Mark Jacobson

Mark Jacobson's Gojro reinterprets the cultural legacy from the perspective of Godzilla, here named "Gojiro" in homage to the original Japanese name of Gojira. Gojiro, along with his friend Komodo, who was scarred by the bombing of Hiroshima, travels to Hollywood to make a new movie. Along the way, the two discuss the relationship of nature and man. Jacobson's plot revels in post-Cold War metaphysics, but there's very little character growth and Gojiro's angst-filled monologues and actions repel the reader.
As a fan of the Godzilla franchise and a student of Cold War culture, I really wanted to like this book and kept giving it a chance, but it's nearly impossible to get into and so overloaded with metaphysical jargon that the reader can't follow what's going on half the time. At times, Jacobson appears not to know if he's writing genre fiction with the goal of making his readers think, or a philosophical primer that uses genre elements to ground his thought experiments. The end result is something of a jumble best understood by those who tried to expand their consciousnesses during the height of the Cold War.… (plus d'informations)

This book was not really what I expected, and a bit of a disappointment. It seemed just a jumble of thoughts, mostly. There is some travel in it, but also a lot of reminiscing and rambling. The oldest daughter has three or four chapters, which add very little to the content. And the idea of the book, that the children are too plugged in and need to see the world, is not really fleshed out much. We don't really see them that plugged in, and they are already pretty extensive U.S. travelers, so it's not like they're all that sheltered.

My children are way more plugged in and have barely been out of the state of NC, but unfortunately, I don't have the money to drag them all over the world, so I guess I'll just have to worry. And some of the places they visited! I guess good old dad was trying to open their eyes but these are not places I would have chosen. I really think the main point of the trip was to give mom and dad a chance to redo their early, hippy years.… (plus d'informations)