go over how they work. Now, I'm not an expert on how LPs work- and if you are, that’s awesome- but I want to get across the basics because it is central to understanding my position.

Turntables use a needle attached to an arm to reproduce the sound recorded on the discs. Both sides of an LP have grooves cut into them in tight spirals. Placing the disc on the turntable and setting the arm on the outer edge of the album aligns the needle to the grooves. While the record spins, the needle follows the grooves cut into the album. The music has been imprinted in these grooves, and as the needle passes over them, the process creates vibrations. These vibrations are then amplified by a transistor and sent out by the turntable to the speakers. Vibrations are frequencies, and what the eardrum is able to detect is only a fraction of the frequency spectrum of sound. During the mechanical process of the needle moving through the groves of a record, the needle will pick up the frequencies that have been imprinted in the grooves of the album. This is how a turntable reproduces music. What is really neat is that you can actually hear the LP being played right on the turntable.

Now this process is very delicate, as you can imagine, because what’s happening is that whatever sound is being picked up by the arm of the turntable will be transmitted to your sound system. That means the environment a turntable is in can easily affect what sounds are being produced. For the most accurate reproduction, you need to be in a very stable environment, otherwise the needle will be affected.  For example, sometimes when I walk by my turntable, it skips because the vibrations I make while walking by cause the needle to jump. Vibrations from activities in the turntable’s environment can also cause the sound to be distorted because they move the needle. Aside from the environment, other factors degrade the sound quality produced by the turntable. Scratches and overall degradation of a disc will permanently corrupt the sound recorded on the record. Over time, simply playing an album will degrade its sound quality, not to mention all the other damage that can happen to them if you are not careful. I have the album God Bless Tiny Tim, and it is covered with small scratches. None of them make it skip, however; the small scratches covering its surface simply come through as that classic crackling noise often associated with LPs. In my opinion, this degradation helps make my album more enjoyable and nostalgic, prompting thoughts of yesteryear.  It’s likely the crackling sound is more notable because before vinyl was used for making records, people used harsher materials that could not be smoothed out as much as vinyl, and as such these older discs the crackling noise was always present. That material was replaced by vinyl precisely because vinyl didn't do that due to being smoother. My idea of the cracking sound being nostalgic comes from these old types of records, and not the more modern LPs that I actually listen to and am writing my paper about. Regardless of where the idea originated from, it is here, and listening to an album through fuzz is like listening to music through the veil of time. I do have a few albums that do have scratches that cause them to skip while being played. While playing these albums, I simply lift the arm with the lever and then nudge it just past the scratch.

It is also important to handle LPs carefully, because you can easily scratch up an album. Big scratches on an album will cause an album to loop and will require you to fix the problem by either shaking the needle out of a groove or using the lever to skip over the scratch. This means that stomping on the ground or tapping on the turntable can get your album to stop skipping, but may not be the best way to go about it, as it is likely to further degrade the albums quality.

So you may be wondering why I consider these things to be strengths of the medium. From my point of view, it’s all about the interaction with the medium. You need to be more careful with LPs than MP3 or CDs. You have to pay attention to the music being played, or it may start skipping and not stop. You also have to be mindful because vinyl have their music recorded on both sides, rather than a single one. Playing a record requires your attention and respect. Listening to LPs is an engaging experience because it is your job to keep the record from skipping, to flip it over when one side is done, and to pick a new album out when one is finished. Vinyl records also demand respect, in that if you do not treat a vinyl properly, it will end up being unlistenable. Respect and engagement are central to what makes listening to vinyl records an experience beyond just listening to music.

Having a record collection is essential to the listening experience. This is because having a library of LPs to look through adds to the overall experience of LPs. With a library, you have the opportunity to search through different albums and pick one that you are most interested in hearing. When you only own a few albums to choose from, the decision of what to listen to on your turntable is almost automatic. You could end up just listening to a couple albums over and over, causing the music to become stale and old. If you are like me, then you may tend to listen to music while you do stuff around the house and as such, tend to have your music playing for at least a couple of hours at a time. This means that when I listen to music, I am constantly flipping and changing LPs. The music I end up playing becomes very reflective of my mood. This is possible because at the moment, my collection sits at just shy of one hundred albums. The variety contained within my collection is enough that I can listen to a few hours of music in a variety of moods and not have to repeat albums or play music I am not in the mood to listen to. When I choose the next album, I make a point not to repeat any- something I used to do growing up. I would put a CD on and listen to it over and over, until I knew it by heart. Since I do not listen to my records like this, they remain fresher for longer. One of the goals I have had while building my collection is to find music I am unfamiliar with, so that I can broaden my musical tastes. This means buying music I have never heard before so that I can experience the joy of discovering new music.

My collection of albums spans many decades and genres. Each album is unique: some have fantastic art, some have complicated covers, but all of them hint at the music that lay within. Looking through my collection is like looking through time. While looking through my collection I might say to myself, ‘Here we have The Ink Spots, here we have the soundtrack to Woodstock, here is a copy of Operation Ivy.’ Each album is a time capsule containing a piece of its culture. My Woodstock album was recorded at Woodstock and is not a reprint. When I put the album on, I think about the journey that album has gone on, who else may have listened to it, and when and where. Inside of my album is an article about Woodstock. It was published in the Milwaukee Journal in 1984, and talks about how the town of Woodstock is generally opposed to its historical society, placing a commemorative marker on the site of the legendary concert. The fact that the newspaper inside the album and the city I picked it up in were both the same place makes me nostalgic. I think about how the album was probably sold in Milwaukee shortly after 1970 and stayed there until I picked it up and took it home with me in 2014. Knowing most of my albums had a past before I owned them gives me something to think about while choosing an album from my selection to play.

To build a record library of your own does not require you to spend a lot of money. Many places, such a Half Price Books, sell used records for cheap. I have been able to pick up quite a few good albums there for only a dollar each. Sometimes they have specials that allow you to buy albums for as little as fifty cents. Albums there are split into selections of higher and lower prices. There are more cheap albums, but they aren’t organized in any way, so you will have to hunt through to find something you might want. I personally like this, because it seems like there could be anything down there. Most record stores follow this sort of paradigm. Old, less sellable stuff on the bottom shelves near the floor are usually unorganized but cheaper. The newer, more well-known or sellable stuff is priced higher and placed on the top shelves, so they are easier to look at and they are better organized. It seems to me that you will find old LPs more often and for cheaper than old CDs.  If you want to start listening to records, I recommend building a collection and only buying cheap albums to begin with, because it forces you to pick up new music and really helps you to get into the hobby. If you start collecting and then find out you don't like it all that much, you are not as heavily invested.

I personally started with the mindset that I should only get cheap used albums. Not having grown up with a very wide exposure to music, building a collection with the qualification that the albums I choose must be cheap has forced me to be exposed to new musicians I would not have otherwise been exposed to. I like to consider the dollar I often spend on an album to be a gamble- I may get an album I really like, or something awful. With the price being so low, the gamble I make is always worth it. I also buy albums based on the cover art. One of the first albums I bought this way was The New Vaudeville Band’s album Winchester Cathedral. I picked it up because I thought it looked super silly and reeked of the sixties and it did not disappoint. Having to build my collection by buying albums I am unfamiliar with has given me a better appreciation for music.

Another factor that I think gives LPs the upper hand is how long lasting they are. The LP was first introduced in 1948, meaning that when you are looking through used albums at a shop, you have so much more variety to choose from compared to CDs, which have only been available since 1982. Let's use my collection to see how time factors in. From what I can tell, my oldest album is Marty Robbins’ album Gunfighter Ballads, released in 1959, and my newest seems to be a re-released version of the Smiths’ album, Hatful Hallows, that came out in 2012. Technically, my newest album is Total Clarity, released in 2011 by Against Me!. So within my small collection, I have albums that span from 1960 to 2012. When I play Night Ranger’s album Midnight Madness or The Lovin' Spoonful album The Best of the Lovin' Spoonful, Vol. 2, I'm listening to rock from 1983 and 1969 and able to hear the distinct difference between how those two genres were thought of during those time periods. Another added bonus is that while listening to these discs, I enjoy knowing I am listening to the very discs that were being played back in the 80’s and early 70’s.

        Another thing that I think albums have going for them is that they are works of art. Unlike CDs, they are rather big come in a variety of covers and age, similar to books. Firstly, due to the size of the record, their covers are a better platform for artwork. Because they are bigger, the artwork can be far more intricate and might be better appreciated. It seems that people might not look at the cover of a CD much. Since they are portable people often end up listening to CDs in their cars and do away with the cumbersome jewel cases in favor of CD wallets. Digital mediums have relegated album art to advertising and icons; while listening to music, you rarely see the artwork at all, and when you do, it’s too small to really be appreciated. The covers of LPs are mostly uniform, but not as much as CD cases. Album covers are mostly made of cardboard, but vary depending on what the artists were trying to do with them. Covers can come with no opening flaps, with one, and sometimes even two. Some come with extras that can be pulled out, such as Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick, which comes as a multi-paged newspaper. I have some multi disc sets that come in nicely designed boxes. All of them look good on the shelves, even the more unusual album covers, like the one for Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s album Brain Salad Surgery. This cover interestingly opens up with two flaps on either side that come together in the center of the jacket to create a sort of puzzle piece design. The art underneath these flaps is a metal casing, with the shape of a skull just above a circle depicting a lower portion of a face. When you open the jacket, the full face is revealed, implying that this album has something to do with the inner self. The album is quite unique, but because all the covers are roughly the same length and height when together, they have a similar uniformed look to that of books on a shelf, each spine showing just enough color and size variance to be seen as a collection of individuals and not a collection of all identical units. Also similar to books, the covers of albums acquire that majestic smell of age. I am a big fan of the smell of old books and comics. To me, it is the smell of vintage, the smell of the past.

        Vinyl records have something unique to offer that other music mediums do not. Each album is a piece of art, not only because of their covers, but also in the design of the package and disc. Each album is a time capsule holding, art, music, and design that allows you to tap into the time they were printed. Playing a record is more than listening to music, it is an experience. Starting with choosing a record from a selection of albums you hunted around for, and then playing the album and all that is entailed with keeping it playing. I personally have a nice sound system that fills my whole apartment with music, and I burn incense as well- I noticed that most record shops smell strongly of it, and so I began associating the smell of it with LPs and burning it in my own home. The result is a unique atmosphere and a whole experience that engages all my senses, and I think this is what lies at the heart of what I like about listening to vinyl.

Blog Description

What you can expect from this blog: My initial idea for this site was to give me a reason to look over, revise, and expand upon old papers I have turned in for different classes. Usually when I turn in a paper, I feel like it is somewhat lacking and I would like to have a reason to go back and expand it to the size the topic I was grappling with deserved. I also have found over the years that I really like writing these papers, so I will also be writing paper just for this site. My goal is to upload two papers a month. One paper will be a revision and sometimes an expansion of something I have already submitted for a class and the other will be original content. My girlfriend has always helped me when it comes to editing my papers as well as being there for me to bounce ideas off. She also might upload her own papers to this page. In addition, I may add my reviews of movies, books, TV shows, and comic books, as well as my Beer Diary.

The Death of Mr. Tagomi

An Essay by: Joshua Voshell

Edited by: Devin Heck

Mr. Tagomi plays a pivotal role in the novel The Man in the High Castle. When the reader is first introduced to him, it is through the eyes of another character. This character sees Mr. Tagomi as a hard businessman. As the story unfolds, Mr. Tagomi’s character begins to become more fleshed out. He is a pragmatic businessman but he is also a calm, contemplative, and well-meaning individual. He is slow to judgment and has a Buddhist mentality. This calm and level headedness the character exhibits makes him easy for the reader to identify with. His ideology is brought to a breaking point during the later part of the novel, and here he is forced to reevaluate his own philosophy. He is forced to take a life and this causes him great turmoil. He believes himself to be a good man and that killing is always wrong. This belief is irreconcilable with what he has done, and his internal struggle results in a heart attack. The heart attack may lead the character to his death or it may not- Philip K. Dick has left the results uncertain. This is to allow the reader to conclude from it whether or not it is possible to change one's ideology.

The reader identifies with Mr. Tagomi because in this world where people seem so strange, his views on things seem the most rational. Philip also wrote for an American audience, and since Mr. Tagomi has a fondness for American history, it allows them to better identify with him. Tagomi does not overreact at Mr. Childan’s inability to procure the Civil War poster on time, though he knows this will cause him to have to do more work. He simply accepts Mr. Childan’s explanation and then looks elsewhere for help in solving his problem. This leads him to ask the advice of Mr. Ramsey. Mr. Ramsey is an American who works for the white puppet government that is ultimately ruled by Japan. Mr. Tagomi’s ability to ask advice from someone who, in this world, is considered inferior and with whom the majority of American readers can identify with, further strengthens his relatability by displaying rational behavior and embracing the ethnicity of most of Philip’s original readers.

Mr. Tagomi is a Japanese citizen, which places him high in the social structure of society. This is because in the world of The Man in the High Castle, America has been split between Germany and Japan. In the Japanese territories, people live under a racial caste system, and the Japanese naturally occupy the higher rungs. This gives Mr. Tagomi a default position of superiority, one that few other characters in the novel occupy. He is quite literally a part of the ruling class. To add to this, he is a well respected and verbose business man. It is because of this that Mr. Tagomi is invited to the meeting between Mr. Baynes and General Tedeki. Although he believes this to be simply an important business meeting, he is there as a cover so that the secret conference has a plausible front. Tagomi is also chosen because he is considered trustworthy. The meeting Mr. Tagomi is invited too is small. It takes place between only three individuals- Mr. Baynes, General Tedeki, and Mr. Tagomi. Mr. Baynes is a Nazi officer who is secretly a Jew and member of a resistance movement operating inside the German government. General Tedeki is a high ranking official within the Japanese government masquerading as Mr. Yatabe, a Japanese businessman. The meeting is set up to appear as a international business meeting, but its real purpose is for the resistance movement to warn the Japanese government about Nazi plans to attack Japan. Mr. Tagomi is only here to give legitimacy to their cover. However, their meeting is found out by Nazis, whose actions eventually lead to Mr. Tagomi killing them and thus his eventual crisis.

In order to better understand what happens to Mr. Tagomi during his existential crisis, we need to look at the meaning behind Ed and Frank’s jewelry. Mr. Childan had given a set of earrings made by Frank and Ed to Paul Kasoura in a vain attempt at flirting with the man's wife, but also to perhaps stir up demand for the product. Paul later has a discussion with Mr. Childan about the paradoxical value of the earrings. He starts off by explaining that he found the earrings to be ugly and devoid of meaning or any real value. Later on in the day, he realizes he is still thinking about them, going over their strange form in his mind. Their formless shape, in a way, fascinated him. He let it ruminate in his subconscious and after a long time, related it to a Rorschach test. Like a Rorschach test, its meaning is derived from the viewer and intrinsically has none. Paul concludes his thoughts by saying, "It is balanced. The forces within this piece are stabilized. At rest. So to speak, this object has made its peace with the universe. It has separated from it and hence has managed to come to homeostasis" (p.93 ). The point of the jewelry is to represent a path or way of thinking. The jewelry Ed and Frank makes has no intrinsic meaning. At first glance the object looks and is meaningless, but upon further meditation, meaning is given to the object. Frank’s jewelry is to be symbolic of this. It represents something that must be meditated on.

Like the jewelry, Tagomi’s heart attack also has metaphorical significance. It’s a culmination of the clash between the reality of his actions and his deep-seated philosophical and ideological beliefs. Mr. Tagomi did not decide to join an anti-Nazi campaign; his path leads him there- a path forged by forces beyond his control placing him in a situation where he has to kill. However, killing is so fundamentally incompatible with his beliefs that he is forced to find a new Tao. This causes him to feverishly search for something to cling to. In this vain hope, he purchases something that he hopes will aid him in this. Mr. Childan pitched to him the philosophical depth of Frank and Ed’s jewelry, and in Mr. Tagomi’s frenzy, he buys a piece. This was a misunderstanding, for intrinsically they hold no depth. His feverish attempts to extract a new Tao from the objects is fruitless. He then looks back to his own internal logic, but that understanding of the world it is grounded in something that his very act of killing has banished him from. It’s part of a path he can no longer follow. He becomes completely lost and begins to behave erratically, acting totally different than the character did before this point. He is attempting to find some mode of behavior that will allow him to go on. He goes in a whites’ cafe and attempts to boss some of the lower class whites around, but is met with defiance; with no one to back him up, he has no power. This event shakes him to his foundations, and the shock forces him to change his modus operandi and thus begins the process of rebuilding his personal identity. Later, we see him defy the Nazis by not signing the papers to give over Frank. This is the apex of his transformation. It seems he may be able to forge a new path, but then why the heart attack? The heart attack creates ambiguity and that is important as it serves two functions. It is the symbolic death of Mr. Tagomi. It shows a clear end to the old Mr. Tagomi. The ambiguity of its outcome helps to outline the symbolic representation of death, but it also gives the reader a choice: can Mr. Tagomi change his Tao? The author doesn't want to interject his own opinion, but rather allows the reader to come to their own conclusion. Thus, if the reader decides that he does survive his heart attack, it shows that he is capable of changing and is then reborn.

There is one last thing the reader should understand before they can fully appreciate Tagomi’s arc. This novel portrays the Nazi regime as being undefeatable by force. They are the most technologically advanced, rule half the planets as well as having colonies on other planets, and have probably the most powerful army on the planet. So can they be defeated? We see in this novel how the Nazis are powerful but also unchangeable. They do not adapt to new ideas and this is they key to their defeat. We see the Japanese government in this book have very little problem with reading The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, whereas the Nazi government outlaws anything that contradicts its own doctrine This is where Mr. Tagomi fits in. His arc is all about ideological change and adaptation. If Mr. Tagomi can change his ideology, what about individuals who make up the Nazi regime? We see Freiherr Hugo Reiss reading The Grasshopper Lies Heavy and having some feelings of dissatisfaction with the way things have turned out. If the Nazi order does not adapt, it would stand to reason that it fail when all of its individuals slowly change.

Mr. Tagomi, despite being a powerful man, cannot overcome his fate. His struggle to find a new path represents the struggle to adapt. Phillip gives Mr. Tagomi the jewelry to highlight this problem. He is grasping for something concrete, but one can't just jump to a new ideology overnight. A new path can only be developed by oneself over a long period of meditation and contemplation. We are meant to empathize with Tagomi and see this dilemma as a message to us: we cannot chose the events that fall before us, but we do decide our actions. Change certainly can't happen fast, but can it happen at all? Mr. Tagomi the cultural Buddhist died, but is Mr. Tagomi born anew? The reader is left with these questions, and the question of whether such a profound change is ever possible. If so we can see that Mr. Tagomi lives and that an ideology that is resistant to change will eventually fail.

* http://www.autistici.org/2000-maniax/texts/philip%20k%20dick%20-%20the%20man%20in%20the%20high%20castle.pdf