Category Archives: News

Sleep Dep and Movies

Posted on by Henry

Hi folks!  I’ve been traveling, and if you’re familiar with my usual pattern then you know what that means.  Or you read the title of this post.

I’m now working on hour 27, with a red-eye flight as my excuse, and I have seen several more movies to talk with you about.  I don’t think I’ll be able to offer any stellar critique, but a simple yes no maybe why seems within my grasp at this point.

This time I watched Chef, Entourage, and RED 2.  I had a good time watching all of them, but had niggling feelings of doubt throughout most of them.  Chef might have had the fewest of those?  I’m not sure.

Entourage was funny, and felt like a group of totally ridiculous characters living up their ridiculousness in a larger than life fashion.  Now that I’ve looked it up and discovered that it came from a TV show of the same name which I never watched, I’m considerably less surprised.  It was a good stupid movie, and it might have been better than that but I have no idea because I was very tired at the time that I watched it.  On the plus side, it has Constance Zimmer (in a minor role, but Agents of Shield has taught me that Constance Zimmer is great).

RED 2 was basically what I’d expected, if not quite as good as I’d hoped; it’s a slightly different (and maybe not-quite-as-good) version of the original.  It’s funny that I should downplay it, as I quite enjoyed it, but even though I like its developments I’m not sure it measures up to the zest and pep of the first.  It felt like some of the original’s style was missing, though I liked Mary-Louise Parker’s character’s obsession with getting deeper into the world of spies and murder.  That felt fitting, and made a lot of excellent things possible.

And Chef… was way more of a feel-good movie than I’d expected.  I rather liked it.  It was very much a “man and his son” narrative, but it was a charming one.  Plus, I like food.

Okay, and now I’m going to stagger off and try to keep my eyes open until it’s bedtime.  My upcoming posts may be patchy as the holidays approach, but I may have some fun creative stuff to share at some point in there.

Going back to Lloyd Alexander

Posted on by Henry

I’d forgotten just how much I enjoyed Lloyd Alexander’s The Book of Three and the rest of the Prydain series when I was younger.  I think I also missed a lot of the gendered subtexts (many of which are pretty overt) when I was reading Alexander’s work the first time through.  Or rather, I didn’t pay much attention to them even though they were right up in my face.  Rereading Lloyd Alexander has been a bit strange.

I’m afraid I don’t have anything more deep for you.  I have to go back to work, reading more Lloyd Alexander and Colonial and Post-Colonial theory, and writing about both of them (though not at the same time).

Though actually, on that note, there’s an excellent quote for you from Chidi Okonkwo’s piece “Casualties of Freedom” that sums up 20th century foreign policy pretty well:

“The role of the West in Third World poverty and instability has been that of pirates who, having plundered and sunk a merchant ship take up positions along the shore and shoot any survivors trying to swim to safety.”

Slushpiles and Rejection Letters

Posted on by Henry

My day today has been rather full.  After reading homework in the library, I had the privilege of spending three hours going through a slushpile for someone I know (for the uninformed, a “slushpile” is what you call the vertiginous heaps of unsolicited submissions received by agents and publishing houses).

It was enlightening, and somehow encouraging and discouraging at the same time.  It puts me in mind of the internal rejection notes from Houghton Mifflin Company that I read while doing research last spring; I found reading committee notes on why HMCo shouldn’t print Poul Anderson, Philip K Dick, or even George Selden’s The Cricket in Times Square.  That’s two iconic mid-1900s sci-fi authors and the 1961 Newbery Honor recipient, all rejected with pithy and sometimes caustic internal notes exchanged between the various submissions readers.

It was enlightening because I found myself rejecting anything that didn’t closely match the guidelines I’d been given, even things that I thought might have been perfectly decent books.  There were no hard feelings, the submission simply wasn’t *exactly* what I was looking for.  It was encouraging, because a number of them weren’t very good and I’d like to think that I could do a better job than that.  And it was discouraging, because in order to submit something and get an editor you need a finished manuscript, and finishing a manuscript that would be accepted is much easier with an editor.

Basically, you could do it if they’d let you, but they won’t let you until you do it.

It’s a mess.

So, it’s time for me to figure out how to finish my work.  Again.

And if your work has been rejected by people, don’t give up.  Submit again and again and again.  Everywhere you can.  Maybe you should tweak things, but do keep trying.

Canada + Star Trek?

Posted on by Henry

Sorry, this isn’t about putting Spock on Canadian money.  It’s far more interesting than that, I think.

There’s this thing right here, which is a fascinating glance at what Trudeau is doing / has already done in Canada.  And there’s this piece here, which is The Oatmeal’s comic on a very particular epiphany, one that I rather appreciate.  How are they connected?

First, you should probably look at both of them.  They’re rather short.

Then, well… maybe I took away the wrong message from watching and thinking about Star Trek.  But it seems to me that at its best, and in spite of its flaws, Star Trek tries to share a vision of a world (of multiple star systems) united, in which our differences simply aren’t an issue.  A world in which it doesn’t matter whether you’re obviously representative of one side of a cold war currently gripping the TV show’s planet, or obviously part of the other side.  Where it doesn’t matter that your skin is not the same color as that of the other members of your crew.  Where it doesn’t matter that you’re human or alien or a little bit of both, or even (though TOS didn’t do such a good job of this one, methinks) not a man.

The show is a good reminder that everything is the product of its times.

To continue, it’s a world where, ideally, your gender and sexual orientation aren’t tools used by those with power to subject you to living hell.  There are many other differences I could / should mention here.

But what I’m trying to say, I think, is that Trudeau appears to be assembling the crew of the next Enterprise.  I am intrigued.

Whoops!

Posted on by Henry

Sorry folks.  Today I combined taking a break from schoolwork with doing schoolwork… by which I mean I read Code Name Verity for several hours.  It’s really quite good so far, but I don’t have anything else to share with you today.  And now it is very definitely bed time.  I’ll try to have that horror piece for you next Friday.

Whoops!

Posted on by Henry

I’m not trying to foster excitement by withholding posts from you (unless you prefer that narrative, in which case I am).  I’ve been busy with school and life and both of those things happening at the same time for the past week or so, and so I’m afraid I missed yesterday’s post.  I might miss tomorrow’s as well, but perhaps I can salvage that.

On the plus side, I ran a good game of D&D 5e last night for my campaign group that had been waiting 3 months for a session, and I should have a 1st draft outline of a longer Barium Deep piece up here sometime soon.  But until then, I’m afraid you’ll have to bear with me and wait.  Hasta luego.

My Not-Exactly-Tintin Project Might Really Happen?

Posted on by Henry

This update is totally last minute, born of a recognition that I forgot to make my usual post today.  In fact, by my clock, I’m already four minutes too late.  I did spend a goodly portion of my day traveling, but… yeah.

Fortunately, I have some awesome news to share.  Do you remember the time that I mentioned wanting to write a Tintin flowchart (way back in January)?  I just shared the underlying aim, of writing a new era’s Tintin comics, with one of my friends.  They responded by spending fifteen minutes drawing a picture of female Tintin with Snowy, striding along in her trench coat.  It looked really good.  They were really excited and want to talk with me about this project.  So now I’m really excited too.  Hell, I just busted out a big goofy smile for no particular reason.  No, not true, it’s for a very particular reason; this project is something that someone else wants to work on with me!

I’m not writing this to tell you that you should expect something soon.  I’m writing this to tell you that some day, maybe a few years from now, I’ll have another post to tell you about how awesome this thing I’m working on is, and how anxious I am about making it worth your time.  But I think that maybe, just maybe, I’ll be telling you that because I have some good old Tintin-esque glorious adventure for you to feast your eyes on.  I’m really excited about this.

Whoops!

Posted on by Henry

I goofed up!  I was writing a piece of flash fiction earlier today (something I intend to submit to the Flash Fury contest run by The Molotov Cocktail), but then I got distracted by life here visiting my mom.  I’ll have this piece of flash fic up for you in a bit (maybe tomorrow, maybe next week), but I’m afraid I don’t have the usual stuff for you today.

Actually, I’m going to have to change my schedule starting next week, because I’ll have classes on Mondays and Thursdays and I have no desire to try going to class and post on the same day.  I’ll figure that out soon.

Meta-flash fiction?

Posted on by Henry

This week, Chuck Wendig wants fuel for his flash fiction fires.  It just so happens that I’d already been thinking of ways to use my foray into random D&D material for the purposes of flash fiction, so I came to this topic with an idea more-or-less prepared.  Some modification may be necessary.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use this Random Adventure Generator to create your prompt.  You may use as much of it as you like, but you must at least use the Theme, the Story Hook, and the Climax.  Write your story in 2000 words or less.

Also, I should mention: I’m going to be incommunicado for the rest of the week, and will thus miss my normal second post!  It’s time for me to live in a tent and do larp-camp staff training again.  If you’re anywhere near upstate New York, you should consider sending your children or your friends’ children to The Wayfinder Experience.  It’s good stuff.

Tidbits to tide you over

Posted on by Henry

Hello everyone!  This week I’ve set aside time to spend with my brothers, which means lots of role playing games and storytelling and laughter and yelling (also probably more food and booze than usual).  But because of all that, I’m unlikely to have much for you here.  I’m certainly unlikely to have full-scale reviews or such.  I’ll return with the usual stuff by next Monday, no worries.

But while I’m not writing as much about things, here, have a few tidbits!

Dying Light is a fascinating game: it has gameplay that I find fun and engaging, but a story and characterizations which so far repel me.  It is definitely fun playing with other people, running around the zombie apocalypse at high speed, leaping from building to building, and getting lost in the warrens while hungry monsters chase me.  But every time the story progresses, I shudder and feel that ugly cold spot in my belly; why the hell does the POV character have to be a tool?  Why do they have to make the villain choices they do?  Why did they think the misogynist themes would be worth including?  Why do I feel certain that the “strong female character” they’ve created is just going to be damseled within the next few missions?  For that matter, why are there two or three women survivors in the tower, and everyone else there that I meet is male?

As someone who loves and is fascinated by stories, I’ll probably keep watching the story cutscenes all the way through.  But that may just make me angrier and angrier about their writing choices.  It’s a good thing that the cutscenes are skippable and basically won’t matter in the long run.

On the other end of things, we have Lois McMaster Bujold’s Mirror Dance, which I just finished.  The first time that I picked it up I bounced off the main character’s narration (a first for me with any of Bujold’s books).  But when I started it this time I fell in and couldn’t climb out… which is about what I expect from Bujold at this point.  She really is fabulous.  I’m going to leave my paeans of praise for another post, when I can give this book it’s due, but if you like the other Vorkosigan series books be sure to keep at it with this one, even if the start is a little disorienting.  It’s worth it.

Okay, that’s all for now.  Enjoy yourselves.