Phyllis Zimbler Miller's Blog: Phyllis Zimbler Miller Author, page 5
June 29, 2018
Where Is Harriet Beecher Stowe When We Need Her?
Because I’m now reading Stowe’s novel, I was brought up short by Margaret Talbot’s closing paragraph in her “Family Values” article in the print edition of the July 2, 2018, New Yorker comment section (boldface mine):
In the meantime, it will be important to remember what the President was willing to do in the name of toughness. It will be important to remember that Attorney General Jeff Sessions justified taking children away from their parents by quoting Biblical Scripture. It will be important to be on guard for what this Administration may try next.
I did an online search for more information on Sessions’ Biblical quote and found the June 15, 2018, Washington Post article “Sessions cites Bible passage used to defend slavery in defense of separating immigrant families” by Julie Zauzmer and Keith McMillan, which begins:
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday used a Bible verse [Romans 13] to defend his department’s policy of prosecuting everyone who crosses the border from Mexico, suggesting that God supports the government in separating immigrant parents from their children.
And it turns out that my immediate connection to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s UNCLE TOM’S CABIN was correct. The Washington Post article later says (boldface mine):
“There are two dominant places in American history when Romans 13 is invoked,” said John Fea, a professor of American history at Messiah College in Pennsylvania. “One is during the American Revolution [when] it was invoked by loyalists, those who opposed the American Revolution.”
The other, Fea said, “is in the 1840s and 1850s, when Romans 13 is invoked by defenders of the South or defenders of slavery to ward off abolitionists who believed that slavery is wrong. I mean, this is the same argument that Southern slaveholders and the advocates of a Southern way of life made.”
Now as to why a member of the Great Books group did not want us to read UNCLE TOM’S CABIN, which she had not read:
She mistakenly confused the main character of the novel — who is extremely heroic — with the later use of “Uncle Tom” as a derogatory epithet for a subservient person. She thought reading the novel would be anti-black instead of realizing that the book is very pro-black.
(There is the oft-repeated story of when President Lincoln met Stowe he said words to the effect that this was the little lady who started the big war.)
While I doubt that reading UNCLE TOM’S CABIN can do anything about the current immigration crisis, I highly recommend reading the novel now. Click here for a free Kindle format on Amazon or check out the other formats available on Amazon.
And earlier this week I had a different realization in connection with the government’s separation of children from their parents:
My unpublished science fiction novel THE MISSISSIPPI DIVIDE includes the novella THE MOTHER SIEGE. This dystopian story is about one mother’s resistance to the forced separation of all children from the ages of six months to 18 years of age that takes place in the year 2049 in an encapsulated land mass west of the Mississippi River.
Click here to read for free on Wattpad the novella THE MOTHER SIEGE.
Click here to read the New Yorker article “Family Values.”
Click here to read the Washington Post article about Sessions’ Biblical quote.
© 2018 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks. Phyllis is available by skype for book group discussions and may be reached at pzmiller@gmail.com
Her Kindle fiction ebooks may be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller — and her Kindle nonfiction ebooks may also be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszmiller
June 15, 2018
Writer’s Digest Guest Article on #SaferSexInFiction
Photo by Mike Meadows; July 6, 1993, Bruce Horovitz LA Times article “Hollywood May Add ‘Safe” to Its Sex Scenes”
My #SaferSexInFiction guest article appeared on June 15, 2018, on the Writer’s Digest site with the headline “Why Writers Should Consider Including Safer Sex in Fiction.”
The guest article begins:
The May 7, 2018, Los Angeles Times article by Soumya Karlamangla entitled “STDs in L.A. County are skyrocketing” caused me to see red. It had been 25 years since I had tried—unsuccessfully—to get the entertainment industry to commit to portraying safer sex in films and TV shows. And now STDs are on the rise.
Before I continue, let’s establish a few ground rules:
First, I use “safer sex” rather than “safe sex” because, as health experts explained to me years ago, no sex is absolutely safe.
Second, I have never advocated portraying explicit visual scenes of condoms being pulled on. What I have been advocating for years is the creative inclusion of a reminder in a sex scene about “protection” (by which I mean a condom).
Third, why is this inclusion of safer sex in fiction so important? We’re talking about fiction, aren’t we?
As I explain in the Writer’s Digest guest article, fictional characters have a powerful influence in our 24/7 media world. What these fictional characters do can dramatically impact what people do in real life.
Given the skyrocketing of STDs, we fiction writers and screenwriters (film and TV) can help combat this STD rise by using our fictional characters to model healthy sex practices.
Wondering how writers can portray safer sex? Here are two examples of #SaferSexInFiction portrayals — one in a novel and one in a TV series:
In Mercedes Lackey’s novel SACRED GROUND (first published in 1994), this is a scene between protagonist Jennifer Talldeer and David Spotted Horse:
… Her skin tingled at the touch of his tongue; his technique had definitely improved. He pulled away just long enough to ask, “Your safe-sex, or mine?”
“Mine,” she replied, rattling the little plastic packet she pulled out of the pocket of her jeans.
In Episode 4 of Season 2 of Netflix’s DEAR WHITE PEOPLE, Coco (Antoinette Robertson) has a conversation with her roommate. Coco admits she’s pregnant and explains why she hadn’t used a condom &dmash; “I got caught up.” She later tells her roommate, “You really should use condoms.”
Join me in encouraging #SaferSexInFiction. Use hashtag #SaferSexInFiction to share examples on social media.
Click here to read my entire Writer’s Digest guest article.
© 2018 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks. Phyllis is available by skype for book group discussions and may be reached at pzmiller@gmail.com
Her Kindle fiction ebooks may be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller — and her Kindle nonfiction ebooks may also be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszmiller
May 28, 2018
For Memorial Day 2018: Remembering Our Veterans
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For Memorial Day 2018 — click here for my site FilmsThatSupportOurTroops.com with information about films and documentaries on a wide range of military topics.
And if you’d like to read the beginning of a fiction short story inspired by the real-life Los Angeles Veterans Court, here is an excerpt from my PTSD short story “Solomon’s Justice”:
Los Angeles, Present Day
Judge Robert Solomon made his way through the knots of people crowding around the boxing ring. Although in his early 50s, he knew his physique still retained remnants of his former boxing days.
Ahead of him he spotted Anita Lopez, a woman in her 30s dressed for fighting in the ring.
“Anita, are you really going to train for the charity event?” he asked her.
Anita flashed him a smile. “It’s for a good cause. Why shouldn’t I try?”
The judge laughed. “You think men seeing you in a skimpy boxing outfit will ante up the donations.”
Anita grabbed one of his arms. “Come on, Judge. You promised to give me some pointers.”
“If you think you can hold your own,” he said.
***
Dennis Waters woke up to find himself thrashing with the bed sheets. He did not even glance at his sleeping wife as he jumped out of bed, stuffed his feet into shoes, and ran out the bedroom door still wearing pajamas.
In the hall he yanked open the door of the closet, lifted a gun lock box out, and dialed the combination. He grabbed the gun inside the box and slid in the ammo clip.
Out on the street he stayed hyper alert to the surroundings, his eyes darting in all directions. No telling where danger would come from. It was up to him to protect his men.
He strode to the back door of a food chain establishment and with one hand pounded on the door while the other hand gripped the gun even tighter.
Only when he heard the shouted words “Put down your gun” did he spin around to face two police officers with their guns drawn.
***
In the courtroom of Los Angeles County Veterans Court, court clerk Claire Wetherly sat at her desk making sure everything was ready for Judge Solomon’s arrival in the courtroom.
To one side the judge’s court reporter, Michelle Nguyen, sat waiting. At another desk the judge’s bailiff, George Patton Holdauer, a member of the LA County Sheriff’s department, also sat.
Claire cast an experienced eye over the assorted men and women, ranging in age from the 20s to the 50s, sitting on the three rows of visitor benches. These were the defendants of veterans court who had to make periodic appearances in front of Judge Solomon. Claire wondered how many of them were actually following the judge’s instructions.
Now public defender Anita Lopez entered the courtroom, loaded down with a stack of files in her arms. Anita dumped the files on the long table facing the judge’s bench and came over to Claire.
“Morning, Claire,” Anita said. “Judge ready to go?”
Claire noted the red bruise on Anita’s left check but did not ask about it. Claire said, “He’s dealing with a request received this morning from Bernice Isaacs.”
Anita gestured to her stack of files on the table. “Which case is this about?”
“New one,” Claire said. “Army vet charged with threatening with a deadly weapon. He’s pleading out so he can be transferred here to veterans court.”
Before Anita could ask any more questions, Claire watched Sunil Patel enter the courtroom. An assistant district attorney, Sunil could always be counted on to wear very fashionable attire. Claire often wondered which way Sunil’s sexual preferences went, but she never said anything to him about this.
Sunil turned to look at Anita’s face. “What happened to you, Ms. Lopez? One of your clients not like the deal you made?”
Claire watched Anita hesitate, obviously trying not to rise to Sunil’s bait.
“Not at all, Mr. Patel,” Anita said. “Judge Solomon was giving me some boxing pointers and I forgot to duck.”
Just then Judge Solomon wandered into the courtroom fiddling with a tie around his neck. Claire still had to fight the impulse to call the courtroom to order whenever the judge entered. He preferred a more laidback approach to sitting on the bench.
“Counsel, may I see you now, please?” the judge said to both attorneys.
“Which case?” Anita asked.
“A new one.”
The judge walked out of the room followed by the two attorneys, and Claire noticed that the men and women waiting for their cases to be called seemed more restless than they had been before.
Claire watched the bailiff cast his eyes towards the waiting people, and they got the message and calmed down.
***
Anita Lopez sat at her desk scrunched into a tiny office facing Joan Waters, who crumpled tissues in her two hands. Anita had noted the woman’s dress and heels, obviously chosen as appropriate clothing for meeting with a lawyer.
Anita glanced down at Joan’s feet, where seven-year-old Denny played a game on the cell phone his mother had handed him.
“Dennis has never done anything like this before. He must have been sleepwalking — he would never threaten anyone with his gun.”
Anita looked at the file in front of her, then back at Joan. “Have you ever known him to sleepwalk before?”
Joan shook her head. Anita could see the effort Joan was exerting in order not to cry.
“Tell me about his Army service,” Anita said. “When did he get out?”
Joan hesitated for a moment. “He got out a year ago — an honorable discharge. He did three tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. He was home so little that I insisted he leave the service. We wanted — I wanted — another child. But I was so tired of being a single parent.”
Anita nodded. “And how has he been since he got out?”
Joan twisted her wedding band around her finger, glanced down at Denny, then back at Anita. “Distant. I can’t explain it. I look in his eyes and he doesn’t seem to be there.”
Again Joan paused; Anita waited for her to go on. “He doesn’t play with Denny. When he isn’t at work he just sits at his computer looking at pictures he took when he was deployed.”
“What kind of pictures?”
Denny spoke up from the floor. “Ugly ones. I made him show me. Lots of blood. I didn’t like it.”
Anita thought Joan’s face now looked even worse than before. “Denny, you didn’t tell me you saw any pictures,” Joan said.
“Daddy told me not to tell you. He said you’d be mad at him for showing me.”
When Joan didn’t respond, Anita stepped in. “Denny, that was very grownup of you not to tell your mother when your father asked you not to. And now your father needs our help.”
“Where is my daddy? Why isn’t he home?”
Click here to read the entire SOLOMON’S JUSTICE: A PTSD SHORT STORY for FREE on Wattpad.
Click here for information on PTSD.
And click here to read about the proposed TV drama series SOLOMON’S JUSTICE.
© 2018 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks. Phyllis is available by skype for book group discussions and may be reached at pzmiller@gmail.com
Her Kindle fiction ebooks may be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller — and her Kindle nonfiction ebooks may also be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszmiller
May 24, 2018
Rise of STDs Leads to Re-Visiting a 25-Year-Old Unsuccessful Safer Sex Project
Photo by Mike Meadows; July 6, 1993, Bruce Horovitz LA Times article “Hollywood May Add ‘Safe” to Its Sex Scenes”
The May 7, 2018, LA Times article by Soumya Karlamangla entitled “STDs in L.A. County are skyrocketing. Officials think racism and stigma may be to blame” includes this alarming information (boldface mine):
Nationwide, STD rates have been climbing for the past five years. More people were diagnosed with syphilis, chlamydia or gonorrhea in 2016 than ever before.
Some blame underfunding of STD prevention programs, as well as falling condom usage. There’s also speculation that people are having sex with more partners because of hookup apps.
But the picture is more complicated when it comes to the high STD rates among minorities. Gay and bisexual men make up the vast majority of new syphilis cases. In L.A. County, syphilis rates among African American women are six times higher than white women and three times higher than Latina women.
Reading this article, I was once again upset that my safer sex initiative of 25 years ago failed. At that time I tried to interest the entertainment community in routine safer sex inclusion in movies and TV with sex scenes. This initiative was partly inspired by the entertainment community’s embrace of safety belt (seat belt) inclusion in movies and TV with car scenes.
On June 22, 1993, Lori Wolfe, MSW, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Risk Reduction Program wrote a letter on my initiative’s behalf that began:
To the Entertainment Community:
Young people in the community are avid viewers of all forms of entertainment media and are impacted significantly by what they see. The entertainment community has a tremendous opportunity to educate these young people about the issue of safer sex through various product placement techniques.
Some of the young people in our clinic were infected with HIV after having sex with a single partner. If they had seen a positive portrayal of safer sex in TV programs or films this could have significantly impacted their risky behaviors. If young people see condoms portrayed in the media on a regular basis, it may become imprinted on their minds to use them consistently.
The message that the entertainment community sends out is a message that young people may take home with them to their bedrooms. This is an opportunity to both educate about the topic of safer sex and to help prevent the further spread of HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases.
To clarify, I am NOT advocating explicit scenes of opening a condom package and putting on the condom. I am advocating including some indication that safer sex is being practiced.
I explain this viewpoint in my October 1993 Writers Guild Journal article “The ‘C’ Word,” which says in part:
Now, of course, the first reaction I get when I broach safer sex portrayal to someone in the entertainment industry is often, “You mean you’re going to show the condom being put on?”
No, that’s not necessary. There are many ways to get the safer sex message across without graphic exposure. A condom box can be on the bedside table; a man can offer, or a woman can ask if he’ll use “protection”; a discussion beforehand can explain that the person always uses a condom. We’re used to movies not showing everything — we’ll get the point if condoms are mentioned without seeing every last detail.
Another response I’ve gotten is, “Showing a couple stopping to put on a condom interrupts the sensual mood of the movie.” But the camera doesn’t have to stop to get a safer sex message across. And if it does stop, so what? Can writers, directors and actors actually say the “perfect” sex scene is more important then the responsibility of giving the false message that unprotected sex is okay — that is is not life-threatening”?
The truth is that, although I failed 25 years ago to engage the entertainment industry to include safer sex in sex scenes, I have continued to advocate safer sex in my own writing. In fact, in my near future sci fi universe, condoms are green and, when pulled on, these turn red if something is interfering with the effectiveness of the condom.
Perhaps the LA County’s Department of Public Health, as it is situated in the center of a world-wide entertainment industry, will 25 years after my attempt to initiate a safer sex media initiative now embrace this project. Given the dramatic increase since 1993 in the amount of media consumed daily by people of all ages as well as the skyrocketing rise in STDs, this initiative could be even more effective now than 25 years ago in encouraging safer sex.
Email me at pzmiller@gmail.com if you’d like to weigh in on this issue.
Click here to read the entire LA Times article on the rise of STDs.
Related posts on fictional representation of important issues:
Click here to read post SAFER SEX PRACTICES STILL NEED REINFORCEMENT IN TV AND MOVIES.
Click here to read post FICTIONAL PORTRAYALS IMPACT MORE THAN GENDER AND DIVERSITY ISSUES.
© 2018 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks. Phyllis is available by skype for book group discussions and may be reached at pzmiller@gmail.com
Her Kindle fiction ebooks may be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller — and her Kindle nonfiction ebooks may also be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszmiller
May 16, 2018
IN THE FADE: Compelling German Film of Neo-Nazi Hate
I first learned of the 2017 film whose title in English is IN THE FADE when its writer and director Fatih Akin was part of a writers roundtable discussion hosted by The Hollywood Reporter. Having now watched this film on Hulu, I highly recommend it.
Akin was born in Hamburg of Turkish parentage, and IN THE FADE centers around a German woman married to a German of Turkish parentage. When her husband and young son are blown up in a hate crime with a bomb set by a neo-Nazi husband and wife, the woman at first believes there will be justice through the German court system.
What is as compelling as the film’s story of seeking justice is the important reminder of those groups such as neo-Nazis who believe they have the right to indiscriminately murder people only because those people are “different.”
While it may seem that we are far removed from the dark days of the Nazis’ murder of millions of Jews, Roma (Gypsies), homosexuals, mentally and physically challenged people, and others, if we are not vigilant we may yet again experience this horrendous scenario.
See the film IN THE FADE on Hulu for a compelling story of where such groundless hatred may lead.
And for a brief timeline of Nazi Germany, click here to read the post THE “STEPS” TO TOTALITARIANISM: NAZI GERMANY’S 12-YEAR REIGN OF TERROR.
Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks. Phyllis is available by skype for book group discussions and may be reached at pzmiller@gmail.com
Her Kindle fiction ebooks may be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller — and her Kindle nonfiction ebooks may also be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszmiller
May 10, 2018
The “Steps” to Totalitarianism: Nazi Germany’s 12-Year Reign of Terror
Stolpersteine from Berlin with approximate translation: Here lived Max Moishe Butow, born 1890, deported October 1941 Lodz/Litzmannstadt, murdered March 7, 1942
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
—Edmund Burke, 18th Century Irish statesman
In connection with a play I’m writing about the Holocaust, I’ve been grappling with questions of the Nazis’ 12-year reign of terror from 1933 to 1945. I’ve been reviewing the lead-up to Nazi control starting with World War I:
WWI officially ended on Nov. l1, 1918, and the Treaty of Versailles was signed with Germany on June 28, 1919. In this treaty Germany lost the right to the Rhineland — the industrial region of Germany along the Rhine River. A little less than 17 years later, on March 7, 1936, the German army unilaterally re-militarized the Rhineland. The treaty sanctions against this unilateral takeover were not triggered by the other signatories to the Treaty of Versailles.
What I think is important to remember is that this date in 1936 is three years after Hitler democratically became chancellor in January 1933 and then almost immediately seized dictatorial control. The first concentration camp of Dachau was opened two months later in March 1933, and then the Nuremberg racial laws were announced in September 1935.
This re-militarization of the Rhineland without opposition might be called the thin edge of the wedge – the first step in Germany’s world domination plans. And 2 1/2 years later in September 1938 Neville Chamberlain, prime minister of England, gave away Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland in exchange for the promise of “peace in our times.”
If you are watching the Hulu series “The Handmaid’s Tale” (based on Margaret Atwood’s novel), you will have seen in flashbacks how that fictional totalitarian society moved forward in stages to subjugate different groups of people. And the stages of the Nazis’ takeover of Germany and subsequent subjugation of groups of people are equally terrifying.
Here is a brief outline of some of the most important milestones up to the U.S. entering WWII:
January 30, 1933: Hitler is named chancellor of Germany by president Paul von Hindenburg. Almost immediately Hitler seizes totalitarian control.
Two months later — March 22, 1933: Dachau — the first Nazi concentration camp — opens near Munich.
September 15, 1935: Nuremberg racial laws against Jews are introduced. Two months later these laws are extended to include Roma (Gypsies) and blacks.
March 7, 1936: Germany military re-occupies the Rhineland in violation of WWI’s Treaty of Versailles.
March 12, 1938: Anschluss (annexation) of Austria by Nazi Germany.
September 29, 1938: Britain’s Neville Chamberlain cedes the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Germany.
March 15, 1939: Nazi Germany swallows up the rest of Czechoslovakia.
August 23, 1939: Germany and Russia sign non-aggression agreement, which secretly provides for joint invasion of Poland.
One week later — September 1, 1939: Germany invades Eastern Poland followed by Russia’s invasion of Western Poland — the start of World War II in Europe — a little over 20 years since the end of World War I in Europe.
One year and 10 months later — June 22, 1941 — Operation Barbarossa: Germany breaks non-aggression pact with Russia and advances into Russian-occupied areas.
December 7, 1941: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, causing isolationist U.S. to declare war on Japan. Germany then declares war on the U.S., which brings the U.S. into the fight against the Nazis in Europe.
If you review this timeline, you will note how much subjugation took place before the actual war began on September 1, 1939. This brief “history lesson” should be food for thought for all of us today.
Click here to read about my proposed Holocaust memoir based on original sources.
© 2018 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks. Phyllis is available by skype for book group discussions and may be reached at pzmiller@gmail.com
Her Kindle fiction ebooks may be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller — and her Kindle nonfiction ebooks may also be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszmiller
April 22, 2018
Answering Author Questions on Ask Me Anything Site
If fiction can influence real life perceptions, would you say that in some way, some fictional stories can be considered non-fiction too?
I don’t think that some fictional stories can be considered nonfiction too, although I do think that some fiction story characters stay with us after reading a book as if those characters were real people. And I even believe that we can become so “connected” to certain fictional characters that we might consider what they would do in a situation in real life that we are facing ourselves.
My novel MRS. LIEUTENANT is inspired by my own experiences as a new Mrs. Lieutenant when my husband went on active duty with the U.S. Army. In the novel I combined different real-life people into individual fictional characters, and many (but not all!) of the situations happened. Still, the book is definitely fiction.
P.S. It’s been 10 years this month since I first self-published MRS. LIEUTENANT (at the same time that the book was named an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist). I think the book’s theme of overcoming prejudice is even more important today than it was in 2008 — and I’m now looking for a traditional publisher who could get the book to a wider audience (and I have a first draft movie screenplay for the book also).
***
Would you say that females are almost always the main characters in your stories?
As a long-time feminist I am particularly interested in writing female protagonists, although I am also interested in having strong male characters in my stories. I believe that portraying fictional female characters in strong roles helps readers to visualize strong females in real life. I am especially interested in strong portrayals of both women and men in military fiction, such as in the novel LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS that I co-wrote with my husband.
Click here to read my author information on Ask Me Anything and then scroll down the screen to see all the questions asked me along with my answers to the questions.
© 2018 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks. Phyllis is available by skype for book group discussions and may be reached at pzmiller@gmail.com
Her Kindle fiction ebooks may be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller — and her Kindle nonfiction ebooks may also be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszmiller
April 18, 2018
Writing a Holocaust Memoir and a Sci Fi Universe: Are These Projects the Same?
Recently I have been working on several writing projects at the same time, most importantly a Holocaust memoir utilizing firsthand survivor and savior accounts I published in the 1970s and a near future sci fi universe that includes a novel, a TV drama pilot script and two feature film scripts. What do these projects have in common? Or a better question may be: Are these really two sides of the same coin?Of course I realize that the Holocaust memoir is nonfiction and the sci fi universe is fiction. Yet in many ways these are the same. How so?
As I said in my recent blog post “Holocaust Remembrance Day 2018: Is the Holocaust Fading From Memory?”:
At an early lunch today at a nearby Israeli-owned restaurant, I chatted with a stranger about the meaning of the Holocaust. I told her about the Holocaust-themed play I’m writing, and she asked, “What is the purpose of remembering the Holocaust if not as a call to arms?”
She referred to keeping a vigilant eye on the political climate of a democratic country, and acting in a timely manner if democratic rights are curtailed — not when it is too late to reverse the tide.
And what is the purpose of science fiction (besides entertainment) if not to warn us of what could happen if we don’t keep an eye on things and take action when necessary before it is too late? This can also be a call to arms.
While no one has a crystal ball for the future, certain trajectories can facilitate predictions about the future. For example, as genetic engineering becomes more and more sophisticated, how far will we allow tampering with humans to “advance”?
Or as medical costs become more and more expensive, how old will we allowed people to live before their medical costs are too great and they need to be “eliminated”? (I deal with both of these questions in my sci fi universe: www.phylliszimblermiller.com/mississippi-divide/)
In reviewing the firsthand survivor and savior accounts I published years ago, I am as always reminded of the extent of perpetrated evil. And knowing how the Nazis utilized science and propaganda to undertake horrendous acts of evil makes it all to easy to imagine what can happen in our near future if humanity doesn’t pay close enough attention.
In the near future, breaches of personal information on Facebook and elsewhere may be nothing compared to how our lives are controlled by technology. We all have to remember this possible scenario when, for example, we invite AIs such as Alexa into our homes.
The price we pay someday may be our freedom.
P.S. Click here to read my short story “National Security Nightmare.”
© 2018 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks. Phyllis is available by skype for book group discussions and may be reached at pzmiller@gmail.com
Her Kindle fiction ebooks may be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller — and her Kindle nonfiction ebooks may also be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszmiller
April 12, 2018
Holocaust Remembrance Day 2018: Is the Holocaust Fading From Memory?
The April 12, 2018, New York Times article by Maggie Astor “Holocaust Is Fading From Memory, Survey Finds” begins (boldface is mine):
For seven decades, “never forget” has been a rallying cry of the Holocaust remembrance movement.
But a survey released Thursday, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, found that many adults lack basic knowledge of what happened — and this lack of knowledge is more pronounced among millennials, whom the survey defined as people ages 18 to 34.
Thirty-one percent of Americans, and 41 percent of millennials, believe that two million or fewer Jews were killed in the Holocaust; the actual number is around six million. Forty-one percent of Americans, and 66 percent of millennials, cannot say what Auschwitz was. And 52 percent of Americans wrongly think Hitler came to power through force.
(Note that Holocaust Remembrance Day — Yom HaShoah in Hebrew — is based on the Jewish calendar, which means that the actual date varies from year to year. In 2018 the date is the evening of April 11th starting after sunset and going to sunset on April 12.)
In the April 4, 2018, Jewish Journal article “Is There Anything Left to Say About the Holocaust?” author Thane Rosenbaum writes:
The Holocaust was always a moral mystery. Unfathomability always has been its greatest allure. The mystery was never meant to be solved. The crimes of the Nazis consigned everyone — Jew and non-Jew — to a perpetual state of obligation. “Never Again” didn’t just mean that Jewish genocide would never be permitted to reoccur. It also meant that the world would never be finished with the Holocaust; it would always continue to haunt. The burden to remember the Holocaust, to hold it in mind and body as both emblem and amulet, is infinite and never ending.
At an early lunch today at a nearby Israeli-owned restaurant, I chatted with a stranger about the meaning of the Holocaust. I told her about the Holocaust-themed play I’m writing, and she asked, “What is the purpose of remembering the Holocaust if not as a call to arms?”
She referred to keeping a vigilant eye on the political climate of a democratic country, and acting in a timely manner if democratic rights are curtailed — not when it is too late to reverse the tide.
The Holocaust-themed play on which I’m now working is based on the material for my Holocaust memoir SURVIVORS AND SAVIORS. Click here to read about the memoir.
Click here for the survey mentioned in The New York Times article — “New Survey by Claims Conference Finds Significant Lack of Holocaust Knowledge in the United States.”
And in conclusion, in memory of 94-year-old Holocaust survivor Sally Marco (born Sala Landowicz), whose funeral I attended this week, here is her two-hour Shoah Foundation witness testimony:
Click here to read about Sally Marco in the May 7, 2015, BBC News article “Tracing the children of the Holocaust.”
© 2018 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks. Phyllis is available by skype for book group discussions and may be reached at pzmiller@gmail.com
Her Kindle fiction ebooks may be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller — and her Kindle nonfiction ebooks may also be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszmiller
April 4, 2018
Artificial Intelligence for U.S. Police: Reality Catches Up to Science Fiction
The April 3, 2018, Wall Street Journal article “Artificial Intelligence Could Soon Enhance Real-Time Police Surveillance” by Shibani Mahtani and Zusha Elinson mirrors similar news from China and is equally of concern. This news also makes near future science fiction stories move closer to reality:
Several technology companies are working with police departments across the U.S. to develop the capability to add artificial intelligence to video surveillance and body cameras that could identify faces in real time, potentially expanding the reach of police surveillance.
The body-camera technology, expected to be ready by the fall, hasn’t yet been purchased by police departments and is still in the development stage. Police departments, including the New York Police Department, already use facial recognition to review surveillance footage after a crime has occurred.
The new software uses an algorithm to tell an officer on the spot, through a body camera or a video surveillance camera, that it has found a suspect. The officer could then make a decision of whether to stop the suspect or take some other action.
When I emailed my dear friend Bonnie Bartel Latino (@BonnieLatino on Twitter) about this Wall Street Journal article, she replied asking if I had incorporated this into my near future sci fi universe (see www.phylliszimblermiller.com/mississippi-divide/). I told her that, although government surveillance is a major part of my sci fi universe, I would add a reference to this new reality in THE TRUTHFINDER story I’m currently serializing on Wattpad.
I then added this paragraph to Chapter 7, which takes place in 2030 in the U.S. east of the Mississippi River. (You can read this chapter on Wattpad at http://budurl.me/Chap7Truthfinder or start with Chapter 1 on Wattpad at http://budurl.me/Chap1Truthfinder)
It wasn’t as if U.S. police didn’t have ample tech surveillance tools to monitor everyone. Ever since the last months of 2018, many police departments had been using artificial intelligence added to video surveillance and body cameras that could identify faces in real time. Although civil liberties groups protested, this surveillance technology had been credited with stopping several lone wolf terrorist attacks before these had been launched.
Note that I’m NOT advocating for or against the use of AI for police departments. I simply believe that the purpose of science fiction — besides entertainment — is to provoke consideration and discussion of what “advances” could mean for the future of humanity.
As technology grows ever more powerful, we do have to be wary of how far is too far. I am personally haunted by Isaac Asimov’s short story THE LAST QUESTION. If you’ve never read it, I recommend you do so now. And then think about where technology may be taking us.
Check the Wikipedia entry for this short story to learn in which short story collections you can find THE LAST QUESTION. The Wikipedia entry includes this sentence about the story: “It was Asimov’s favorite short story of his own authorship.”
© 2018 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks. Phyllis is available by skype for book group discussions and may be reached at pzmiller@gmail.com
Her Kindle fiction ebooks may be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller — and her Kindle nonfiction ebooks may also be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited monthly subscription — see www.amazon.com/author/phylliszmiller
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