The Kobayashi Maru of Love by Carljoe Javier
What happens when a geek gets his heart broken? I guess that depends on who the geek is and what geekery he claims. When it's Carljoe Javier, however, he writes a book. And uses a title that will make every Trekkie snap his head up and pay attention--The Kobayashi Maru of Love.
A little disclaimer--Carljoe was a classmate in one grad course. We sat through a class on Shakespeare's Tragedies where, to this day, I still sit in awe of a test that required me to name the play from which obscure Shakespearean lines were taken. And man, as one who loves Shakespeare, read all but 1 of his plays, and taught several of them for several years, I tell ya, they were OBSCURE. Incidentally,Tarie, energetic Asian YA and children's lit blogger, was also our classmate there.
But I digress.
So far, I have revealed that I am a Star Trek geek and a Shakespeare geek. Who says the two can't go hand in hand? Anybody who's seen Wrath of Khan will know that. So, it stands to reason that a guy like Carl, who's a comic book and video games geek, can also be a good writer.
The Kobayashi Maru of Love was born out of Carl's efforts to deal with a bad break-up. He loved the girl, she didn't seem to, hence it was bad for him. Instead of drowning himself in alcohol (which he did) and sitting around the house to play video games (which he also did), he begins to write essays that deal with all aspects of the relationship.
Kobayashi has three parts: the before, the during, and the after--everything in reference to the break-up. The "before break-up" part is comprised of two essays which Carl wrote in the heyday of their relationship. He talks of wearing chocolate-scented deodorants and going to a spa, both activities frowned upon by manly men, but which he undertook for love of his girlfriend. I thought of the two essays as a way to help readers become invested in Carl's relationship, as he obviously was, in order to bring us through the shock of the break-up and its subsequent aftereffects.
Part two, the "during," is a series of 7 short fiction works, one for each day of the week after the break-up, which can be taken as one long continuous narrative, or as individual stand-alone pieces. In most of the pieces, the narrator is in the third person, talking about some guy who has just been dumped. Its effect, therefore, has an undercurrent of tragedy told in a detached manner. As I was reading through these 7 pieces, I thought they felt familiar. No, not because I was dumped or went through the same experiences as he did, but I have gone through a few heartbreaking things before. The familiarity was mostly in the feeling of being outside one's body while something tragic was going on, of seeing earth-shattering events as though through a very narrow and very gray telescope.
Part three, however, is the longest and the most entertaining. Carl flexes his creative non-fic muscles in these essays. They sort of remind me of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity--you know, a geeky guy trying to navigate the tricky waters of dating. Though I doubt you'd classify Kobayashi Maru as "lad lit," it sure sometimes feels that way. There are funny essays on scoping out girls at the comics section of a bookstore or the Comicon, offering one's talent at video games as a wedding gift, and jokes about "self-explorations."
My favorite essays, however, would be "The Shakespearean Lexicon on Infidelity" and "Problems of Intel Gathering and Verification." Liked the first because I enjoy reflections on words--strumpet/crumpet, cuckold--and probably because, as I explained, I like Shakespeare. The second I liked for his hilarious friends who were telling him to go through a potential date's trash to learn more about her. With friends like that, you can't go wrong.
To be honest, though, I felt slightly uncomfortable as I was reading through some essays. I felt like a voyeur. Perhaps because of its overly confessional nature. And I guess the fact that I knew him counts towards that. Oh, and certain parts made me feel old. In some essays, Carl makes mention of his maturity in relation to his ex-girlfriend's circle of friends or to his own co-workers. But Carl is 27, or at least was 27 when he wrote the essays. I, however, am a grand 34. Yes, I know it's not that old, but when a 27-year-old guy writes that he feels old watching girls prance around the dance floor, I begin to feel arthritic.
Finally, Carl, dude, where's the Star Trek geek-out? Where's the question as to who's better: Data or the Doc from Voyager? Where's the spouting out lines from the movies--"The good of the one outweighs the good of the many"? Why didn't you yell "Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!" or something when she broke up with you?
I'm kidding, of course.:) Though I do enjoy a good geek-out. It's fortunate, therefore, that Carl's coming out with a next book, Geek Tragedies. Not sure yet who's publishing that book, but I do admire that Carl published this book himself. And is selling it quickly, judging from how many people I know who've bought it already.
He sold me my copy while we were at the Future of the Book conference, where he was also a speaker. To be fair, I asked him to bring one so I could buy, and then I helped him sell another copy to a friend of mine who was also at the conference. I thought it was pretty cool an independent publisher/writer was selling his book right under the noses of the other big publishers there. According to him, this is why independent publishers will trump the bigger ones later. Either way, it comes out great for me as a reader.
Anyway, you don't need to contact Carl himself to get his book. You can purchase it from Avalon.ph. And, and, The Kobayashi Maru of Love is one of the ebooks launched by Vee Press, the country's first digital publisher, so you can actually buy a digital copy of it soon. I gotta say, independent and digital publishing in the country is getting pretty exciting.:)
A little disclaimer--Carljoe was a classmate in one grad course. We sat through a class on Shakespeare's Tragedies where, to this day, I still sit in awe of a test that required me to name the play from which obscure Shakespearean lines were taken. And man, as one who loves Shakespeare, read all but 1 of his plays, and taught several of them for several years, I tell ya, they were OBSCURE. Incidentally,Tarie, energetic Asian YA and children's lit blogger, was also our classmate there.
But I digress.
So far, I have revealed that I am a Star Trek geek and a Shakespeare geek. Who says the two can't go hand in hand? Anybody who's seen Wrath of Khan will know that. So, it stands to reason that a guy like Carl, who's a comic book and video games geek, can also be a good writer.
The Kobayashi Maru of Love was born out of Carl's efforts to deal with a bad break-up. He loved the girl, she didn't seem to, hence it was bad for him. Instead of drowning himself in alcohol (which he did) and sitting around the house to play video games (which he also did), he begins to write essays that deal with all aspects of the relationship.
Kobayashi has three parts: the before, the during, and the after--everything in reference to the break-up. The "before break-up" part is comprised of two essays which Carl wrote in the heyday of their relationship. He talks of wearing chocolate-scented deodorants and going to a spa, both activities frowned upon by manly men, but which he undertook for love of his girlfriend. I thought of the two essays as a way to help readers become invested in Carl's relationship, as he obviously was, in order to bring us through the shock of the break-up and its subsequent aftereffects.
Part two, the "during," is a series of 7 short fiction works, one for each day of the week after the break-up, which can be taken as one long continuous narrative, or as individual stand-alone pieces. In most of the pieces, the narrator is in the third person, talking about some guy who has just been dumped. Its effect, therefore, has an undercurrent of tragedy told in a detached manner. As I was reading through these 7 pieces, I thought they felt familiar. No, not because I was dumped or went through the same experiences as he did, but I have gone through a few heartbreaking things before. The familiarity was mostly in the feeling of being outside one's body while something tragic was going on, of seeing earth-shattering events as though through a very narrow and very gray telescope.
Part three, however, is the longest and the most entertaining. Carl flexes his creative non-fic muscles in these essays. They sort of remind me of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity--you know, a geeky guy trying to navigate the tricky waters of dating. Though I doubt you'd classify Kobayashi Maru as "lad lit," it sure sometimes feels that way. There are funny essays on scoping out girls at the comics section of a bookstore or the Comicon, offering one's talent at video games as a wedding gift, and jokes about "self-explorations."
My favorite essays, however, would be "The Shakespearean Lexicon on Infidelity" and "Problems of Intel Gathering and Verification." Liked the first because I enjoy reflections on words--strumpet/crumpet, cuckold--and probably because, as I explained, I like Shakespeare. The second I liked for his hilarious friends who were telling him to go through a potential date's trash to learn more about her. With friends like that, you can't go wrong.
A visual to help you distinguish the different terms. Courtesy of slashfilm.com |
To be honest, though, I felt slightly uncomfortable as I was reading through some essays. I felt like a voyeur. Perhaps because of its overly confessional nature. And I guess the fact that I knew him counts towards that. Oh, and certain parts made me feel old. In some essays, Carl makes mention of his maturity in relation to his ex-girlfriend's circle of friends or to his own co-workers. But Carl is 27, or at least was 27 when he wrote the essays. I, however, am a grand 34. Yes, I know it's not that old, but when a 27-year-old guy writes that he feels old watching girls prance around the dance floor, I begin to feel arthritic.
Finally, Carl, dude, where's the Star Trek geek-out? Where's the question as to who's better: Data or the Doc from Voyager? Where's the spouting out lines from the movies--"The good of the one outweighs the good of the many"? Why didn't you yell "Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!" or something when she broke up with you?
I'm kidding, of course.:) Though I do enjoy a good geek-out. It's fortunate, therefore, that Carl's coming out with a next book, Geek Tragedies. Not sure yet who's publishing that book, but I do admire that Carl published this book himself. And is selling it quickly, judging from how many people I know who've bought it already.
He sold me my copy while we were at the Future of the Book conference, where he was also a speaker. To be fair, I asked him to bring one so I could buy, and then I helped him sell another copy to a friend of mine who was also at the conference. I thought it was pretty cool an independent publisher/writer was selling his book right under the noses of the other big publishers there. According to him, this is why independent publishers will trump the bigger ones later. Either way, it comes out great for me as a reader.
Anyway, you don't need to contact Carl himself to get his book. You can purchase it from Avalon.ph. And, and, The Kobayashi Maru of Love is one of the ebooks launched by Vee Press, the country's first digital publisher, so you can actually buy a digital copy of it soon. I gotta say, independent and digital publishing in the country is getting pretty exciting.:)
Comments
Great review, Honey! :)
@Chachic - Yes! To the geeky heartbroken guy friends.:) Actually, I have a feeling all geeks are heartbroken over something. If you have that much passion, your heart's going to break somewhere.
@Chachic - Yes! To the geeky heartbroken guy friends.:) Actually, I have a feeling all geeks are heartbroken over something. If you have that much passion, your heart's going to break somewhere.
@Heather J - Very catchy, isn't it?
@Duane - thanks!