Sean McBride's Blog, page 26

The Meaning

I recently watched a TED talk (I know, I know, but it was for my other job OK?) where the speaker (Simon Sinek) spoke about how leaders become leaders.  How some people excel and how others don’t.  Of course I immediately started to think about writing.

Mr. Sinek says in his talk, that people or groups fail because they talk about what they do.  The people or groups who succeed talk about why they do it.

This is something I’ve always struggled with.  When people ask what my book is about, or what I’m writing about, I ramble on about some such theme, or some kind of similarity to something else, to try and give them an understanding of what it’s about and if they think they’ll like it.

But all I’m doing is boring people with what I’m writing.  What is going to make them pick up my book over someone else’s?  What makes my Twilight Zone inspired short story collection unique from someone else’s Twilight Zone inspired short story collection?  What makes my Children’s Chapter book series different from someone else’s?  Content?  Ability?  Character?

No.

Marketing is always something I’ve struggled with because I’ve always thought about what I’m doing.  I’ve always described what I was doing to people.  I’ve never discussed why I did it.

This still isn’t a easy subject to broach, because for the most part, I’ve never thought about it myself.  I’ve always said I write because I love to tell stories, but is this the truth?  Is there something more?

The more I think about it, everything comes back to Belief.

I believe in myself. I believe in my writing.  I believe in what writing stands for.

I believe that if I can write a children’s chapter book series about literature, than I will inspire a child to go out and read some of that literature.

I believe that that child will be once of the next leaders of the world.

I believe that by writing a science fiction story that pushes a character past the limits of their imagination, then the reader will believe that they can do something past their own.

I believe writing improves the world.  That is the meaning behind what I do.  I strive to make the world better one person at a time.

That is why I’ll succeed.  Because I wont stop.  I believe it too hard to give up.

The Best You’ve Never Heard

Back in college one of my best friends turned this phrase about a band he was listening to.  I believe the band was “Failure” and indeed I had never heard of them before, and indeed the band was truly great.

Since then I have taken to that phrase and I use it to describe authors, movies and music that I’ve discovered and most people have never heard of it.  I’ve a penchant for posting music periodically on my Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/Sean-McBride-Author-293451414004074/?fref=nf ), but I thought I’d take a moment to post some authors that you probably haven’t heard of, but are tremendous talents.

 

Arthur Nersessian.

This guy is like a mixture of J.D. Salinger and Jack Kerouac, but for a modern crowd.  Anyone who liked “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”, you need to read “The Fuck-Up” by Nersessian.  He speaks of New York in such a real way, he echoes Paul Auster, who is known for his books about New York.  Description aside, he writes angst, despair, hope and happiness with such pith, that you really feel for the characters, instead of being told how to feel about them.  Truly a wonderful author, check him out.

Kevin Brockmeier.

He follows in the footsteps of the magical realists, where he takes these strange premises and adds in some kind of supernaturality, or magic.  For example in “The Illumination” whenever anyone gets hurt, or cut, their injury lights up.  What Brockmeier does so well is let you infer what is actually going on.  Your imagination blooms when reading him.  He writes with such incredible heart and poise and grace.  Everything he does is short, but if you can sit back and really think about what he’s trying to say it’ll blow your world.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Zafon is a little more well known than the first two, but there are still so many people who have never had the absolute joy of reading one of his books.  As of the writing of this blog he has three adult books, which are semi-sequels in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books sequence, and five children books which easily read as adult.  Zafon has been linked to being up on Umberto Eco’s level, and his writing is so lyrical is really does sing to your soul.  Of course having Lucia Graves translate it from it’s native Spanish just elevates it that much more.  With echoes of Shakespeare, Goethe, Dickens, Proust, Eco and so many more, they are just beautiful stories “The Shadow of the Wind” being my favorite book of all time.  If you’ve ever considered yourself a writer then you must read either “The Shadow of the Wind” or “The Angels Game”.  They will change your life.

Mark Danielewski

And now for something completely different.  You may not recognize the name, but many of you will probably recognize his epic first novel “House of Leaves”.  At turns creepy, vivid, and evocative, Danielewski plays with form like nobody ever has.  If you’re a fan of Palahniuk because of his form, drop that hack’s shock jock bilge and pick up anything by Danielewski (And really if you’re the fan of the shock value, pick up Bret Easton Ellis, or Irvine Welsh).  You’ll find yourself turning the book around and reading from back to front, but you’ll also find yourself biting your fingers, crying, laughing and just down right flabbergasted.  Just as deep as everyone else on this list, but because of form, not because of prose.  Try out “House of Leaves”, it may take you a year to read, but you’ll find yourself going back to it.

That’s all for now, but I’ll be sure to post more later!

In Memorium

 

“Noal would die with honor.  Once, Mat would have thought that kind of thing foolish-what good was honor if you were dead?  But he had too many memories of soldiers, had spent too much time with men who fought and bled for that honor, to discredit such notions now.”- Brandon Sanderson/Robert Jordan “Towers of Midnight”

This is a sensitive subject, but one necessary as we come through memorial day.  As most of us enjoy having a bit of time off of work and the impending beginning of Summer we have this holiday.

Perhaps the most important holiday.

I have quotes to bookend this little narrative to try and illustrate the pride and truth of what the holiday really means.  Your Facebook will have been filled with pictures of military graveyards, or pictures of soldiers helping others, or of the Flag flowing in the wind.

But what do these symbols really mean to people who weren’t there?  What does the semi-amorphous meaning of country mean?

It is nothing without brotherhood.

Men and women fight and die for their friends and family and for that kinship.  The idea goes far beyond ideals and faithfulness to a country or to a flag.  The true meaning of heroism comes from love and friendship.  To people and to each other.  This is what this holiday is really about.  Honoring the men and women who gave their lives so that we might live in a better world.  Our brothers and sisters (both metaphoric and blood) who have changed the world to try and save us.

People go to war for an ideal or a country.  They die to protect their brothers and sisters.

That is the most honorable thing in the world.

I use words to try and give that honor back, though it falls short, it is all I have.

Thank you my brothers and sisters who have died to save me.

 

“God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour

As one man more methinks would share from me

For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!

Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,

That he which hath no stomach to this fight,

Let him depart; his passport shall be made,

And crowns for convoy put into his purse;

We would not die in that man’s company

That fears his fellowship to die with us.

This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,

Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,

And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall live this day, and see old age,

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,

And say “To-morrow is Saint Crispian.”

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,

And say “These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.”

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,

But he’ll remember, with advantages,

What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,

Familiar in his mouth as household words—

Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester—

Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.

This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remembered-

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition;

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.” -Shakespeare Henry V

Game of Thrones, Storytelling, and closure

Before you say anything, yes.  I have read the books.  I almost wish I had not at this point because who knows when GRRM will ever put out another one, but I digress.  The point of this blog post isn’t to point fingers, but to point out how good the books, and by proxy, the show really are.

I don’t mean they’re good because they’re shocking.  I don’t mean they’re good because the characters are cool.  I mean these are just good old fashioned storytelling.  With all long epics like this you begin to worry after a while, because usually authors start with a shtick, but by the time the end really needs to come together it’s to daunting to do.  A perfect example of this is the Wheel of Time, by Robert Jordan which was finished by Brandon Sanderson.  You have this big sweeping epic and an author who is to close to the story to feel it ending appropriately, so bringing in another talented author to complete it is necessary.  GRRM seems to be doing this with Benioff and Weiss.

There are five books and five and a half seasons of the show, and now that the show has pulled ahead we are starting to see some of that storytelling come to fruition.  A large problem shows that contain mysteries have, is they focus on expanding the mystery to the point it is so untenable that it becomes too loose and no longer entertaining.  Game of Thrones (and the book alternative A Song of Ice and Fire), after Sunday night’s episode is seeming to be eliminating some of these issues.

We are finally getting explanations to why the characters are the way they are.  We are finally getting information about the forces in the world trying to destroy it. We are finally getting some closure.

That’s what good storytelling is really all about.  Anyone could be like the show Lost and come up with all these crazy ideas, but the trick to good storytelling is being able to bring them all back together in a nice cohesive bundle.  Story telling is cyclical, your ending must hearken back to the beginning and pay off the events that happened that got your story started, and it appears as though GRRM did in fact have a plan, from the beginning, as to what he was going to do.  That gives me hope for a good show.  That gives me pride in a great book series.

And it all came with the realization of a characters name.

The Drifter

Today in honor of finishing one of my books which is based upon poetry, I’m submitting some poetry of my own.  I wrote this one a few years ago, but I never published it here. Enjoy!

 

Driftwood finds it’s way to sand, how is it that it’s so hard for me to find land?

and this state of constant wonder, leads me divided; torn asunder

in this horrid devil’s playground in my head…

 

My fingers tell the story, of the broken trumped up glory

when my mind refused to listen, drowned out by broken pistons

the silence beating louder than my heart…

 

The darkened frozen night glows, and the turgid sky just bellows

of my time examining seams, on the boulevard of broken dreams

as words flow down as kindling for my hearth…

 

But those wounds of empty pages, who speak louder than the ages

as the clock runs down to zero, I’m not a battered, broken hero,

just a man who wont give up until he wins…

Where my nerds at?

Marvel has brought an interesting resurgence of popularity to the movie theaters which has been lacking lately.  So why are these movies so poplar?  What has Marvel tapped into to bring such popularity to their movies?

Their writers are brilliant and timely.  Marvel has brought hope in the form of superheroes at a time where apathy and drama are the norm.

So why is it Marvel and superheroes which dominate the market instead of something else?  Because we all have a tendency towards nerddom.

The last time there was a spike in, what people would call a movie for nerds, was “The Star Wars”.  This movie came about when people were distrustful of their government and life had become so much harder and, frankly, more real.  You had Vietnam.  You had the Civil Rights movement. You had Nixon and Goldwater.  Who could you trust?  What could you believe in?

Is it any wonder “The Star Wars” was later re-titled “A New Hope”?  This brought a generation of people who were told that hard work could get you where you wanted to go, and to imagine a young farm boy who worked hard and was able to throw over a galactic empire as part of a rebel alliance was what brought them together.  It was topical, it was timely.  It was something people could hope for.

We’re in a similar time now, except the ideals of the populace are slightly skewed.  Now the movie going generation is the millennials.  A generation who grew up with the previous disenfranchised generation as parents.  These parents wanted the best for their children and they didn’t want them getting hurt like they did, so protection became paramount.  Making playgrounds safer.  Making food safer.  This is the generation who lived in a bubble.  And what do they have to think about?  What do they have to hope for?  The generation who was told that if they just did what they were supposed to do, then everything would work out for them?

This is a brand new world in ever shifting priorities.  Now instead of outright war, we have terrorism.  We have fear of going to our work, of the movies, of going to dinner and getting killed by some crazy loon with a gun.  All the sudden the life the “Star Wars” generation wanted for their kids is in jeopardy.  no matter how much they do for them, there is still an outside factor making things tougher.  Making life dangerous.  So what do they turn to now?

Superheroes.  Superheroes who would make sure that the status quo is kept.  It’s no longer a plucky farm boy who people can relate to because the feeling is that there is nothing you as an individual can do.  You need something more.  You need something bigger to make the change.  Enter the superhero.

This is the societal fantasy.  This is why people who are considered nerds and the things they like are so pervasive.  These types of movies are escapist and they lash out against the Kardashian reality.  These things strike a chord so deep in the social consciousness that we don’t even notice it as it’s happening, but we can feel that hope in our heart, we feel that rush as these superheroes do what we want to do, to effect the change that we as a culture wish.  These are the new difference makers in our culture.