Steven Barnes's Blog, page 32
February 7, 2018
The Power of Myth
I remember Star Wars. Back in 1977, no one had ever seen fast-paced storytelling hooked to “2001” level special effects, dynamic soundtrack and a real sense of fun. It was everything SF fans loved from Space Opera, delivered in a way we’d never seen. People camped out overnight to see it, EVERYONE in the science fiction community was talking about it. And when you added the mythical resonance…just wow. It spawned clubs, a felled forest of tie-in novels, billions of dollars in sequels...
February 6, 2018
If Talent doesn’t rule…what does?
I don’t believe in talent. I believe in honesty, hard work and modeling ex...
February 5, 2018
Coco (2017)
The newest Pixar wonder is almost a perfect piece of storytelling, combined with a real commitment to accurately portray the mythic world-view of the Mexican culture. It deals with a boy named Miguel who longs to be a musician while his family wants him to join their shoemaking business. He rebels, and that’s as much as I want to say about it, or as much as you should let anyone tell you, other than to say that it rocks.
We’ve spoken at length about the power of storytelliing on a per...
February 4, 2018
A Cubic Inch of Opportunity
“From time to time life gives you a cubic inch of opportunity. When it comes, you either grab it, or it is gone forever.” (author unknown)
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When I was a kid, my mom played LPs (remember them?) of motivational, inspirational, and strategic self-help works like THINK AND GROW RICH, THE GOLDEN KEY, THE STRANGEST SECRET, PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS, and so forth. I hated it. Really. But…it sank in, and in adulthood, I found myself returning to it and sorting through all that wealth to find the most...
February 3, 2018
All you can do is the best you can do
Twenty-five years ago, my oldest friend “Chuck”was dying. I lived in Vancouver Washington, and we were locked in a snowstorm. I had to get down to Los Angeles to see him one last time, and PDX was closed. So…I packed up my car, and tried to drive down, praying I could get over the Siskiyou pass. I was only about ten miles down the road, inching along in the snow, when I accelerated and went into a skid, and then a 270 degree spin. I was perpendicular on the road, looked up, and saw a sem...
February 2, 2018
The Single Best Practice I know: The Morning Ritual
When our family moved to Atlanta, I was in a situation I’d never prepared for or anticipated. For various reasons, my reaction was something near emotional collapse, with none of the resources I counted on to not merely survive, but progress as a human being.
In terms of pain, it felt like the pain I experienced of my mother dying…every month. On and on. Existential despair, with the only thing holding me together was my commitment to Jason. Seriously. That was it.
I was in an unreso...
February 1, 2018
Healing dualistic wounds
The wounds I address most directly are black/white, child/adult and male/female. There are others: rich/poor, Conservative/Liberal, gay/straight, body/mind and so forth. All such conflicts are doorways to knowledge. Resolve a duality and you gain options and energy. (By the way, do you catch the implication that the actual “Knot” I need to focus on is the needs of black women? In other words, when I follow my interests to their logical conclusion, the place where the lines meet is the s...
Wakandan hunger syndrome
May I suggest a measure of the impact Black Panther is going to have? Well…remember the reaction to the “No Man’s Land” sequence of “Wonder Woman” and the “I didn’t even know I needed to see this?”
There was a story of a single “women only” showing of WW at the Alamo Drafthouse. Now…compare this with the stories of people buying out entire theaters to distribute ticket...
Take a nap, would you?
If a person complains about some lack in their life, I don’t say “poor baby”. I offer a suggestion. If they wanted “poor baby” they need to SAY they just want emotional comfort. If they don’t say that, and get upset if I offer a suggestion, they are being childish: they want me to read their mind (“I don’t want fixing, I want comfort”) without being able to read mine (“here is a problem. Let me see what can be done.”)
Get the game? The INSTANT someone holds you responsible for reading...
January 29, 2018
“Edge of Tomorrow” (2014) and the path of growth
I have a student who enjoyed his girlfriend’s abundant sexuality, but couldn’t deal with the “Madonna/Whore” voices in his head, and the fact that she talked about prior boyfriends. I worked with him for a year on attitudes, processes and so forth. He’d been in therapy for years, and gotten no where.
And after a year, he wasn’t much better. This engaged me, because my commitment is to helping people heal, and I just wasn’t helping him. What was wrong?
And then something occurred to...
