Booklog: East meets West ...

[nebroadwe]

Shannon and Dean Hale, Rapunzel's Revenge (illustrated by Nathan Hale)

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE: Rapunzel, for horse-thieving, kidnapping, jail-breaking, and using her hair in a manner other than nature intended! Once upon a time there lived in a grand villa with her mother, Gothel, a very pretty, very venturesome, very, very bored little girl named Rapunzel. On her twelfth birthday she climbed over the wall surrounding the villa and discovered not only that she had been stolen from her real mother, but that Gothel was a tyrant bent on enslaving the entire frontier with her growth magic, which can provide a bumper harvest or prevent a crop from sprouting. Imprisoned in a tower for her defiance, Rapunzel plotted her revenge, waiting for the day when her braids would be long enough to lasso the top of a neighboring tree ...

And that's only the beginning of her adventures in a fairy-tale landscape based on the legendary American West rather than Es war einmal Europe, with a corresponding effect on characterization and plotting. I must say I like Shannon and Dean Hale's take on this story, ably illustrated by Nathan Hale (no relation). They cleverly send up the clichés of both Westerns ("Last Chance was quiet ... almost too quiet ... On second thought, it was just plain quiet.") and fairy-tales ("Once upon a time there was a beautiful little girl." [She falls into a pond and climbs out, completely bedraggled.] "That's me there."). Their Rapunzel is a much more active and colloquial heroine than her fairy-tale counterpart: she quickly discovers that her hair is useless as a ladder and her "prince" has no intention of crossing Mother Gothel, but also that those same braids make an effective lasso and whip when she must face down bandits or coyotes. The wits she hones in her travels (particularly after falling in with a trickster named Jack, come west to escape giant trouble) prove an even better weapon. Her anger over her personal losses quickly widens into outrage at folk who are out to grab all they can get, regardless of the consequences for others, and her determination to ensure justice for all suits the larger scope of this retelling. Highly recommended.

弓 きいろ [Yumi Kiiro], Library Wars: Love and War 1

In the future, Japan's federal government imposes censorship of all media, backed up by a Media Betterment Task Force which confiscates unsuitable materials from bookstores and libraries by force if necessary. And it is necessary, because local governments have armed librarians under the Library Freedom Act to protect the public's right to read. Inspired by an encounter with a member of the Library Defense Force, Kasahara Iku has made it into basic training on the strength of her athleticism and dedication to the cause, but her instructing sergeant seems to have it in for her, her parents don't know she's chosen so perilous a career, and she can't even shoot straight. Sometimes only the memory of her hero and the slim possibility of finding him and telling him how much his intervention meant to her keeps her going ...

Okay, this has to be one of the silliest cod-Fahrenheit 451 premises I have ever encountered, and I'm a fan of armed librarians and civil wars over principle. It appears to be a pretty polite civil war, despite the insistence that being in the Library Defense Forces is more dangerous than a job in the SDF or the police, and I find the politics as sketched rather difficult to believe. This being a shoujo manga, however, politics are relegated to deep background in favor of cataloging (heh) Kasahara's trials and tribulations, most of them self-inflicted. Here's another gung-ho protagonist with more enthusiasm than sense, inspired to heroinism by an encounter with a handsome unknown (and if you haven't twigged to his identity by the end of this volume, you need to attend Manga Cliché Re-Education Camp). I did like the practical joke with the fake bear, but otherwise this was a bit of a yawner. I'll probably give the next volume or two a try on the grounds that armed librarians are cool, but unless the material gets a little more self-aware or takes a left turn into originality, I don't think I'm likely to follow this one far.

Comments

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

geezthe library thing sounds like a story someone in my writers group wrote about 20 years ago

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

There are only seven basic plots, according to my dad. I don't necessarily mind this one, but it's got to have some zip! to it to keep me interested.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i have to agree with your dad. But i know what you m ean. if it's a familiar plot it needs to bring something new to the table

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Like sushi, for instance. Everything's better with sushi.