Gift from God or mark of the beast?

Or maybe not either extreme...I just wanted to get this link out for somethoughts on Amazon's new Kindle. Please, my friends and fellow bibliophiles, go and read some of the page and watch their little videos.

How does one react?

[The wannabe-independent-bookstore-owner in me cries out in frustration and despair.]

Friendship, deals and murder.

Scary title, eh? All that for this:

Levity somewhat aside, I must apologize for the image as my drawing and my photography thereof can really only go so far. In my mind Grendel is far more than a simply humanoid monster. He isn't even a perversion of humanity in the sense of Tolkien's orcs [or whichever is which], but really he is a grotesque human. He has lived on the outskirts of humanity, feasting on the self-pity and hate and jealousy that created him, or defiled his lineage, to the point where he chose to refuse the standard signs of humanity. He wears no clothing and does not speak in words. His bones are more solid than twenty men together [good thing Beowulf is strong as thirty, right?], and he has not stopped growing and changing [much like a lizard, ew]. His skin has hardened and toughened from this miserable life to the point where he is more of a pallid fleshy granite. While ridiculously strong [ripping folks asunder and all that], he isn't all body-builder but lithe and still thin from a sick sort of malnutrition. His hands and feet, the strongest points of his skin yet, are calloused to the point of being unfeeling beyond the knowledge of grasping a victim. As you can see I did choose to accentuate both the hands and the feet but also the rib-cage...I don't know why that is part of it, but it is.

I am the least happy with his face and head--not abnormally sized or shaped, just lacking color and general expression. You can see he is frowning [perhaps in thought as he wonders which part to munch first], but I don't imagine him drooling or screaming at all times. Grendel is a representative of pure isolation and antisocial ways and is thereby unable to be content or happy and, therefore in my mind, has become a sort of sullen anger at all times. A profoundly sad rage.

Not that I really have any pity. I just don't think the opposite of good humour and fellowship is anger. I think it is misery and that is why he acts [he hears them partying and gets a little p-oed] as he does.

Make sense? Sorry the text, my favored medium, isn't wholly aesthetically pleasing or coherent. I figured it was good to get this out before I forgot again and someone [coughbrandoncough] threw a hissy fit.

Anyway, this is my Grendel...as crummy as it may be.

--Leslie

[Cross posted at Box of Chaos. In reference to this post at PoKR.]

Prevailing Poetry...

In case any of you are interested, I've posted the contents of my paper presentation about representations of Beowulf in popular culture over at Point of Know Return. It's a three-part series, in light of the upcoming movie.

While visions of Grendel danced in their heads...

Recently, I was talking to a colleague in the medieval studies department here at UConn about the new Beowulf movie, and we hit upon what we think is a very interesting project to undertake. As happy (or unhappy, for some people) as we are to see Anglo-Saxon literature hitting the big screen, it will, like all movies, present an interpretation of the material that will influence a far greater audience than any of the others. Because of this, my friend and I proposed the Grendel Drawing Project to our department. In the same spirit, I'm also proposing the project to readers and contributors of this blog in the hopes that you all will help me in this effort.

Grendel is not described in much detail in the Anglo-Saxon text, and because of this, readers' conceptions of him vary widely. So what does your Grendel look like? Because of this, I'm looking to get as many people as possible to draw Grendel for me, using whatever media they wish. It does not matter whether you can draw well or not--we simply want to see your version. I'd like to use these images in a future project, probably as part of my ongoing fascination with the Beowulf story in popular consciousness. I'm interested (before the movie taints your visions of Grendel) in how many people view the creature in their minds.

I know it's a busy part of the semester for everyone, but in the next few weeks, could you take time out of your schedule to draw up your vision of Grendel? This is supposed to be a fun project, so let your imagination loose! Please feel free to spread the word, too (as I could use images from anyone who has read the poem). If you find the time, email your image to me at: brandonwhawk [at] gmail [dot] com.

[Cross-posted at Point of Know Return.]