Steven Barnes's Blog, page 10

VOTE! And how to spot sleepers and snakes…

I try to avoid politics when I can, but “what is true?” is more a matter of the philosophical.   As today is voting day, I see no rational reason any American shouldn’t stake out their position, so I will.

 

There are many issues concerning America right now, but it is said that the most important issue in this election for Democrats is health care.  It is such a partisan issue, like many others. But here, at least, (unlike racial and gender issues, immigration or even climate change)  I beli...

Romeo & Juliet’s journey #3: Accepting the Challenge

So we know the story: against a background of family strife, the two lovers meet and BOOM!  Fall instantly in lust.  I mean love.  Juliet feels the pull as well, but quite sensibly insists that Romeo announce his honorable intentions. Overcome with lust (I mean love) he agrees to her terms, and opens his heart despite that family strife, and despite his general caddishness.

 

(by the way: this is why they are so young.  Juliet is only 13!  Romeo at least 18 or 19.  He is clearly immature, and...

Romeo’s Journey #2: Rejection of the Challenge

“My only love sprung from my only hate!

Too early seen unknown, and known too late!

140Prodigious birth of love it is to me,

That I must love a loathèd enemy.” — Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5

So we started looking at the ten steps of the Hero’s Journey, related to finding a relationship. The first step is to confront a challenge. In this case, it is to find a mate, to admit that we want a life partner, a love, a passionate connection.

Once you admit that you want something that is out of y...

Sunday Morning Musings: The “Three Gates” and UHC and Quasi-Living Things

Sunday morning musing time.   Its fun being a science fiction writer.  I can string together ideas and see if they fit, in the context of internal logic rather than convincing anyone that something is “actually real”.  And a flow of notions this morning connected in an interesting way.

 

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This will connect with some basic notions: you’ll spot them as we go along, but they include

 

The “three gates” of speech:

Is it true?

Is it useful?

Is it kind?

 

The notion of human equality betwee...

Romeo’s First Step

If we want to apply the “Hero’s Journey” model to relationships, it is valuable to be specific, so let’s start with the first step.

 

The hero is confronted with a challenge.  “Come with me, Luke, learn the ways of  the Force” was the call to adventure in the original Star Wars film.

 

What is it with relationships?  The urge to model Mommy and Daddy?  Loneliness?  Sexual hunger?  The urge to reproduce or maintain social standards?

 

In the most famous love story in all of western fiction,...

The Story of Love

Many years ago, I was teaching a “writer’s toolbox” class at UCLA, and we were having a great time with subjects like brainstorming, flow state management, structure, characterization and so on.  On the second day a student raised his hand.

 

“Mr. Barnes,’ he said. “You’ve given us so many wonderful tools, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to use them.”

 

“Why not?” I asked.

 

“well, my wife doesn’t support my desire to be a writer.  My kids take a LOT of energy at home, and my job just...

Happy Halloween! And…don’t be scared, there’s still a little time left for your own “Treat”!

 

Happy Halloween!   Hope you are prepared for the goblins and ghosts and princesses and pirates that will be storming your fortress!

 

And while you are doling out sweets for the kiddies, I hope you have the most important “sweetness” in your own life: love.   Twenty-five years ago I was overweight, alone and broke, living in an apartment in Vancouver Washington a thousand miles away from my friends. It was horrific.  And today I am successful, in terrific shape, and just celebrating my 20th...

Halloween (2018) and “Toxic Humanity”

There is a terrific scene in the new “Halloween” film where three generations of Strode women: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, and Andi Matichak) face off against “The Shape” Michael Meyers.

 

(SERIOUS SPOILERS)

 

The set-up is devastatingly simple: traumatized by the events in the original film, Laurie Strode (Curtis) has become a neurotic, agoraphobic recluse, convinced that Meyers will return to kill her one day, and sacrificing the love and warmth of her family to attempt to protect them an...

Six Degrees Of Love

I remember having a conversation with a lady who had trouble in her love life. “All I meet are bad guys” she said. As I had at one time been attracted to her, and gotten no where, I thought that was an interesting answer, and dug deeper. Finally, I managed to get her to admit that not ALL the men she met were scoundrels and no-goods. “And what happens when you meet a nice guy?” I asked.

And reluctantly, she said: “I’m not attracted to them.”

Oh. That.

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I had been attracted to her. She hadn’...

“As Good As It Gets” (1997): Equality or Complementarity?

In the 1997 Romantic comedy written by James L. Brooks, Helen Hunt plays a waitress, CAROL CONNOLY, a single mother with a chronically ill son.

There is a terrific scene where Carol brings a boyfriend home for (hopefully) some awkward sex on the couch of her shabby apartment. She wants him, he wants her…she hopes for a night of passion, something to make her remember she is a woman, filled with hope and life and love and possibility, and not just a mother or a worker drone. Hope. Hope is the...