A very mixed bag that doesn’t know what it wants to be.
Editor:
Nick Mamatas and Masumi Washington
Author:
Nick Mamatas, John Skiipp, Masao Higashi, Adam Roberts, Kathleen Miller, Raechel Dumas, Carrie Cuinn, Jason S. Ridler, Kostas Paradias, Gregory Lamberson, Isamu Fukui, Steven R. Stewart, Nadia Bulkin, Brian Keene, Tom Enjoe, Sam Hamm, Douglas F. Warrick.
What They Say
Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale is an international best seller, the basis of the cult film, and theinspiration for a popular manga. And fifteen years after its initial release, Battle Royale remains a controversial pop culture phenomenon.
Join New York Times best-selling author John Skipp, Batman screenwriter Sam Hamm, Philip K. Dick Award-nominated novelist Tom Enjoe, and an array of writers, scholars, and fans in discussing girl power, firepower, professional wrestling, bad movies, the survival chances of Hollywood’s leading teenicons in a battle royale, and so much more!
The Review:
Koushun Takami’s novel, Battle Royale, is a brilliant, powerful and disturbing tale of government-sanctioned violence against its children. It has been praised, reviled, and dissected, and The Battle Royale Slam Book is a love letter to this cultural phenomenon. Unfortunately, it’s a very mixed bag that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. At times it’s academic, at times it’s deeply personal, and at times I have no real idea what it’s trying to accomplish. This is a shame, because I think books like this can be a great way of introducing critical thinking and close-reading skills to people uninterested in academic life.
For those of you who don’t know, I teach creative writing at Full Sail University. I’ve been in academia for over ten years as both a student and an instructor, and I love it. I’ve been a reader for as long as I can remember, and one of the best skills I’ve attained in my schooling (some may say the only skill) is how to read critically and make connections between seemingly disparate and incompatible texts and phenomenon. As much as I enjoy academia, though, I do find that it’s very insular. Those who are more research-oriented write papers intended to only be read by other academics who will either respond and/or challenge their assertions, or try to implement them in the classroom. This creates a closed loop that I think can be harmful because it rarely—if ever—includes people outside of academia. The goal for these researchers is to find a better, more moral and humane way of examining and interacting with the world (not surprisingly, we see the world as being one large text) and maybe I’m a closet Communist, but I think that some of what we write and discuss should be made approachable and accessible to everyone.
This is where books like this one can be helpful. Books like The Battle Royal Slam Book can provide an accessible, interesting peek into the critical reading and thinking skills that form the bulwark of English composition, literature, and even creative writing education. But it has to be done right, and there are many times in this particular volume where it simply has nothing to say.
I hate to pick on it, but the first essay—John Skipp’s “Death for Kids”—is a perfect example. It’s a very personal essay about Skipp’s first experiences with death, and while it’s full of genuine emotion, I’m not entirely certain of its purpose. It’s too personal and doesn’t make a strong enough connection between his experiences, Battle Royale, or any larger message for the reader. I don’t mean to belittle Skipp’s experiences or what I believe is an honest desire to share them, but I don’t know what it intends to accomplish. It’s too light and empty.
On the other hand, Adam Robert’s “Happiest Days of Your Life: Battle Royale and School Fiction” is a solid essay that situates Battle Royale against the larger subgenre of school fiction. Roberts does a fine job of establishing the history of school fiction, its major works and themes, and most importantly he writes about how it fits and refutes the subgenre. He puts it in conversation with those other works and uses that to say something about who we are and how we teach our children.
Those two essays are indicative of the entire book—it’s either feast or famine: it’s insightful, interesting and relevant criticism of this important novel or it’s fluff that says basically nothing.
In Summary:
I’m fascinated by Battle Royale and I’m a fan of critical works intended to be accessible to larger audiences outside of academia, but this collection is such a mixed bag that it ends up hurting its own purpose: to celebrate and dissect Koushun Takami’s work. Not recommended.
Content Grade: C-
Published By: Haikasoru
Release Date: April 1st, 2014
MSRP: $14.99
