(Or, A List of Books I've Read So Far)
- The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 4), by Rick Riordan
- The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 3), by Rick Riordan
- The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 2), by Rick Riordan
- The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1), by Rick Riordan
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Random Thoughts
Firstly, I figured that I would have finished more books by now. But then again, I am slow at everything I do. Time is my enemy.
Secondly, even though I've been reading the Percy Jackson saga this couple of weeks, and secretly (and now publicly) enjoying this children's series, I have a couple of issues with it.
I don't like Riordan's concept of "Western" Civilization. In his books, he seems to imply that the world has known only one civilization, giving no thought of other civilizations and their influences to the rest of the world. The gods and their seat of power -- or what they represent in our modern world: philosophy, morality, governance, etc. -- have moved with the power centers of the mortal world, relocating from one dominant "Western" civilization to the next: from Ancient Greece to Rome, then to other power centers in Europe, and in the Twentieth Century, transferring from Britain to settle now here in the United States, with Mt. Olympus on top of the Empire State Building, and the gates of Hades somewhere in Los Angeles. It makes me wonder however, what happened to the Great Spirits of the Native Americans, or to the Aztec and the Mayan gods, or to the Incan gods? What happened to the ideas and ideals these native spirits represented to the people who were here before the children of the "West" arrived?
More importantly, I wonder about who the heirs of Western Civilizations are now. And if America of Riordan's imagination belongs only to the children of the "West." Granted that Riordan has written in minority characters--I won't take that away from him. Then why does he out of the way to point out that this demigod is "African-American" or that pegasus is black, who then speaks in jive? And to be frank, these minority characters are either white-washed or stereotypical. Maybe, I'm reading too deep into nothing. Yet, I am a minority in America. I am a product of the East and the West. My own mind has been nourished by and has flourished with the light from the Western sky; my own personal mythology has its roots deep in the Eastern soil. And I will read with a prism of color, if compelled. But I am still like everyone else: I read to get lost in the story; and there is joy in reading. The joy is you get to put yourself into the protagonist of the story. Percy Jackson could have been me. But Riordan took that joy away from me, by indirectly narrowing the description of who Percy is by explicitly describing his friends and the world they live in the context of American race politics.
Lastly, to stop myself from rambling, I'm going to finish by introducing a comparison: the fantasy world and characters of Percy Jackson can't hold water to the magical world and individuals of Harry Potter.
More importantly, I wonder about who the heirs of Western Civilizations are now. And if America of Riordan's imagination belongs only to the children of the "West." Granted that Riordan has written in minority characters--I won't take that away from him. Then why does he out of the way to point out that this demigod is "African-American" or that pegasus is black, who then speaks in jive? And to be frank, these minority characters are either white-washed or stereotypical. Maybe, I'm reading too deep into nothing. Yet, I am a minority in America. I am a product of the East and the West. My own mind has been nourished by and has flourished with the light from the Western sky; my own personal mythology has its roots deep in the Eastern soil. And I will read with a prism of color, if compelled. But I am still like everyone else: I read to get lost in the story; and there is joy in reading. The joy is you get to put yourself into the protagonist of the story. Percy Jackson could have been me. But Riordan took that joy away from me, by indirectly narrowing the description of who Percy is by explicitly describing his friends and the world they live in the context of American race politics.
Lastly, to stop myself from rambling, I'm going to finish by introducing a comparison: the fantasy world and characters of Percy Jackson can't hold water to the magical world and individuals of Harry Potter.
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