Last week Ben, Mr. Wolff, and Sgt. Angle tossed their two cents into the fountain of remakes, doing their part to change the quality of the water. (I think I’m starting a subconscious habit to out-do the random metaphor I came up with in my previous post.)

I’ve been thinking about doing an author spotlight every couple of posts for quite a while, and since remakes are in the air, I thought I’d mention an author who just published a remake of his own.

In 1963 Maurice Sendak published the children’s book Where the Wild Things Are. It was incredibly popular, and by 2008 had sold more than 19 million copies worldwide. In 2009, “Where the Wild Things Are” was released as a feature film, directed by Spike Jones and adapted from Sendak’s book by Spike Jones and Dave Eggers.

The same week the movie hit the screens, Eggers released his book, “The Wild Things”, a total reimagining of Sendak’s 10 pages into a full length novel, and also where you find most of the plot points that happened in the movie.

2009 was a good year for Eggers. In June his screenplay (written with his wife, Vendela Vita) “Away We Go” hit the screens under the masterful direction of Sam Mendes. In July, he released his novel Zeitoun, the nonfiction account of a Syrian man on the flooded streets of Katrina attempting to provide for his family and help any survivors who also stayed, and his vilification and subsequent disappearance by American authorities. And then in October Wild Things hit shelves and movie screens.

Not that life always went swimmingly for the author. In 1991, when he was 18, Dave was forced to take responsibility for raising his 8 year old brother after both his parents died of cancer only a few weeks apart. His first novel, the alternatingly gut-wrenching and hilarious A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2000), tells the story of how it happened, lightly fictionalizing the story but in no way diminishing the very true loss. The book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize that year.
In 2002, Eggers published You Shall Know Our Velocity! (the film is currently in pre-production). It is the story of a young man and his friend traveling around the world, always moving East, and their frustrating attempts to give away money. More than that, it is a story of Generation X and how they’ve grown up without any sense of direction.
Surviving Justice hit shelves in 2005. The book was a compilation of interviews of former prisoners who were given the death sentence but were later exonerated.
And in 2006, Eggers published What is the What? Though he wrote the novel, due to the extensive interviews and it being written in the first person, he published the novel as an autobiography. The subject of the novel is Valentino Achak Deng, one of the Sudanese Lost Boys, who survived 15 years of civil war, horrid genocide, and refugee camp exile before fleeing eventually to the United States in 2001. Essentially nonfiction, because some characters of composites of several real people and most of the storyline was reshaped and reordered for narrative effect Eggers released the book as fiction. In spite of that, the book captures the life of Achak Deng clearly, and tragically. The book is beautifully written, but there were several chapters that made me sick to my stomach and unbelievably sad that the world is really like this.

Eggers also co-authored several humor books with his younger brother, using the pseudonym “Dr. and Mr. Haggis-On-Whey” and the book Jokes Told in Heaven About Babies (writing as Lucy Thomas).

In all his novels, Eggers manages to capture, in a very real sense, the triumph and tragedy and humor of the human spirit. He is always worth reading, and the perfect subject to begin my spotlight series. Give him a read.

Until next time,
Still paddlin the old knew…
Akatzen

P.S. The next Mythoi Origin Story is out. Go take a look at Mythoi Birth: Vito! It’s free.

Sgt. Angle reporting for duty! (Look, this post may contain spoilers, so don’t say this isn’t a warning.) We still have time before the Halloween rush, so I’ll wait to give you the down low on the upcoming horror film season.

Where the Wild Things Are. #1 at the U.S.B.O. this past weekend, piling in an estimated $32.5 million bills for director Spike Jonze and Warner Bros. The success of Jonze’s five-year odyssey reminds us that you don’t have to treat a kid like a kid in order to win the kid’s dollars. You don’t have to Disney-ficate all over the genre in order to suck the soul of the young and innocent. How else can a kid cease to be a kid, and realize that it’s time to act like an adult, if you don’t treat him like one? Then again, why can’t we all stay kids forever, like this guy:

Dropped out at a very, very early age.

This year has given us a number of so-called “kids’ movies” that are more geared to sophisticated adults, teenagers with brains, and kids with loving parents who are willing to TEACH their young’ns about the seriousness that life offers, and that you can always turn those frowns upside-down. UP showed us that the cinematic experience can do so much with so little, as the first ten minutes should make you cry. If you did not well up in the first ten of “Up”, then you have no business calling yourself human. you basically have no soul. Go join Sam Worthington as an Avatar, you blue freak.

Just because you’ve been labeled a family film, or a kids’ movie, does not mean you have to have cute little backwards letters in your credits. You don’t have to douse eggs with syrup and hot sauce just to show you know how to have fun. You also can ignore the fact that dogs poop and grown-ups are goofy when they’re serious. Because you know what? When you get serious, you’re pretty goofy, too. But that’s because you don’t know what you are just yet, so it’s okay.

Here’s one lesson to remember, kid movies: You don’t have to have a daddy with issues who needs to learn how to care for his child. In today’s world, Mommy’s have problems, too. Why is it that we’re always watching the dad who needs to make more time for his kids, or the dad has to find a way to get a second job and pay alimony by working as a security guard at a museum? And how can Dick Van Dyke fight at night and then not feel sore in the A.M.?? WHY ARE OLD PEOPLE FUNNY?

Because they’re old.

But you know, kids are funny, too. Because kids always go for the simple solution. I’m not trying to be negative, or ageist, but kids say and do the darndest things just to prove themselves. And then, the sh*t hits the fan and they almost get chomped by sharks. Guess what, kids, the lesson of the day is DON’T GO SWIMMING. Or maybe you should dive in, because there are mermaids out there. Usually.

And hey, teen movies, you’re even worse. Because you’re basically disguised as teens, but you’re really over the age of 18. You’re unlawfully invading teenage kids’ personal space by protecting yourself with that little PG-13 rating (unless you’ve Disney-fied the MPAA to get your PG rating). Twilight, while being a less-than-satisfying crucifixion and butchering of the English language read in book format, is an accurate tribute of what NOT to teach your kids about love at a time when hormones are raging louder than an L.A. wildfire, and “love” is just a new word of the week.

So, in summation, go do yourself a favor and see Where the Wild Things Are. It won’t necessarily change your life, but it will force a perspective on it. If you’re an adult, you’ll look back on being a child, what you loved about it, what you hated, and the forts you used to build. If you’re a kid, and you’ve somehow been reading this post for the past few minutes, maybe you’ll think about the next time Mom tells you to get off the kitchen counter.

She demands it because she loves ya. She yells at you because she’d rather do that then eat you up. And if you can be a wild thing once in a while, from now on, no matter how old you are or what you look like or how grumpy you are if you wake up early because of a dog barking outside your window at six A.M., then go ahead. Be a wild thing.

Because this is where you are. You are –

“Yo, Sgt. Angle. I’mma let you finish. But first I have to say that Spike Jonze directed one of the best short films of all time. Starring me, Kanye West. Blow yo’ mind at the nine minute mark.” We Were Once a Fairytale.

At ease.

Sgt. Angle

Kanyus Interruptus

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Kanyus Interruptus.