T.K. Wade -- Author

Monday, April 20, 2026

Metamorphosis [Book Review]

[I spoil the main points of this book, including how it ends.]

"Metamorphosis" is a book written by Franz Kafka. It was published in 1915.

There is a type of story I run into now and again where something happens in the story for no other reason but that the author made it happen. In the case of "Metamorphosis," a man named Gregor Samsa turns into a giant bug. There is no reason ever given why this happens; it simply happens because the author wanted it to happen. That's it.

From there, you see the result as it would play out. Sadly, much of it is very bad. For one, Gregor has no idea how to operate his new body. The author did not give him that. He has to spend much of the book trying to puppet himself properly. Secondly, he lives with his family and has a job, both of which are severely affected by the very real fact that he is a bug now.

It sucks, because Gregor was a major financial contributor to a family that was just barely hanging on. They cannot rely on him anymore, so they are doing everything they can to make money so they don't end up homeless. They can barely stand to look at him as well, so the relationship with Gregor is not going well.

Gregor cannot talk anymore. He cannot communicate with his own family, and they simply struggle to figure out what he wants. This relationship breaks down even more because they are also dealing with the problems of poverty. To be clear, things are just as bad for the family as it is for Gregor. Both sides are bad. Even if they particularly wanted to treat him well, they cannot understand him enough to properly do it. Everything falls apart because of what the author did here. And yes... I am blaming him.

Ultimately, Gregor just ends up dying from complete loneliness and likely some other complications. When he dies... everything almost immediately gets better for the family. Much of their problems was because they were keeping a giant bug in their house, which was impossible to explain to people. It was ruining their lives. Once their son was dead and gone, it was a relief to everyone. They could move on, and, to be fair, it was probably a relief to Gregor as well.

But, once again, Gregor never did anything wrong. He had not invited this transformation upon him. The man known as Franz Kafka did it to him, and then he let the story play out as it likely would have. This is a fact that has not gone unnoticed by people who have read this book. The "meta" in the title is sometimes looked upon as Gregor's strange relationship with God, who suddenly and inexplicably decided he needed to be a giant bug. Something outside the system Gregor lived in had a bit of fun, and nobody really enjoyed any of it. That's what this story is. It's what happens when an uncaring author does random things... and still bothers to see it through.

Regardless of how utterly depressing this was to read, it was actually very well written and a good example of meta-ideals. I do recommend it on those grounds alone. Still, if you are looking for something to make you smile, this is not it!

This blog was written on March 30, 2026.

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Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Fart Proudly [Book Review]

"Fart Proudly" is a book filled with various writings by Benjamin Franklin. This collection was published in 2025. The title is honestly very silly, but I suspect the reason they used it was to get children engaged in reading it. There is no actual mention to the saying anywhere in the book. That said, it kind of worked, because it got me to read it. Well done.

[Now, let me get one thing out of the way. There is an actual letter written by Franklin called "Fart Proudly," and this book isn't it. They could have put it in the collection, but weirdly they didn't. If I can find a copy of this letter, I'll do a separate review of it.]

As to what this book is, it is Benjamin's unfinished autobiography as well as a few extra writings tacked-on to the ending. None of this is bad, though. It all serves to help you understand who Benjamin Franklin was and what he had to go through mostly before we achieved our independence from Britain.

I learned things about Benjamin that I never knew. The autobiography was so telling that I am surprised more people don't talk about it. He was very clearly a progressive liberal, but he was far from being a radical. He worked very hard to uplift this country when we were struggling to form our own identity. He was also a man full of wisdom that he tried very hard to pass on to us, as long as we were willing to listen. The man constantly tried to perfect himself and his morals, and his autobiography goes into this very hotly. You'll learn exactly how he attempted this, and it's really kind of brilliant.

Did you know Benjamin Franklin led forces in our military? He did, and he worked very hard at it. He was also very humble about it, constantly stating that he was not really very good at it. I was still impressed by it, though. Remember also that this is all pre-independence. All this was in service to the king.

There is a lot more, but I would be writing forever if I tackled everything. Just understand that his autobiography is a very good way to learn about him on an intimate level. His writing is also very easy to read. He writes very plainly.

The extra content of the book involved various writings and letters. There isn't much of it, but what is there was very good. I especially loved his short story called "The Whistle," where he blew a lot of money on a whistle when he was a child. Now, whenever he saw someone who made bad investments in life, he would say, "They paid too much for their whistle." It seems that whenever Benjamin made a bad judgement in his life, he would learn a lesson from it and pass it on to help him in later decisions.

Even though I do recommend "Fart Proudly," I think you may be better off just finding a copy of his autobiography and reading it that way. Although, if you have some kid who doesn't care much about history, you might show them the title of this book. It might just catch his attention!

This blog was written on March 30, 2026.

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Monday, April 13, 2026

Groucho Marx and Other Short Stories and Tall Tales [Book Review]

"Groucho Marx and Other Short Stories and Tall Tales" is a collection of writings all written by Groucho Marx over the period of his life. It was edited together with lots of fun little factoids by Robert S. Bader. It was published in 1993.

Despite the fact that they have become almost completely obscure and unknown these days, I have always been a staunch fan of the Marx Brothers. I adored them far more than The Three Stooges, who seems to have outlasted them with flawless precision. I always felt that the absurdist humor of the Marx Brothers was strangely higher brow, which I enjoyed a lot more, although I respect both groups for what they accomplished.

Although all four of the Marx Brothers stood out in some way, it was Groucho Marx that always seem to get the best witty dialog in his films. He was also the one who carried on a significant career after the group broke up. There came a day where I rather randomly asked the question, "Did Groucho ever write anything?" I went to look it up, and I was happy to find a book of short stories!

I always take a long time to get to books I buy. I buy books like it's a drug addiction. I buy more books than I can possibly deal with, so sometimes they just sit around before I can kick myself in the ass enough to do it. And it isn't kicking myself in the ass that's the hard part; it's getting behind myself that I can never seem to do.

Anyways, I finally read it, and it was not quite what I expected... but it wasn't bad! By "short stories," I thought this was going to be fiction, but this read more like "Reader's Digest" articles. In fact, one of them actually was from "Reader's Digest." That's fine. I actually used to read that magazine as a kid. These are all first person narratives about his opinions on things. They are often exaggerated in a comical way. None of the humor is is cheap, but the only thing you'll have to pay is your attention.

All the articles in this book are great. If you like the humor of Groucho Marx, it is all here. The editor of the book also includes a lot of backstory that I found very interesting. You actually will come out of this book with a better understanding of Groucho and his life before you can wonder how you became trapped inside a book to begin with. It's really tight in there!

Anyhow, I do recommend this one to Marx Brothers enthusiasts. To people who don't like the Marx Brothers, I can recommend a hammer to the head. That can fix almost any problem in the world today!

This blog was written on March 25, 2026.

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Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Two Cows

This was inspired by a video by ElectroBOOM, who may have accidently slipped out a moral tale while trying to talk about how to punish an annoying neighbor.

Once upon a time, there was a farmer, but you don't need to hear about him. On this farm there were two bull cows who lived within a fenced area. Here they had plenty of grass but essentially no freedom. Although the grass was very nice, they would often look beyond the fence and yearned to know what was out there.

A day finally came where one of the cows [we'll call him Rusty] decided that he had had enough of being fenced in and made his way over to it in order to free himself. This fence did not look all that imposing, made up only of a series of thin metal wires. If he wanted to, he felt that he could easily just push his bulky body against it and make his way through. But the moment he touched one of these wires with his snout, he received a terrible shock that struck him to the core.

Rusty did not like this shock. All at once, he looked upon the fence with grave distain. He came to the conclusion that to push through the fence would lead to pain and suffering. From then on he pledged to be happy with his lot and to never make the attempt for freedom ever again.

Now, the other cow [we'll call him Max] also had been feeling the pangs of freedom. He also looked beyond the fence and wondered what was out there. But when he asked Rusty what he thought of it, the bull explained, "It's not worth the trouble. If you even so much as touch the fence, you'll be hurt and possibly killed. I'll never forget how horrible it was. I'll never go near it again."

Hearing these fearful words affected Max greatly, but he could not shake the idea that there was more to it. He chose to defy that fear, saying, "I want to see this for myself."

"Don't do it," said Rusty. "You'll only be sorry. Play it safe and enjoy the grass we already have."

Once again, Max was tempted by fear to do what Rusty had said, but there was an inner need to know the truth. Despite those dreadful thoughts bouncing around inside his head, he approached the fence anyhow.

Max stood before the wire fence, thinking about how Rusty had been hurt. He believed him, and yet he was still curious. Carefully, he touched his snout to the wire, and as promised by Rusty, it delivered him a nasty shock. He backed away, already feeling he should just leave, and yet he remained where he was. From a distance, Rusty saw him as a fool for doing this.

Max contemplated his situation. He thought about the pain and also thought about how he presently felt fine. There was no pain. There was, however, a memory of pain and a lack of understanding of why it had happened. Indeed, it had occurred when he had touched his snout to the wire, but he did not understand why touching his snout to the wire had caused the shock. These were the machinations of the farmer and not something that cows generally understood as a rule.

Nevertheless, Max was still very curious, and he wanted his freedom. Once more, he very carefully pressed his snout to the wire and tried his very best to hold it there.

POP! POP! POP!

He pulled back when it was too much for him. The pain had been real, but it was not constant. It was happening in short bursts. Each one was awful, and it was making Max's heart beat all the faster as his mind tossed and turned with the idea of just going away and leaving this horrible fence alone.

But the more Max contemplated it, the more he realized that this fence might not really be as deadly as he once thought. It may only be there to incite fear, the same fear that Rusty was experiencing. The fence was indeed shocking him, but it was only doing it in increments. If one were to truly test this fence's mettle, would it have enough strength to fight back? Would it really try and kill Max?

Slowly, Max backed up and away from the fence. At first, Rusty thought he was finally going to be sensible about the whole thing, but this thought went away when he noticed Max digging his front hoof into the grass below. This was a sign that a bull was going to charge.

"Wait! You fool!" cried Rusty, but it was too late.

Max went into a run towards the fence. He crashed into it with all of his bulk. For a brief moment, Max felt the shock once more, but it was soon over as he easily tore through the wire and made his way to the other side. Arcs of electricity and sparks briefly sprayed out and soon went away, leaving a gaping hole in the farmer's fence. And here, Max happily trotted out to freedom and whatever came with it, proud of himself for not giving in to the temptation of fear and looking onward to the endless everything that might be beyond that.

Now to Rusty, who had seen the whole thing. Rusty approached the hole in the fence, no longer feeling threatened by it. He too now had the ability to obtain freedom, and indeed he took it, but he knew deep inside his heart that it had not been his own courage that had allowed him the privilege. In fact, he did not even understand what Max had done, nor did he care to. He merely followed in Max's hoof-steps as ignorant as he ever was and perhaps fell to some other fear along the way. But as for Max, he had learned the benefits of critical thought and to avoid the temptation of fear, and he was all the wiser for it.

This blog was written on March 23, 2026.

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Monday, April 6, 2026

An Introductory Problem

Did you know that some books are really old? Did you also know that there are still people who have not read them? There are classics out there that are very well-known and have been read time and time again over the ages. They have been discussed in every way imaginable, and many of them have been adapted into movies. So does that make it okay to spoil these stories since they are already so old?

No. Don't do that.

Now that I have you on board, hear me out. It has become a sort of tradition with the modern printing of old books to hire old professors or celebrities to write an Introduction or Forward to a book that, as written, assumes you already know everything about the blasted plot! Before you even get to the story itself, it will spend sometimes hours going over every single point the book has to offer. If you actually read this, there will not be a single aspect of the upcoming story you will be ignorant of ahead of time.

And I know what you may be thinking: why not just skip it? Well, sometimes I do. I will often read a little bit of it to see if it is one of those things or if it's just sort of a introductory explanation by the author. Either way, I have to check to see what the damn thing is, and I shouldn't have to worry about if its a spoiler or not.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of famous classics that I hard heard of that I don't actually know what the plot is. I want to be surprised. I want to experience that old story as if it was just coming out today. I don't need to read some dumb essay that covers everything I am about to read. Barnes and Noble, I am looking at you! You do this all the time. Please stop!

There is nothing wrong with essays like this as long as they are in the back of the book. Seriously, put it there. I have actually seen some publishers do this. Those guys know what they are doing.

Everything at the beginning of the book should be non-spoiler content. A Forward should express the person's love of the book without giving away the main plot points. A long-winded Introduction should either be written by the writer himself or just left out. Also, I have seen Introductions actually be a part of the story itself, so I never know if it's that or if its just an essay about the story. It's very inconsistent.

That's all. Don't spoil old books. There's no reason why you should. New people are born everyday that haven't read them.

This blog was written on March 4, 2026.

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Wednesday, April 1, 2026

Random Notes in Video Games

A pet peeve. Have you ever played a video game, and you keep finding these journal entries lying around that you can read? Sometimes these are just notes or discarded tape recorders with extra plot for you to digest. If the game developers have a little extra money in their budget, those written notes will actually have the voice of its writer reading it.

I'll be honest. Except for one particular instance this trope was used, I do not like this. I do not care how much people defend it, but this is an incredibly immersion-breaking thing in games. It's not something that sometimes happened; it actually became a remarkably common addition to some very popular games. It was all over the place, and we just sort of put up with it... because we liked it or something.

I just can't get it straight in my head, though. Why are people writing only portions of their journals, tearing the pages out, and then leaving them in random places as they travel around? Why am I finding torn-out pages of their journal? Sometimes, it isn't even that. I often just find entire books lying around with only one journal entry. Are they buying entire empty books for just one brief rant that happens to be on their minds?

But what about the tape recorders? Oh, these make more sense because of their convenience, right? But I just keep finding them everywhere! Why are people just tossing these things away? These have to cost more than pieces of notepaper! It also makes even less sense when these recorded messages all come from the same person. Does he just keep a pocketful of them?

Imagine a guy who takes out a recorder, records his thoughts, and just leaves it behind. Still plenty of tape left, but he does not care. He must have really taken advantage of that tape recorder clearance sale!

This trope rarely makes sense. Some of it is slightly forgivable, though. Sometimes you might find a corpse where you will find the person's notepad or something. No biggy there. You might also be in a situation where you can hack computers and read the user's personal notes. That's okay too. My main beef just has to do with these random pieces of papers that are just being left around. Why even write stuff if you are going to abandon all of it.

Like I said, there is an exception. "Alan Wake" took this trope and actually did good with it. Those notes you were finding were actually written by you outside of the story. They were integral to the story of the game itself. You wanted to find them, because each one you found gave you another piece of the puzzle.

I get it. Some people crave the extra plot they can get out of a game, but there are better more immersive ways to deliver that plot than having people leave their rotten little journals lying around. It is a lazy way to tell a broader story, and I hope to see the trope end.

By the way, in case you are wondering what game sparked this blog, it was the new "Tomb Raider" trilogy. One of the absolute worst offenders. Please stop doing this. I hate it.

This blog was written on March 4, 2026.

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Monday, March 30, 2026

The Phantom of the Opera [Book Review]

"The Phantom of the Opera" is a novel written by Gaston Leroux. It was originally published as a serial from 1909 to 1910. It was later published as a novel in late 1910.

The story is about a ghost that seems to be haunting the famous Palais Garnier opera house in Paris, France. By the way, this is an absolutely massive and beautiful building. It is the perfect setting for this story. If I ever go to France, and I probably never will, I really want to visit this place. Anyways, back to the review...

This ghost seems to be holding the place hostage for money and a box seat. That's right, the ghost wants money, and he also has a fascination for one of their singers: Christine Daaé. The problem for the ghost is that Christine is already spoken for by one Vicomte Raoul de Chagny. They were childhood friends and a sure pick for marriage. The ghost, however, has other plans.

This ghost is, of course, not a ghost at all. He is a terribly hideous man that lives within the walls of the opera. His body looks as if he was a living corpse. This causes him to be shunned from society, but as it turns out, his heart is as ugly as his face. He's not a good person at all. He begins to play a deadly game to take Christine as his wife, whether she wants it or not. Raoul, our hero, will stop at nothing to save her from this horrible fate.

This is a fantastic story, but its delivery is not something I have ever run into before with maybe the exception of "Pinocchio." Because this book was originally a serial, that likely led the writer to write each scene is a charming and often humorous way. This caused a lot of the scenes to be unexpectedly funny. The characters sometimes come off as overly dramatic and even sometimes painfully awkward and real. It's kind of all over the place.

Even the evil Phantom himself has these weird awkward moments, like when he calls one of his enemies a "booby" to thrash his ego. This is an odd word for an evil genius to use, but it gave him a very real and relatable quality that helped more than hindered the presentation.

There are a lot of these awkward scene throughout the story as characters who are supposed to be living normal lives deal with a situation that is extraordinary. A lot of these weird scenes do not come with any explanation right away, but the author leads you on to explain it much later. He knew what he was doing, and I am very impressed with his writing. This book actually has an avant-garde feel to the tune of perhaps a Coen Brothers movie. The fact that this was achieved within the written word is fantastic.

I'm just going to say it: you should read this book! I recommend it, and I am surprised more people haven't tackled this one. The movies and the musicals seemed to have dominated the public eye more than the novel that inspired it. But this book was genuinely fun to read! Despite it having a horror premise, it was vastly entertaining! I was always looking forward to getting back to it, and I am even a little sad that it's over. Imagine reading a horror story where you are sad it's over!

Seriously, though. Pick this one up. It's a wild ride that you will not regret.

This blog was written on February 23, 2026.

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