That is all.

Real Heroes Fly ]]> http://www.johnhattaway.com/2010/02/brandi-carlile-concert/feed/ 0 http://www.johnhattaway.com/2009/11/looks-like-a-waste-of-time/ http://www.johnhattaway.com/2009/11/looks-like-a-waste-of-time/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:29:42 +0000 smokingpen http://www.johnhattaway.com/?p=2063 On the outside looking in, my blogging looks like a waste of time. It might be. At the same time, I think, this morning, it does two things. First, allows me to get the writing thoughts going; and second, allows me to express an opinion on something that doesn’t, even in the smallest bit, matter.

Grey’s Anatomy.

This seasons Grey’s Anatomy has added something like 5000 new cast members. They are of varying shapes and sizes and help round out the original cast (those that are still there and didn’t die from a terrible bus accident or . . . whatever) for, according to news reports, an attempt to create an atmosphere where the show will last as long, or longer, than ER or other hospital shows.

Fine. Do whatever. The show stopped be a semi-realistic medical show a while ago. At least it’s not as bad as Private Practice. Talk about a thorny issue of problems. I mean, both shows delve into the moral implications of different medical choices, but at least Grey’s Anatomy is really a show about the sexual tensions that exist between doctors in a teaching hospital. Private Practice is, pretty much, a series of episodes about false dilemmas the doctors encounter only after they’ve consulted with families, asked what they patients want, educated patients on their choices, AND THEN, end up in the operating room not operating. Doctors may suffer from what I can only observe as moral deficiencies like this, but the moment a doctor agrees to a surgery – and so long as nothing specifically presents itself as making said surgery dangerous AFTER THE FACT, then the doctor has already made the moral choice and should do the surgery.

This is not about Private Practice, though.

Grey’s Anatomy was a fun show. It really stopped being that way a couple of seasons ago. Kind of sad. I liked the show for the first couple of seasons. It was a rather enjoyable medical drama about students learning about medicine. And then the producers and network decided to do what the show had, successfully – I think, been skirting. They dropped it into the realm of soap opera and as a result, neither the stories nor where the characters are going seem to make a lot of sense (to me) anymore. Sure, I get the dramatic choices, but really . . . Izzie with cancer and getting married to Alex, or Meredith and Derrick getting married via post-it note. Come on? None of that really strikes a chord to truth AND none of it is really anything more than drama poorly written and meant to entice the audience to tune in next time for something equally ridiculous.

Part of entertainment is to become interested in the lives of the characters. Sure, they are fake, but that is why we become interested. They don’t really exist nor would they deal with the situations if they did exist AND we want to see more. For me, Grey’s Anatomy jumped the proverbial shark or refrigerator and as a result, it’s heading downhill and fast. The involvement with these characters is beginning to require too much effort making it too difficult to enjoy them or enjoy spending one hour once a week with them. As a result, I lose interest.

Real Heroes Fly ]]> http://www.johnhattaway.com/2009/11/looks-like-a-waste-of-time/feed/ 0 http://www.johnhattaway.com/2009/06/cant-be-done/ http://www.johnhattaway.com/2009/06/cant-be-done/#comments Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:32:14 +0000 smokingpen http://www.johnhattaway.com/?p=1887 I think one of my biggest pet peeves, right behind people who don’t drive the speed limit and right in front of a highly reviewed and praised work of fiction that ends up being a pile of crap are people who are such big fans of a book or series of books that they immediately take the stance that said book-slash-series-slash-author is impossible to adapt. This was the case with The Lord of the Rings series of movies and, admittedly, it required the inclusion of CGI and the advancement of that technology as well as digital film capture to make it a reality. However, even with The Lord of the Ring movies, which I am only sort of a fan of, Peter Jackson had to take a lot of liberties in translating the narrative texture of the stories into a visual medium. As that is true of any book turned movie, and as most science fiction and fantasy movies are not actually any good (case in point Star Wars) even if they become fan favorites and, to some extent, cultural icons, the outcome is a hurdle that is man-made rather than one that is real.

A series of books turned movies that, as they are read, seemed like an impossible transition from page to screen is the Harry Potter movies and yet, Warner Bros. and the various screenwriters have successfully taken the plot of the books and adapted the story into a visual medium. This is also true of other books that didn’t seem like they could be translated such as Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers and (to a much lesser extent) Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot. Granted, in order to express the message of the books and the core themes the production had to take liberties and expand upon the ideas of the stories, but that is how a book is made into a movie. Someone reads it, understands the core elements of the book that are transferable to the big screen, acquires the rights, and then makes a movie.

Not every aspect or element of a book will be translatable. What is worse is when a book comes out at 700 pages and the studio suggests that it should be two movies because it is simply too long to fit into one movie. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows suffers from this. In reality, most of the book is trash exposition that is unnecessary in the actual telling of the story and as a result the decision to split the book into two movies is more about money than it is about the density or quality of the story.

In the case of books that are specific to a genre, science fiction and/or fantasy, the narrative of the book is actually one of the smallest factors in determining whether or not it can be translated. Much larger are fan appeal, general appeal, and budget. If there is no general appeal and only fans of the genre know about the book(s) than a budget for a movie would be miniscule and, “Yes,” a crap movie would result. Just because fans like something doesn’t mean it translates into movies either. More, just because fans have a high regard for the narrative and elements of a story doesn’t mean they are actually necessasry to the story or the translation and as a result, neither the screen adaption nor a specific director, producer, or writer are key to that adaptation.

Believe it or not, books, in general, aren’t all that hard to adapt in a lot of ways. The question isn’t one of adaptation in any circumstance, that is the easy part, but rather of ability to market the genre book to a wide enough audience that will, in turn, offer a return on investment. In short, studios and everyone associated with them are in the business to make money and even though it is nice in theory to suggest that art for arts sake will eventually result in money, a movie that loses money, and a series of movies that lose money, will ultimately cause the studio to go out of business and results in other studios lack of willingness to touch a project.

No, there is not real skill in adapting even a multi-volume graphic novel series to the big screen whether live action or CGI or a combination of both. There is a lot of skill in selling the necessary budget to a studio so that the movie and actors and production are properly funded so the movie will actually do something and go somewhere.

Real Heroes Fly ]]> http://www.johnhattaway.com/2009/06/cant-be-done/feed/ 0 http://www.johnhattaway.com/2009/01/a-comment-on-the-death-of-comics/ http://www.johnhattaway.com/2009/01/a-comment-on-the-death-of-comics/#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:52:26 +0000 smokingpen http://www.johnhattaway.com/?p=1665 Tor.com, repurposed to be a user friendly experience where authors and editors come together to present a series of articles, stories, links, and insights into all things fantasy and science fiction has an article the other day on the death of comic books. Specifically, one example of the impending demise of the comic book as we know it is the inflation of the cost-per-comic and that it falls outside of the range of inflation. This is similar to housing costs, car costs, and other costs associated with the way our economy is growing. In part, because our government borrows and spends willy-nilly, the people in turn borrow and spend willy-nilly with the outcome that costs rise because people are willing to spend the money which means that companies charge more, it becomes sticky, and then they don’t want to charge less. It’s all a nasty cycle that recessions, but more so depressions, are meant to fix. But because it is also political suicide to allow the market to correct itself, something that Congress is not willing to allow to happen.

With the (very) simple economics lesson out of the way, it is important to note that I broke some of my reading teeth on comic books. I discovered the Transformers comics when I was somewhere around the age of twelve or fourteen and purchased a shrink wrapped package of three. I read and re-read those comics again and again and as I grew older, made my own money, and decided what to spend it on, comic books were my thing. Back in the day I was a fan of Marvel Comics, hated DC Comics, and spent more money than I have any idea how I ever came up with it on various occasions. I even had a pull list at the local comic book store and spend quite a bit of money on used books as well. In fact, my (now defunct) collection of original Star Trek and Star Wars books (note: I really loved Splinter of the Mind’s Eye).

I am not a comic book collector anymore, though give me a good bookstore and some old titles (Marvel and DC now) and I am willing to sit and read. I have found that if I like a series enough I would just rather have the graphic novel (essentially, the collection of serialized (monthly) comics into a book) and read entire story arcs that way. Granted it is an adult attitude where I don’t need-slash-want to see what is new and the latest. At present, I am interested in the Fables graphic novels and haven’t purchased the last one or two novels as they’ve come out for lack of money. I did read one of them, and have most of the collection, but, you know, another story another day. I also started buying the Jack of Fables series of graphic novels but realized that offshoot of the series where the protagonist, Jack, is unreliable and the pictures do not match (necessarily) the story Jack is sharing and honestly, I don’t really care about Jack that much. Point in case, I do still (on occasion) buy graphic novels but not very often and certainly not of the superhero genre where they recycle characters and story lines and return to the beginning and then mess everything up and where no one really ever dies.

Fables is produced by Vertigo which is owned by DC and is a series that has a finite future. When the writer/creator is done telling his story the series will come to an end and Vertigo will replace it, or have already replaced it, with something else. As a result, readers can expect a couple of things: first, consistent storytelling because it is author/creator driven and not (often) handed off to someone else; and second, it will not be restarted, recycled, or rehashed until the original generation of fans become too sick of the storylines to care anymore.

On top of which, comic book art has changed so that all women are stick thin and large breasted (had a friend describe it as two olives on a toothpick once) and not physically possible, while all men are tall and buff and “V” shaped in the torso. There is nothing real about comic books and nothing that draws readers to actually believe that the fiction could be possible because people don’t look the way they do in comics. As a result of that, there are super-star artists who demand a lot of money for their work and get it, but at the same time also draw the cost of a comic book outside of the reasonable realm to purchase on a month-to-month basis. The outcome of that is (quite honestly) the very trend that make little fanboys go all wild over the artwork also make the comic books priced too high.

So, comic books are being priced too high. People who would want to buy them don’t care that much so much anymore. And the stories being told aren’t all that compelling to established (enough) people who could afford them. The outcome isn’t that comic books are a dead item, but that the large companies that produce them are producing them at a price that doesn’t meet the what the general public is willing or should be willing to pay. I mean, come on, the price of a standard paperback has gone up over the years but you can expect to spend between $6.99 and $7.99 for most mass market paperbacks and $12.99 and $14.99 for trade paperbacks. We won’t talk about hard cover (or cloth) novels. So, yes, inflation is a reality we have to deal with, but it is also a reality that does not support a sudden and unexpected rise in prices. More, the cost separation between, say, supermarkets or small bookshops and specialty comic book stores makes purchasing equally difficult as well.

The outcome, for me, is not that I think comic books are dying or even that a shift from paper-medium to electronic medium is wrong or a bad evolution, but that it is more necessary. For the electronic comic I read The Wotch, Girl Genius, and then some daily comic strips. I occasionally look around to see if there is anything interesting that I would also like to follow and for the most part find the answer is, “No.” At the same time, the Girl Genius comic is printed and I keep thinking I should buy the entire storyline up to what is currently online (as they do an online version before a print version) as well as start buying The Wotch comics in print format.

My point in all of this is, “Yes,” I think that the large comic book companies are pricing themselves out of a competitive stand and allowing smaller comic companies to enter the market with different and more unique material. At the same time, I think that comic books are definitely moving to a different format-slash-medium with smaller overhead printing costs and a more realistic graphic novel model than the serialized monthly comic books.

One of the problems some twenty and fifteen years ago is that a lot of companies will start a series and then delay publication because the penciler’s (principle artists) inker’s and colorer’s all have a process and that process doesn’t always fit into the monthly sales model that a lot of comic companies want (or advertise) to keep. This, by the by, was one of the reasons I stopped reading comic books in their serialized (month to month) format. If you end up waiting two or three months between installments the outcome is that reading installments becomes less important. And as a result, waiting six, nine, or twelve months for the the serialization to be put in book format is easier than the anxiety of waiting month-to-month. As a result, I have two stacks of comic books. The first stack is those (serialized) issues I purchased to learn about a specific character and includes graphic novels. The second stack (Vertigo :: Fables) is what I am interested in reading and find to be literary and not an action story with no real character development, no real consequences, and no longer commentary on politics, the world, or what is happening.

No. What I think is happening in the industry is that those who wish to follow comics will do so online. The model will include an inconsequential monthly fee to read the comic online on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis. And in the end Marvel and DC and other companies will end up with a print run of fewer graphic novels that make them more money. On top of which, the options sold for movies or television based on the characters will help supplement the costs and the revenue stream will change drastically. Heck, if I had any money I would start an online only comic book company and once a year would publish that years comic books into graphic novel format and then sell them on a per-ordered-publishing basis through places like Amazon.com and whatever the name of the website is, and other e-retailers.

So, comics are not dying. The current model is dying. And yes, I think there is a decent model and market for someone, or lots of someones, with a vision and the ability to follow through with it to make some real money.

Real Heroes Fly ]]> http://www.johnhattaway.com/2009/01/a-comment-on-the-death-of-comics/feed/ 0 http://www.johnhattaway.com/2008/11/wednesday-night-at-a-concert/ http://www.johnhattaway.com/2008/11/wednesday-night-at-a-concert/#comments Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:30:50 +0000 smokingpen http://www.johnhattaway.com/?p=1507 I started writing a review of Kung Fu Panda the other day and didn’t get around to finishing it before Erin and I had to drop codename: CAMPER off at the neighbors so they could babysit him whilst we went to Salt Lake for The Hotel Cafe Tour to see Lenka in concert. Of course, she was performing with five other women (an all girl concert) all of them using the same band and my least favorite performer not using a band and kept talking about getting back to Hip-Hop while she “sampled” a lot of noise and played a violin and ukalele and made weird noises into her mics and mimicked movements that would’ve been appropriate for a male black rapper more than a very white bread priviliged girl. In fact, as I have started in on the criticism, the artists name was Emily Wells and lacked in almost every area. Interestingly enough, for me, she was new to the tour as of Denver, two nights ago, and didn’t really seem to fit in to any of the collaborations that were taking place. When I finally found her myspace page last night, late (CAMPER didn’t want to go to sleep and I was staying awake with Erin for a while), and even though she did not expressly state it, Emily Wells was raised in a somewhat affluent environment and even though she likes to experiment with sound by using odd instruments, failed in her attempts to be a hard-edged rocker chick in Hip-Hop, even though the rather stoned girls in front of us were moving and dancing in a way that wanted me to grab the worst offending by the neck and say, “You understand what beat is but you don’t know the first thing about appropriate dance movement for the kinds of songs that are being played,” and then scare the living hell out of them.

Regardless, the point of the night was to see Lenka perform. According to The Hotel Cafe tour website, each artist will perform a set of about 15 to 20 minutes each. As usual, in situations where I don’t instigate what is happening, I had no idea what to expect. Nor did I really think about the fact that the venue for the performance is a rather interesting building in Salt Lake City that has housed independent films, other-oriented films, and other venues for a lot of years, that the place would pretty much be a hole in the wall… or, essentially, a venue with wooden boxes for seats and cold. On top of which, I didn’t have any idea what to expect from the performers or how they would come out. I am not a big fan of concerts having been to (before last night) four concerts. This is not an environment I enjoy, though I often enjoy listening to music, the live aspect doesn’t really appeal to me. In fact, most music is really made for the studio experience and even though some artists (Sarah McLaclan being the stand-out in my mind) create an experience in a venue that is as close to the studio sound as possible, the point is that most music sucks live. On top of which, Erin and I really planned to only be out until about 10 p.m. since we have a baby and didn’t want to leave him, on a work and school night, with the neighbors any later than we needed to. So, we ended up driving up, sitting on a front row of the venue and then standing up with the crowd that was blocking out view of the performers, until about 9 p.m. when we decided to call the experience a wash and headed out.

Now, with all that said, I really actually enjoyed the music, though buying tickets for another one of these isn’t (probably) going to happen any time in the future. There were a couple of disconcerting events: First, the crowd was all ages. What that means is a group of sub-18-year-olds is in attendance. This was illustrated to Erin and I as they filed past us in gaggles to be as close to the stage as possible. Second, people lighting up and smoking controlled substances that also resulted in behavior that is, honestly, socially unacceptable (see above comments). On top of which, the venue was a dive and the artists, even though I am enjoying Lenka’s music and have enjoyed Rachel Yamagata’s music for several years, isn’t worth the hassle of the environment. And in truth, I enjoy the studio performance more than I enjoy the live performance (even though I like buying some artists live albums (again, Sarah McLachlan anyone???)) and prefer that over… oh, I don’t know, dealing with crowds of people who have their own sense of what is and is not appropriate.

What I did learn was that I liked music by Meiko (unfortunately, the nature of Meiko (and I hope Erin does write about this and if she does this will turn into a link) turns Erin off) and especially the song she played for the concert last night that she’d not recorded yet. At the same time, as I listened to Meiko, and I probably liked her music because of this connection, it occurred to me that I needed to contact a few people I know who teach at the different age group levels and see if we can distill down certain kinds of music different age groups are listening too. This is for a project that, when I finally can attack it, I can create a music list (or write lyrics along the lines of) the kinds of things that different age groups are actually listening too. Granted, the plans call for a fictional group that ties the music of the project into the mythology of the project; the point being that there is a sociological connection (and to some extent psychological) between what people choose to listen to and their life choices and by listening to Meiko I made a connection that requires some additional research on my part and questioning different age groups as to type, tone, and color of music. I didn’t buy any of her music last night.

We did get home and purchase The Hotel Cafe Tour – Winter Songs and Thao’s A Bag of Hammers. Speaking of Thao, of all the performers, and I didn’t really enjoy her, she was the most drunk, the most realistic, and the most punk or rock or real of all the performers. On top of which, none of her movements were large, they were all small and close to her body, but at the same time her movements were harsh and jerky and forceful and she is a performer. Erin liked A Bag of Hammers, and I have to admit of her songs that was the one that got me going as well, but her overall presentation was less than pleasing. And yet, the music… it’s all about the music.

Over all, and along with the conversation that didn’t include paying attention to the noises and crying of CAMPER, the night was good. Erin and I had the opportunity to discuss all sorts of things. We had the chance to be alone for a few hour and our neighbors were excited to take care of CAMPER for us. All-in-all me thinks a good night.

Real Heroes Fly ]]> http://www.johnhattaway.com/2008/11/wednesday-night-at-a-concert/feed/ 3 http://www.johnhattaway.com/2008/10/walking-after-midnight/ http://www.johnhattaway.com/2008/10/walking-after-midnight/#comments Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:06:10 +0000 smokingpen http://www.johnhattaway.com/?p=1447 Once upon a time I really enjoyed listening to Country music. Of course, that was before I went to a giant country music festival and sat, for an entire day and well into the evening, surrounded by people I probably wouldn’t associate with if I had free time and the desire to associate with people (it was the George Strait Country Music Festival) and as a result realized that the directions I imagined my life going, at the time, were not in line with the lifestyles I could clearly see around me and as a result of that I decided that country music, though tame (which was the reason I started listening to it in the first place) was no longer the kind of music that matched my interests and I (rather quickly) started listening to other things. Today, chances are better than even I am listening to Katy Perry, Natasha Bedingfield, Sarah McLachlan, or one of a few other artists that are mostly female, mostly pop, mostly NOT the pop-tarts out in the world, and mostly sing in a way that suggests angy and chick and music. Some people might suggest that this is a retraction of advancement in the complexity and taste in music; and I might not disagree with people, though, keeping in mind the reason I started listening to country music was because I started only hearing noise in the Alternative Music movement that was happening on the radio and very few artists seemed to create music back then that ecclipsed into actual music for me, the outcome is that I find musical tastes that are, in equal parts, whimsical, easy to listen to, non-offensive (to me), and ignorable. When country music stopped being many of those things, in part because I did not relate to people who lost their dogs, trucks, horses, wives, alcohol, and on and on, I stopped really listening to the genre of music regularly. Of course, I do have several CD’s from the artists I really enjoyed, Garth Brooks and George Strait are the two I recognize as still owning, and have considered purchasing the Darius Rucker’s country album (of Hootie and the Blowfish fame) because there is nothing more interesting than a black man singing in a predominantly white genre. That and I really liked listening to Hootie and the Blowfish back in the day.

With all of that out of the way, the title of the post is pulled from Patsy Cline’s, Walking After Midnight, of which Garth Brooks did a cover on his The Chase album, in which the protagonist of the song, in a fit of despair, goes walking late at night presumably to clear her or his head. The reason this is important is because it represents an element in creativity that, me thinks, is underwhelmingly ignored by a lot of people and that is the use of walking (and often late night) to clear the head and focus the mind on the task at hand. Believe it or not, this is a method that I have used in the past and have every expectation that I will use it in the future as well.

Last night I was awakened a lot earlier than I thought I would. Honestly, though, I went to bed and didn’t set an alarm (Tuesday/Thursday alarm time is 0800). Instead of getting up and going back to bed I got up and sent Erin to bed and then shut the doors between our bedroom and codename: CAMPER’s. Normally the only door that is shut is the one leading into our bedroom. The reason for this is because we want noise to travel between rooms and codename: CAMPER, when he cries, even with the monitor on, is hearable so long as both doors are open. Amazingly enough, when both doors are closed the kid can scream his head off and you do not (necessarily) hear it in our bedroom. Especially if you are asleep. I didn’t expect codename: CAMPER to start screaming, but then I also didn’t expect to be awake and needing to shelter Erin from additional cries and the maternal need to make sure he is okay.

I checked on codename: CAMPER, he was fine, looked at the twin bed that Lisa bought when she was in town, and the duvet on top of it, and then dived under the covers. This didn’t last all that long as codename: CAMPER complained about his pacifier falling out. The result of which was me getting up, putting it back in, batting away his little hands, watching as he fell asleep, and then going back to bed myself. The outcome was, honestly, a series of awake and asleep moments, the longest of which was about one hour, where he would complain and I would give him back the pacifier or would give it back, wait for him to stop suckling on it, take it away, wait for him to start fussing, give it back, wait for the suckling to stop, take it away, wait for the fussing, give it back, repeat until he stopped fussing and started sleeping. This was, as one might or might-not guess, was somewhat successful as I believe the longest periods of sleep came as a result of this, but even then it did not last in the tune of hours.

However, when I woke up and then tried to comfort Erin, and then tried to go back to sleep, then realized there was a reason I needed to be awake and made my way around the apartment looking for Erin, and then comforting and putting her to bed, I considered bundling codename: CAMPER up and doing one of two things:

One: go for a long walk and clear my head and focus; or,

Two: put codename: CAMPER in his car seat and drive somewhere.

Unfortunately, neither option was overwhelmingly ideal or desirable which is why I ended up jumping into bed, shutting doors, and trying to get as much sleep as a fussy baby who, we believe, may be hurting and, at the very least, suffering from a cold that can cause body aches and fussiness in adults and this is a baby who is almost six weeks old and as a result would be even more fussy given the body aches and struggle to breathe, and as a result I ended up, at times, hoping that the micro-naps I was catching would do what a sub-thirty-five minute nap during the day does, which is to trick the body into being more refreshed than it really was. By eight in the morning, codename: CAMPER decided to really scream, which Erin would’ve missed because it was separated by a couple of doors which in turn caused me to feed codename: CAMPER who ate insanely fast. In fact, Erin txt-ed me to let me know he ate that fast again a few hours later.

Before midnight, however, we did go out and ended up driving around the much-greater Orem area. We ended up on the other side of I-15 and into a subdivision that had roads built into it but no houses. In fact, I believe had the markets not started the successive crashes we would’ve seen a very different site last night than what we say (lots of empty lots), and instead, people realize that this is a bad time to start building because the cost of building exceeds the value of what is being built and as a result (this is called stickiness in case anyone cares) it doesn’t make sense to build if you can buy new, relatively new, or old for a lot less than it costs to have brand new built.

One of the pleasant side effects of having a new baby has been spending late nights driving around. This is an excuse, for me, to just go. Granted, I don’t always get to think about the cornucopia of things I would like to, or need to, or that just come when I used to drive for long, long hours all by myself or the only one awake and where those thoughts would take me on journies to places that I never really considered before getting behind the wheel. There is something, for me, about that journey (not the actual driving) that is only possible as a result of being able to focus in certain ways and allow the extra-gray matter to focus in a different direction.

With all of that said, Annie Dillard wrote Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, this is one of the premenent nature writing books on the market. It was published 34 years ago. It contains some completely fictional accounts and at the same time, represents a single cycle of seasons as Annie Dillard explores the area around where she is living in Virginia. What I realized the other day was that this is a form of the Hero’s Journey. In fact, the thought came to mind, “The Writer’s Journey,” which ended up being a book on my bookshelf. I didn’t want to focus on the elements of that book as Christopher Vogler is really simplifying the work of Joseph Campbell and his book Hero with a Thousand Faces. Instead, what I am focussing on is the idea that in order to create what she did, Dillard had to go on a quest much like the hero’s journey in order to come up with an effective narrative.

As a result of those connective thoughts and that many authors, the one I use as an example is Charles Dickens as well as Henry David Thoreau and others who then take their wanderings and observations and musings and in the process of all of that also go on a mythical quest where the outcome is, quite literally, a journey that brings the individual writer back a changed person. Whether that change is good or bad is not the question; but that the journey exists and change happens and as a result of both that the literary qualities of those changes are then transcribed into a meaningful work of some form.

Interestingly enough, it is through this walking process that I’ve come up with some of the focusses that I am planning to follow as a student and graduate student in the future. And it is through this process that I found myself thinking about Erin, a lot, and ending up marrying her. It is through the process that I discovered some of the writing focuses that exist (though, admittedly, at least one of them came into being as a result of a multi-day drive across the country that needed some form of outlet and is still being worked on). It is through this that I find personal focus and I feel better and I feel as though I can handle some of the things that, occasionally, I don’t honestly feel like I can handle. The process, of walking, and walking after midnight, is complex; and at the same time, I think I wouldn’t exchange the walks with anything else.

The outcome of my personal focusses in life is that I find connections with things that spark interesting chords, it is through this long-running process that I move forward with my semester and work and focus.

Real Heroes Fly ]]> http://www.johnhattaway.com/2008/10/walking-after-midnight/feed/ 0 http://www.johnhattaway.com/2008/10/still-not-news/ http://www.johnhattaway.com/2008/10/still-not-news/#comments Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:01:36 +0000 smokingpen http://www.johnhattaway.com/?p=1414 Apparently William Shatner of Star Trek fame is upset that George Takei, who recently married his life-partner, did not invite him to the wedding. This is not news. It is entertainment. People who are interested in this are entertained by the notion of a feud between Shatner and Takei. These people are also interested in Star Trek and would be more likely to go to a convention or at the very least enjoy a television show that centered around Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, or Lindsay Lohan. On that note, none of these individuals elicits actual news. And with that said, Britney Spears was in court because she was charged with driving without a license. Ten of the twelve people all agreed she broke the law, two didn’t. Since it had to be a unanimous decision, and two wouldn’t change their vote, the trial was declared a mis-trial.

Angelina Jolie is, apparently, being encouraged, by her children, to move toward marriage with Brad Pitt. Still not news, but given that Angelina Jolie is an international figure and represents the United Nations when it comes to children, it is slightly more news worthy from an entertainment perspective. Of course, when Brad left Jen for Angelina this was a massive scandal. Watching the History Channel the other day about body language we learned that Angelina was subtly flirting with Brad at a news conference for the release of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Regardless, the lack of news worthiness is still extant.

Real Heroes Fly ]]> http://www.johnhattaway.com/2008/10/still-not-news/feed/ 0