Elizabeth Reuter's Blog - Posts Tagged "thoughts"

I am reading Emma, my first Jane Austen. It's wonderful.

It strikes me that Austen is rare among "classic" authors in her optimism. Without diminishing human flaws, she seems to genuinely like human beings, and writes us to give the most ardent pessimist hope for our future.

It's an uncommon view for someone with such keen insight into human nature, and reading her gives me hope, too.

Reality can be painful, and that's where denial steps in; there are some things people don't want to see, but more, there are things people CAN'T see, because the truth simply hurts too much, or because it's so far outside of their experience and comprehension.

And I wonder if that's where fiction shines the brightest, and does its best work. If Boy A doesn't see he's being a jerk to Boy B, he can see Fictional Boy A being a jerk in a movie and realize: "Holy crap, I'M acting like that!" You can bypass all the blocks people have in their heads.

Not that that usually happens. *laugh* It's that rare brilliant story, that hits a person in that rare, perfect place where they're ready to hear...whatever they need to hear.

-Elizabeth Reuter
Author, The Demon of Renaissance Drive

A South Korean co-worker introduced me to the Hwarang, an ancient, elite bodyguard troupe. Over a thousand years ago, boys of 14 to 19 from "good families" were selected to undergo the most rigorous training imaginable in all areas: physical, mental, spiritual.

Today, if you read reports from military lovers, you'll hear what mighty warriors the Hwarang were, how they pushed themselves to the limit. This is true.

However, nobody male who admires the Hwarang ever mentions that hwa means "flower" and rang means "boys", and the Hwarang got their name from being being the prettiest group of boys in Korea! They were, in fact, selected for their beauty first and foremost.

I don't see where the beauty aspect of the Hwarang detracts from their unmatched abilities as warriors, but apparently manly types do, because there's practically a desperation to avoid the topic. It's like bringing up Alexander the Great's love of men to teenage boys who admire him as a warrior--somehow, the first detracts from the second in their eyes, and denial and rage are the only ways to deal.

Too strange.

I just finished Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion, my first Dan Simmons.

I think it'll take some time to untangle my thoughts enough to put them into reviews. I can tell you I'm a fan, though. His prose is evocative and poetic, his characters are interesting and multi-faceted.

And then there are passages like this one, that took my breath away:

Sol realized that he had responded to a force more basic and persuave than (a monster's) terror or pain's dominion. If he was right--and he did not know but he felt--then love was as hardwired into the structure of the universe as gravity and matter/antimatter. There was room for some sort of God not in the web between the walls, nor in the singularity cracks in the pavement, nor somewhere out before and beyond the sphere of things...but in the very warp and woof of things. Evolving as the universe evolved.

Learning as the learning-able parts of the universe learned.

Loving as humankind loved.

Anyone ever heard of Steve-O? From the MTV show Jackass?

I hadn't; I have no interest in that show. I first "met" Steve-O on Dancing With the Stars, when his story of struggling with drug addiction--from age twelve--came to light. He worked so hard to better himself, as a man and in the momentary dancing challenge on the show, and left me weeping more than once.

Yet he's the type of person I usually can't stand. He has that Peter-Pan masculinity based around fart jokes and childish stunts, a personality I usually equate with jerkish behavior and stupidity.

He has, in other words, forced me to re-evaluate a lot of my own prejudices. Something else to be grateful to him for.

I must write a story about it!

-Elizabeth Reuter
Author, The Demon of Renaissance Drive

I wonder what makes dysfunctional relationships so fascinating? Beecher and Keller from Oz, Rogue and Gambit from X-Men.

Two of my favorite stories from here in Japan are called Byakuyako and Honoo no Mirage. The first is the story of two horribly abused children who grow up to be sociopaths; they hurt each other as badly as anyone else, even as they cling to each other. The second is a fantasy about warriors from Japan's feudal era, rebirthing themselves so they can keep killing each other, and one small band of warriors in particular. One has a long-running sexual obsession with another, who hung it over his head until his sanity snapped. Now they're both nuts, playing games with each others heads.

I can't seem to write them, though. I'd like to try.

-Elizabeth Reuter
Author, The Demon of Renaissance Drive

My amusement (plus annoyance, plus interest) is always piqued to see how horror bleeds into other genres. Horror gets no respect, but it's so pervasive.

Sci-fi is the most obvious. Pandorum was almost purely horror, for example. I'm re-watching this old sci-fi anime, Trigun, and the villian is a sadistic nihilistic cannibal with mind-control abilities who does things like force his victims to crush themselves to death. No horror influence there. *cough*

Romance, even before vampires became the latest thing, have always featured danger and death; Jane Eyre is haunted by the specter of her dead Uncle and the many heroines of Tale of Genji are terrorized by spirits and demons.

Mystery, even with no supernatural elements, can move into twisted territory depending on the villain; Se7en and Saw blur those lines, while Natsuo Kirino's Out features long and detailed scenes of rape and mutilation to sicken tough stomachs.

I wonder where other genres would be without horror to inspire their horror-like scenes? ^^

-Elizabeth Reuter
Author, The Demon of Renaissance Drive

Jane Eyre is most famous for the romance in it, wherein young Jane falls in love with Mr. Rochester, her middle-aged employer, while serving as a governess in his house. That's the part the movies all shoot, and most of them do it badly. There's this speeding over of Jane's childhood--abused girl! How tragic! Now watch love heal her!--skipping over the spiritual and gothic aspects. Often the actress playing Jane is even second billed in favor of whatever famous heartthrob plays Mr. Rochester.

The only two versions (that I've seen) that seem to understand that Jane Eyre is the story of JANE, of her spiritual quest and personal growth, are the 2011 version by Carey Fukunaga and the 2006 BBC series. The book is also a feminist critique of society, a look at Christian values, and as much an anti-romance novel as a romantic one; Jane rejects being "possessed" by Mr. Rochester and only freely goes to him after her status improves and his lowers through the book's (admittedly sometimes contrived) events, and it's those two versions that capture some of those elements.

The book is also directly related to gothic traditions, full of haunted rooms, the shadow of death, insane and twisted characters and family curses that follow all the main characters through their lives.

It is everything I want to write. It's spooky, thoughtful, and truly romantic in a way most romance novels can never be when they feature such dully perfect heroes. Jane fights her way through life's heartbreak, screwing up and blinded by her own anger as often as anything, but succeeding because she never stops trying, never stops hungering, and never loses the ability to love. She and Rochester fall in love, not because either of them is perfect, but because they recognize parts of each other that each needs, and cherish each other for each other's faults as much as anything. They are romantic to me because they are NOT conventionally romantic: neither Jane nor Rochester are written as good-looking, a point the author fought to get into the book and directors mostly try to forget in the movies; Rochester is often a jerk and he lies to Jane on some crucial points; Jane herself can be irritable and snappish.

They are people. More importantly, they are people I want to read about. And they inspire me to create anything even fractionally as interesting.

-Elizabeth Reuter
Author, The Demon of Renaissance Drive

There's a storm on it's way to Okinawa, a "super typhoon" strong enough that the entire government office was let out early.

Though the real heavy winds and rain aren't expected to hit until later tonight, the winds are already enough to nearly blow my umbrella from my hands. Last year, I was trapped inside for three days while a typhoon sat on Okinawa and refused to let us out. Everything stops when that happens; the buses don't run, workplaces are closed.

They're scary, storms. You can't control them or pray them away; you can't expect one to pass you up because you're a nice person. You just sit inside and listen to your window glass shaking in its frame, threatening to crack, and hope that it doesn't.

Distopia is popular in fiction now, but how about a story totally set in a storm? We have a lot of romances and dramas that love lightning and thunder, let's go for evil creatures hiding behind each cloud.

-Elizabeth Reuter
Author, The Demon of Renaissance Drive

After getting published by JournalStone, I offered them my services as an editor, and currently do some work for them in that capacity.

I love doing it. No "buts." Every book, however wonderful, has flaws. Looking back at The Demon of Renaissance Drive, as proud of it as I am, I see loads of mistakes now. Every writer can look back and old work and, assuming they've worked to improve themselves, see ways to make a book better. But you can't spent forever crafting one work; you have to get it out, and get it out in the best shape it's capable of becoming. Re: editing.

Writers will take this personally. Not "can" or "may." Writing is personal, and when someone is looking at a sentence you're immensely proud of and saying, "This doesn't work with the story, slows down the action, and bores me," that hurts.

And yet the editing is a labor of love too. Really good books, books I get into as a reader and am ripping through pages to see the ending of, are more fun to improve. I'm not just making forgettable crap readable; I'm helping something entertaining entertain people it wouldn't have before. Erasing the author's repeated use of the word "fabulous!" will keep nit-picky types from throwing the book aside. Filling plot holes will keep confused readers from putting the book down and never picking it up again because "It didn't make any sense." Making the author re-write the first page will suck in readers just glancing through dozens of similar titles.

Thinking of how I cringed at light criticism at first, the only thing I regret now as an author is not soliciting more, harsher critiques. I hope I can be something the authors I work with need. I know how important their writing is to them.

-Elizabeth Reuter
Author, The Demon of Renaissance Drive