The Book Blog - Learning Resources at St. Johns River State College

Spoilers afoot…

I avoided the television series “Breaking Bad” (AMC, 2008-2013) created by Vince Gilligan about a chemistry teacher, Walter White, diagnosed with lung cancer who turns to manufacturing and selling methamphetamine with a former student, Jesse Pinkman, to provide for his family after his inevitable death, because of its popularity. My friend, Nancy (whose opinion I value), was a huge fan who devoured the series in real time and sang its praises saying, “I like the way it mixes an ordinary family with the over-the-top crime and violence. Characters and relationships are really well developed. Unforgettable, in fact.” During winter break, my husband and I binged the five-season hit for AMC, and I conceded my argument against the show—but not against Walter White.

Walter is an egomaniac whose purpose in producing 99% pure meth goes beyond securing his family’s future. Before WW sold the rights to Gray Matter to his colleagues for, in his words “a couple of house payments,” White was on his way to becoming a billionaire. But as the series opens, he heads the science department at a high school where he makes $43,000.00 a year, while moonlighting at a car wash to make ends meet. His cancer diagnosis and ride-along with his DEA brother-in-law to break up a meth lab are the catalyst for his foray into the drug world. I contend, however, that it is ego, hubris, and arrogance that morph a mild-mannered teacher into a meth-making madman. Earning money is secondary; Walt wants recognition for his meth-cooking method.

Akin to his namesake, Walt Whitman, Walter White is a conceited man who inflates his self-worth: Whitman does so through his writing, specifically “Song of Myself,” where he claims sole authority to fully capture the American experience. I wonder, then, if Gilligan’s naming of Walter was intentional. (My husband made the spelling connection of Walter, Walt, White and Whitman for me!) Duh, and yes! I agree with D. H. Lawrence who wrote in his essay “Whitman” that “Something is overdone in Whitman; there is something that is too much.” After all, Walter White, too, is “overdone.”

Watching (read: bingeing) the third season, I turned to my husband and said, “I get what’s going on here. The characters, including DEA agent Hank, his klepto wife, Marie, Jesse, Walter, Skinny Pete, and Badger are obsessives. But obsessiveness doesn’t stop with the series’ characters. Gilligan, either intentionally or not, breaks the fourth wall to include the obsessive viewer. Me? My husband? Obsessives? Dang that Vince Gilligan and his Walt Whitman copycat! We’re all obsessed! Hank, with catching Heisenberg (Walter’s alter-ego. Named after Werner Karl Heisenberg, a German theoretical physicist credited with creating quantum mechanics); Marie, with theft for theft’s sake; Jesse, with drugs; Skinny Pete and Badger, with video games and “Star Trek” (1966-1969) and Walter, with fame, or infamy. When head honcho drug dealer/Los Pollos Hermanos proprietor Gus invites Walt to dinner, the two men discuss providing for their families. Gus says that even if your family hates you, you must provide for them. Viewers never see Gus surrounded by a loving family, and Walt alienates his family with his lies. So, what’s the point of cooking and distributing meth to other people’s families if it means that Gus and Walt end up alone? Answer: Both men love the thrill of the drug-making and dealing game. They love the rush. They love that people fear them. And Nancy is right! The characters are like chocolate chip cookies: you can't get enough of 'em!

Gilligan plagues Walter with lung cancer to allow and encourage the audience’s sympathy for Walt. What the heck is that? Walt isn’t Jean Valjean in Les Misérables stealing a loaf of bread for his starving family. Walter’s ego drives his desire to cook 99% pure meth and earn the respect of his drug-dealing colleagues. Along the way, he kills innocents, poisons a child, and lies like a rug to Jesse, his wife, Skyler, his son, Walt Jr., Hank. Okay, I’ll stop. He lies to every character, including himself. So why can't I stop watching?

Is it too much to hope that the series stands as a kind of Scared Straight warning? White’s goal of family happiness and security is a pipe dream, which not ironically that term’s origin comes from the late 19^th century: “referring to a dream experienced when smoking an opium pipe.” And perhaps the lesson comes in the final season in the episode entitled “Ozymandias,” which is a nod to Percy Bysshe Shelly’s poem of the same name that warns even the mightiest empires crumble. In this episode, Walter loses his money, his family, and his identity. Eventually, he admits to his wife, Skyler, that he cooked not for his family, but for the fame, so that he, like Walt Whitman, could go out with a “barbaric yawp,” instead of a whimper.

So, should you watch or skip the series? That, my friend, is up to you. Nancy told me Walt and Co. are unforgettable. Unfortunately, she was right. The five-season series is available on Netflix.

Check out the titles that I recommend below about “Breaking Bad” and Walt Whitman.

Cover Art Breaking down Breaking Bad by Matt Wanat (Editor); Leonard Engel (Editor)

ISBN: 9780826356833

Publication Date: 2016-05-15

The story of Walter White's transformation from chemistry teacher to drug lord has captured the imagination of television viewers around the world. This collection of essays sets the series in the context of American culture, analyzing its reinvention of classic themes in literature. A protagonist who sets out on a quest and discovers things about himself and the world is a common enough convention in American storytelling. Typically the hero encounters evil along the way and acquires worldly wisdom. Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad, offers a dynamic variant of this quest, posing the question of how far a desperate man facing death will go in order to achieve a sense of self and financial security for his family. Going beyond the obvious ethical issues that have preoccupied viewers and critics alike, the essays in this book cut across disciplines, delve deeply into contemporary issues, and explore the pure pleasure and entertainment value of the series.

Breaking Bad by David P. Pierson (Editor)

ISBN: 9780739179246

Publication Date: 2013-11-21

Breaking Bad: Critical Essays on the Contexts, Politics, Style, and Reception of the Television Series, edited by David P. Pierson, explores the contexts, politics, and style of AMC's original series Breaking Bad. The book's first section locates and addresses the series from several contemporary social contexts, including neo-liberalism, its discourses and policies, the cultural obsession with the economy of time and its manipulation, and the epistemological principles and assumptions of Walter White's criminal alias Heisenberg. Section two investigates how the series characterizes and intersects with current cultural politics, such as male angst and the re-emergence of hegemonic masculinity, the complex portrayal of Latinos, and the depiction of physical and mental impairment and disability. The final section takes a close look at the series' distinctive visual, aural, and narrative stylistics. Under examination are Breaking Bad's unique visual style whereby image dominates sound, the distinct role and use of beginning teaser segments to disorient and enlighten audiences, the representation of geographic space and place, the position of narrative songs to complicate viewer identification, and the integral part that emotions play as a form of dramatic action in the series.

Breaking Bad by Lara C. Stache

ISBN: 1442278277

Publication Date: 2017-10-01

As one of the most critically acclaimed shows of all time, Breaking Bad explored the life and crimes of a high school chemistry teacher turned meth kingpin of the American Southwest. As Walter White and his former student Jesse Pinkman become deeply entwined in the drug world, their narrative leaves a trail of bodies strewn across the show's five seasons--a story that resulted in more than 15 Emmy awards. In Breaking Bad A Cultural History, Lara C. Stache offers an engaging analysis of the program, focusing on the show's fascinating characters and complex story lines. Stache gives the show its due reverence, but also suggests new ways of understanding and critiquing the series as a part of the larger culture in which it exists. The author looks at how the program challenges viewers to think about the choices made in the narrative, analyzes what did and did not work, and determines the program's cultural significance, particularly its place in twenty-first century America. The author also explores how Breaking Bad grapples with themes of morality, legality, and anti-drug rhetoric and looks at how the marketing of the series influenced the ways in which television shows are now promoted. Breaking Bad A Cultural History captures the spirit of the series and examines how the show had an impact on viewers like no other program. This book will be of interest to fans of the show as well as to scholars and students of television, media, and American popular culture.

El Evangelio Según Breaking Bad by Blake Atwood; Manuel Bento Falcón (Translator)

ISBN: 1507168209

Publication Date: 2017-02-01

El responsable de Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan quiere creer que existe el cielo, pero "no puede no creer" que exista un infierno. A trav#65533;s de esta fascinante serie que muestra la impactante y tr#65533;gica vida y momentos de Walter White, Gilligan ofrece su singular visi#65533;n en un universo moralmente amoral, un lugar que no se diferencia mucho del mundo en que vivimos. Esta serie de televisi#65533;n aclamada por la cr#65533;tica busca responder a la pregunta: "En un mundo aparentemente en caos, #65533;Puede prevalecer finalmente la justicia?"El evangelio seg#65533;n Breaking Bad ofrece una completa perspectiva cristiana del #65533;xito de p#65533;blico y cr#65533;tica de la AMC. Cubriendo temas teol#65533;gicos profundos como la identidad, la muerte, la justicia, el poder, el destino, el libre albedr#65533;o y el mismo Evangelio, los lectores se ver#65533;n obligados a pensar con m#65533;s profundidad en las preguntas universales que Breaking Bad plantea. En las secciones que cubren los colores y met#65533;foras de Breaking Bad, los fans tambi#65533;n llegar#65533;n a una mayor apreciaci#65533;n de la serie de televisi#65533;n mejor realizada de la historia reciente.M#65533;s que simplemente ofrecer un entretenido viaje en furgoneta a trav#65533;s del desierto de Albuquerque, Breaking Bad presenta dos personajes #65533;nicos: Walter White y Jesse Pinkman. Cada uno de ellos tiene trayectorias notablemente distintas en sus vidas. #65533;Ser#65533; redimido alguno de ellos al final de la serie? #65533;Qu#65533; nos dicen de nosotros mismos nuestras reacciones a sus historias?A trav#65533;s de estas historias y m#65533;s, El evangelio seg#65533;n Breaking Bad busca contarnos la m#65533;s antigua de las historias a trav#65533;s de una de la historias m#65533;s viscerales y atrayentes del presente. Como la autora Madeline L'Engle escribi#65533;: "Quiz#65533;s has de conocer la oscuridad antes de poder apreciar la luz".

Leaves of Grass and Selected Poems and Prose by Walt Whitman; Jessica Hische (Illustrator); Peter M. Coviello (Editor)

ISBN: 0143107437

Publication Date: 2014-08-20

From A to Z, the Penguin Drop Caps series collects 26 unique hardcovers-featuring cover art by Jessica Hische It all begins with a letter. Fall in love with Penguin Drop Caps, a new series of twenty-six collectible and hardcover editions, each with a type cover showcasing a gorgeously illustrated letter of the alphabet. In a design collaboration between Jessica Hische and Penguin Art Director Paul Buckley, the series features unique cover art by Hische, a superstar in the world of type design and illustration, whose work has appeared everywhere from Tiffany & Co. to Wes Anderson's recent film Moonrise Kingdom to Penguin's own bestsellers Committed and Rules of Civility. With exclusive designs that have never before appeared on Hische's hugely popular Daily Drop Cap blog, the Penguin Drop Caps series debuted with an 'A' for Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, a 'B' for Charlotte Br nte's Jane Eyre, and a 'C' for Willa Cather's My ntonia. It continues with more perennial classics, perfect to give as elegant gifts or to showcase on your own shelves. W is for Whitman. When Walt Whitman self-published his Leaves of Grass in July 1855, he altered the course of literary history. One of the greatest masterpieces of American literature, it redefined the rules of poetry while describing the soul of the American character. Throughout his life, Whitman continuously revised, expanded, and republished Leaves of Grass, but the 1855 original marked Whitman's fresh and bold arrival, greeted by Ralph Waldo Emerson as "the beginning of a great career." This volume specially compiled for Penguin Drop Caps will also include a range of additional popular poems including selections from "Calamus," "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," and "Drum-Taps," as well as Whitman's 1855, 1856 and 1976 prefaces and "Democratic Vistas."

ISBN: 9780679642084

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Unapologetic, it sits right in between, for Vuong “wanted to start with truth and end with art.” He relies on his life story for the former, and his brilliance with words and language for the latter. The subliminal poetry is embedded throughout the book, but it is mostly shrouded in storytelling. However, there are pages where its mask is taken off: the rhythmic words and poetic structure stand there, naked, as if daring the reader to turn to the next page untouched, unbroken. This poetic prose and fictive nonfiction beg the question: What is a genre? “A page, turning, is a wing lifted, with no twin, and therefore no flight, and yet we are moved,” Ocean Vuong claims. The plot of this novel can be summarized in a few words because its piercing effect is not in the events and jolting plot twists, it is in the metaphors. The author employs them chiefly in two ways. He conveys his feelings and explains his experiences through these universal and impersonal analogies such as his conflicting relationship with his mom and the migration of a colony of monarchs. Thus, he helps his readers empathize, for a moving metaphor is a testimony for an author’s genuineness. On the other hand, he gives the reader a glimpse of his present perspective on these past events. The time he goes from the fact that only children return after the migration of monarchs to the generalization that “only the future revisits the past” is one of the numerous instances I was caught off guard by perspective shifts. I stop to peruse and admire them. Like an archaeologist in a field, Ocean Vuong looks through this metaphoric lens, dissects the details of his stories, zooms in and then out for a clearer, bigger picture. Destruction happens; time passes; ruins remain. Is it the same way, or can art exist without pain? Dear reader, these questions are still unanswered. I hope when you pick up, or are picked up by, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, it lingers, which is to say you’re left scarred by questions with no answers. A cat, a monster, and a cheerleader walk into a bar… The cat sips his cognac before heading home to his wife and six kids; the monster, a raconteur, tells three stories to a sad boy; and the cheerleader blabs a secret about a dead U.S. National Guardsman. I read and/or listened to three books in as many weeks. Kathryn Hughes’ Catland, Siobhan Dowd and Patrick Ness’ A Monster Calls, and Megan Abbott’s Dare Me. I devised the three-pronged opening to this week’s blog as Pyewacket’s (my orange tabby) daily routine of waking me every morning at 5:30 commenced, so blame him. He’s watching me click the keyboard now as I compose the Catland portion. That’s a lie: he’s ignoring me, awaiting the daylight when he and his sister, Galka (also an orange tabby) can enter the lanai to skulk birds and squirrels. Catland by Kathryn Hughes Hughes' well-researched Catland (which I purchased from Amazon with points) deep dives into our feline friends with competing chapters of the British artist Louis Wain’s cats, and a history of how cats allow (yes, allow) one-third of households in the U.S. to live with them. Chances are you’ve seen Wain’s drawings somewhere. If not, Google his name. If you see cats in clothes, they’re probably drawn by Wain. His early cats feature moms burdened by too many children, while dads are annoyed by wife and the babes. In Wain’s own life, his alcoholic father visited the bars too often avoiding the burden of his six children and nagging wife. This drunk, top-hatted cat returns home to a frightened mama kitty, an event Wain’s mother experienced many times. “I had a terrible fear” Wain’s anthropomorphic cats had good times, too. Catching a play, these well-dressed theatergoers are enthralled by the actors. Warning: kitties weren’t always treated with love, tenderness, and respect. Hughes doesn’t whitewash the disgusting way cats were treated in the mid-late 1800s, so if you’re like some readers who closed the book after a couple of chapters, this self-proclaimed “childless cat lady” suggests you crack open A Monster Calls. A Monster Calls by Siobhan Dowd and Patrick NessBegun by Dowd and finished by Ness after the former’s death from breast cancer, A Monster Calls is a must read for anyone who has lost a loved one. When an anthropomorphic (there’s that word again) yew tree in Connor’s backyard becomes a monster and tells Connor three tales, he comes to accept (through the telling of his own truth) conflicting feelings surrounding his mom’s impending death. Dowd and Ness are children’s authors, and while this book is short and written for children, I had an aha moment concerning my own feelings about my mom who died of cancer in 1991. The catharsis I felt reading Connor’s struggles was palpable, even after all these years. Difficult to put into words, so just read it. You’ll see. The illustrations by Jim Kay fit the theme, too. The Monster Calls on Connor. Don’t want to read the book, watch the movie on Netflix. Liam Neeson voices the Monster. I read this book on Libby’s app. You can borrow the movie from the Palatka and Orange Park campuses. Dare Me by Megan AbbottPrime Video picked up Dare Me as a 10-episode series that you can purchase for $16.99. I’ve not watched the series, and I won’t because the series can’t duplicate the narration of Megan Abbott’s story about ambitious cheerleaders, their bored-with-her-life coach, and a national guardsman who picked the wrong school to recruit future national guards' people. I put Dare Me on my “want to read” list in Goodreads because I mistakenly thought my sister, Suzy also wanted to read the book. I’m glad I made that mistake. Books about cheerleaders and their problems aren’t typically my cup of tea, but this book dared me to get caught up in lives I normally couldn’t care less about. Abbott’s novel is a whodunnit with chameleon characters who surprised me with their depth and/or shallowness. As cliched as it sounds, people are not who they seem to be in this well-paced thriller. That cheerleaders starve themselves to fit into their uniforms, that coaches want said cheerleaders to win tournaments, that supposed happy couples are deeply sad aren’t surprising ideas. However, Abbott turns these ideas on their heads, and before this reader knew it, I was desperate to find out if these athletes would successfully toss a 90-pound, perfectly pony-tailed gal into the air, while her gal pals wait to catch her in their muscled, fake-tanned arms. Also, I didn’t predict who murdered our man in uniform. Remember: I said I won’t watch the series. How can I with these gems (and I’m being serious here)? After a game, it takes a half hour under the showerhead to get all the hairspray out. To peel off all the sequins. To dig out that last bobby pin nestled deep in your hair. Sometimes you stand under the hot gush for so long, looking at your body, counting every bruise. Touching every tender place. Watching the swirl at your feet, the glitter spinning. Like a mermaid shedding her scales. No way a second-rate director can capture these lines in a shot without focusing on the cheerleader’s body, ignoring the serious thoughts in her brain. Listen to this book on Spotify. A cat, a monster, and cheerleader are not in a bar. These larger-than-life characters are at the heart of three worth-reading, memorable, and exciting books. Although my money is on the cat stopping at the bar before heading home to his doting flat mates. A Monster CallsCall Number: PN1997 Monster 2017 DVDTwelve-year-old Conor, dealing with his mother’s illness, a less-than-sympathetic grandmother, and bullying classmates, finds a most unlikely ally when a monster appears at his bedroom window. Ancient, wild, and relentless, the monster guides Conor on a journey of courage, faith, and truth...

Walt(er) Whit(e)man sing of (them)selves in “Breaking Bad”

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