Book Review — Proven Guilty

Title:  Proven Guilty
Author:  Jim Butcher
Genre:  Urban fantasy
Pages:  Paperback 479
Published:  February 2007
Publisher:  Roc Fantasy
ISBN:  978-0-451-46103-2
Opening Lines:  "Blood leaves no stain on a Warden's grey cloak."
Author Links:  Website   ♠   Twitter  ♠   Facebook
Rating:

"There's no lover between Harry Dresden, the only wizard in the Chicago phone book, and the White Council of Wizards, who find him brash and undisciplined.  But war with the vampires has thinned their ranks, so the Council has drafted Harry as and assigned him to look into rumors of black magic in the Windy City.

"As Harry adjusts to his new role, another problem arrives in the form of the tattooed and pierced daughter of an old friend, all grown-up and already in trouble. Her boyfriend is the only suspect in what looks like a supernatural assault, straight out of a horror film. Malevolent entities that feed on fear are loose in Chicago, but it's all in a day's work for a wizard, his faithful dog, and a talking skull named Bob . . ."

~ Jacket copy

Thoughts:  I loved the start of this book.  Admittedly, I thought of Dragon Age: Origins (of which I have played twice in the last month *sheepish grin*) when Harry talked about Wardens and grey cloaks.  It was the perfect foreshadowing for the rest of the book.

This book is really hard to describe without giving away too many details.  After receiving a note from the Gatekeeper tasking Harry with finding black magic in Chicago, he gets a phone call from Molly Carpenter to help bail her boyfriend out of jail.  Being the only witness to a brutal beating, Molly's boyfriend has been wrongly arrested.  And if seeing Michael Carpenter's daughter tattooed, pierced, and dressed like a Goth isn't enough, the attendees of a local horror movie convention are being killed by the villains of the same movies they love.

Akin to the previous book, Harry is still struggling with identity issues.  Now he is a Warden of the White Council and directly in charge of Chicago.  However, even while he understands the Council's need, he is still at war with whether their methods are correct.  He is still that teenager standing before the Council, waiting for them to pass judgment on something he never fully understood.  In this book, it is painfully apparent that he is still struggling with that.  Honestly, I wonder how this will change the outcome of the next books.  Further, he is still being hunted by Lasciel.  While she seemingly accepts her position as a guest in his mind, she is still very much a powerful presence.  When Harry is preparing to enter Faerie, he is faced with the fact that he might be too cocky in his belief that he can control her.

This book also deals a lot with his loneliness.  Even in the first few books, Harry has always been battered with being alone.  With Susan, that really seemed to abate.  However, with each book, that struggle has turned into a torment.  And Lasciel's scheme in the previous book kind of drove that notion home.

"I saw what kind of man you are.  Kind.  Gentle . . . Lonely.  And . . . And hungry.  No one has touched you in a very long time." (465)

This will play a really important role in the future, and, I fear, might mean Harry's downfall.  During several points in the book, he made a point to say that this was a very weak area of him.

It was nice to see Michael return and offer a helping hand in Harry's dilemma.  However, his statement near the end of the book was rather distressing, and I hope that we will never see it in the books.

In a lot of ways, I felt this book was a lot darker than previous ones.  Butcher is really digging into Harry's character and trying to show his internal struggles.  This book really mirror that.  I felt it was extremely deep. I am anxious to see what crosses he will have to bear in the next books.

Note:  The newest Dresden book will hit the shelves this November!

Current Pages: 13,016
Current Progress:

41/50 books

Book Review — Dead Beat

Title:  Dead Beat
Author:  Jim Butcher
Genre:  Urban fantasy
Pages:  Paperback 424
Published:  May 2006
Publisher:  Roc Fantasy
ISBN:  0-451-46091-X
Opening Lines:  "On the whole, we're a murderous race."
Author Links:  Website   ♠   Twitter  ♠   Facebook
Rating:

"Paranormal investigations are Harry Dresden's business, and Chicago is his beat as he tries to bring law and order to a world of wizards and monsters that exist alongside everyday life.  And though most inhabitants of the Windy City don't believe in magic, the Special Investigations department of the Chicago PD knows better.

"Karrin Murphy is the head of SI and Harry's good friend. So when a killer vampire threatens to destroy Murphy's reputation unless Harry does her bidding, he has no choice. The vampire wants the Word of Kemmler (whatever that is) and all the power that comes with it. Now Harry is in a race against time—and six merciless necromancers—to find the Word before Chicago experiences a Halloween night to wake the dead . . . "

~ Jacket Copy

Thoughts:  I'm used to Butcher starting the Dresden books in the middle of some sort of action sequence.  And, honestly, it has gotten very, very old.  When this book started with Harry coming home to a beautiful jogger leaving his bedroom, I was pleasantly surprised.  It seems that the addition of Thomas to Harry's life has changed things for the better!

Harry is finally settling into his new life with a family and a new dog.  Things seem to be going okay when Murphy drops a bombshell that she is going to Hawaii with Kincaid!  And if that isn't enough, Mavra now has incriminating photos of Murphy helping on the illegal raid put together by Harry and Kincaid.  Unless he helps her find the Word of Kemmler, she will leak the pictures and destroy Murphy's career.  However, unknown to Harry, this book is sought after by the biggest and baddest necromancers, the disciples of Kemmler.

This book deals a lot with temptation and identity.  Throughout the book, the coin containing the fallen angel comes back to haunt him.  The lovely Lasciel is now a mirror image of herself in Dresden's mind, and she wants to "help" him stop these necromancers.  She offers knowledge and a way to boost his power base, which would allow him to take out Cowl.  However, at what cost?  Further, Thomas challenges Harry to finally admit and face his feelings regarding Murphy and the fact that he is alone.

Honestly, I felt this book did a lot toward Harry's character development.  He still has a lot of character flaws, and I still find him to be rather stupid.  However, it was nice to see him move forward a bit.  That being said, I nearly cried when he is confronted by Lasciel and his subconscious mind.  I fully understand wanting to save the people you love, but they wouldn't want us to sacrifice the core of who we are.  Further, the pop culture references were awesome!  I loved that Harry referred to Lasciel and the coin as the Ring and the fact that he quoted Aladdin.

I was happy that Butcher made Thomas more of a central character.  Since he first appeared on the scene, I really liked him.  Also, it will do Harry a lot of good to have Thomas in his life.  Further, it was also nice to see Butters return.  He was a pretty endearing character, and he had an awesome part to play in this book.  And, not to ruin anything, Harry's ride from the Field Museum to the campus was pretty stellar!

Butcher also brought back a few characters briefly seen in other novels.  He was able to flesh them out, and I hope he brings them back later in the series.

This book was really fun!  At points, it was heart rending, but I also found myself laughing until my sides hurt.  Even though I have a library book out, I am considering taking it back to the library and picking up the next Dresden book!

Current Pages: 12,537
Current Progress:

40/50 books

Sinnful Cents -- Chivalry, Courtly Love, and the Case of Harry Dresden

Sitting down to lunch with a friend on Saturday -- who shall be called Ninja -- we started discussing The Dresden Files. Through various circumstances, we are both reading through the books. He keeps waffling on whether he will finish the series; however, in the interim, it is nice to talk to him about the books. We have both discovered we share a lot of the same opinions about the books. Reading through the books, we both find that Harry is too "knight-in-shining-armor." Not only is it extremely unbelievable, but I have to wonder if the author is using Harry as a Marty-Stu. The other thing that annoys me -- and Ninja -- is the continual comment that he is just being chivalrous. I keep asking myself, "Why can't Butcher just call it being 'courteous' or 'polite'?"

After posting my views on the Twilight series, I found that I enjoyed Sinnful 2¢. However, I have been struggling to find a topic to write about. After the conversation with Ninja, my husband suggested that I write a rant about it. Studying medieval lit. for years, I find the concept of chivalry -- or the modern interpretation of it -- to be kind of offensive. It annoys me that people call common courtesy chivalry. So, with that, I very enthusiastically dove into research in an attempt to write my rant. However, after our move, I cannot locate all of my medieval books, so I had to rely on internet sources and various papers I wrote throughout my college career.

With that in mind, here's my 2¢:

Chivalry

The word chivalry comes from French word, chevalier. Basically, as my medieval professor always said, it means "guy on a horse." However, it came to be known as a code of ethics to govern knights and their actions. Before the period of chivalry, knights were a feudal lord's "everyday-grunt." Their behavior was vile and inappropriate. They often pillaged, enjoyed the spoils of war, and treated the enemies in a a manner not befitting what modern times views as a knight. To combat this issue, a code of conduct was made in order to govern them. However, the Bishop Etiene Fougeres felt that the lower classes were not civilized enough to follow this new code. "In 1241, Henry boosted the Bishop's cause by declaring that English gentlemen with a certain amount of property would be classified as a knight." (Sara Dustin)

Okay, getting that out of the way, here is a definition of chivalry: It is an institution of knighthood, which refers to a group of mounted men. The 12th century has chivalry as ". . . a moral, religious and social code of knightly conduct . . ." Further, it ". . . idealized life and manners of a knight at home in his castle with his court." (Wikipedia)

There are three major duties a chivalric knight must follow:

• Duties to countrymen and fellow Christians
• Duties to God
• Duties to women

With this last duty, we enter into the realm of courtly love.

Courtly Love

In Europe during the middle ages, marriages were not based on love. Quite the contrary, marriage was for alliances, furthering families, elevating status, and so on. In an attempt to allow the nobility a chance to express this desire, courtly love was born. However, since it was limited to the nobility, the ideal lady was one of higher status or the employer's wife (in the case of Lancelot, it was Guinevere). According to the New World Encyclopedia,

Courtly love was a medieval European conception of nobility and chivalrously expressing love and was secret and between members of nobility. It was not practiced between husband and wife.

Andreas Capellanus wrote down the rules of courtly love in De Amore (Concerning Love). While they are too numerous to fully list here, this is the first four:

• Marriage is no excuse for not loving
• He who is not jealous cannot love
• No one can be bound by a double love
• When made public love rarely endures

He also states that "there have been only four degrees in love . . .":

• The first consists in arousing hope
• The second in offering kisses
• The third in the enjoyment of intimate embraces
• The fourth in the abandonment of the entire person

In addition, he states that young peasant women should not be involved in courtly love. If she cannot be "put aside," she is to be taken by force. After which, the knight needs to move onto a lady deserving of courtly attentions.

With the three duties a knight must follow, the Virgin Mary ends up becoming the ideal model for women and the lady at the centre of courtly love. This, of course, proves to be problematic. "It involves a paradoxical tension between erotic desire and spiritual attainment."

Thoughts

I have written several papers on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (SGGK). The idea of women being the central controlling force in the story has always fascinates me. Women have always been seen as less than; however, I believe that, through courtly love, women are able to dictate how the court should act.

When the audience first meets Gawain, his courtly love ties are to the Virgin and Guinevere. However, through a course of events, he ends up turning from his Lady and the Virgin while rejecting his knightly duties of courtly love.

While there are several arguments against Morgan being at the crux of the poem, there is just enough evidence to prove it. However, it would be fair to state that, not just Morgan, but also the other women had a crucial card to play in the poem. The battle between the women represents the inherent battle between good and evil; furthermore, it also symbolizes the struggle between the factions of knighthood and the warring loyalties. The poem is used to say that chivalry is flawed because of its inherent contradictions, which are shown through the conflicts of the women. The Gawain poet is trying to show the readers that even a perfect knight cannot be perfect; they cannot be held to those standards, because they will inevitable fail. Gawain realizes this and tries to change; however, he finds that he lives in a world that does not allow that change to take place. (Sunderman 11)

So, to be blunt, it is impossible to be a secular knight and a sacred knight. Further, because of the natures of knightly chivalric duties, a knight is inherently set up to fail. One cannot honour/pursue his lady, partake in courtly love, and honour the Church and the Virgin.

Harry Dresden

At the very basic level, chivalry means you are of the knightly class. You have some level of nobility, and you must pursue your lord's lady at some level. You are to become her champion, you are to compare every woman to her, and so on. And, yes, in the middle of it chivalry is also a code of conduct. However, it cannot be fully removed from courtly love and vice versa. I just find myself frustrated with Dresden using chivalry as an excuse for his stupidity. Would a knight hold the door for his lady? Yes. Would he exalt a far away love? Yes. Would a knight do the same for a woman of lower breeding? No. With the truth of chivalry and courtly love, I would rather say that a gentleman is being polite.

Harry just needs to can the crap, admit that he's too overly stupid, and get on with life. Brainlessness, being duped by women, and being just plain stupid does not count as chivalry. Just admit that Harry has a "knight-in-shining-armor" complex and refuses to use his brain rather than his penis. Grow up, sprout a pair, and act like an adult!

And, just to add insult to injury, could Butcher be a little less obvious with Harry's status as a Marty-Stu? I understand that characters are somewhat a reflection of the author, but seriously?

Well, that's my 2¢