As usual, Comic-Con provided attendees and those who follow comics and the fantastic in pop culture with sneak previews for several interesting films soon to be released. One of those is 9, the lastest project of gifted filmmaker Tim Burton, who is serving as producer of this film along with Timur Bekmanbetov and Jim Lemley, and directed by Shane Acker. This computer animated film includes the voice talents of Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, and others.
Synopsis
An action-packed adventure, director Shane Acker’s animated fantasy epic 9 is the feature-length expansion of his Academy Award-nominated 2004 short film of the same name. The screenplay for the feature is by Pamela Pettler.
The time is the too-near future. Powered and enabled by the invention known as the Great Machine, the world’s machines have turned on mankind and sparked social unrest, decimating the human population before being largely shut down. But as our world fell to pieces, a mission began to salvage the legacy of civilization; a group of small creations was given the spark of life by a scientist in the final days of humanity, and they continue to exist postapocalypse.
Another of their own, #9 (voiced by Elijah Wood), emerges and displays leadership qualities that may help them survive and possibly even thrive. The conflicted but resilient tribe already includes #1 (Christopher Plummer), a domineering war veteran and the group’s longtime leader; #2 (Martin Landau), a kindly but now-frail inventor; #3 and #4, scholarly twins who communicate nonverbally and mostly with each other; #5 (John C. Reilly), a stalwart and nurturing engineer; #6 (Crispin Glover), an erratic artist beset by visions; #7 (Jennifer Connelly), a brave and self-sufficient warrior; and #8 (Fred Tatasciore), the none-too-bright muscle and enforcer for #1.
With their group so few, these “stitchpunk” creations must summon individual strengths well beyond their own proportions in order to outwit and fight against still-functioning machines, one of which is a marauding mechanized beast. In the darkness just before the dawn, #9 rallies everyone of his number to band together. While showcasing a stunning “steampunk”-styled visual brilliance, 9 dynamically explores the will to live, the power of community, and how one soul can change the world.
Although 9 is a computer generated animation feature it should not be construed as merely a film with appeal to children. As the synopsis indicates it is gritty, taking place in a post-apocalyptic scenario, and touches on deep questions such as what it means to be human, and the significance of living life with the spark of a creator’s life. Adults and children alike should find plenty to enjoy in this film.
TheoFantastique is proud to be part of a Focus Features movie giveaway for 9. This involves prizes for five winners from this website that include a 9 Prize Bundle containing a book, official soundtrack, mini-poster, and trading cards (featuring all the characters). The entry period for this film promotional offer begins today and will run until just before the film’s release on September 9. Those who would like to enter this contest for prizes should submit their name and address to johnm@theofantastique.com with “9 Movie Giveaway” in the subject line. Five winners will be chosen at random who will be notified on September 8. Prizes will be mailed to winners courtesy of the creative folks behind 9 and Focus Features.
With this post I bring together a revised version of a post I wrote for another blog of mine, with a film trailer for Legion, due out in January 2010. (A word of warning to my readers: The trailer is rated R for mature viewers due to graphic language.) These two items come together in a discussion of our continuing fascination with apocalyptic, including that informed by Judeo-Christian conceptions of the End.
Fears and scenarios concerning the ultimate End of things are far more broad and diverse in the late modern West than the Left Behind novels of evangelicalism and popular culture. Elizabeth Rosen discusses this topic in Apocalyptic Transformation: Apocalypse and the Postmodern Imagination (Lexington Books, 2008).
Rosen begins her discussion with an introduction into apocalyptic thinking. She notes that just as human beings need origin stories or myths to explain our beginnings, so we also incorporate stories of the End in order to come to grips with the threats of the end in the face of social chaos and the finality of the human story. She also draws the reader’s attention to the fact that stories of the End are sense-making myths that serve as “an organizing principle imposed on an overwhelming, seemingly disordered universe.” Used in this fashion, apocalyptic stories function much like conspiracy and chaos stories.
In the history of the Western world the Judeo-Christian apocalyptic has been the most influential. In that religio-cultural context one of the key apocalyptic texts has been St. John’s Book of Revelation. In that piece of literature the Greek word for apocalypse refers to an “unveiling,” literally meaning a revelation provided to the reader as a means of providing a sense of peace and purpose to the seeming chaos and social disruption surrounding them. In contemporary popular usage the term “apocalyptic” has moved beyond this specific meaning to serve as a general phrase referring to the End. Although the Judeo-Christian apocalyptic continues to be popular in various circles, and to exert influence outside of its specific religious context, other visions of apocalypse are found throughout popular culture. Here the context of late modernity or postmodernity puts an interesting twist on apocalyptic myth as it seeks to, as Rosen states, “reject the myth’s absolutism or [to] challenge the received systems of morality that underlie it.”
Having laid her foundation through the Introduction Rosen then explores differing ways in which apocalyptic myths have been explored in popular culture. Given my personal and academic research interests I appreciated the diversity of cultural sources that she drew upon in consideration of apocalypse, including graphic novels, books, and film. Several case studies in Rosen’s exploration were of great interest to me. These include a look at Alan Moore’s graphic novel Swamp Thing, which Rosen describes as “a veritable collection of apocalyptic stories,” a differing apocalyptic twist in Moore’s Watchman graphic novel, Terry Gilliam’s films Brazil and 12 Monkeys, and the Wachowski Brothers’ Matrix trilogy of films.
Rosen’s work is a reminder of the continuing interest in apocalyptic. As her discussion notes, one of the ways in which it has been expressed is through film. A specific form of apocalyptic cinema often depicts a battle between angelic forces, humanity, and the divine. The forthcoming release of Legion next year is an example of this. Produced by Sony Pictures and directed by Scott Stewart, the film’s official website includes the following synposis:
“When God loses faith in mankind, he sends his legion of angels to bring on the apocalypse. Humanity’s only hope lies in a group of strangers trapped in a desert diner and the archangel Michael.”
In Legion the trailer indicates that God has given up on humanity and now seeks to eradicate it through the use of angelic forces. But in instance Michael the archangel has gone rogue and now stands with humanity in opposition to God as he battles divine forces. In this way Legion demonstrates a postmodern deconstruction of a general Judeo-Christian theology in a number of areas, and in so doing questions traditional conceptions of the divine goodness and a final outworking of his purposes in vanquishing evil.
As the trailer demonstrates, the film appears to be an interesting hybrid between apocalyptic tale, horror film, and action adventure. I have added this to my list of movies to see next year.
In the past I’ve connected aspects of the fantastic to popular culture and current events. With this post I do so again, first in serious fashion, and second with tongue in cheek.
In a recent post I asked readers to consider America’s continuing struggles with the legacy of racism through reflection on Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. With this post I direct readers to the comments of the late, great Vincent Price on racism and religious prejudice. His words are as important for us today as when he uttered them years ago:
And on a lighter note, a while back President Obama took some heat from animal rights groups over the swatting of a fly during a television interview. New footage has become available on this incident:
In September 2006 Baylor University released a survey which mentioned that a “surprising level” of belief in the paranormal by Americans. ReligionLink commented on this and said that, “According to a 2005 askyourguide Poll, about 75 percent of Americans hold some form of belief in the paranormal – extrasensory perception, ghosts, telepathy, clairvoyance, astrology, communicating with the dead, witches, reincarnation or channeling.”
This interest in the paranormal has been a part of popular culture for quite some time, and therefore it is not surprising to see it expressed in a variety of ways, including television programming. One of the first came on the heels of the surfacing interest in the paranormal as a result of the counterculture in the late 1960s, a time involving what scholars like Robert Elwood have described as one of “shifting religious imagination” and in which science fiction and fantasy became the stuff of new mythologies. The interest in the paranormal following the 1960s created the conditions through which a particular television show kicked off paranormal television that continues today. It was the documentary-style program, In Search Of…, that ran from 1976 to 1982, hosted by Leonard Nimoy. The series was the brainchild of Alan Landsburg who was also responsible for a 1973 television program narrated by Rod Serling titled In Search of Ancient Astronauts, which explored the controversial theories of Erich von Däniken. (This program was just one of many documentaries on the paranormal and UFOs hosted by Serling. Another example is UFOs: It Has Begun.) The success of In Search of Ancient Astronauts led to the development of In Search of… as a half-hour weekly television program that examined a number of phenomenon, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, psychic activity, lost civilizations, and much more.
Although this program is probably largely forgotten by viewers other than those like myself with a sense of nostalgia, and perhaps also an interest in the paranormal and cryptozoology, In Search of… may be seen as the precursor which opened the way for similar programming over the ensuing decades and into today. One contemporary example that follows an In Search of… documentary-style template, is the History Channel’s Monster Quest. Narrated by Stacy Keach, as the title indicates, this program focuses on cryptozoology, and examines eyewitness reports of strange creatures around the world as described on the program’s website which includes a MonsterPedia.
Beyond this, much of the contemporary paranormal television offerings follow a “reality TV” style rather than the documentary. Examples of this kind of contemporary programming include the Travel Channel’s Most Haunted and Ghost Adventures, the Sci-Fi (now Syfy) Channel’s Ghost Hunters, and programs like the History Channel’s UFO Hunters.
The increasing embrace of technology and rationality that came with modernity may have made it more difficult to embrace traditional forms of religious belief, but it has not eradicated the human desire for mystery and transcendence. Paranormal television provides fodder for the imagination in this regard, and In Search of… helped pave the way for numerous television programs to follow.
I received a press release today from the Vampires News Network that I pass along here for readers.
Pasadena, Calif. August 6, 2009. Vampire Fest 2009 will take place in the beautiful city of New Orleans from October 23 – 26, 2009.
Filmmakers have heard our call, and Vampire Fest has already received submissions from the United States and around the world. Vampire Fest has a number of activities planned—feasts for the mind as well as the eyes—including a literary panel hosted by writer Gabrielle Faust and events around the Vieux Carré and the Garden District. The festival will screen an international slate of vampire and gothic features and shorts and include costume parties, fashion shows and performance artists.
Vampire Fest is proud to call its home New Orleans with its fabulous nightlife, Gothic architecture, international cuisine, voodoo history, beautiful necropolises, and the birthplace of jazz and Anne Rice.
Submissions Are Still OPEN
Vampire Fest is seeking narrative or experimental films of all lengths that emphasize the grotesque, mysterious or desolate. Since the legends of the werewolf and other supernatural creatures are interconnected with that of the vampire, Vampire Fest also accepts films of the Gothic, zombie, werewolf, witch or ghost genre.
Full schedule of events, details will be announced on our site in the coming weeks and ticket sales will begin by month’s end. Please visit our site at www.vampirefilmfestival.com or contact festival headquarters at (504) 298-VAMP. Get bitten at Vampire Fest in New Orleans!
I still remember staying up late on weeknights in my youth watching episodes of The Twilight Zone. I appreciated the interesting storylines and twist endings, but as a child, and later as a teenager, I was rarely able to appreciate the depth of the issues involved in many of the episodes as Rod Serling and other writers engaged in some of the best writing and social commentary on television. As an adult, repeated viewing of The Twilight Zone, both in the various holiday marathons on television, and in my growing personal collection on DVD, has helped me appreciate the program as not only solid entertainment, but also in providing commentary on pressing social issues of the past, of the time period when the program aired, and I believe in application to issues of the present day.
One of the episodes that recently appeared in a collection of “best of” for the series was “The Obsolete Man” which first aired on June 6, 1961. This episode was written by Serling, and his opening narration for the piece went like this:
“You walk into this room at your own risk, because it leads to the future, not a future that will be but one that might be. This is not a new world, it is simply an extension of what began in the old one. It has patterned itself after every dictator who has ever planted the ripping imprint of a booth on the pages of history since the beginning of time. It has refinements, technological advances, and a more sophisticated approach to the destruction of human freedom. But like every one of the superstates that preceded it, it has one iron rule: logic is an enemy and truth is a menace. . . . This is Mr. Romney Wordsworth, in his last forty-eight hours on Earth. He’s a citizen of the State but will soon have to be eliminated, because he’s built out of flesh and because he has a mind. Mr. Romney Wordsworth, who will draw his last breaths in the Twilight Zone.”
As this episode begins we find Wordsworth (played by Burgess Meredith) entering into a hall of judgment for the State. A long table sits before him, and at the end of the table is a tall podium where the judge for the State, the Chancellor (played by Fritz Weaver), announces the sentence of death upon Wordsworth and works out the details for the accused as to the manner of execution. Wordsworth is an enemy of the State who has lost his usefulness. As a result he has become obsolete. Yet he uses his final moments on earth through the means of execution to make the point to the State that the individual matters, as does freedom, and in so doing brings embarrassment upon the Chancellor. After Wordworth’s death the Chancellor returns to the same hall of judgment to resume his duties only to find that only to find that the State now finds him worthy of death. In the chilling final scene the Chancellor pleads for his life by arguing that he still serves a useful function to the State, only to find the government’s representatives chanting repeatedly, “Obsolete! Obsolete!” The episode concludes with Serling’s final narration:
“The Chancellor – the late Chancellor – was only partly correct. He was obsolete. But so was the State, the entity he worshipped. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man, that state is obsolete. A case to be filed under ‘M’ for mankind . . . in the Twilight Zone.
Airing as it did in the first decades following World War II, it is no surprise that The Twilight Zone included several episodes that critiqued the dangers of Nazism, fascism, and other forms of totalitarianism. As such Serling’s concern for government abuses of the past still serves as a valid critique for our reflection on history. But I would also suggest that this episode has much to say to us today about current issues as well.
Citizens of the United States are currently embroiled in a debate over reforming healthcare. If the Administration’s healthcare plan is implemented it will give the government control in one seventh of the country’s economy. This follows on the heels of the government’s bailout and resulting financial interest in large segments of the auto industry and banking industry. In response to a worldwide recession the government has grown larger and more powerful.
This growth and power is not only the result of the Obama Administration’s actions. For several presidential administrations over several decades, both Republican and Democrat, and despite promises to reduce government during Republican administrations, the government has grown, and with it has come greater power and finances in the hands of political leaders across party lines.
Perhaps Serling has something to say to us in the twenty-first century. As government grows more powerful and is poised to take control over a major aspect of the individual, in the name of reformation and cost savings will some members and segments of our society be declared obsolete? Regardless of the party affiliations of my readers, I hope we will pause to think through what our government is currently proposing, openly debate the issues involved, and that we will also take to heart Serling’s closing narration for this episode lest our State become obsolete in the quest for hope and change.
Last year I discovered accidentally that Halloween begins early at Michaels stores when I sensed the first hints of fall and this wonderful holiday in the air in late August. Today I was out and about on a Sunday afternoon and I thought I’d poke my head into Michaels even though I was sure that the first weekend of August was way too early for stores to carry Halloween merchandise. To my pleasant surprise Michaels has begun to carry their Halloween merchandise with a small collection that will grow over the next couple of months. But even now the Lemax Spooky Town collection can be found in the store in its entirety.
Little needs to be said for those familar with Spooky Town, which represents one of the highest search engine hits that bring readers to TheoFantastique. But for those who have not heard of it this is a special set of Halloween collectibles that began in 2001 and which is focused around various themes, including Gothic and classic horror, Egyptian mummies, pirates, and southwestern frights. Spooky Town includes large pieces with light, sound, and many times motion, as well as smaller table top pieces. For those interested in learning more about the background and history of Spooky Town see my interview with distributor Joe Davis, and my post on the 2009 product line.
I must say after standing in the Spooky Town aisle at Michaels with the various pieces creeking, groaning, and moving around me, I drooled with wide eyed wonder like a ten-year-old horror geek on Halloween night. Somehow Spooky Town manages to introduce new and interesting pieces each year, and 2009 is no exception. As in previous years, this year’s offerings include the Michaels exclusive pieces that include the House of Wax, Transylvania Transport, Flaming Skull Motorcycles, Morbid Manner, and the Spooky Town Express train. The new pieces will be a good addition to any collection as Spooky Town not only builds its imaginative collection, but also seems to provide greater attention to detail with each year’s additions.
The Spooky Town collection in my neighborhood Michaels is now selling at a twenty percent discount, but this won’t last long. I encourage collectors to visit Michaels early and often, and to add to their collection before they sell out by mid-October at the latest. As October approaches keep your eyes open for dramatic discounts as the store seeks to move its Halloween items in preparation for Christmas.
I’ll be seeing you at the Spooky Town aisle at Michaels as I feed this addiction for the next several months.
With another post inspired by a feature in Entertainment Weekly, indeed, back to back posts, readers may wonder about my magazine reading habits, or think that I am on the payroll for EW. Neither situation should be of concern, but it is interesting that the magazine has now featured aspects of horror in two consecutive issues. Issue #1059 from August 7, 2009 features a cover focus on vampires which includes responses to questions on the current crop of romantic vampire treatments by five female vampire fiction authors, including Stephenie Meyer, Melissa De La Cruz, Laurell K. Hamilton, Anne Rice, and P. C. Cast.
The feature also includes a listing of the “20 Greatest Vampires,” where, surprisingly given the largely female reading audience for EW, and that the vampire feature focuses on the romantic aspect of the contemporary upsurge in vampires, Christopher Lee comes in at number two, Bela Lugosi comes in at number three, and Keifer Sutherland from The Lost Boys comes in at number fourteen. Blade portrayed by Wesley Snipes also makes the list at number sixteen, as does Angel by David Boreanaz coming in at number seven. Many of the other picks are not surprising given the perspective of the magazine’s readers and focus, but the absence of Frank Langella’s 1972 portrayal of Dracula is given the strong romantic focus of the film. Noticeably absent from the list for vampire and horror fans in general are Chris Sarandon’s character Jerry Dandridge from Fright Night, an interesting film from the 1980s that includes elements of both romance and horror, the vampiric family from Near Dark, as well as 30 Days of Night.
In a sidebar that one would only see in an entertainment magazine is a chart titled “Vampire Hair: The Kindest Cuts.” Here other surprises await as Christopher Lee comes in at the “Scarily Good” end of the chart, followed closely by William Marshal from Blacula, and Sutherland’s David in third, and Gary Oldman in “Bram Stoker’s Dracula holding the final slot for “Scarily Bad.”
A recent copy of my wife’s ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY magazine for July 31, 2009 includes an article with information that I found surprising. The piece is titled “Horror Films…and the Women Who Love Them!” by Christine Spines.
I was not surprised to find an increasing presence of the feminine in horror, and that this has reshaped certain expressions of the genre. In a previous post I discussed how gender has shaped the vampire icon, but what I did find surprising was Spines’ claim that women are now the major viewers of horror films, which in turn is changing not only the way women are depicted in the genre, but also the types of horror films being produced. An excerpt from the article discusses this:
“I don’t think there was anyone who expected that women would gravitate toward a movie called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” says Chainsaw producer Brad Fuller of the 2003 remake, which became a female-driven $81 million hit. “For us, the issue now is that it’s harder for us to get young men into the theater than women who are, like, 35 years old at horror movies and they’re like, ‘Oh, our husbands are with the kids and we all came out together,'” says Clint Culpepper, the president of Screen Gems, which is releasing a remake of the 1987 slasher film The Stepfather in October. “Men stop seeing horror at a certain age, but women continue to go on.”
Far be it from me to question these filmmakers since they conduct careful market research in order to determine the demographics of their audience, their viewing preferences, and how films can be tailored to meet audience desires. But in my experience most women don’t care for horror, and at present it tends to be teenage fare across gender lines, and a form that also appeals to men beyond “a certain age.” This article calls this into question and adds another cultural element into the mix for the evolution of horror films.
Personally I don’t care which gender produces and consumes horror so long as it is quality material that is offered. If the increasing involvement of women in horror results in silver screen scares like The Descent then I’m fine with it. It it shifts us increasingly toward the Twilight end of the spectrum then I hope the trend is short lived.
America seems doomed never to be able to move beyond its struggles with racism. Despite having elected an African-American president, and other great strides since the days of slavery and the Civil Rights era, charges of racism continue to haunt the country in pop culture. From Al Sharpton connecting race with Michael Jackson’s death, to Jessie Jackson making charges of racism with every possible national news story, to President Obama making the arrest of Professor Henry Gates a national issue through insinuations of police racial profiling in a prime time press conference, racism remains a heavy burden for the country.
One might wonder why charges of racism continue. Certainly we must acknowledge that racism exists in some quarters since it is impossible to erase racism among all of a population’s people. But it must also be acknowledged that the country has made great strides in moving beyond its racist past, exemplified most vividly with the election of Barack Obama, touted as the first post-racial president. Even so, it seems as if there are segments of the population that refuse to let strong charges of national racism go, going so far as to form something of a cottage industry with personalities like Sharpton and Jackson, and now perhaps with Gates as well. Again, why do such charges of racism continue despite how far we have come from the days of slavery and the civil rights struggles of the 1960s?
I’d like to suggest that science fiction might provide us with an insight. In a recent post I mentioned my appreciation for the Planet of the Apes series of films, particularly Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, for its social commentary in its hard-hitting attempt at grappling with racism through the depiction of ape slavery at the hands of human beings. At the climax of the film the apes revolt under the leadership of an intelligent, talking ape, self-named Caesar (played by Roddy McDowall). After the apes have subdued their former captors Caesar has an exchange with MacDonald (played by Hari Rhodes), a human government official and African-American. MacDonald is concerned about the violence associated with the revolt, and the apparent desires of Caesar to mete out lethal justice in the wake of his past oppression.
MacDonald:
Caesar, this is not how it was supposed to be.
Caesar:
In your view, or mine?
MacDonald:
Violence prolongs hate, hate prolongs violence. By what right are you spilling blood?!
Caesar:
By the slave’s right to punish his persecutors.
I think Caesar’s words in the final sentence from this dialogue excerpt are especially important, and possibly applicable to the situation we see in the United States in regards to race. No matter how far the nation has come, or will come, in its efforts to overcome racism we can never be a post-racial nation so long as those and the descendants of those who were wrongly persecuted in the past believe that it is their right to punish their former persecutors and their descendants. There seems to be some kind of racial ethic of retributive justice at work here in my view, much as Caesar argued for in Conquest.
Again I would draw the reader’s attention to the originally scripted ending of Conquest where Caesar calls for lethal justice to be leveled upon Breck, the government official who despised the apes and kept them in slavery, even attempting to kill Caesar so as to forestall a potential ape revolt. As I commented in my previous post on this film, this ending fits the developing storyline more naturally, and certainly the developing emotion of Caesar and the apes. But Twentieth Century Fox opted for a revised conclusion which necessitated bringing Roddy McDowall back into the studio for some voiceover work for a closing narration that calls for the apes to move beyond their violence and put away their weapons. The original violent conclusion was understandable in a film coming out in the early 1970s when America was still dealing with the throes of racism and civil rights issues. But the producers opted for something more peaceful in the film’s conclusion. It is debatable as to which ending is more appropriate to the storyline, but regardless of this cinematic and storytelling question, I hope we can learn from the change in ending. Might it be that the original ending was appropriate for the circumstances and mood of the 1970s, but the revised ending is one for our time in twenty-first century America? I hope so, and I’d like certain segments of our society to consider setting aside the slave’s right to continue punishing their (former) persecutors.
As usual, Comic-Con provided attendees and those who follow comics and the fantastic in pop culture with sneak previews for several interesting films soon to be released. One of those is 9, the lastest project of gifted filmmaker Tim Burton, who is serving as producer of this film along with Timur Bekmanbetov and Jim Lemley, and directed by Shane Acker. This computer animated film includes the voice talents of Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, and others.
In September 2006 Baylor University released a survey which mentioned that a “surprising level” of belief in the paranormal by Americans. 
I still remember staying up late on weeknights in my youth watching episodes of The Twilight Zone. I appreciated the interesting storylines and twist endings, but as a child, and later as a teenager, I was rarely able to appreciate the depth of the issues involved in many of the episodes as Rod Serling and other writers engaged in some of the best writing and social commentary on television. As an adult, repeated viewing of The Twilight Zone, both in the various holiday marathons on television, and in my growing personal collection on DVD, has helped me appreciate the program as not only solid entertainment, but also in providing commentary on pressing social issues of the past, of the time period when the program aired, and I believe in application to issues of the present day.
With another post inspired by a feature in Entertainment Weekly, indeed, back to back posts, readers may wonder about my magazine reading habits, or think that I am on the payroll for EW. Neither situation should be of concern, but it is interesting that the magazine has now featured aspects of horror in two consecutive issues. Issue #1059 from August 7, 2009 features a cover focus on vampires which includes responses to questions on the current crop of romantic vampire treatments by five female vampire fiction authors, including Stephenie Meyer, Melissa De La Cruz, Laurell K. Hamilton, Anne Rice, and P. C. Cast.
A recent copy of my wife’s 
America seems doomed never to be able to move beyond its struggles with racism. Despite having elected an African-American president, and other great strides since the days of slavery and the Civil Rights era, charges of racism continue to haunt the country in pop culture. From Al Sharpton connecting race with Michael Jackson’s death, to Jessie Jackson making charges of racism with every possible national news story, to President Obama making the arrest of Professor Henry Gates a national issue through insinuations of police racial profiling in a prime time press conference, racism remains a heavy burden for the country.
