Archive for February, 2009

The Lawless Elite

Posted by smokingpen in Tobias Buckell, Writing Fiction, opinion on February 25, 2009

Tobias Buckell updated his blog with a post dealing with the lawless elite. These are (often) the protagonists in action movies that get away with a lot. Think John McClane from Die Hard or Martin Riggs from Lethal Weapon or (more recently) Bryan Mills from Taken or a whole host of other characters from movies and television that seem to get away with a lot of death and carnage because what they are doing is morally correct or morally superior at the time they are doing it.

Buckell approaches his argument in light of this kind of character from the perspective of his own perpetual protagonist, Pepper. Pepper has the necessary moral ambiguity to kill when necessary, not worry about innocents dying, and move on. Pepper is a lot like Jack Bauer on 24 when he watches someone die that didn’t need to die but helped catch one of the bad guys: no emotion. Whether or not death or destruction affect Jack Bauer or Martin Riggs or John McClane or Bryan Mills or anyone else isn’t really the factor in the lawless elite character; rather, it is how they comport themselves and move forward.

What I think Buckell and others miss about these stories is that they are often snapshots of time. The audience is, very frequently, not included in what happened in the life of the protagonist (or anti-hero) prior to the events, nor do they get to see what happens to them after the events. Instead, the moral ambiguity that is seen and the lack of emotion that causes people to stand up and cheer, these things are small bits while the true psychological impact of what has happened or is happening doesn’t play out in a movie.

I can’t imagine seeing Martin Riggs in any of the Lethal Weapons stopping to consider consequences of his actions. It is because of this (and for the comedic effect) that you have the interplay with the staff psychologist who, in the earlier movies, is trying to help and in the last movie when Riggs is ready to talk can’t believe he actually wants her help. Where in the current season of 24 two things have happened, one is Jack taking responsibility for his actions not only in front of a Senate sub-committee, but also Jack telling other people that they have to take responsibility for their own actions. Part of the penance Jack Bauer has decided to go through began before the season started in a short movie where he is in the country of Sangala (sp) at a home for orphan boys trying to make good on all the bad he’s done. Part of Jack’s growth and penance happened in the face of his wife and girlfriend dying, people he cares for being killed, and his daughter refusing to have anything to do with him. Jack is a lone wolf.

John McClane in the Die Hard series, in the most recent one, tells Matt Ferrell that killing someone is a bad thing and he’d hoped that the moral ambiguity that allows him to do that was behind him at the same time as he’s been dragged back into an action role. Like Jack Bauer, John McClane has to deal with a divorce and children that want nothing to do with him. He has to deal with lost friends, lost relationships, and the consequences of his actions.

In later lawless elite action movies, in order to keep the characters interesting, a few minutes, maybe a dozen lines of dialogue, are given to the consequences and then the movie turns to action and we move forward. The audience is given a snapshot into the life of one member of the lawless elite.

Consider that it is not about a penchant for taking the law into one’s own hands that make these characters who they are, but rather a willingness to take the law into their hands that make them interesting for the scope of that single story or snapshot – we as an audience are not privy to consequences. You can set aside laws and leave yourself in the grasp of moral ambiguity and not worry about a whole host of things simply because circumstances dictate actions and action (in this context) is what the audience wants. This is the reason that, in a very limited capacity, a man with a gun can insist upon breakfast. It is under this premise that the audience feels they, too, under the right circumstances, might be able to do what the protagonist is doing and as a result this is the reason these movies become popular.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

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New Top Level Page

Posted by smokingpen in site maintenance on February 24, 2009

I create a new page, you should be able to see it in the links at the top of the site. This is my todo’s page. Now that I’ve put that up I am thinking of recreating the calendar for the website… though, honestly, there isn’t as much going on in my life now that I am no longer a college student. Things like that happen. Regardless, you can check out what I am working on. What needs doing and such. I will try to add planned completion dates and will definitely add completed on dates when I get around to it.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

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Lack of Faith in the System

Posted by smokingpen in work on February 23, 2009

I applied to some places last week. Or was it two weeks ago? This partially caused a crisis in my life as the places I applied required me to do two things: first, ignore the fact that I’ve worked for a lot of places since, oh, I don’t know, I turned 16; and second, realize that these places are going to pay a lot less than would cover, at best, the bills that are coming in. What I hoped was that the places would (pretty much) ignore me and move on. I mean, I gave them absolutely zero information.

Why did I give them zero employment information? Because my mother applied to the same company and didn’t even get called until she did the same thing. What the gravy?

Seriously, and if you can answer this you are a much better person than me, who wants employees who inherently have to lie in order to be interviewed? I can tell you who, but I won’t. At least, not today.

Anyway, I got a call today asking me to come in for an interview. On the one hand, this is good news as I’ve applied for a lot of places and haven’t even been called; on the other hand it sucks because the nature and level of employment is something you would expect a teenager to be excited about with no world or life or employment experience.

Don’t take this the wrong way, I am excited about the potential for work. At the same time, I would’ve liked one of the companies I am qualified to work for and my degree makes me even more qualified to work for to have called and scheduled an interview.

I guess, and this is where I will end this post, you can only do so much and sometimes have to take some steps backward in order to move forwad.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

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Just a weeeee bit lazy

Posted by smokingpen in opinion on February 20, 2009

Updating has been a bit of a chore for me the past few days. Well, couple of weeks, really. Life is still up in the air and as such, I don’t really make it a priority to update. As I stated, I did go and speak to the director of a MFA-Writing program I will apply to. Erin and I sold her car today. That will come in handy. I think I spent something like 500 hours in a couple of different cars this afternoon. Even though I enjoy driving, there is something peculiar about east coast drivers that is beginning to cause me to want to live on an island that requires a small ferry boat to get one to and from it and isn’t big enough to warrant having a car. The problem with that is that I am addicted to the Internet and am not interested in living somewhere sans high speed access; I don’t think Erin would be too hip on living on an island cut off from everyone; and after watching (horrible) commercials for this years slate of horror movies that are based so far outside of reality, I don’t think living that far distant from people is smart. I mean, get for real folks, we have murders and such because of these movies. Kids don’t know enough about life to know what not to mimic. And yes, that is a statement against the inherent violence in movies and video games. And yes, I do believe they cause more violence in life in general. And yes, I would support measures to not only curb the violence, but to eliminate it from media all together.

That is all I have to say for today.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

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A Little Bit Brain Dead

Posted by smokingpen in Personal Entries, driving life, work on February 17, 2009

I got up this morning and sat with Camper. We sat and Erin sat with us. 24 this week was okay. Not great. Kind of slow, though one of the (I am sure) many moles has now been revealed. Regardless, it is what it is.

Then, after a shower and a shave, I drove 2.5 hours to Fairfield University to speak with Michael White author of Soul Catcher: A Novel. And, “No,” my reason for going was not to speak about the book… though in hindsight and after purchasing a copy, and given one of the many reasons for this blog, that would’ve been a good idea too.

In all, I think I spent about five hours of driving for about one hour of talking and came away with a couple of resolutions:

  1. Get into an MFA-Writing program and preferably Fairfield’s program.
  2. I am still working on this one.

The point in all of this is that I am pretty mentally fried. Granted, I could go on for several thousand words in a rather dense essay about the trip and various aspects of the landscape and topography and what I was thinking about and why it all matters to you. But, truth told, I think I am going to take my copy of Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe, the burrito we got me for dinner, and my (currently) depressed about work attitude and not stare at a computer screen.

Though, for those who wish to bug me, I should have a revision of the submission piece done by Monday next (this would be 23 February). So. Bug away.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

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Dollhouse :: Joss Whedon’s pilot

Posted by smokingpen in opinion, television on February 16, 2009

I have to say, in line with what the numbers show, that Dollhouse, by Joss Whedon, is not worth watching. I watched the pilot and Erin‘s comment to me that Eliza Dushku can’t pull off what is required for that show is pretty much spot on. I have to tell you the episode was boring, it wasn’t worth watching. I can see why it went back for rewrites and reshoots. There is no reason, in my mind, for Fox to support Whedon in this thing. And unlike Firefly, which was freaking awesome and didn’t get the support it deserved, this show just sucks. I cannot imagine a scenario given the current formula the show is following where it will be worth the effort to continue watching it. It really was that bad.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

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Clementine one more time

Posted by smokingpen in Personal Entries, opinion, work on February 16, 2009

Well, I don’t know if that is an entirely true statement on my part. If kind of feels like it, at the moment.

What does it mean? Clementine is the main female chicka in Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind played by Kate Winslet. (You can (probably) read my comments on the movie by clicking on this link.) The reason I keep coming back to this is because I seem to keep going back to bookstores when I need work. Inherently, this isn’t a bad thing. I wanted, nay, I dreamed about working in a bookstore once upon a time many, many, many moons ago (I’d add a link, but it’s outside of the historical scope of this blog). What gets me isn’t that I keep ending up back at different places, but more accurately, that I seem to keep ending up at the same places or the same kinds of places.

There are, effectively, four different bookstores in this country: Barnes and Noble, Borders, Waldenbooks, and B. Dalton. Now, to illustrate this a bit futher, Barnes and Noble owns B. Dalton and Borders owns Waldenbooks. It is this reason why I think people allegedly in the know in the publishing industry are idiots when they started to chant that Borders would be out of busienss by February of this year. In case you’d missed it, it is February 2009 and Borders has not gone out of business. Heck, I believe they will turn around (as illustrated by a new CEO and streamlining executive management) and in believing that, purchased stock. At the very least, Waldenbooks will continue to exist.

However, what this is meant to illustrate is the serious inbreading that exists between the major bookstores in the country. Work for one, you end up working for most of them. In this context, I have essentially worked for all of the major book retailers. The reason all of this has come up is that I’ve had to trust that work will come. In trusting that I can get a job I’ve applied for everything my experience and education make me qualified for. The outcome of all of this is less that I have had a lot of hits and people calling me back and more that I’ve had to widen the arc with which I am applying. As a result, I looked up what the local bookstore was hiring for and went and applied today. I also applied at Wal-Mart. Not so much the highest point in my life, but still, taking care of wife and child is a number one priority.

As such, and at the moment, I am feeling more and more like Clementine.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

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The Desire for Story

Posted by smokingpen in Personal Entries, opinion, philosophy on February 14, 2009

I have not updated in a couple of days. My fault. Not sure I want to update today and am anyway.

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Story is something that is designed to attract the reader to some aspect of what the author is trying to share. More specifically, as a reader I should be able to relate to and empathize with characters in the story. When I can’t or don’t, often I don’t like the movie or book or television show or whatever. Or, when I do and there is insufficient advancement and I feel frustrated because the story does not maintain my interest through empathy and/or association, I will move on to something else.

When I read something, I want to feel the way I do when I watch Sam at the beginning of the movie Ronin as he comes to the realization that he either enter the van or not and all the while giving himself a way out of whatever he (and by extension, we the audience) is going to get in to. I get the feeling as I watch him place his handgun behind crates, open the wrong door to the bathroom, and then answer Dierdre’s question about why he’d get in the van, as well as his rote answer throughout the movie, “I need the money,” as something that I can relate to, something that, in a very small way, helps identify who I am.

I do what I do because I need the money.

I feel for John Nash in A Beautiful Mind not because it is based off of a true story, but because I see things in a very similar way as Nash and I approach life in a similar way and I wonder, sometimes, if what I am seeing and what I am feeling are real and true. And because I would rather have the pleasant experiences and be able to think and approach what I want to accomplish in life and more as a result of my willingness and ability to do what I’ve set out to do and as a result I abhor drugs and I abhor alcohol and I hate illness and I despise all sorts of things because they remove my ability to think and feel what I need to think and feel clearly.

I see the world in a different way and as a result I approach the world differently.

I am enchanted by J.M. Barrie in Finding Neverland because he has a creative puckish streak to his personality and because he sees the world as he wants to and not necesarily as it is. He is a pragmatist when he has to be one, but for the rest of the time he gets to inhabit a fantastical world that only he can see and only he occupies at all times and because, given sufficientn preparation, the people around him – and especially children get to visit his world. He gave the rights to his play and book to the Great Ormand Street Hospital for Children and as a result they have been able to do a lot of wonderful work for little children. I get to enter Barrie’s world when I enter Neverland, and more, I get to invite people into my world when they are sufficiently prepared.

I don’t experience the world the same way as you or anyone else and as a result I have magic all around me all the time.

I was enthralled by Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and felt like I could relate with John Gault and Dagny Taggart and their philosophy on life and on business. I would love to see a movie made from this, but at the same time it would be a different movie from the book I own three or four copies of and enjoy more than I can express. I find myself agreeing that business should be allowed to run itself, that beurocrats should keep their noses out of things, and that people should get ahead  because of their genius and not because some politician or philanthropist believes in dividing wealth equally. I also believe, counter to Rand, that we should help the people around us – though that help can (and sometimes should) come in the form of making business and loans and such more readily available.

I believe that working hard is essential to success and only those who put in time and energy and failure will succeed in the long run.

I am taken in by various television shows, books, stories, and ideas. At times, I think it would be great if I could just write out a list of the things that resonate within me and then hand that list to someone and say, “Watch these and read these and you will know me.” Life doesn’t work that way. And yet, there is a part of me that knows, given the right foundation, you can see me in what I enjoy and you will find enjoyment in your own set of movies and books, music and television, and in other places.

A good story is something that resonates within.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

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