Book Review: Swamp Thing: Twin Branches by M. Stiefvater et al.

Swamp Thing: Twin Branches written by Maggie Stiefvater and illustrated by Morgan Beem

In this re-imagined origin story for Swamp Thing, Alec Holland is a teenager and a twin. Their dad has an affair, forcing them to spend the summer with cousins in rural Virginia. Alec is an introvert who is researching plant memory and brings a lot of his experiments with him. His twin Walker is outgoing and sociable. Walker has a much easier time fitting in with the redneck culture of their summer home. Alec's experiments get spilled on the way from the airport. The cousins' dogs get into what's left of the boxes in their aunt's garage. The dogs start changing in odd and disturbing ways. The twins start drifting away from each other. Can they resolve their problems before tragedy strikes?

The story is mildly interesting. The setting is very moody and stylish, with a fairly unique art style. I liked the characters. They had authentic problems and struggles. The book retains the tragic arc of Swamp Thing's story, though it seems like it will not have a sequel or become an ongoing series.

This graphic novel is branded as "DC Graphic novels for young adults" but the language alone is R-rated. I was surprised by this, especially since it is completely unnecessary. The horror elements are on the border between PG and PG-13.

Mildly recommended.

Dual/Duel Review: True Grit: The Duke versus the Dude

Dual/Duel reviews are an online smackdown between two books, movies, games, podcasts, etc. etc. that I think are interesting to compare, contrast, and comment on. For a list of other dual/duel reviews, go here.

Based on the excellent novel by Charles Portis, the two movie versions of True Grit are wise enough to stick (mostly) to the story of the novel. Here's my synopsis of the book's plot set-up from my review:

Mattie Ross, a fourteen-year old girl in late 1800s Arkansas, is determined to avenge her father's death. He was killed by Tom Chaney, a hired hand who had too much to drink and too much darkness in his past. Mattie travels to Fort Smith (where her father was killed) to finish her father's business there (some horse trading) and to seek retribution. She hires the toughest U. S. Marshall in town, Rooster Cogburn, who is a man of true grit by all accounts. Chaney has fled into the Indian Territory (that's Oklahoma nowadays). Cogburn is familiar with the area and with Lucky Ned Pepper, an outlaw with whom Chaney has joined. Texas Ranger LaBoeuf has also come to town seeking Chaney for the murder of a senator and the senator's dog in Texas. Cogburn and LaBoeuf team up and Mattie insists on coming along.

The two lawmen try to leave her behind when they head into the Territory but Mattie's pluck and resourcefulness keep her on the trail. The story is both exciting and humorous.

True Grit (1969) directed by Henry Hathaway

This movie starts with Mattie's dad going to Fort Smith with Chaney (Jeff Corey) and shows us Chaney killing the dad and then fleeing. Mattie (Kim Darby) comes to town and gets to work. She is a tough negotiator at horse trading and also hires Cogburn (John Wayne) while putting off LaBoeuf (Glen Campbell), who is a bit annoying. Cogburn and LaBoeuf meet anyway and plan to go without her. She insists. Their adventure in the Territory starts with a river crossing where the lawmen tell one of the ferrymen that Mattie is a runaway and there's a reward for her in town. She's dragged off and forced onto her horse. She beats off the ferryman and has her horse swim across the river while the lawmen ride the ferry. Cogburn's comment is hilarious and telling--"She reminds me of me."

In the territory, they follow the clues along Chaney and Ned Pepper's trail (Ned is played by Robert Duvall), leading to a dugout where two other members of Pepper's gang are waiting for the rest of them to get back. Cogburn and LaBoeuf smoke them out and get some information out of them before they die. The lawmen try to ambush the rest of the gang but the plan fails when LaBoeuf shoots too early, before most of the outlaws are inside the dugout. The outlaws flee and the trio start tracking them again. 

They finally catch up to the gang but by accident. Mattie goes to a river to wash up one morning only to be surprised by Chaney. She has a short confrontation where she shoots Chaney with her father's gun but does not kill him. Chaney captures her and takes her to the bad guy's camp while Pepper and some of the other men cover him. Pepper threatens to kill the girl if Cogburn and LaBoeuf don't flee. The lawmen ride off, infuriating Mattie. 

The bad guys are short one horse, so they leave Chaney behind with Mattie with the promise that they will send help back. Chaney threatens her when they are alone. LaBoeuf shows up and knocks out Chaney while Cogburn confronts the other four gang members in an open field. LaBoeuf and Mattie watch Cogburn fight the other four. Cogburn shoots three of them, leaving Pepper alive. Cogburn is trapped under his horse and can't reach his rifle as Pepper approaches. LaBoeuf shoots Pepper from a long distance, saving Cogburn. Chaney has woken up and kills LaBoeuf, then tosses Mattie into a pit with a rattlesnake. Cogburn shows up and shoots Chaney who falls into the pit. Mattie is bitten by a snake before Cogburn can get her out.

They race to the nearest doctor. Mattie eventually recovers and heads home. She shows Cogburn their family plot and asks him to be buried there, with her, when the time comes. Cogburn reluctantly agrees, riding off in glory.

True Grit (2010) written and directed by the Coen Brothers

This second film version of the story stays to the same plot with some differences. The film starts with an older Mattie giving voiceover to set up the situation as we see her father laying face down on the street of Fort Smith in a sepia-toned visual. Younger Mattie (Hailee Steinfeld) shows up and the voiceover is done until the end of the film. She spends her first night with her dad's coffin since she had to pay all her money to the undertaker. After the horse trading, she could afford to stay at a local hotel. She meets LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) there and finds him unpleasant. She hires the reluctant Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) and thinks she's convinced him to let her come along. He leaves early and inexplicably is already with LaBoeuf. Cogburn and LaBoeuf are more opposed to each other in this version, parting ways fairly early. Cogburn and Mattie move on, discovering a random man hung high in a tree. More randomly, a guy with a bearskin hat and coat comes along and offers medicinal services which they politely decline. Cogburn and Mattie deal with the first two of the gang at the dugout. They set a similar ambush but LaBoeuf rides in just before Ned Pepper's gang gets there. LaBoeuf is dragged around and injured (including almost biting his tongue off--Damon has to talk weird for the rest of the film) but rejoins the hunt. They ride for a while, bickering and chattering, including a scene where the guys try to prove who is a better shot by shooting at corn muffins.

When the trail goes cold, the lawmen decide to quit. The next morning, Mattie has her riverside run-in with Chaney (Josh Brolin) and the plot plays out mostly the same as the first movie. Mattie shoots Chaney dead, though the recoil from the rifle knocks her back into the pit with the snakes. Cogburn saves her and gets her to safety. The movie then has an epilogue twenty-five years later where the older Mattie (who is back on voiceover duty) goes to meet Cogburn at a Wild West show, only to discover that he's died three days earlier. She takes his body to her family cemetery where he is buried.

Which is better?

The events of the second film are closer to the novel which is written in first-person voice by the older Mattie. So the film's voiceover is sort of justified even though that is typically a weakness in movie storytelling. The voiceover sets the tone and theme for the movie. The voiceover also sets up the bookends of the film, giving it a nice symmetry. On the other hand, there are many elements in the film that seem more like vintage Coen Brothers, like the random run-in with the guy wearing a bearskin hat or Mattie's first encounter with Rooster while he is in an outhouse. The violence is occasionally more brutal than the first film.

The first film, while following the plot and tone of the book, is definitely a John Wayne film. The ending is more of a triumphant farewell from Wayne to the Western than a conclusion to the story. His morally ambiguous but heroic Cogburn is contrasted with the righteous naivety of Mattie who is the heart of the film (in spite of it being a John Wayne film!). Which brings up an interesting point...

Comparing the characters as portrayed is enlightening:

• Rooster Cogburn--John Wayne is without doubt the most iconic star of American Western films. He is larger than life physically and in personality, matching well the character of Cogburn. Cogburn overestimates himself, but not by much. Wayne's performance benefits from a lack of ego--he's willing to play drunk or foolish and gets put in his place by Kim Darby's Mattie. Wayne won the Academy award for best actor for this performance, which was more than just acknowledging his long career. Jeff Bridges does a good job with the role but does not project the larger-than-life persona of Cogburn. Bridges is more subdued and contemplative, not the coldblooded killer the story makes him out to be. 
• La Boeuf--Glen Campbell is a country music star who was cast for the film. He's not a professional actor (though stage performing has lots of parallels) and it shows. He is the weak leg of the trio of heroes in the first film. Matt Damon is a much better actor and gives a much better performance. Damon also has more to do (like dealing with the tongue injury) that make his character richer.
• Mattie Ross--Kim Darby gives a great performance. Even though she is so much smaller and so much younger than John Wayne, Darby holds her own in their scenes together and plays really well against him (a feat few actresses have achieved). She embodies the character from the novel. Steinfeld, like Bridges, does fine in the role but hardly has the the sharpness of Darby. Steinfeld is subdued and does not have the feistiness or earnestness that Darby exhibits.

The cinematography is much better in the second film. The sets are grittier and more realistic. The old west atmosphere comes through strongly. The final race at the end is quite poetic, with Cogburn and Mattie caught between the starry heavens and the lifeless earth. 

While both films are entertaining and worthwhile, if I had to choose one or the other to watch, I'd choose the John Wayne version over the Coen Brothers version.

Check out the commentary on the Coen Brothers version at A Good Story is Hard to Find #249.

Winner:

Loser:

Book Review: The Wright Brothers A Biography by Fred C. Kelly

The Wright Brothers A Biography by Fred C. Kelly

This biography of Wilbur and Orville Wright focuses almost entirely on the creation of the first heavier than air flying machine and the brothers' aviation career afterward. The books starts with a brief overview of their childhood and how they started their bicycle shop as a natural result of their interest in mechanical things. They were also fascinated by the idea of flying and built many kites and gliders. Their interest quickly turned to the problem of building an engine-powered plane that could sustain flight for long periods. The brothers flew for the first time in 1903 on the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. 

As their success grew, their fame did not. A lot of newspapers were either skeptical or scoffed at the idea that a machine heavier than air could fly. Many scientists shared (or perhaps inspired) those doubts. The Wrights were not particularly secretive about the project nor did they do much to promote themselves in the early years. At the time, Kitty Hawk was only accessible by boat from the mainland. They chose the area for the windy and generally flat conditions. As they improved their flyer, the Wrights were able to fly just about anywhere with a large enough field for takeoff. They moved their base of operations back to Ohio. By this point, Europeans had more interest and belief than Americans (though the European press was also skeptical), so the brothers toured the continent, demonstrating their plane to the rich, the royal, and the regular folk too. They returned to America where they had exhibitions for crowds and a demonstration for the American government, which finally became interested in the potential uses (mostly military) of airplanes.

The book describes the scientific problems that the Wrights faced as they developed better and better planes. They had not gone to college, so they did most of their work on their own. They developed a wind tunnel to test out various wing shapes and angles. They initially built their own engines, needing to meet the weight and power specifications. Occasionally the book got into more detail than I was interested in but those were short passages. I chuckled a bit at the constant "this flight was a new world record" lines written in the book.

The Wrights filed lots of patents and eventually had to spend a lot of time fighting patent infringers. The book ends with a chapter on the controversy between the Wrights and the Smithsonian Institution. In 1914, one of the patent infringers took an earlier failed flying machine from the Smithsonian, made some modifications, and showed that it could fly. The reporting by the Institution glossed over the significance of the modifications and implied that someone else invented the first heavier than air flying machine. The controversy continued into the 1940s when a new head of the Smithsonian worked with Orville on the clarification and retraction.

The book is a quick and inspiring read. The brothers are interesting, unassuming people who worked hard at their passion. Their success changed the world. The focus is just on the invention of flying, so there is more to their lives that's not covered. Even so, this book is very good reading.

Highly recommended.

B&O Railroad Museum, Baltimore, Part II

A continuation of yesterpost...

The B&O Railroad Museum has a lot more on display outside the main roundhouse building. A lot of the museum's "stock" is kept outside, because who has room for all those cars?

B&O Roundhouse obscured by train cars

A flatbed and caboose

Railway workers can join the Brotherhood's Relief and Compensation Fund, which has provided job income protection for over 100 years. A statue is dedicated to the fund.

BRCF Memorial

The outdoors also has some platforms as found in typical train stations. Platform 1 has cars with exhibits.

Going to Platform 1

One car has a model railroad inside. The model mimics Baltimore and the original route of the first track which went from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills, thirteen miles to the west.

Baltimore in miniature

Shipping in the harbor

Countryside farms

Pumpkin farm!

Another display is a refrigerated car that has information about keeping freight cool. 

A slogan for the car

The other side of the refrigerator car

Inside the car

One interesting story in the refrigerator car dates to the American Civil War. The Confederates had invaded Maryland and one scouting party came upon a farm where ice cream was being loaded for shipping to Baltimore. The rebels seized a ten-gallon container of ice cream. They ate the ice cream, a first time experience for some of them. Due to their unfamiliarity, they used their hats as bowls. Whoops.

Another display shows how bananas are shipped.

18-step plan for banana delivery

Model of a refrigerator car

The car across the platform contains displays of various china used on restaurant cars. The collections are impressive. 

Train china

Those rebels should have stolen some ice cream shells

A bigger set

How it looks on a table

The favorite spot for our children was a caboose. The caboose shows how the rail workers lived on long trips. 

Hanging out in the caboose

Another engine has a dynamometer which is used to measure the power of the locomotive. 

Dynamometer

The car also has a small exhibit on trains used in World War II, including the bunks for soldiers.

Sleeping conditions

Pictures of trains supporting the war

Women at war!

Another major building on the grounds is North Car Shop. Workers built and repaired passenger cars in this building. Now it displays more engines and cars.

North Car Shop

An impressive engine

A luggage cart that's actually a cart!

Engine repair

Some of the engines are accessible to visitors, as in the roundhouse.

What happens if I touch the red button?!?

Barely-labeled controls

Engine No. 377

Outside is another miniature train display. This set is G-scale and includes some Thomas the Tank Engine cars.

Outdoor display

More of the display

Multi-layer operations

Back in the parking lot, we tried to find the Mr. Lincoln's Railroad - "AND THE WAR CAME" geocache but were unsuccessful. We bought a year-long membership, so we may try again if we come for a special event or to ride the mile-long route. That train wasn't running because we visited on a Monday, not the weekend.

Mr. Lincoln's engine, surely?

B&O Railroad Museum, Baltimore, Part I

The B & O Railroad Museum bills itself as "The Birthplace of American Railroading." The location is where the original Baltimore and Ohio Railroad got its start in 1827. The main building is the Roundhouse built by Ephraim Francis Baldwin in 1884. The Roundhouse is visible from different parts of the city.

B&O Railroad Museum Roundhouse

The first exhibit (after getting past the gift shop/ticket office) is a commemoration of the founding of the railroad, with a talking bust of Charles Carroll. The animatronic bust freaked out my youngest child. It looks a lot like a stone bust.

Charles Carroll explains the start of the railroad

Keystone of the railroad

Nearby is the remains of the Stourbridge Lion, an early engine used on the rail line.

Model of the Stourbridge Lion

The belly of the beast

The Roundhouse has a spacious central room with many historic locomotives and displays.

First view of the roundhouse area

Old time engines

Newer (but not new) engines

The outer walls have a variety of displays. We saw tools of the trade used by locomotive engineers.

Useful items for rail workers

Some of the engines have ramps that let visitors see the interiors. Clinchfield No. 1 was built in 1882 and served on various lines until 1979. That's a long life for a steam locomotive!

Clinchfield No. 1

A volunteer engineer

Why isn't anything labeled?

Trying her hand at running the engine

The next "walk through" car was a mail car. To keep from stopping at every town, the mail car was equipped with a hook that would grab a hanging bag of mail. They didn't say how mail was delivered. Maybe they just chucked out the local mail as they went by?

Mail hook

Picture of mail car with hook in action

Closeup of the hook

The mail sorting room

The next car had displays describing segregation on the rails in the past. The car has a divider in the passenger car.

White only section in back

We saw a luggage cart that really is a cart!

Not traveling light

One section of the roundhouse is dedicated to the first locomotives in America. The area includes transportation similar to the railroads.

Stagecoach

Conestoga Wagon

One of the earliest trains was a one-horse powered passenger vehicle. The horse-drawn rail carriage was used because the British locomotives were too big for the sharp turns and steep grades on the B&O line. The trip from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills (now Ellicott City) took an hour and a half for the horse-drawn train. It's displayed next to one of the earliest mechanical engines.

Maybe the horse's name is John Henry?

Riding the horse-powered train

Another early passenger train looked like it had good views but we could not figure out how to get into the upper seats. Also, looking at the picture now, I wonder how the passengers avoided the smoke from the engine's stack. 

Stagecoach, now on rails!

Lots of other engines and cars are all around the floor.

More early engines

Engine 305 impressed me with the engineer's cabin on top of the boiler.

Engine 305

Closeup of the high-riding cabin

A classic style engine

Another display area has some trains from the American Civil War. This passenger car carried forty to fifty people. The quick movement of troops and supplies made some very substantial changes in how war was conducted.

No. 21 passenger car

The B&O made iron box cars as an experiment in more durable freight cars. Wooden cars were cheaper but wore out more quick. The iron cars had the additional advantages of being fireproof and, in some cases, bulletproof.

Iron boxcar

Another exhibit explains the switch to synchronized times so that schedules could be kept and accidents avoided. Nowadays it seems incredible that different states and towns had their own times.

Wall clocks from train stations

The engineers on the trains needed synchronized timepieces as well, thus this display of pocket watches. The company required them to buy their own watches, which were submitted to the Time Service Department for inspection. Accuracy and durability were the most important qualities.

Keeping accurate time just got personal

More of the museum in the next post!