Book Review: Royden Lepp's Rust: Soul in the Machine by Royden Lepp

Royden Lepp's Rust: Soul in the Machine by Royden Lepp

See my reviews of volume one, volume two, and volume three!

In the story's finale, Jet has to fight against impossible odds to save the Taylor's farm, or at least to save the Taylors. The family fights too, against the invading robots and their own internal conflicts. The drama is good and the action is exciting. Best of all, the ending is very satisfying.

The whole series is impressive because it depends on the "graphic" part of the graphic novel. The story is told through visuals much more than through dialogue. Pages go by with the characters doing things wordlessly, conveying emotions and plot developments through the art. The sepia-tone coloring gives the book an old-time feel that harkens back to classical storytelling. That fits well as Jet grapples with his humanity (if he even has it) and his free choice.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass

This autobiography tells the story of a man born into slavery in rural Maryland in the late 1810s. The exact date or year of his birth is unrecorded, something that was part of the dehumanizing of the humans brought from Africa, bought by Americans, and beaten into submission. Born Frederick Bailey, he was separated from his mother Harriet and raised by his grandparents until six years old. His father is suspected to be Aaron Anthony, the white owner of Harriet Bailey. Again, no record was kept. In 1824, Frederick was sent to work on the family plantation where he witnessed and endured many brutalities. 

Through circumstances he was sent in 1826 to Baltimore to work for Thomas Auld, a son-in-law of Anthony. Sophia Auld (Thomas's wife) started teaching young Frederick to read and write. Once Thomas found out, he forbade it. But the seed was sown and the stifled intellectual curiosity of Frederick began growing in leaps and bounds. He found ways to learn more on the streets of Baltimore and developed craftsman's skills, eventually becoming a ship's caulker. He went through another round of plantation life where he was hired out for a year to Edward Covey, a man with the reputation as a slave-breaker. He almost succeeded but he and Frederick came to blows one day and Frederick bested Covey. Unable to admit his defeat, Covey let Frederick finish out the year. Frederick moved on to another plantation where he taught his fellow slaves reading and writing on the side. A failed escape attempt saw Frederick nearly beaten to death. He wound up back in Baltimore, where he planned his escape from enslavement.

He fled north in 1838 along the Underground Railroad to New York City, where he changed his name and married Anna Murray, a freed black woman he had met the previous year. He went over to New Bedford where he changed his name to Frederick Douglass and worked as a day laborer. He began speaking at abolitionists' meetings about his experience. At this point, the narrative of this book ends.

The book is a very articulate and compelling chronicle of the horrors of slavery. Douglass does not sensationalize what happened to him and he acknowledges the rumors of much worse treatment further south. Still, the treatment of slaves is unconscionable and is rightly called out in the book.

I skipped the introduction by Robert O'Meally as is my custom with books (no need to get the interpretation before reading the text). I forgot to go back and read it so I can't comment on its value or insights. The book is so well written and so important that I will probably buy it. The narrative reads quickly (it's just over a hundred pages), is engaging and important.

Highly recommended.

Movie Review: The Devil Bat (1940)

The Devil Bat (1940) directed by Jean Yarborough

Bela Lugosi plays Dr. Carruthers, a kindly town physician in Heathville. He also concocts perfumes and aftershaves for Heath-Morton Cosmetics in town. The first cream he designed made the company number one in its industry but Carruthers took a cash payout rather than risking investing in the company. Now Martin Heath and Henry Morton are millionaires while Carruthers continues his experimentation at his small, independent lab. He's not just working on cosmetics. He's started a new project, making a bat grow to an enormous size through electrical stimulation. He trained the bat to hate a new experimental shaving lotion. Carruthers offers a lotion sample to Heath's son, who winds up dead the next morning. The coroner thinks it's some animal attack. Big city reporters show up to help the local police investigate. When Heath's second son dies in the same way, the bat is spotted but the investigators can't put together the clues to find the criminal, though they do nickname it "The Devil Bat." Carruthers's revenge scheme seems fool proof. But this is a horror movie from the 1940s, so maybe not.

The movie starts with Lugosi scheming, so the audience knows what's going on. He does a good job being suave and helpful without incriminating himself. His lab is what you'd expect for a 1940s mad scientist horror film--the Frankenstein electrical equipment, secret doors all over, and his collection of bats. The flying bat effects are very dated, to the point of distraction. Otherwise, the film is a typical example of B-movie horror--an interesting if a bit outlandish premise, some dodgy special effects, a lot of stock characters. The formula is enjoyable to me.

Mildly recommended--it's fun to see Lugosi in action even in a lesser film.

Geocaching July 2021

Continuing the effort to acheive 500 geocaches found before the summer ends...

I donated blood at the American Red Cross donor center by the Mall in Columbia. Usually I go get a treat afterward. Checking the geocaching app, I saw a cache on the other side of the mall right near Corner Bakery. I bought a pecan pie bar and a chai and found Sandra's Birthday Cache! 13! It was not difficult, probably because I was there early enough to avoid lots of muggles. The log was very wet so I could not sign it. I left a note on the app when I logged the find.

The stripy awning is Corner Bakery, the geocache is somewhere else

I ran some errands in Maryland City, Maryland, and found two caches there. 

Behind a shopping plaza is The Black Magic Cache. The location was mostly muggle-free and it didn't take long to find the cache.

Nothing particularly magical about the spot

In the front of the shopping plaza is Strong Mints... Ground zero is right next to a former Pier One store that's been closed for a while. Even so, a bunch of people parked nearby when I showed up, forcing me into stealth mode. This was another easy find once I was less visible. As you might guess from the title, the container was an Altoids tin.

Not at the gas station

While in Texas, we found some caches to help us along the way to 500. The first cache was Leadership Class 4 Series, Since 1937 in Dripping Springs. The Rippy Ranch and Supply store across the street has been in business since 1937. We didn't shop there since we don't own a ranch. We did find the cache fairly quickly, so quickly that we didn't take a picture. We did stop at Rolling in Thyme and Dough, a fun coffee shop that's across the other street.

A fun place for a drink, breakfast, and snack

We went to Bee Cave, Texas, to check out that suburb and found a cache in Central Park, which is not really centrally located. Maybe they'll develop the other side of the park? The cache was Girl Scouts - Gold Award. The Gold Award is the highest achievement in Girl Scouts, though the cache itself is not part of a Gold Award project. It was still fun to find and had a nice view of Bee Cave in the distance. Also, I saw my first cactus in Texas.

View from the cache to Bee Cave

View in the other direction

Nearby cacti!

By our hotel, two geocaches were hidden by a fan of The Beatles. The series is about the Blue Meanies, the bad guys from the Yellow Submarine movie. The first cache I found was TBM - The Butterfly Stompers. The find was quick and easy and less exposed than it looks like in the picture. The traffic on the road goes by pretty fast.

The location will be obvious to experienced geocachers

The second cache was TBM - The Countdown Clowns. This cache is on the other side of the hotels so the exposure is much less. I found both in less than five minutes!

Another easy find

The other Blue Meanie caches are premium caches and we are between being premium members, so maybe we will find them later on another trip.

The count is now 496, so very close!

Book Review: Royden Lepp's Rust: Death of the Rocket Boy by Royden Lepp

Royden Lepp's Rust: Death of the Rocket Boy by Royden Lepp

See my reviews of volume one and volume two!

The various plot threads and mysteries come together in this volume. The mysterious stranger Jet Jones has his origin revealed, which explains a lot of his behavior and motivation. He wants to help out the Taylor farm since they've been kind to him but he also needs to keep running. His presence causes problems for the farmers and their friends. Young Oz Taylor wants to get rid of him since he has figured out Jet is more rocket than boy. The other family members disregard Oz's claims as fantasy. Jet has to make a hard decision before the situation gets more out of control as hostile robots and old acquaintances show up at the farm.

This volume brings up the important and thorny issue of balancing free choice and duty for Jet. The other robots on the farm and in the story follow their programming to the letter (paragons of duty?) and Jet was specifically programmed to choose his actions rather than strictly follow a program. Knowing what's the right choice in tricky situations is hard for everyone, so it's easy to identify with his crisis. He also faces the challenge of family attachment. His maker/father shows up, causing tension for Jet since he clearly wants to stay on the farm and have the Taylors as his family. The next volume is the last and I am looking forward to the resolution.

Recommended.

Cute Kid Pix July 2021

Some more stuff that didn't make it into its own post...

My youngest went to the Cub Scout day camp which actually happened this year (in June, toward the end so the pictures are showing up here). He did some crafts, some BB shooting, and some whittling. He also enjoyed the archery...by the end of the week. At the start, he struggled a lot but he was brave enough to keep trying.

A sheep

BB target

Soap fish and whittling tools

For my daughter's birthday we went to Harper's Ferry and did white water rafting. My sister came along for her birthday, so we had a two for one special. Since it was white water rafting, I did not bring a camera. We went to town afterward and got a treat.

Harper's Ferry

We went back to the Prince George's library, which has opened up again for in-building browsing. The nearby playground was fun too.

An unusual swing

Happy siblings!

We went on an airplane trip and set a reminder in our calendar and in Alexa about checking in ahead of time to get good seats. One of those sources provided a more helpful message; one a more amusing message.

Which would you do?

Book Review: Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon

Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon

With his marriage, work, and life in shambles in the late 1970s, William Least Heat-Moon decided to go on a road trip across America. Starting from his home in Columbia, Missouri, he headed east to the North Carolina coast, then south to Louisiana, west across Texas and New Mexico, north through Utah and California to Oregon, then east along the Canadian border through the Great Lakes region and back to the east coast in Maine. He continued south to Maryland and headed west back to Missouri. 

The plan for the trip was to take only the "blue highways," i.e. not the interstates that were marked in red on his atlas, but the lesser by-ways marked in blue. He had a converted van with a bed in the back and some storage. He called it Ghost Dancing and it was his portable home. On the smaller byways he met local people with their life stories, their welcoming and/or prejudice against outsiders, and their interest in history. Some of those histories were nationally famous, like his conversations about Martin Luther King's freedom march in Selma, Alabama. Others were of local interest, like how some small towns wound up with strange names like Nameless, Tennessee, or Dime Box, Texas. He often went to local bars for conversation and to local diners (how many paper calendars they had on the wall was an indication of how local/good they were) for a taste of local cooking. He often had run-ins with police who were concerned about his intentions and his semi-vagrant status (also, he parked unintentionally in some odd spots). 

Like many road trips, some parts of this book were very interesting and other parts were somewhat boring. His writing style is very easygoing and he loves to quote Walt Whitman. He has plenty of other literary and cultural knowledge that liven up the text and his encounters with others, especially the occasional school teacher. With the episodic encounters, some are naturally more interesting than others. I found some parts of the text dragged, like an extended description of him going deep-sea fishing on the New England coast (I had flashbacks of the whaling details and cetacean biology from Moby Dick).

Mildly recommended.

For more commentary, check out A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast #261.