Steven Barnes's Blog, page 24

Deadpool 2 (2018)

Deadpool 2 is trying too hard to be as bubbly and subversive as the first, rather than being in opposition to the entire genre. It could also, obviously be easily trimmed to make a PG-13 version. This is “family friendly” as an R-rated movie gets. Instead of being a scrappy underdog, they accidentally created a…um…Juggernaut.

 

The plot, such as it is, involves a super-soldier named Cable (Josh Brolin, and yes, the joke is made) traveling back from the future to stop a certain person from doi...

The Aliens are here! (and that might be a good thing..?)

I had a thought this morning, ideas colliding around.   The Aliens are Here.  And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

 

1995.   I was watching “Independence Day” at the Cinedome Theater in southern Washington.  Will Smith pilots a spaceship out of the atmosphere, and says “I’ve waited my whole life for this.”   I sat there with tears streaming down my face and thought: “me, too.”

 

After the movie was over, I went to the rest room. The Cinedome theater is in a very…well, let’s say “Redneck” p...

Morning Magic

(The following is a post from 2007 which seems to connect with the current Morning Ritual thoughts.   Hope you enjoy both)

I was at Chapel Hill, and a lady asked me about fear and writer’s block. I gave her a slightly flip answer… and then looked at her eyes. She had said she’d traveled hundreds of miles to speak to me, and suddenly my ego-shit went out the window (I love when that happens!) and I was in that “Real” space I get thrown into more and more often these days. So I told her I was g...

Your “Incredible” Life

The Incredibles is coming!   I don’t know if it will be a fraction as good as the original, but I’m going to give Brad Bird the benefit of the doubt, and get excited.  Why?  Because when Pixar is at their best, they have a WISDOM in their storytelling that gives an emotional foundation to otherwise “trivial” stories that raises them very high indeed.

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INCREDIBLES is the story of a man, Bob Parr, who is secretly Mr. Incredible, a superhero.  OR, it is the story of a superhero, Mr. Incredible,...

Rules for “Author’s Club”

 Write a sentence a day Write 1-4 stories a month Finish and submit them Don’t rewrite except to editorial request Read 10X what you write (say, a story a day) Repeat 100 times

 

 

This is the basic structure of my writing instructions, and IMO they will work for anyone.  It was fascinating to see how hard it was for the kids in our “Author’s Club” to understand #2.   They all read Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, and saw their stories in an enormous sprawl across the canvas of their minds. ...

“When you be master?”

I remember my dear friend Amara Charles had a spiritual teacher who she adored.  A Chinese lady of great gifts and wisdom.  The sort of teacher you would travel across the world and climb a mountain just to sit at her feet for an hour.  Call her Madame, because I can’t remember her name.

Madame came to the U.S. to teach some workshops, and was staying at Amara’s house. While there, she didn’t seem to teach anything directly, but engaged with Amara’s life: cooking, cleaning, shopping…just “bei...

Maybe last comments on INFINITY WAR

SPOILERS.

 

If I had one  thing to change in INFINITY WAR that would make me think it lived up to the promise of CIVIL WAR and BLACK PANTHER, it would be to address a serious issue:

 

Unlike those other two movies, INFINITY WAR doesn’t pass the Barnes-Due test, which for the sake of a morning conversation, is the racial version of the Bechdel Test. That test measures whether there are at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man.

 

This test is very similar: one...

Torture rears its head

So the subject of “enhanced interrogation”  arises once again. My attitude on it is a little different than most. When someone brings up the “ticking time bomb” scenario, I find it pointless to argue with them about efficiency and effectiveness.

The truth is that if I was in a room with a suspected terrorist, and a nuclear weapon that could destroy the city was counting down to zero, I can imagine losing my shit and doing all kinds of things. Human beings are like that.

But you know what I wo...

Everyone Wants the First Four

So a few times recently I saw people discussing my advice for relationships, and replying in essence that they weren’t looking for what I was discussing.   My laughing question is: I am describing the territory I’m passing as I climb.  If wanna climb K2, why are you talking to a Sherpa on Everest?

 

Make no mistake: I don’t change my mind about things because it is politically convenient, or because an expert says something different, or because it might hurt your feelings if I don’t agree wi...

“Escaping the Friend Zone”…we have a volunteer!

YES!  As I hoped, my essay on “escaping the friend zone” attracted an Incel-type guy, so that I could have a chance to analyze the thought patterns.    I will censor the language a bit, but the perspective is obvious, and the emotions powerful.

 

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The fact he wrote this entire piece let’s me know he will stay in the friend zone. That “nice guy” sh*t is for the birds. What he did was made himself too available for her a$$.  If there is one thing I have learned from the experience I ha...