And I can't imagine them getting all that much creepier, or digging too much harder into the whole extended family issues that the Avengers play into.   From Hank Pym himself, cursed by demons, bipolar, abused and neglected throughout his childhood while his self-doubt haunts him, to the debate over whether AI can be murdered, to the oedipal relationship between Ultron and his father, Hank Pym, to the fact that Ultron tries to take over every single biological entity every created?   There is a lot to this multi-generational story which swings between the modern Avengers and back when Ultron was just created. 

 

It's marvelous because it plays up the tension between that created family: Hank, so disgusted with Ultron, creates friction between himself and The Vision.   Since Ultron calls both Hank his father and The Vision his son, this is a battle between family members, whether or not Hank will outwardly admit the fact.   

 

Hank himself bounces between claiming that machines aren't alive and can't be killed to mourning over the loss of his son.   Then again, Hank isn't consistent; his character has changed so often that it would be less in character for him to stick to one conviction.   Part of this is explained within this graphic novel, where Ultron dares his father to face the truth about himself.   Ugly truths. 

 

Hank hides behind bravado, behind his genius, behind a lot of things, but Ultron simply won't let him in this case.   And it all builds up to a frantic climax that is simply breathtaking in it's scope.   I was left with tears in my eyes. 

 

And as a new Vision fan, this just hit the spot.   I'm actually really glad I didn't wait for the paperback version of this, partly because I got a free e-book version along with this hardcover, and partly because this is so all around gorgeous - the art, the writing - that I feel like it deserves to be owned in a hardcover. 

 

I have to go get a little weepy over this now, so if you'll excuse me.

 

 

L’homme est une passion inutile.

- Jean-Paul Sartre, L’Etre et le Néant  (1943)

 

Le propre de toute morale c'est de considérer la vie humaine comme une partie que l'on peut gagner ou perdre, et d'enseigner à l'homme le moyen de gagner.

- Simone de Beauvoir,  Pour une morale de l'ambiguïté (1947)

 

(*)

 

 

Any philosophical work is an expression of a culture at a particular moment of time as well as of the individual author's personality and experience. The middle class Parisian intellectuals who produced one of the many quite loosely related "Existentialisms" were writing at the end of and immediately following the most widely destructive self-immolation humankind has heretofore wreaked upon itself. As devastating to morale and value systems as the First World War had been, at the end of the Second Europe was lying stunned on its back wondering if anything had any value except possibly naked life itself, that genetically programmed need of all animals to hold onto life.

 

This is part of the context in which Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus and a few others modified earlier ""Existentialisms" to produce an apparently radical sweeping-the-board-clear in an effort initially to focus on the individual stripped of all his bonds to failed societies and discredited value systems. That was just the right moment and place for this effort, and, because it grew out of and expressed a widely shared sentiment, a bowdlerized caricature became quite fashionable for a time (along with goatees and black sweaters).

 

When I was a very young man who rejected nearly everything his culture and time said was valuable, reading the works of the French Existentialists was exactly what I needed to help me go my own way. Of course, being psychologically and intellectually useful to me and being a coherent, well thought out philosophy are not identical. Which is not to say that I am going to participate in the GR snark directed at existentialism.(**)

 

I don not like gooey Christmas stories, and I’m glad to say this is everything but that! Right from the first sentence it grabbed me, hook, line, and sinker. I read it twice with great joy, and have no remarks on it other than it made me laugh, hold my breath in anxiety, and sigh in relief. This book has humour, suspense, moments that instil a sense of urgency, and moments that allow for a breather. All paced expertly, and obviously written by a very skilled author.

The dialogue is great, very realistic and age appropriate. The child talks like how a kid would, while the adults behave accordingly too. The elves? Ha, wonderful, and exactly how I would imagine elves to be. And Santa? Well, he was a surprise, a very welcome one too. 

All the scenes were set properly, while still leaving enough to the imagination of the reader. The characters are all fully developed, and have a growth in them one would expect in a story with this message.

I won’t give away the plot, but if you have a child that’s a bit spoiled, or selfish, read this Christmas story with them and have fun with it. The spirit of Christmas is in this book, and it is wrapped up in a very pleasant way.

Not sure about this one, can't see how this would work in the UK in terms of motivating staff. The idea of forcing yourself to be happy at work seems... silly.

I am pretty sure I have seen a show on TV featuring this fish market, and it was pretty spectacular. It all seems like such common sense to just choose to have a better work day. It's quite a bit more difficult if you don't have everyone on the same page, and not everyone sees things the same way, but I fully understand this concept. This story made me think about my own situation and how I can make my workplace a better one. I see some things that we're already doing, and I see some things we can improve on. I am a very emotional person, so just choosing to be happy is hard, but I can most definitely work on it. It's not an overnight change, that's for sure. This has some very good ideas and a great building ground, and I enjoyed the nice little surprise at the end for the main character who shares my initials, Mary Jane. :o)