Joshua Unruh's Blog, page 11

Leveraging the Anti-Hero

I mentioned in a previous post how the show Leverage on TNT has been awesoming me. I love heist and con artist movies, especially some of the most famous from the 60s heyday of the genre. I love complicated, interwoven plots. I love ensemble casts. I love dialogue that is also snappy patter. So, really, it's a no-brainer that I'd love this show.

But I don't usually love anti-heroes. I don't necessarily hate them before I get to know them, but outside of Noir fiction (wherein there aren't ever really any heroes so there can't really be an anti-hero either), I prefer protagonists I can at least not hate.

And Leverage's cast is entirely made up of anti-heroes. They're thieves of the first order who have made a living off their skills by lying, bilking, and stealing. These are not usually the people I want to hang out with for entire books or seasons.

I'm not typical, though. Americans love an anti-hero. Vigilantes and flawed do-gooders have been part and parcel of our cultural heroes since day one. The frontiersman struck a pretty heroic figure, but he was also a loner uncomfortable in society. The Old West is chock full of gunfighters, bounty hunters, gamblers, and other ne'er do wells and scofflaws that may or may not have put on a tin star with their six-shooters. The Depression was such a blow to us that even Superman started out as the kind of guy that would slap wife-beaters, slum lords, and even governors to make a point. Moving into the 70s and 80s, we loved Charles Bronson so much that even our cops were mavericks and our Army men were disgraced before they went after First Blood.

The Rich and Powerful Take What They Want...

So how can I get on the side of a whole team of anti-heroes? The creators of Leverage use the oldest trick in the book. It's a trick I've used more than once. They take a load of bad guys and then have them do terrible things to somebody who's even worse.

Every single episode has a bad guy the average viewer would love to see get taken down. Crooked music producers who steal the only thing a family has, their music. Private security firms willing to lie about hurting a soldier who can no longer care for his family. A debt collector who uses tax information to bilk people of money then funnel it to a right wing militia. A real estate company who maneuvers families into foreclosure.

As an interesting aside, I don't think this show would have worked ten or twelve years ago. There's a general feeling of unrest, of the Little Guy getting beaten down, a vibe that "we" can't really compete with big corporations who buy and sell votes as they see fit. Oil, news, politics, war, it all feels like business now. A business that crushes "us" in the gears. But not so many of us felt that way a decade ago. The pot had to simmer long enough to make a win by thieves feel like a win for all of us.

...We Steal It Back For You

And make no mistake, the heroes of Leverage are thieves. They hack into computer systems and crack safes to steal personal information, pretend to be other people to engender trust and confidence, beat guys up, and generally con the living hell out of everyone. They make no bones about it. These guys steal and they are amazing at it.

So amazing that maybe you shouldn't think too hard about how amazing they are. I mean, they didn't get that good at thieving by getting Boy Scout merit badges. They stole for years before the pilot episode gave them the means and opportunity to start down the road to redemption.

Sometimes Bad Guys Make the Best Good Guys

And that's definitely how they play it. These untrusting and untrustworthy loners forge first a team and then a sort of surrogate family rallied around the principle that you shouldn't steal from the Little Guy. Not only are they hitting the Big Guys back, but they're becoming better people while they do it.

Well, except for Nate. But then, he wasn't a thief before the pilot. Hmmm...there's something for me to chew on later...

We Provide...Leverage

An that's how they make it work for me. They're bad people who realize they're bad people trying to be better people by screwing over worse people. When I write it out like that, it's such a hodge podge of ideas that it shouldn't work on me. I mean, I'm pretty genre savvy. But they take all that, package it up in fun characters, wrap it up in slick talk and clever plans, then tie the bow of "they got theirs" around it.

That's a pretty big spoonful of sugar and it makes the medicine go down very smoothly.

More Positivity Than A Proton AND a Positron

A thing I know about myself is I tend to get more talkative and introspective about the stuff that outrages me than the stuff that makes me happy. I don't think I'm unique in this. In fact, any of you who have worked food service are right now thinking, "Yeah, you and the rest of this herd we call humanity."

Well, no longer! Or at least not for today! Today I'm going to talk about six pieces of fiction that have really got me excited lately. These are things that blew my mind with their quality, inspired me to write, or taught me lessons. Usually they did all three at once.

So, in no particular order, things that recently awesomed me!

1. Sports Night - I've heard raves about Sports Night for years. It's a late 90s dramedy about a sports news show with a few obvious main characters but a sprawling secondary cast. Snappy patter, Hawksian dialogue, and genuinely funny and human characters make this a triumph from Aaron Sorkin. It makes me want to write dialogue that will be described as "Unruhesque" someday.

2. Terriers - My buddy Zac convinced me to watch this by describing it as "the Neo-Rockford Files." I'd heard some good things, but this clinched it for me. A recovering alcoholic ex-cop and his ex-criminal buddy work as unlicensed private detectives. The premise is that they've stumbled onto a case that's way above their heads. I know that sounds like half the PI shows that have ever been made. The magic of this one is that EVERY case, not just the big, season-long one, winds up being weirder and more complicated than originally thought. This show taught me that it's okay for your characters to do bad things for the right reasons. It also taught me that it's okay if that works for them every now and then. It also taught me how to make things difficult for main characters without undermining their inherent awesome.

3. The Absolute at Large - Who would have thought that 90 year old Czech science fiction/satire would be so relevant today? The basic idea of this novel by Karel Capek is a scientist invents a way to annihilate matter completely, thus unleashing almost infinite energy. Unfortunately, that sets loose the Absolute, the parts of God found in all matter. Naturally, God turned loose in the world causes some pretty amazing havoc. This book accidentally handed me a concept that solved a superhero idea I've been working on. It also got me to think hard about what it'll mean if I write a science fiction story.

4. Justice League - I mentioned before I've been working my way back through this series. Generally, it's still amazing. But the first season of Justice League Unlimited has caused me to seriously think about the core concepts of characters. Obviously, characters that have been written for 70 years have a core concept that you don't want to try to row against. But shouldn't every main character I write be given the same kind of up front consideration? I think so and JLU s1 is showing me why things ring hollow if you don't do that initial character work.

5. Leverage - Every 44 minutes is a modernized 60s heist/con movie. I think this show is going to spawn at least one post as I talk about our love of the anti-hero. This is a group of thieves who have turned their abilities and skills against those who stomp on the little guy. Aside from the anti-hero thing I'll talk about another time, this show has taught me that I really want to write a television show someday. It's also taught me (along with #6) that literally any genre can be updated and repackaged to appeal to a new audience while still making the audience already in the know happy.

6. Sherlock - A modern retelling of the Sherlock Holmes concept. I don't know what to say other than if you're not watching this, you're missing out. It updates and reimagines the core concept and stories of Sherlock Holmes into a thing so fresh that an entire generation of people for whom this is their first brush with Sherlock Holmes is going to wonder why somebody would do it a stuffy, Victorian version of their favorite stories. This show taught me that I was being lazy when I wrote period pieces. It showed me that updating an aging concept is so much more than just moving it into the modern day. Frankly, considering how much I appreciate period genre pieces, it showed me that, as a writer, I could be doing better.

You'll note that's a lot of television that's inspiring me. There are several reasons for that. One is that reading is harder in a house with young children. Another is that I'm not able to get what I get from the show from the original material . The biggest reason, though, is that I've wound up reading a lot of  not very good stuff lately so that I can learn what not to do as a writer.

And if you think you just read the seed of another blog post, you're right about that too.

Strong Enough for a Man, But Made for a Woman

I love Young Adult fiction. Most of the time that looks like guys in capes fighting would-be world beaters instead of boy wizards or, God deliver us, sparkly vampires.

But I'm also a lover of a wide variety of genre fiction. One of my favorites is Spy Fi, the genre best exemplified in the past by The Avengers or The Man from UNCLE and, more recently, by shows like Alias and the Middle Man. These two things, YA fiction and Spy Fi, come together in my latest novel.

TEEN Agents in The Plundered Parent Protocol is a novel about three girls, best friends, whose fathers are kidnapped by an evil genius...one who just happens to be ten years old. This is how Elly Mourning, Hea Jung Noone, and Saturday Knight discover the existence of the Teenage Extranormal Emergency Network and how they join its ranks as agents.

There's plenty of weird gadgets, exciting espionage, and plots for world domination in TEEN Agents. But at its heart, it's a story about three girls who want to save their dads but have to grow up quite a bit to do it.

Right now, I'm the father of just one kid, a little boy. He and I watch all kinds of adventure cartoons, read comic books, and I continue to take in all that genre fiction I've always loved. But now I have an eye as to when I can share it with him.

I'd also like to be the father of a little girl someday. I don't want to climb a soapbox, but it's pretty hard to find stuff to excite and empower my hypothetical little girl.

But it shouldn't be that way.

I should have as much strange and exciting genre fiction with young heroines as I have with heroes. Since I don't, I decided to do something about that.

So that brings me to Elly, Hea, and Saturday. Elly is sharp and together, a born leader. Hea is a free spirit and incredibly athletic. Saturday has a brilliant scientific mind.

I wrote them to be  the kinds of girls I'd like my future little girl to look up to. They aren't perfect, but they are as accomplished and secure in who they are as thirteen year old girls can be. And they're learning and growing as they go.

But I didn't want to write a "girl's story." I wanted to write a spy fi story that starred girls. One that would be exciting for girls...and for their brothers and dads. Which is why I can assure you that the genius is evil, the enemy agent is suave and debonair, the traps are deadly, the lairs are secret, and the plan is diabolical.

This book is for girls looking for exciting fiction that makes them feel good about being girls because it's a book about heroic girls. Not to mention it's a fun read.

I loved writing this novel for so many reasons. And my beta readers have absolutely loved reading it. I hope you can contribute something to the project. Trust me, if you enjoy reading it half as much as I enjoyed writing it, you won't be sorry you did.

Because I want everyone to give the book a look, Consortium Books has a very special offer for all you potential TEEN Agents. Today is the official "street day" and for the first 24 hours, this book will be absolutely FREE! You're just one click away from an exciting spy adventure with three of the most fun girls you'll ever meet. Give it a shot, will ya?

From the Mouths of Babes Come…Genre Conventions?

For Christmas, the Senior Partner gave me all 91 episodes of the early-to-mid 2000s Justice League cartoon. It's a great gift and I'm working my way through all the episodes in order. Even the ones I've seen a million times. Plus, I'm watching them with my 4.5 year old son. It's educational as well as entertaining.

This show is a classic example of how to do adventure storytelling right. Even though there are seven main characters, each is given opportunities to shine. They wisely chose to use two-part 22 minute episodes so they could let the stories breathe. But that also gave them  the opportunity to use cliffhangers multiple twist storytelling.

I may talk more about the virtues and learning opportunities in Justice League more in the future, but right now I wanted to zero in on a particular episode and something I learned about kids and the power of genre expectation. The episode is Hereafter Parts 1 and 2. Be ye forewarned Thar Be Spoylers Ahaid.

This episode opens with a meeting of the Superman Revenge Squad. They declare vendetta against Superman, start messing up Metropolis, and the Justice League shows up to stop them. Toyman reveals a giant robot that shoots a really, really slow disintegrator beam. It's no good for hitting moving targets, but it's making things rough for the JL because of all the civilians Toyman puts in danger making bits of street and building vanish.

Frustrated at his inability to hit Superman, Toyman turns the weapon on Wonder Woman, who has been trapped motionless under some rubble. Superman rushes to her aid, takes the hit and is obliterated. The rest of the episode is devoted to various characters dealing with Superman's death.

Lois and the Kents are in tears, Lex is at a loss, the Justice League isn't sure they can go on without him, and Batman is either busy being the World's Greatest Detective, living in deep denial, or a combination of the two.

Did I mention the character work on this show is amazing?

Anyway, Superman spends all of Part 1 Act 2 and 99% of Act 3 dead. Elijah spent that entire time very concerned about Superman. I totally expected that. But the way he was concerned was eye opening. He never asked how they killed Superman or why they killed Superman.

He asked When will they bring Superman back?

Not quite five and he already has a firm grasp on genre convention, at least in the area of superheroes. I mean, c'mon, they can play with it, but we know Superman isn't going to stay "dead." When I was in high school, they killed Superman in the comics and, because of a slow newsday, the story was picked up by major news outlets.

Perfectly reasonable adults bugged the crap out of me wanting to know how DC Comics could kill off such an icon. My only answer was to look at them in shock and ask, "Do you really think Superman is going to stay dead?" (Not to mention the idea that Warner Bros. would allow the death of the most recognizable pop cultural icon in the world is ludicrous in the extreme.)

That just isn't how superhero comics and cartoons work. Heaven and Hell have revolving doors in superhero universes. People age at ridiculously slow rates. Peter Parker has aged ten or twelve years since the mid 60s. Superman and Batman  have been in their mid-30s since THE 30s. Genre savvy readers get this, including kids.

There's a story about one of my favorite comic book writers, Grant Morrison, fielding Batman questions at a convention. At this point, Batman has had five Robins. The first Robin has grown up enough to be Batman himself. One of the con-goers asked "If he has had five Robins, the oldest of which is at least in his late 20s, then how old is Bruce Wayne?"

"Obviously Bruce Wayne is 70 years old," Morrison answered. "He was 'born' in 1939. He's a fictional character. He doesn't follow the same rules as we do."

Morrison went on to say that children understand this and it's only adults that fail to grasp it. Children do not watch one animated feature and immediately expect all crabs to start talking, at least not usually. They get that make-believe means the real-world rules just don't apply.

Genre is shorthand, genre is a way to group types of stories, and genre is a way to help us narrow down our vast choices of what to read. Genre helps us define our tastes. But watching this cartoon with my son gave me another use for genre.

The lesson I took from this is that genre conventions let us get a bit of that kid viewpoint back without having to admit it. If we can all agree that the rules of this genre countermand the rules of the real world in these specific ways, then I (the writer) can get on with the telling of the story I want to tell and you (the reader) can get on with reading it. We can shed the disguise of Real Life and put on the Action Suit of Story.

That's pretty powerful stuff. Maybe even more powerful than a locomotive.

F**K SOPA

See what I did up there? I censored myself.

I censored myself.

That's the important bit. Nobody else censored me, I chose to do it myself.

Chunks of the internet are going dark today, January 18. A lot of tech savvy people made their own sites go dark. I'm not that tech savvy. But I can not-post with the best of them! And that's what I did!

I started ahead of the eighteenth, though. I really did it to prove a point this time and not just because I'm lazy. You see, if SOPA (or the Senate's version, PIPA) were to pass, this blog would go away. I guarantee it.

I talk a lot about copyrighted material. I post pages from copyrighted material to prove my points. A lot of my points are that copyrighted material stands on the shoulders of non-copyrighted (and unable to be copyrighted) giants.

Big, greedy corporations that are copyright holders do not like to be reminded of this. They also don't like to see me, or anyone, even sorta playing with their toys. Even if it doesn't cost them a cent. Even if talking about it might make them money, they want to take their bat and ball and go home.

Way more qualified and informed people than me have dissected this thing, so I'm just going to highlight the title of the bill.

HR 3261 - Stop Online Piracy Act: "To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes."

I want to call this out for the monumental pile of bullshit that it is. But I can't because they put a magical clause in that title. "And for other purposes" covers more sleight of hand than "abracadabra."

I've talked about the goals of the Consortium. I've talked about how we don't plan to copyright anything because copyright does not "promote creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation." It does promote prosperity, but only for the copyright holder. Hint, that's typically not the actual artist or creator of the work.

Even an idiot can tell that part of the bill's title is bullshit. But the magical phrase is almost the government being honest  with you. "And for other purposes" pretty much covers the stuff I don't want the government to do on the internet.

If you don't get concerned when authority figures start using phrases like "and for other purposes," then you aren't paying attention. Especially when it comes to curtailing free speech.

As an artist, as an American, as a person, I am sick and tired of huge stacks of legal tender as the only motivator for monumental decisions. I'm tired of it deciding what books and newspapers I can read, I'm tired of it starting wars, I'm tired of it ruining the environment, and, last but not least, I'm tired of it buying votes.

So this is all you're getting from me today. This isn't me going dark, but it is me explaining my previous darkness. I think that counts. So here's the bottom line: SOPA and PIPA are bad for the internet. They're bad for free speech. As ironic as this is, they're bad for freedom.

Consider how we went to war a half a world away in the name of a nebulous concept of freedom while, right here at home, corporations with big bank accounts are buying very specific ones right out from under us.

The darkness is good. The darkness makes a point. But afterwards, let's light a candle.

Comic Art Exposes a Boob

UPDATE: Apparently later the day of the post, Mr. Dorman stated he would clarify his position. The next day, he deleted the post. So I guess that's clarification of a sort. Regardless, I'm leaving the dead link as a testament to one man's goofball ideas leading to me having grown up thoughts.

I asked the internet to provide me something to get righteously irate about for a blog post and, lo, behold its generous bounty. As usual, a few things one should know after reading that post and before reading mine.

I don't know who that guy is. I just stumbled on that blog post and, because his response initially sounds like something I might say or feel, I had to address it.
I may not be altogether charitable to the guy. I'm not feeling too bad about it, though, because blogs are you putting your opinions out there. If you can't take the challenge, you're in the wrong line.
He obviously made a mistake about the book being all ages. That's an honest mistake, but I really don't think it has anything to do with the reactions I had to the post.

Frequent readers of this blog will know that I'm a lover of comics. They will also know that I lament the lack of superhero comics available for my son to read (yes, he's four but I wouldn't let him read the majority until he was in his teens due to content; then I wouldn't let him read them because they're stupid). More recent readers will know that I've come to lament how, though those pickings are slim, they get even slimmer if I want to give a superhero book to a young female reader.

That last one is newly on my radar but it hit me so hard that I decided to write TEEN Agents in The Plundered Parent Protocol. This wasn't because there are no YA novels for young girls, but because I feel you can either draw awareness to a problem, actively work against the problem, or both. As a writer, I get to do both.

I say all that to show that I'm a) knowledgeable on the subject of comics, b) knowledgeable the subject of parenting, c) have done a lot of thinking on the nexus where parenting and comics intersect, and d) am currently in the process of putting my money where my mouth is.

The teaser art in question if for a new comic called SAGA by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. In short, the art does indeed reveal a boob, but an unintended one. It revealed a boob who took to the internet in a fit of pique that shows him to be far less mature than the kids he's seeking to protect.

Let's look at some typical superhero comic depictions of the ladies right quick.

Now, for contrast, here's the shocking teaser art in question.

Breastfeeding. That's the family unfriendly, prurient shock tactic we're going to decry today?

Cards on the table, if you find this offensive to anyone, let alone children, you're doing it wrong. If you think somehow the act of a mother nourishing her child is inappropriate for your 7 year old (or any year old, really), you're doing it wrong. If you think this is a shock tactic, you're doing it wrong.

This is the internet. Somewhere there is a site that would find that image positively charged with sexuality. Actually, since it's the internet, there are probably literally thousands or millions such sites. But the right thinking response is to find those guys offensive, not breastfeeding.

This is a fantasy/sci fi family story. That is a guy with horns standing next to a woman with wings who he clearly cares about who herself is lovingly holding a baby to her breast to suckle. Horns...wings...okay, that's obviously the fantasy and sci fi. Family story...okay, patriarch holds matriarch in protective embrace and matriarch shares her life directly with their offspring.

Think of the children, won't you?

For those of you keeping score at home, this is a way to show the female form in a way that affirms some of what it means to be female. It isn't spilling out of costumes, it isn't using sexuality to sell or take things, it isn't turning female characters into wantons to show how "mature" your work is.

Family. Protecting one another. Loving one another. Feeding one another. In space. That's not sexy, at least not in the way Mr. Dorman wants to define it. But it is mature, and in the way we should all want to define it.

PS: I accidentally incensed Courtney Cantrell by forwarding this story on to her and here's what came out.

Jim Jarmusch Tells It Like Me But More Clever

I've been sick this week. Not debilitating sick that keeps me from even getting out of bed, but sick enough I haven't wanted to mess with the blog much. But I have been writing. I've been working on a science fictioin espionage game. I've been writing scripts for a superhero story set in a fantasy world. I've been anxiously awaiting beta reader feedback on TEEN Agents.

All that reminded me of this quote. Because I stand on the shoulders of pulp fictional giants. Every writer has always taken things they read and used them as fuel for their own writings, but I'd like to think I'm very self conscious about it. When I describe the girls in TEEN Agents as direct heirs to both Mrs. Peel and Sydney Bristow, I'm not kidding. When I describe The Hood as Batman/The Shadow/The Spider/Green Hornet meets Robin Hood, I know exactly what I'm saying. When I talk about Champion as Doc Savage and Superman's love child if he were a D&D Paladin, I'm not just talking gibberish.

I love mashing things up. I love making homages. The reason I don't feel at all like a hack or a derivative artist is because of this quote. I'm taking it all someplace totally different, totally other. And, I hope, totally awesome.

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don't bother concealing your thievery — celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It's not where you take things from — it's where you take them to."
"


—Jim Jarmusch, The Golden Rules of Filming[