So okay, this not having a working computer at home is really cramping my literary style...
... but regardless~! I spent all last night specifically NOT doing the readings I was supposed to, but instead reading about an impossibility. I don't remember if I've raved about the book(s) before (and if so, I'm certainly too lazy to use my internal blog's "search" function) but I'm thinking I have a bright future as a SUGGESTION man. Lately, I've been reading thems "comics books" and I've got a pretty good suggestion: Someone should turn one of em into a TV show.
Which one?
One man once described Eagle: The Making of an Asian-American President a "wild tangle of sex and secrets and hate and Machiavellian intrigue. It's Primary Colors in a really bad mood."
That man wrote
Nextwave, so I trust his opinion even I liked the book before I both
a) loved Nextwave and
b) hated most of the other stuff of his I read.
It's a tricksy relationship, my trust.
But why should YOU want it as a TV series, to be shown on prime-time and ingested? I'll tells you why!
The core of the entire book (all 2300 pages of fantastically drawn artwork... hey, it's manga, yet people actually look their ages!) involves a reporter named Takashi Jo, a reporter of little renown in Japan.
His mother has recently passed away in a tragic accident at home. He never knew his father, save for a photograph that his mother took of themselves together. His father was an American who had a stay in Okinawa during the Vietnam War. He was injured in action and returned to America, and Takashi grew up hating a fuzzy photo of a man who left his mother to raise him alone.
While still struggling with his grief, he gets a call from his newspaper. They want to send him to America to cover this new presidential candidate, who happens to be a 2nd generation Japanese-American, Senator Kenneth Yamaoka.
Takashi is fairly confused about this, because politics, especially foreign ones, are hardly his beat. His boss lays it on him tho. It was the request of the senator to have Takashi assigned to have exclusive coverage of his campaign.
Takashi arrives in America, and is told two things.
One, he has full access to the campaign. He's allowed to meet and interview anyone he wishes, and also tag along wherever he wishes to go.
Two, the only stipulation Yamaoka has is that nothing of what he learns is to be published until either Yamaoka is finished in the Presidential race. No one, not even his newspaper, is to learn any details until it's all over.
And then, in private with the Senator, Takashi learns the shocking truth: The man in the photo who his mother pined over until her death, the man Takashi hated growing up, and the Senator he's standing in front of, are the same.
Yes, here's a man running for President, and he not only has an illegitimate child, he's assigned his illegitimate child to cover his campaign.
That's only the briefest of introductions to the series, but it sets the tone. Is Yamaoka making some brilliant play, or is he entirely arrogant? Issues such as race of course come up during the story, and I'll be the first to admit that some of Yamaoka's ideas are INCREDIBLY controversial, and perhaps the author (Kaiji Kawaguchi) was being a little too optimistic of a Japanese-American's chances of getting well, anywhere in the presidential race.
And make no mistake: Yamaoka, as a fictional character, is an absolutely fascinating character. His confidence and yes, arrogance, really help carry his story. We're not only told the story of one man's struggle to connect with his father, but of a father who's done terrible things in his life, and whose redemption (if there can be any) can only be reached by maybe being that heartless bastard that Takashi so wants to label him as.
After all, the story that all children are told in America, that you TOO can become President, is a lie. It takes a combination of charisma, intellect, and a hell of a lot of money, and how Yamaoka delivers on these aspects is both fascinating and scary, because he's not the only shark in the water. Sometimes in politics, morality has to be tucked into a box and locked away under the bed for a while.
Ans hell, we've had a fictional black president, and even a fictional woman president on 24, and Americans ate that up. Granted, we couldn't have Jack Bauer to kick some terrorist ass while Yamaoka um, debated a candidate whose loosely based off Al Gore (of could we? There's a role for a secret service agent later in the story...).
I'm saying the book is pretty awesome, and I think a TV show based on this book would be awesomer.
So come on, less CSI, more shows about politics! Anyone with me? Anyone want to borrow the books? Yes/no?
Alright.
- Eddie
