T.K. Wade -- Author

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Fall of the House of Usher [Story Review]

I've been reading a lot of this guy's books lately, but I haven't had the nerve to review any of them. They tend to be overwritten to a point where I dislike them despite the actual story delivered by them. I pretty much decided that I'd only review his stories if I liked them to make sure I was being fair. This is one of them.

"The Fall of the House of Usher" is a short story that was written by Edgar Allan Poe. It was published in 1839.

You know, I sometimes wonder what sort of person this Poe fellow really was. His works are pretty consistent so far. I've noticed a repeating theme of a woman coming back from the dead. Is that his fetish?!

Aside from the latter statement, "The Fall of the House of Usher" is actually about the possibility that a house can become sentient. The idea that you are living within a living consciousness is a spooky thing to think about. Although this story is horrendously overwritten, it was easy enough to follow and see where it was going. I liked it.

As to the resurrected female thing, I don't hate that he keeps including it in his stories. He seems to really obsess over the whole idea that you can't entirely get away from some women. And there's always the possibility that it's in the insane mind of the hero. You can never tell. A man's obsession can do strange things.

As an aside, I've noticed through reading his stories that he seems like he is trying very hard to convey one message, but he doesn't ever seem like he's doing a very good job. His solution seems to try and tell the story over and over again until he gets what he wants. Earlier stories seem more like prototypes than anything else. It's an interesting experience. That said, he does overwrite his stuff unnecessarily, and I consider that a weakness.

"The Fall of the House of Usher" is worth the read. I do recommend it for its perfectly spooky atmosphere. You can almost hear the horror soundtrack playing while reading this one. Give it a try.

This blog was written on February 16, 2022.

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Monday, March 28, 2022

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Corinthians I [Book Review]

"Corinthians I" is the forty-sixth book of the "Holy Bible," and although there are some sources claiming that he had a co-writer, I'm just going to say it was written by Paul himself. I don't like it when people argue over things too much. It makes me just not want to go into it.

This book is very similar to "Romans" in that it is another letter/sermon, this time to the port city of Corinth. Once again, I'll try and be brief about the review. These seem to be direct from the Holy Spirit through Paul. Some of the opinions that come up haven't really had a sibling in the Old Testament, at least not clearly.

Paul talks about marriage in a way that is actually surprising. He does actually endorse it, but he says that living a life without marriage is actually better. This is redundantly explained to a point where it was very clear what was being said. Some people just need each other, but a solitary life dedicated to Christ is much stronger. If you think on it, it's not really necessary for every person to get married. There is a lot of pressure for people to get up with someone in society, and it's honestly wrong to perpetuate that. Some people just want to dedicate themselves to their works. I'm one of them.

There was a heck of a lot in this book about charity. It places it at the very top of priorities in your daily works. You have to help others when you can, and if you don't, there's very little point to even existing. This was, once again, made redundantly clear. It is the Holy Spirit talking; remember that.

There are some very unpopular stuff here that would not be acceptable in the modern day concerning the relationship between man and woman and how they should behave while praying and within a church. Without going too much into it [as I want to keep my blog afloat], keep in mind that this stuff is endorsed by the Holy Spirit and in turn by God himself. If you want to actually bother being accurate about being a Christian, this stuff needs to be acknowledged. I have acknowledged it.

Throughout the book, Paul is extremely humble. He considers him to be the least of the apostles, being that he originally hunted them down. Where he does acknowledge that he did meet Jesus personally, it was after he committed these acts. By the way, I am glad he did acknowledge meeting Jesus because this corelates with what Luke wrote in "Acts."

There was some very interesting stuff concerning Jesus and Adam. Adam is actually blamed for death to begin with, but Jesus is actually the conqueror of death, in that he actually conquered death! And when Jesus returns, death is the last problem he is going to take care of. We won't have to worry about it anymore.

Paul talks about the importance of the resurrection in a very interesting way. He basically makes clear that there is no point to believing in God or anything if the resurrection did not happen. In fact, he says that we ought to just eat, drink, and die. In point of fact, it would not matter if we lived in sin if there was no way to redeem us. Clever writing, Paul.

The way Paul signs his book sounds as if he is not the actual writer, but, once again, I can't figure out who the scribe is, so I just don't care. Paul wrote the book, and I do recommend it. It's got a lot of unpopular stuff in it, but "Corinthians I" is very important and answers a lot of questions that need to be answered. Read it.

This blog was written on February 14, 2022. (Funny day to write about marriage, yeah?)

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Friday, March 25, 2022

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Kenny and the Dragon [Book Review]

[Quite a bit of spoilers here since I am familiar with the work this is based on. I have a lot to say about it.]

I don't always know what a book is about until I read it. Sometimes I buy a book for entirely different reasons than for what the story is about. And if you think about it, we can't really know what a book is going to be about until we read it. Even hearing about the story sometimes isn't enough. You can't really know a book until you have taken the time to seriously pour through it, and then, and only then, can you truly know what you have gotten yourself into.

"Kenny and the Dragon" is a book written and illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi, a name I cannot for the life of me pronounce. It was published in 2008. I bought the book entirely for its pristine and wonderful illustrations... and nothing else. I also sort of kept it in my closet for nearly 10 years not actually reading it. I clearly made a mistake.

"Kenny and the Dragon" is an absolute gushing love letter to author Kenneth Grahame, one of the few authors I have read the complete works of. The main character, a rabbit, is named Kenneth and the titular dragon is named Grahame. The story itself is a recreation of "The Reluctant Dragon" which was originally from a book by Kenneth Grahame called "Dream Days." (Short review: It's a wonderful book about the playful and often imaginary lives of children, but "The Reluctant Dragon" chapter is the best part of the whole thing.)

This particular book reinvents the original story to have nothing but animal characters. Kenny replaces the human boy who befriends the calm and friendly dragon. St. George the knight is now a fat badger, who is also the friend of Kenny in this one. As in the original story, the townspeople get into an uproar over the dragon, and plans are made to kill him. A big difference in this story is that Kenny gets torn between his friendships of the dragon and George which makes him very depressed and worrisome through much of the book.

This depressing atmosphere is not more than anyone can bear. In fact, it creates quite the build-up to the famous faux battle between the dragon and George. And this battle is where the story shines so much. The creation and staging of this battle was one of the most vivid and shockingly well-delivered scenes I have ever read outside of a script. There was even musical accompaniment that, although only read about, was very easy to hear within ones noisy imagination. I was THERE!

I have never read a scene like this before. It was magical in its construction. The author somehow managed to strike a killing blow into the heart of my mind and then manipulated it in the manner of his choosing. It was a brilliant scene that I almost feel like I actually saw. All I can say is: Bravo!

"Kenny and the Dragon" does push other stories from Kenneth Grahame. It does mention "The Wind in the Willows" within the narrative as well as "The Reluctant Dragon." The author is really trying to get his readers to give Grahame's books a read, and I agree with this. People should read his books. He's one of my favorite authors of all time.

The book is not without a small criticism. Although the illustrations are superb, you should never depend on them to tell your story. There was one character who was a squirrel, but the narrative never says that. You have only a picture of her to confirm her actual species. I don't like that, but it is really the only problem I had with the book.

There's no reason not to recommend this book. "Kenny and the Dragon" impresses on many levels. The faux battle scene honestly makes the whole thing worth it, in and of itself. Read this book!

This blog was written on February 15, 2022.

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Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Romans [Book Review]

You know what? I really do like Paul. This guy just popped out of nowhere. Nobody expected him. I'm pretty okay with having him write his own books.

"Romans" is the forty-fifth book of the "Holy Bible." It was technically written by Tertius. He was the scribe of Paul, so he was basically writing down everything Paul dictated to him. It's totally okay to see Paul as the true author of this book. Nobody would judge you for it. That said, Tertius probably spent a lot of time correcting much of the grammar issues made by Paul, so his mentioning is still relatively important.

This book was a letter from Paul to the Romans. He was extremely loved in Rome which came out very well in "Acts." So this is mainly a doctrine book, pure and simple. It's very much a sermon, and it almost sounds like something you would hear in a church. It's not bad though. I know how I have lambasted the modern church so much. Nothing about this sermon bothered me.

For one, Paul was really speaking through the Holy Spirit. That was something redundantly explained by Jesus himself. It's something all the apostles experienced. His words matter.

The basic theme that I got from this book is that, although the original laws of God are still held up, the spirit of them are far more important than the paper version of them. Paul is trying to open the minds of his listeners to a better understanding of what the "church" means now that Jesus has happened. He used circumcision several times to explain his point.

You can technically be circumcised without actually being circumcised if you live your life by the laws of God. That said, if someone actually gets circumcised and doesn't follow the law, then what good was the whole operation for to begin with? People spend a lot of time getting stuck on "the rules." The spirit of these things mean more to God than the letter of these laws.

Another message given in this book was the sheer strength you have if you side with Jesus Christ. Being that he is empowered by God Himself, there is nothing that can stand in your way if you truly believe in him. This was already massively correlated in the Old Testament with such characters as David and Joshua. Jesus just makes access to God all the easier.

The book does go into other things, but I'm gonna keep it brief so I can keep going. "Romans" is a good doctrine book, and I do recommend it. It is very clearly written and takes about an hour to read. Paul really is a lovable guy.

This blog was written on February 10, 2022.

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Monday, March 21, 2022

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Acts of the Apostles [Book Review]

"Acts of the Apostles" is the forty-fourth book of the "Holy Bible," and it was more than likely written by Luke. The letter was written again to Theophilus and the writing style is extremely similar to that of Luke. And I would also like to say that he is a very good writer, and I find his direct style very relaxing. I would be happy to read anything the man ever wrote.

This is the first post-gospel book in the Bible. Everything here happens after the death and resurrection of Jesus. The world has to contend with that now, and the apostles now take center stage. They were told that there would come a day when the Holy Spirit would enter into them which would drive them to do amazing things in the name of Jesus. This day is referred to as Pentecost.

Now, as this blog is more of a summary of the things that stood out to me about this book, I won't go into every thing that happened. I do want to say however that these apostles went out and performed miracles in a likewise manner as Jesus did, but they did these miracles in His name. And that's the point. Without the advent of Jesus, they would have no power to do anything.

The Jews, namely the Pharisees, gave these men a lot of the same trouble they gave Jesus. They seemed far less cowardly about it this time around. Some of them did not make it. However, the story of "Acts" mainly revolves around two Apostles in particular: Peter and Saul (who is renamed Paul.) I had a little trouble trying to decide who excited me more. Both of these men were clearly under the protection of the angels of God. They would not be allowed to die until their time came. Heck, you couldn't even keep Peter imprisoned. God busted him out as proof that the things he was defending was real. Amazing stuff!

But Paul. Paul! Here was my hero of this particular book. Paul was originally someone who hatefully pursued the apostles. It was actually quite shocking just how angry this man was. Surprisingly, he gets a visit from Jesus himself which places the living Son of God as a character in "Acts." This turns the man named Saul's entire life a complete 180 in the other direction. It must have been amusing to God to have a man who everyone trusted to kill the Apostles to suddenly join them.

Although I am not completely sure, the way this book is written suggests that Luke was there with Paul for much of the way, obviously very inspired by all of these happenings. The story of Paul was extremely interesting and included some varied forms of storytelling that I had yet seen in the Bible thus far. And, yes, I know I am talking mostly about genre and not the more spiritual matters, but I can't help it. I'm a book nut!

With the story of Paul, you get a riveting courtroom drama which spans multiple court proceedings. People are lobbing hateful accusations against him, but the courts are having a little trouble figuring out what Paul has actually done to deserve being sentenced to death. Also the fact that he is a Roman politically complicated matters and ends up being a bit of a saving grace, not discounting that he was out rightly being protected by God as well.

This courtroom drama jumps right into a fantastic sea-fairing adventure with extremely detailed descriptions of the journey to Rome. There was a storm. The ship crash lands. Primitive natives take them in. Paul gets bit by a poisonous snake and lives. The natives think he is a god when this happens. Holy crap! Was this written by Merman Melville?!

So the second half of "Acts" is more exciting, but the whole book was very good. Weirdly, my version of this book had it titled as the book of "Apostles." This is weird, because I have never heard this book called that. It has always been either "Acts" or "Acts of the Apostles." Not sure what they were thinking. Even so, I highly recommend the book, especially the second half where it focuses entirely on Paul.

As a final caveat, it seems that Peter and Paul did not always get along with one another. I don't claim to know why this happened, but if I had to guess, it might just be because of the actions he took as Saul. It could also just be raw personality differences. I'm not entirely certain what it is, but I'll keep watch over the next books to see if its explained. Read this book and enjoy!

This blog was written on February 6, 2022.

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Friday, March 18, 2022

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Rupert and the Frog Song [Short Film Review]

I had a weird incident recently. I was busy at my job, and this song I haven't heard in more than 30 years began playing on the store's radio. It drove me absolutely nuts. I just stood there like an idiot, trying to hear the lyrics. I was pretty sure it was a showtune of some kind, but I just could not place it. There was a lot of weird additional stuff my brain was adding to it, such as some cats joining in on the notes in a few places. It was super weird. When I finally gave up and went to go Shazam it on my phone, the song ended before I could get the app running.

Many weeks later, I heard the song again. I immediately wanted to go Shazam the song to identify where it came from, but work suddenly got extremely busy after being dead for hours. The busy period lasted exactly for the length of the song. It played its last notes just as I made it into the back room to open the app. Another failure, but I tried to keep the melody in my head, and for the next hour or so I was humming it. I was desperately trying to lock down this ancient cartoon [I believed] that I had seen as a child.

The melody was so haunting, yet it was also quite optimistic. But there was another feeling I was getting. It felt like, for some reason, the song should be interrupted by some sort of terror. I had in my mind that, even though the song was quite a happy sounding thing, that there was some evil that wanted to kill the singers, and everyone would scream and run for their lives in a panic. None of this was heard in the song coming over the radio, yet I believed I was thinking of the plot of whatever this cartoon was.

These feelings were so powerful, and I yearned so very hard to figure out the riddle my memory was trying to give me. I was also rather shocked that the radio was playing some showtune from such an obscure cartoon that probably nobody cares about anymore, but it happened. And at the end of that hour of constant humming, I had a working theory of what the cartoon was, and when I finally was allowed to make it home, I got on my phone and did a search. My theory was confirmed. I found the film in all of its glory.

"Rupert and the Frog Song" is an animated short film from 1984. It stars the character Rupert Bear who was from a popular series of young children books, which, although popular at the time, nobody really talks about them anymore today. The film seemed largely written and produced by Paul McCartney which seems the most logical explanation as to why the song itself was playing over a store radio so many years later. Still, it surprises me.

The film is an outright fairy tale experience and more than sufficient to be reviewed by this blog. Rupert Bear heads outside to adventure and play. There's a few little bits of dialog at the beginning, showing a few of the other characters from the books, however they are merely cameos. Rupert ends up making his way to a cave hidden by a waterfall where a mass of frogs are preparing for an event which only happens every couple of hundred years.

This is where the song comes into play. They are all getting together to sing the song that I heard at my store. At this point, Rupert, although the main character, takes a step back, and the frogs get center stage for almost the rest of the film. This song is really wonderful. The animation is beautiful and charming. The whole spectacle of it was the point, and the addition of Rupert was really to allow the viewer to feel as if they had come across some amazing secret. I don't mind his inclusion at all.

I laughed when I saw the two cats join into one part of the song. It let me know that I wasn't crazy to think about that earlier. The cats were actually two of three villains. They were paired up with an evil owl who wanted to catch and eat the king and queen frogs. The owl himself was surprisingly spooky and a good addition to the film.

There is a crappy VHS version of this film available on YouTube. I'll link it down below. It's only 13 minutes long. The VHS quality may be bad, but honestly, I think the version I saw as a kid had the same quality, so I wasn't really bothered by it.

I am sad this beautiful piece of animated joy has been sort of forgotten. I am pleased to see that the song is still floating around. That song, by the way, is called "We All Stand Together," and there is a music video for it from the time the short came out. They just show bits and pieces of the short film while showing Paul McCartney singing along with it. Seeing the actual short film is a better experience. Highly recommend this one. Give a piece of quality forgotten media a look and listen.

Here is a link to the YouTube video: https://youtu.be/LSwV-e1J1Oo

This blog was written on February 5, 2022.

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Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Story of My Life [Book Review]

Not really an example of a fairy tale, but it is a rather interesting look into the nature of perspective. One can get some very interesting ideas from the life of someone who was forced to live in an altered state. But I digress.

"The Story of My Life" is a book written by deaf and blind woman Helen Keller, it being her autobiography. It was published in 1903. I did not read the entire book as presented. It had two other sections containing 4 hours worth of her horribly constructed letters as well as a section that was about the writing of the actual book. These were uninteresting to me, and so this review is only about the book she actually wrote, which I did finish.

Funny story: When I was very young, I often got Helen Keller and Pollyanna confused. I didn't know who was fictional and who was real. For a while I thought Helen Keller had all her problems as well as a pair of broken legs. These mistakes can happen to a child who does not bother reading. I did later figure out who was who and who had what disability later on.

I read Pollyanna about six or seven years ago. I'm not quite sure. I was going to read this book right afterwards, but I got side-tracked by other things. Even so, I am glad that I finally got around to it. The whole reason I did this was because I did think it a peculiar thing that someone with such a debilitating set of maladies could actually function as well as Helen did.

The whole reason we sort of wonder about her is because she had a unique perspective in life that we just aren't familiar with. And to read her book, it does make things a bit more clear. She isn't like other people, but she is still human... and a woman. Her lack of sight and sound does not change her. All it did was change her perspective.

I recently had my first real alcoholic drink. As I began drinking, I picked up one of my books and started reading it. I was trying to gage how much my cognitive abilities would alter while I was under the influence of alcohol. Unfortunately, I didn't really notice much, but the whole idea that a perspective could change based on altered senses had always intrigued me.

"The Story of My Life" is an amazing and extremely well written book, and when you look into the issues this woman had, it is amazing it is as good as it is. By the end of the book, she honestly barely feels like she's any different than anybody. And her unique perspective, even though influenced by negatives, has actually given her insights into the world around her that we might never comprehend ourselves.

Sometimes we do get distracted by what we see and what we hear. We don't take the time to "see" life through our other senses, as we were intended so. There's a lot of nuance in things that can be missed because of this. It's unfortunate that we do this to ourselves, but we can do better is we care to bother.

One small criticism, a personal one. Helen Keller does relate that she loved reading old fables and fairytales in her book, but she was very scathing in how she put down the presentation of talking animals. She went on and on about how she could not take a moral seriously due to the absurdity of the animals acting like people. Pardon me, Miss Keller, but I take a personal exception to this. I forgive you though, being that I intend to completely saturate the publishing market with as many talking, yelling, screaming, dancing animals as I possibly can! So have at you!

I recommend the book. Enjoy!

This blog was written on February 2, 2022.

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