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GeekNights 20101209 - World War Z
Tonight, we bring you our frank discussion of Max Brooks' World War Z in the latest installment of the GeekNights Book Club.
- Rym's Thing - How Can She Slap!?
- Scott's Thing - Dr. Seuss does Star Wars
Comments
I am totally on board with that dude giving her the five across the eyes. She struck first.
1. I don't think it's a zombie-horror story (like Night of the Living Dead), but more of a catastrophe story (like the Day After Tomorrow): the world goes to heck in a hand basket, and the humans find a way to deal with it. (Yes, I noticed both of my examples are movies, but the fact is I don't actually know any zombie books... or catastrophe books for that matter.)
2. There is a certain way people tend to view war, and somehow describing Flag Colored Giant Robots of Doom Freedom killing Nazi-alien-communists is more entertaining then having to take into account logistics, stealth, diseases and pretty much any military science since 1815. This book seems to make an effort to do this, although it does eventually fall short when the author believes the best use of WWII style equipment is a 18 century war doctrine (forming a square, having separate people reload guns for the shooters, firing in unison, etc.) On a side note, Yonkers was a random location chosen for that exact reason- fighting near the Statue of Liberty or at Bunker Hill would have just been cheesy.
3. Despite all the JSFs and other TLAs the novel war is actually set now (in the 2010s)- the Chinese doctor, who had seen Mao (and was a doctor in the Sino–Soviet border conflict,) is still alive, the American military is still recovering from Iraq and (if I may turn one of your points around) people still know who Waterguy is.
4. There are many ways to write a book (books are like cats in that regard), the one one way you don't do it, is making a map of character relationships and events written beforehand. The major stuff, sure, you can map that out, but if you want your book to sound in any way real, you need to let the relationships develop as you go, and not be afraid to get people together or apart. Or anyway that's what our Literature teacher would tell us, I never wrote anything over 50 pages in my life, and obviously never anything publishable. So, anyway, I think the author did well to have a (geographic) map in front of his eyes instead of relying on the Power of the Plot to spread the 'African rabies'.
Also, just say [date][year] and be fucking done with it. I'm getting sick of this bitching about the year and the petulant behaviour in response to said bitching.
BOOM. I had listened to the audio book...
It was very well read, different actors for all the voice parts, very clearly separated each interview and made each interview feel fresh and new.
You are probably right about the physical book, but the audio book version was fantastic.
The problem with the fantastical parts of WWZ is that they are not consistent with the world that is presented. WWZ presents a world that is supposedly exactly like the real earth in present day, with only one difference. That difference is that there are zombies comin' up the hell right now! Shoot 'em in the head! So when you also try to tell me that an otaku can do action movie stunts, or that families can survive in a nuclear submarine, I have a hard time accepting it. Just like I can accept Daffy Duck surviving an anvil to the head, but if there's an anvil to the head in WWZ it had better result in much splattering of brains. The Matrix is a perfect example of getting me to believe a nerd can do ludicrous action movie shit.
I think this really is a great example of one major thing that separates Rym and myself from most geeks/nerds. That is that we are extremely capable of detecting, and not being affected by, shallow pandering. It's the "woo game" we refer to and see at every convention. Most geeks react extremely positively when they are pandered to. They also seem incapable of detecting it. Maybe some can detect it, but don't care. WWZ presents a wide variety of cool scenes and scenarios that are basically woo game material for zombie fans. ZOMG infinite ammo, so cool! ZOMG zombies owning the awesome military technology in Yonkers, so cool! The fact that we see right through this sort of thing is the primary, but not the only, factor that sets our taste so far apart from the majority of our geek bretheren. Rym will probably do that, but I won't. I will be sure to be clubbing books that are for sale and are awesome. Just look at the list of book club selections, and separate the ones I have picked from the ones Rym has picked.
My picks so far: WWZ, Locke Lamora, HHG2G, Kavalier and Clay, Earthsea.
Rym so far: Hyperspace, Golden Apples of the Sun, Steppenwolf, Farewell to Arms, Snow Crash
It's a dichotomy as wide as the Grand Canyon.
(all quotes edited for brevity)
But, as I say, "science fiction" (yes I made the air quotes) can be ignored.
I admit it, I liked it, not as much as LoLL, but it was enjoyable, except for the stupid airforce officer bit. Other than that, it was fun enough.
Thankfully I'm reading Agincourt to meet my quota of intellectually challenging books.
//zing
Would it offend Scott's geek hipster sensibility if we started calling him Professor X?
Hair loss is a prime indicator of aging. I thought Scott was always going to be a smart young person.