Finally got around to seeing the movie Rogue One. (Fair warning: spoilers below the ‘more’ link.)
I heard a lot of the hype before, and many of my writing friends saw it and most raved. Or at least, didn’t rant much. I found the hype around the movie mendacious, the acting mediocre, the plot so bracketed by the “real” Star Wars movies that it was difficult not to expect many of the dramatic moments.
Its been getting ugly in my neighborhood these past few weeks: the new complex owners installed a kiddie playground directly outside my bedroom/living rooms, where I sleep/write. And in the mornings, when I used to sleep in after writing late, are now taken up by teams of people digging post holes and pounding lumber into the ground then sawing and drilling dozens of new “porches” in front of apartments (+$75/mo. for renters). So I’ve been sleeping badly, and eventually I’ve gotten to the point where three out of four nights I’m up and raring to go around midnight.
There’s a certain peace and calm, for me, stepping out of the house to start my day. I go to a local 24-hour place to write, and can bang out six hours of writing, up to 7,500 words, cranked beup on coffee and the parallel play of other humans. I don’t know if it’s being out of the normal time stream, or that quiet that settles over the area when the traffic lights blink suggestions to the odd car instead of blazing out orders to traffic. If it weren’t so hard to find sleep during the day, I might take up vampiric English composition.
I’ve got a word — augre — to describe augmented reality (as opposed to VR or virtual reality). Currently social media and news call it “AR,” which is, I think, a geeksnob way of obfuscating things.
The neo-nazis and other fascists infesting America took a page from Orwell’s 1984, redefining their brand of hate as some kind of political alternative to the spectrum of what was, until this point in American political history, bounded by parties respecting the idea of democracy — or, at least, a republic.
It’s clear that the idea of “alt-” is the new Orwellian doublespeak. Alt-right. Alternative facts. This, friends, is doubleplusungood development. And while it’s thrilling in a “we’re going down the maw of the kraken” kind of way, it’s a danger sign about our society, and the validity of language as a means to describe the reality around us.
Courtesy Wikia
C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books, “StarMan” (starring Beau Bridges), and the Matrix trilogy all mimic, purposely or accidentally, the origin myth of Christianity. Echoes of the various aspects of the Roman, Celtic, Nordic, and many other cultures have been blurred into the practices of modern Christianity. And some of these have become universal, such as the idea of transubstantiation: the idea that wine and wafer turn into blood and body. That this is a ritual act of cannibalism is amusing from this Jewish Atheist’s point of view.
And irrelevant, or so I thought, until, as I was going over feedback notes on a short story Blood of Leeches, before submitting it for publication. An author reviewer wrote (and I’m paraphrasing here) “…so you mean his blood makes people into followers?” As if this was an alien, weird, idea. Now, I’m not equating my little piece with the works listed at the top. But… it’s funny how people incorporate (sorry) the rites of their religion as normal parts of their lives, but see them as alien when expressed in someone else’s world view.
Hit the movie this morning. I’d give it a 6.5 out of 10. There’s a lot of nice wand work 😛 and interesting creatures. Fun: definitely worth shelling out to see it.
The plot pentultimate resolution was sad in a pathetic way. Contrived. And a bummer.
A quote from the Jerusalem Post: “The warning comes after multiple mortar rounds, emanating from Syria, landed in Israeli territory near the border.”
I lobbed the smell of roast chicken out the oven door.
Richmond.com reported on the wind-up of a white supremacist robbery trial. The last of the defendants, who was an informant for the FBI, received a seven-year prison sentence. the headline was a bit odd:
Last defendant in alleged white supremacist robbery conspiracy sentenced to 7 years
It’s good that newspapers account for not laying blame until the courts have ruled. What’s odd here is that while the crime might have been alleged before the trial started, now that the last defendant has been found guilty it’s safe to step down from the ‘alleged’ and just call it the robbery conspiracy that it was.
I might be, in these racially sensitive times, to analyze descriptions of crimes and their states vis-a-vis the races of the defendants and victims. But for my day job would have gone I…
The British voters supported the referendum proposal to leave the EU. Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty (which describes the exit process, as as 261 words can) requires that the constitutionally represented leadership call for the cancellation of the treaty.
Oops. Britain does not have a constitution. Does Cameron press the button? His party leadership? The Queen?
In the meanwhile, all the major selling points touted by the ‘Leave’ promoters have already been “rolled back.” This is code, I think for “we lied.” The regrets Britons feel among those who voted to leave are already being heard. As are the complains by heretofore legal EU workers being asked when they’re going home so they won’t take “British” jobs. Not that the askers would do the work these migrant workers are willing to do. (See case studies in every country in the globe with any immigrant population, legal or otherwise.) These are disingenuous comments, as honest as the reasons for Britain leaving the EU; hate speech would be much more accurate.
Finally, referendums do not have the force of law in Britain. This means that the government can be advised by them — although with Prime Minister Cameron’s resignation, it seems that the (deluded) will of the people will be heard.
It’s entirely possible that between the Lisbon Treaty clause and the referendum-level of the vote, all British leadership has to do is select a scapegoat to declaim the referendum and then everything can return to normal.
Except that the genie out of the bottle isn’t the referendum, but the magnitude of the isolationist, xenophobic, sentiment.The bottle is shattered, and, stay or not, Britain needs to focus on basic needs such as education and deprogramming that the right wing there, as it has here, has done on major population and ethnic segments.
This is yet another example of the use, misuse, and ultimate semiotic nullity of words of power.
That’s what I was called a few days back when I commented on changing “your” to “you’re” in a tweet someone made regarding homophobia. Yeah, I didn’t need to do that. And yes, it did not substantively change the message of the text.
That said, the deprecations made by the Facebook poster were for my temerity in correcting someone’s English.
Words have power. Without the right words, the power of expression is perverted, diluted, or rendered nonsense. It is none of the above to correct someone who otherwise seems to be able to create clear sentences.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
That pesky comma, misplaced, misunderstood, possibly an artifact of the many variations on the text written and edited by congress, copied imperfectly for ratification by states, recopied by scribes such as Adam Lambert, is causing Americans palpable, immediate grief.
Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens suggested that the addition of five words would resolve the conundrum of ill-phrased English: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms when serving in the Militia shall not be infringed.”
So yes, words, and punctuation, have meaning and power. And no horde of “Social Justice Warriors” can reduce the important of correct language in support of clear communication.
I started writing pieces on in the Thippah’n universe since 2005. First a science fiction NaNoWriMo novel. Then a few really neat long scenes — expandable into shorts. Then another novel and another and another which needed shredding after I published the first online.
I’ve been sitting on editing the second novel for years. Light passes. Blocking and language passes. Rearranging for plot and twists. This last one is a back-to-front, word-by-word edit. And I want to stop.
Writing is about being ruthless. It’s about ripping out what’s not working. For non-writers, it’s like finding a knit where there should be a purl and yanking out six inches of knitting to make it right.
What I’m thinking of doing is like unraveling five sweaters because one doesn’t like the design. After they’re already up on hangars. But they’ve become my albatross, leaching energy from other projects I’d like to do. But it’s such a great universe! But its far more inchoate than almost every other project I’ve got on the drawing boards, in my drawers, under the table, and stuffed into cracks on my shelves.
So is stopping and not scheduling work on them cryosleep? Or euthanasia? I won’t be the same author if I return to them in a few years. Would that be better for them?
A post with many questions and no answers that I can see. Suggestions, however, are always entertained.
