E.P. Clark's Blog, page 12
March 5, 2017
SciFan Author FB Event TODAY, March 5!
Today, starting at 12pm EST with yours truly, there will be a special SciFan Author Takeover on the Facebook page Author Assist Showcase: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Autho... Come by between 12 and 8pm EST to meet new authors, play games, get swag, and have a great time!
February 4, 2017
The Midnight Land: I is FREE!
Yep, time for more freebies! I'm making The Midnight Land: Part I The Midnight Land: Part One: The Flight FREE in two different formats!
First of all, it's free on Kindle this weekend (February 4-5): myBook.to/tmli
And all this week you can also enter a Goodreads Giveaway for an autographed copy of the trade paperback version here: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
First of all, it's free on Kindle this weekend (February 4-5): myBook.to/tmli
And all this week you can also enter a Goodreads Giveaway for an autographed copy of the trade paperback version here: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
January 19, 2017
"Unplanned Parenthood" is FREE 1/19-20!
Yes, just in time for inauguration! In case you're itching to read something dystopian, feminist, pro-choice, and maybe a little LGBTQ as well, with a side of possible vampires and clones. Grab it here from Amazon: myBook.to/unplannedparenthood
December 22, 2016
Goodreads Giveaway of TMLI!
Enter to win a signed copy of The Midnight Land: Part One! Now through December 30: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
November 25, 2016
New Release--FREE this weekend!
Yes, I've decided to release a new work! It's a standalone novelette of about 10,000 words. It's a dystopian futuristic tale I wrote 5 years ago as a response to an attempt to shut down Planned Parenthood (and the federal government, as I recall), but it was never published. A few weeks ago I thought, "Hey, maybe I should release that story," but then I thought, "It's going to seem awfully outdated after the election."
HAHAHAHAHA.
It's about two women seeking asylum in Canada after one of them arranges for her sister to have an illegal abortion. The other woman is a government assassin who may or may not be a vampire. You can snap it up on Amazon here: myBook.to/unplannedparenthood
HAHAHAHAHA.
It's about two women seeking asylum in Canada after one of them arranges for her sister to have an illegal abortion. The other woman is a government assassin who may or may not be a vampire. You can snap it up on Amazon here: myBook.to/unplannedparenthood
October 9, 2016
Virtual FantasyCon 2016 is now Live!
Come visit us on Facebook all this week! Author "booths," free and bargain books, and games and prizes are all available! https://www.facebook.com/events/51839...
July 1, 2016
Free and Discounted Books!
Dozens of free and 99c books (including mine) available July 1-4! http://events.supportindieauthors.com/ Check it out--I know I'm already rubbing my hands together with gluttony and greed! I just hope my Kindle can handle the strain :)
June 27, 2016
TMLI Receives Honorable Mention in 2015 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Awards!
Well, that's kind of it, really: https://indiefab.forewordreviews.com/...
December 30, 2015
"Star Wars" and the Anima Problem
In my first post on the "Star Wars" series (this may be my last--or maybe not! The subject is inexhaustible!) I was speculating on why Han and Luke undergo heroic journeys in the original trilogy, but Leia doesn't. At the time I thought it was *just* sexism. A little more thought on the topic has led me to the conclusion that it's not *just* sexism, but rather the fact that "Star Wars" is about the masculine psyche and that Leia is therefore an anima figure. The attempts of the subsequent heroines, i.e., Padme and Rey, to break free of the anima role is probably why I find them only partially satisfying heroines. Allow me to elaborate.
The concept of the anima is taken from Jungian analytical psychology. Jung's theory is that each person contains a contrasexual--that is, of the opposite sex--element in their psyche, so that men have an "anima," what we might call a man's "feminine side," and women have an "animus." Even a brief examination of world literature and film will give us anima figures in uncountable numbers; unfortunately, animus figures are harder to find--or rather, they abound in romance novels and "chick lit," but since even the most successful examples of the genre, such as the "Twilight" and "50 Shades" series, are mocked and marginalized by the mainstream literati, who seem to be convinced that they are providing a service to feminism and womankind by doing so, we don't have many clear examples of animus figures that we are willing to accept. Anima figures, however, are easy to come by, and Leia is a perfect example.
The thing to understand about the anima/animus is that it is both the repository for all our beliefs and all our fantasies about what the opposite sex should be, and our guide to the underworld of our subconscious. The anima/animus is thus simultaneously an incredibly attractive figure, and one who frightens and repels us as it tries to get us to confront our fears and inadequacies. Women will tend to experience their animus as controlling and bullying (*ahem* Edward and Christian *ahem*) and have to learn how to integrate their (often sensible) advice while also standing up to them; men will tend to experience their anima as alternately seductive and nagging, and have to learn how to heed their wisdom without running away or falling into cowardice.
Leia is thus the perfect anima figure for Luke and Han. For Luke, who never knew his mother and is nervous around women, she is warm and supportive, kissing his cheek before they jump across the deactivated bridge in "A New Hope," coming back for him after his near-fatal confrontation with Vader in "Empire," and supporting him when he goes to confront Vader in "Jedi." For Han, who needs a firmer hand, she is often sharply critical, pointing out his inadequacies and alternately pushing and seducing him towards accepting his responsibility to others and forcing him to stop thinking only of his own short-term gain. It is partly because of Leia, the perfect anima figure, that our two heroes, especially Han, are able to complete their heroic journeys.
This is not a criticism of the character of Leia, who was revolutionary for her time and still in my mind remains one of the best strong female roles in contemporary culture. True, Leia is not on a heroic journey in the same way Luke and Han are (of course, she *is* on a heroic journey in the sense that she is one of the leaders of the rebellion and her mission is to overthrow the Empire, and in quest of that goal she often acts heroically), as she both starts and ends the series pretty much perfect. Like Obi-Wan and Yoda, she is at times strong, wise, and maddening because her role in the story is not to be its center but to help its central hero towards completion. This is her function as the anima and it would be a perfectly respectable function if it were recognized as such and if our culture were full of equivalent animus figures who were also recognized and accepted as such. If, if, if...well, a person can dream, can't she?
This lack of equality and equivalence in male and female character has been noticed and decried, which of course is a good thing, but the problem is that many writers and filmmakers have been attempting to turn anima figures into true heroines, and thus far their attempts have, in my opinion, been only partly successful. The anima is not a "real" woman, but a part of the masculine psyche, and thus 1) burdened with the (inherently self-centered) needs and fantasies of the psyche that has created her, and 2) incapable of making her own, independent heroic journey, since she is not a self-sufficient, fully formed psyche, but rather a fragment of another's self.
This leads us to characters such as Padme and Rey. As with Leia, I am quite fond of both of them and think that they are significant steps forward in our culture's grand heroic journey towards the acceptance and integration of the feminine. The current delight over Rey and how she is the feminist heroine we've been waiting for all this time is probably justified. But that says more about how low the bar is than how high Rey can jump.
So, our heroines: Padme, for all her awesomeness (I loved the way she was surrounded by handmaidens and had doubles with whom she would exchange identities--it was ALMOST AS IF SHE LIVED IN A SOCIETY WITH LOTS OF WOMEN IN IT), is really just Anakin's anima figure, as can be seen as she transforms from a clever and powerful fighter/leader in the first movie to a fearful, tearful figure in the last one, a figure who, fittingly, dies for some mysterious reason at the same time as Anakin is undergoing his final transformation into Vader. Unlike Leia, Padme does undergo some amount of change, but it is change linked with the change of the psyche that generated her, not change as the result of her own heroic journey.
Rey is, at least so far, more of her own person than Padme (how things will pan out in later installments is yet to be determined). But she still isn't a fully-fledged heroine in the true sense of the word, not in my opinion. First of all, as others have already pointed out, she's "the girl" to the other (mainly male) characters in the movie. Furthermore (again, as others have already indicated), she (like Leia and Padme) is TOO perfect. She's a brilliant pilot and mechanic, which I'm willing to accept since she obviously spends most of her time messing around with various forms of transport, but she also so strong in the Force that she is able to figure out and master Jedi mind control on her first try, without ever apparently having seen it demonstrated before (I know Kylo Ren tries to use mind reading on her, but he doesn't do the trick of telling the person that they will do something, and having them repeat back the words and obey, which is what Rey does). She is so good with her new light saber that the first time she picks it up, she is able to fight off Kylo Ren, who admittedly is wounded, but either he's not nearly as good as he's supposed to be, or Rey is simply ridiculously good. Either way, for me that's a serious weakness in the story. The only other character we've seen with this kind of talent is Anakin/Vader, but in his case, the danger of his incredible talent was recognized from the beginning, and the entire prequel trilogy was taken up with his struggle not to let his abilities corrupt him. There's no suggestion of anything like that so far with Rey, which for me makes her rather...flat. So far there's been no sign that she needs to train and overcome her naivety and impetuousness the way Luke did, or that she needs to struggle against the pull of the Dark Side the way Anakin did. She's just...perfect already. She doesn't appear to be able to undergo a real heroic journey, because she's already sprung, fully formed, from her father/creator's head.
I suppose I shouldn't be too judgmental. This probably IS the best that we can do right now. But we shouldn't mistake the first steps on the path for actually becoming a true Jedi. The heroines of the "Star Wars" universe are a very welcome development. But they're just the beginning, not the end.
The concept of the anima is taken from Jungian analytical psychology. Jung's theory is that each person contains a contrasexual--that is, of the opposite sex--element in their psyche, so that men have an "anima," what we might call a man's "feminine side," and women have an "animus." Even a brief examination of world literature and film will give us anima figures in uncountable numbers; unfortunately, animus figures are harder to find--or rather, they abound in romance novels and "chick lit," but since even the most successful examples of the genre, such as the "Twilight" and "50 Shades" series, are mocked and marginalized by the mainstream literati, who seem to be convinced that they are providing a service to feminism and womankind by doing so, we don't have many clear examples of animus figures that we are willing to accept. Anima figures, however, are easy to come by, and Leia is a perfect example.
The thing to understand about the anima/animus is that it is both the repository for all our beliefs and all our fantasies about what the opposite sex should be, and our guide to the underworld of our subconscious. The anima/animus is thus simultaneously an incredibly attractive figure, and one who frightens and repels us as it tries to get us to confront our fears and inadequacies. Women will tend to experience their animus as controlling and bullying (*ahem* Edward and Christian *ahem*) and have to learn how to integrate their (often sensible) advice while also standing up to them; men will tend to experience their anima as alternately seductive and nagging, and have to learn how to heed their wisdom without running away or falling into cowardice.
Leia is thus the perfect anima figure for Luke and Han. For Luke, who never knew his mother and is nervous around women, she is warm and supportive, kissing his cheek before they jump across the deactivated bridge in "A New Hope," coming back for him after his near-fatal confrontation with Vader in "Empire," and supporting him when he goes to confront Vader in "Jedi." For Han, who needs a firmer hand, she is often sharply critical, pointing out his inadequacies and alternately pushing and seducing him towards accepting his responsibility to others and forcing him to stop thinking only of his own short-term gain. It is partly because of Leia, the perfect anima figure, that our two heroes, especially Han, are able to complete their heroic journeys.
This is not a criticism of the character of Leia, who was revolutionary for her time and still in my mind remains one of the best strong female roles in contemporary culture. True, Leia is not on a heroic journey in the same way Luke and Han are (of course, she *is* on a heroic journey in the sense that she is one of the leaders of the rebellion and her mission is to overthrow the Empire, and in quest of that goal she often acts heroically), as she both starts and ends the series pretty much perfect. Like Obi-Wan and Yoda, she is at times strong, wise, and maddening because her role in the story is not to be its center but to help its central hero towards completion. This is her function as the anima and it would be a perfectly respectable function if it were recognized as such and if our culture were full of equivalent animus figures who were also recognized and accepted as such. If, if, if...well, a person can dream, can't she?
This lack of equality and equivalence in male and female character has been noticed and decried, which of course is a good thing, but the problem is that many writers and filmmakers have been attempting to turn anima figures into true heroines, and thus far their attempts have, in my opinion, been only partly successful. The anima is not a "real" woman, but a part of the masculine psyche, and thus 1) burdened with the (inherently self-centered) needs and fantasies of the psyche that has created her, and 2) incapable of making her own, independent heroic journey, since she is not a self-sufficient, fully formed psyche, but rather a fragment of another's self.
This leads us to characters such as Padme and Rey. As with Leia, I am quite fond of both of them and think that they are significant steps forward in our culture's grand heroic journey towards the acceptance and integration of the feminine. The current delight over Rey and how she is the feminist heroine we've been waiting for all this time is probably justified. But that says more about how low the bar is than how high Rey can jump.
So, our heroines: Padme, for all her awesomeness (I loved the way she was surrounded by handmaidens and had doubles with whom she would exchange identities--it was ALMOST AS IF SHE LIVED IN A SOCIETY WITH LOTS OF WOMEN IN IT), is really just Anakin's anima figure, as can be seen as she transforms from a clever and powerful fighter/leader in the first movie to a fearful, tearful figure in the last one, a figure who, fittingly, dies for some mysterious reason at the same time as Anakin is undergoing his final transformation into Vader. Unlike Leia, Padme does undergo some amount of change, but it is change linked with the change of the psyche that generated her, not change as the result of her own heroic journey.
Rey is, at least so far, more of her own person than Padme (how things will pan out in later installments is yet to be determined). But she still isn't a fully-fledged heroine in the true sense of the word, not in my opinion. First of all, as others have already pointed out, she's "the girl" to the other (mainly male) characters in the movie. Furthermore (again, as others have already indicated), she (like Leia and Padme) is TOO perfect. She's a brilliant pilot and mechanic, which I'm willing to accept since she obviously spends most of her time messing around with various forms of transport, but she also so strong in the Force that she is able to figure out and master Jedi mind control on her first try, without ever apparently having seen it demonstrated before (I know Kylo Ren tries to use mind reading on her, but he doesn't do the trick of telling the person that they will do something, and having them repeat back the words and obey, which is what Rey does). She is so good with her new light saber that the first time she picks it up, she is able to fight off Kylo Ren, who admittedly is wounded, but either he's not nearly as good as he's supposed to be, or Rey is simply ridiculously good. Either way, for me that's a serious weakness in the story. The only other character we've seen with this kind of talent is Anakin/Vader, but in his case, the danger of his incredible talent was recognized from the beginning, and the entire prequel trilogy was taken up with his struggle not to let his abilities corrupt him. There's no suggestion of anything like that so far with Rey, which for me makes her rather...flat. So far there's been no sign that she needs to train and overcome her naivety and impetuousness the way Luke did, or that she needs to struggle against the pull of the Dark Side the way Anakin did. She's just...perfect already. She doesn't appear to be able to undergo a real heroic journey, because she's already sprung, fully formed, from her father/creator's head.
I suppose I shouldn't be too judgmental. This probably IS the best that we can do right now. But we shouldn't mistake the first steps on the path for actually becoming a true Jedi. The heroines of the "Star Wars" universe are a very welcome development. But they're just the beginning, not the end.
December 29, 2015
Heroic Journeys or the Lack Thereof in "The Force Awakens"
So, I lay awake last night thinking about "Star Wars," as you do, and came to the conclusion that I still had a lot more I needed to say. Clearly I need to buckle down and write a scholarly article on the topic, but in the meantime, I'll have to settle for venting on this blog. Watch this space for more updates...
In my previous post I outlined some of the problems I had with the character of Finn, who I think was underserved by the writers. Casting a non-white actor to play the part was a bold stroke on the part of the filmmaking team, especially in light of the racist backlash they've received over it. So major kudos to them for doing that and to John Boyega for 1) playing the role with humanity and humor (I know some critics weren't crazy about his performance, but I think he did about as well as he could with the material he had) and 2) responding to the backlash with dignity. That being said, I still hold that the writers made a misstep with the apparent easy resolution of Finn's story: instead of actually undergoing a heroic struggle to free himself from the chains of slavery, he just...walks away, no qualms, no internal struggle, and very few external difficulties either. I don't know how much this was just the kind of cheap writing we get these days in action/adventure movies, and how much it was the writing and producing team choking when it came time to have a black character as a hero who escapes from oppression and exploitation, but anyway, for me it's a problem, and it leaves Finn without a clear role in the over-arching story. Is he supposed to free the storm troopers? Face his own internalized oppression? Help Rey achieve her destiny? We don't know, because his heroic path has not yet really been laid out.
Which brings me, as a side note, to Poe Dameron. What's his role in all this? That is, we know he's the best pilot in the Resistance and he saves Finn and Rey, but what's his heroic journey? He seems supposed to be some kind of a Lando character, but the Lando in the original trilogy had a clear heroic journey: he had to transform himself from a smuggler to a hero and redeem himself for having betrayed Han to Vader. What's Poe's backstory? Why is he doing this? What dramatic moral conflict will he have to resolve? We don't know. He seems to function more as a deus ex machina plot device than as a character with a moral story arc. In the original trilogy, even the tertiary characters had some kind of an emotional/moral story arc (the Rebel pilots had to overcome their fears of getting shot down and/or missing their target, the Imperial officers had to deal with their disbelief in the Force and their fears of Vader), but Poe just...drops in whenever it's convenient for the other characters.
Many viewers, myself included, have fallen in love (artistically, at least) with Kylo Ren and BB-8. I would argue that one of the main reasons why these characters are so compelling is because they have clearly developed and understandable heroic journeys: Kylo Ren is the adolescent who must deal with his Oedipal rage and choose between the Dark Side and the Light; BB-8 is the little hero in a big scary world who must navigate numerous dangers in order to complete the mission that will save the world. The success of these characters with the audience would suggest that many viewers are in fact craving just this kind of clear heroic journey.
(Another side note: My father and I were having a debate over BB-8's gender: I thought it was masculine, while my father thought it was feminine. Upon re-watching the movie I noticed that the characters referred to BB-8 as "he," which is disappointing. It would have been awesome to have our female Jedi (Rey) with her female mentor (Mas Kanada, tragically underused) and her female droid sidekick, but alas, that was not to be).
None of this is to say that in many ways "The Force Awakens" isn't a loving and well-done homage to "A New Hope," but for me it lacks the simplicity and clarity of storyline that was the true achievement of the original trilogy. I've read that part of the problem is that the writing and development team had to leave things open for the makers of the next movie, so that they couldn't, for example, indicate Rey's parentage but instead had to hint at various possibilities and leave it up to the next team to decide how it will play it. If that's true, then that's disappointing and alarming, but probably not unexpected. Compared with the bloated and incoherent monsters that most action/adventure films have become, "The Force Awakens" is a marvel of clever writing and directing, but compared with what it could have been, for me, at least, it falls flat.
In my previous post I outlined some of the problems I had with the character of Finn, who I think was underserved by the writers. Casting a non-white actor to play the part was a bold stroke on the part of the filmmaking team, especially in light of the racist backlash they've received over it. So major kudos to them for doing that and to John Boyega for 1) playing the role with humanity and humor (I know some critics weren't crazy about his performance, but I think he did about as well as he could with the material he had) and 2) responding to the backlash with dignity. That being said, I still hold that the writers made a misstep with the apparent easy resolution of Finn's story: instead of actually undergoing a heroic struggle to free himself from the chains of slavery, he just...walks away, no qualms, no internal struggle, and very few external difficulties either. I don't know how much this was just the kind of cheap writing we get these days in action/adventure movies, and how much it was the writing and producing team choking when it came time to have a black character as a hero who escapes from oppression and exploitation, but anyway, for me it's a problem, and it leaves Finn without a clear role in the over-arching story. Is he supposed to free the storm troopers? Face his own internalized oppression? Help Rey achieve her destiny? We don't know, because his heroic path has not yet really been laid out.
Which brings me, as a side note, to Poe Dameron. What's his role in all this? That is, we know he's the best pilot in the Resistance and he saves Finn and Rey, but what's his heroic journey? He seems supposed to be some kind of a Lando character, but the Lando in the original trilogy had a clear heroic journey: he had to transform himself from a smuggler to a hero and redeem himself for having betrayed Han to Vader. What's Poe's backstory? Why is he doing this? What dramatic moral conflict will he have to resolve? We don't know. He seems to function more as a deus ex machina plot device than as a character with a moral story arc. In the original trilogy, even the tertiary characters had some kind of an emotional/moral story arc (the Rebel pilots had to overcome their fears of getting shot down and/or missing their target, the Imperial officers had to deal with their disbelief in the Force and their fears of Vader), but Poe just...drops in whenever it's convenient for the other characters.
Many viewers, myself included, have fallen in love (artistically, at least) with Kylo Ren and BB-8. I would argue that one of the main reasons why these characters are so compelling is because they have clearly developed and understandable heroic journeys: Kylo Ren is the adolescent who must deal with his Oedipal rage and choose between the Dark Side and the Light; BB-8 is the little hero in a big scary world who must navigate numerous dangers in order to complete the mission that will save the world. The success of these characters with the audience would suggest that many viewers are in fact craving just this kind of clear heroic journey.
(Another side note: My father and I were having a debate over BB-8's gender: I thought it was masculine, while my father thought it was feminine. Upon re-watching the movie I noticed that the characters referred to BB-8 as "he," which is disappointing. It would have been awesome to have our female Jedi (Rey) with her female mentor (Mas Kanada, tragically underused) and her female droid sidekick, but alas, that was not to be).
None of this is to say that in many ways "The Force Awakens" isn't a loving and well-done homage to "A New Hope," but for me it lacks the simplicity and clarity of storyline that was the true achievement of the original trilogy. I've read that part of the problem is that the writing and development team had to leave things open for the makers of the next movie, so that they couldn't, for example, indicate Rey's parentage but instead had to hint at various possibilities and leave it up to the next team to decide how it will play it. If that's true, then that's disappointing and alarming, but probably not unexpected. Compared with the bloated and incoherent monsters that most action/adventure films have become, "The Force Awakens" is a marvel of clever writing and directing, but compared with what it could have been, for me, at least, it falls flat.
