The Long Line reading

Recently I held a small event in which a group of friends read out the dialogue from my latest story, The Long Line. From the outset I knew this book would be influenced by David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis, based on Don DeLillo's book which I'm now reading. That influence takes the form of a series of verbose conversations about various abstract and theoretical topics ranging from economic theory to my race theory to ethics and philosophy of value.

While this story has always meant to be a novel the process of adapting it to script helped identify a number of flaws which would have otherwise gone unnoticed. It forced certain scenes and subplots to be lost and others added. In converting it back into prose novel form, all of these lost and added threads will be consolidated.

The reading also made me realise how great of an influence Eidos' 2000 title Deus Ex was on the dialogue, both the sudden ventures into deep or heavy or abstract territory as well as the style of language used. One thing I did not notice the first (/2nd/3rd) time playing that game was the avoidance of contractions. Apostrophes are almost never used in speech. I don't know whether this was an intentional stylistic choice by Warren Spector/Sheldon Pacotti or an error from somewhere along the line to the recording booth, but it was certainly effective in a subtle, unconscious way. This is something that I, without meaning, injected into the dialogue of The Long Line.

After the reading I had an overwhelming sense that the thing was over and done with. It seemed like a good type of workflow: project based, stressing out for a few weeks leading up to some big event, then once it's done washing your hands of the whole thing. Except this story is not done, there is still a lot of work to do. Conversations need to be rearranged, characters developed, holes plugged.

DeLillo's book so far is a very, very good combination of words.

50 Shades of Grey

There is a point in the story I’m currently working on where two characters have sex. I’d never written a sex scene before, and so as “research” I thought it’d be a good idea to read the E.L. James bestseller, 50 Shades of Grey. I had low expectations, and they were met. Except for the expectation of being aroused at any point.

I picked up the book for $1 from someone’s garage and read it over way too long a period of time. I had intended to hold on to it as reference for this review, but had to abandon it atop a luggage scale in the Qantas check-in section of Adelaide Airport, due to weight restrictions.

I only read the first volume. From talking to people it seems that this is unusual, and most go on to finish the trilogy. Why, I ask them. They don’t know. I’m writing this review under the assumption that you haven’t read any of it, and have no intention to or don’t care about spoilers.

Yes, the book does depict a very unhealthy, abusive relationship. When I reached the rape scene I thought, wow, this is pretty bad, and people still think it’s arousing? Only afterwards did I realize that that’s okay because it’s not a real depiction of a relationship, it is absolutely a fantasy. And fantasies are okay. Remember that lots of people have rape fantasies with no intention of actually experiencing them.

So it’s not a depiction of a real relationship, and that’s partly because it’s not a depiction of real humans or real emotions, either. I’m trying very hard not to criticize the author, because I think I’m of the opinion that we should critique texts for what they are without drawing inferences about the producer’s talent. That said, 50 Shades didn't really have a story arc. There was a point, maybe around ⅔ or ¾ through, where I realized that the story could end suddenly and I wouldn't worry about any of the characters. There was no tension or conflict that needed to be resolved. At any point the story could very easily have wrapped up and been neatly concluded. Usually that would mean it’s a poorly crafted tale, but I’m not so sure. Perhaps it’s actually pretty clever to be able to hold on to such a massive readership without creating the edge-of-seat tension that usually keeps people turning pages and buying sequels. It does it some other way, which, as mentioned above, I've failed to identify.

Another issue I’d like to bring up is a technique which I’m not sure is innovative or clumsy. The story is told through a range of different voices, all fighting amongst each other for page space. Though not actually communicating with each other because that would be too cool. I counted four:

• First person narration. The bulk of the text, this is Anastasia Steele’s Ego narrating the events in present tense. The tense, also, was surprising to me but was probably a stylistic choice to make the sex scenes more immersive.
• Anastasia’s thoughts. These are short statements or sometimes paragraphs in italics representing the protagonist’s immediate thoughts within the story. The exact difference between her italicized thoughts and the rest of her narration is difficult to identify, as the narration is restricted to her point of view and knowledge at that time, just like her character and her character’s thoughts.
• “My Subconscious” and “My Inner Goddess”. Discussed in third person among the usual narration, as if a different character entirely. At first I thought these two identities were the same, but it soon became clear that they were in opposition to each other. The Subconscious apparently represented Anastasia’s insecurities, while her Inner Goddess represented her... Beyonce? The former was cautious and (appropriately) wary of Mr. Grey and the latter was sexy and enthusiastic. Except for one occasion.

I was often confused, not by which of these was speaking at the time, but by their motivations and by the distinction between them. They are, after all, all supposed to be Anastasia Steele. Whether the character suffered a very real dissociative personality disorder or something similar was unclear. I trust this was clarified in the later books.

Three stars out of twenty for 50SoG.

*Ahem*

Now here’s an update on where I’m at. Recently awarded working rights within the US so I’m looking for a job. Published Analysis of Footprints, my satirical critical analysis of the Footprints in the Sand poem. It’s currently for sale on the Kindle store for $1 because that’s the minimum. Soon it’ll be available at almost every other ebook store for free. Still completing my third story titled The Long Line. After this draft gets done I’ll finalize the other thing on the backburner, which I think will be called The Retroact, and release that in paper and ebook. After all those are done I’m thinking I might turn the race theory and emergent storytelling ideas into a cohesive volume, but that’s a pretty long term project.

Peace.

Partypooping, my 2015 list

I feel like recently my ability to sit down and enjoy movies has diminished. Taking a little bit of inspiration from Soderbergh, here is a list of the last few movies I’ve watched for the first time:

• Gravity
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• 52 Tuesdays
• Priscilla Queen of the Desert
• Captain America: The First Avenger
• Interstellar
• 22 Jump Street
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
• Godzilla (2014)
• The Imitation Game

Although be aware that this isn’t an exhaustive list of 2014, it’s from around August to now, January 2015.

Only five of those ten (Gravity, GotG, 52T, PQotD, 22JS) I actually enjoyed and didn’t afterwards complain about to those unlucky enough to see it with me. This disappoints me. I’d like to be a person who enjoys all films, but instead I feel like a party pooper when everybody else really enjoys a thing and I then have to launch into all the reasons I didn’t. This is a formal apology to all my friends who watch movies with me and then have to deal with me being a downer afterwards.

Some of these films I saw in cinema, some on television, and some on those crap little screens in commercial airplanes. Some I saw alone and some with company. Unfortunately none of these variables correlates to how much I enjoyed the film.

I’m not going to give reviews of those films above because, honestly, I don’t remember what I complained about for most of them. I didn’t even dislike most of them, they were “fine”. Unfortunately when you’re around people who exit the cinema grinning and raving about the film you just watched together, and then you politely smile and say “eh, it was fine” it really sounds like you’re saying “why did you guys drag me here. I want to go home.”

As I look down the list of films I didn’t enjoy as much I realise it might be that I’m choosing the wrong films. I didn’t really expect much from TMNT (and was still let down). There are a bunch of new ones that I’ve wanted to see but haven’t had the chance: The Rover, The Babadook, Boyhood, Neighbors, Locke, and these might have helped the ratio a little.

Looking through IMDB’s 2015 list I’m keen for:

• Blackhat - Michael Mann
• Maps to the Stars - Cronenberg
• Jupiter Ascending - Wachowskis.
• Project Almanac - PG rated teen time travel!
• Chappie - Blomkamp
• The Gunman
• Furious 7 - obviously
• Avengers: Age of Ultron
• Mad Max: Fury Road - Mad Maximum excitement for this one.
• Jurassic World
• Tomorrowland
• Terminator Genisys
• Magic Mike XXL
• The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Guy Ritchie
• Everest
• Spectre - new James Bond one
• Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens
• The Hateful Eight - Tarantino
• The Forest
• The Fifth Wave

Some of these are included just because they’re continuations of big franchises, or by big name directors with fantastic work in the past, which basically means everybody has to see them, right?

I won’t see all of these, and I’ll probably accidentally see some I didn’t mean to, like the new Mission Impossible. I’ll probably accidentally see that like I accidentally saw the last two.