Jonas David's Blog, page 42

A likable “I”

I started reading The City & The City, by China Mieville[image error] and my disappointment at it being in first person was quickly quashed by the great writing and non-annoying character.

Too many times, first person narratives have the same arrogant, ‘quirky,’ snide, sarcastic character that everyone around them seems to love, but I want to punch in the face as I’m reading.

I suppose I haven’t read enough first person narratives. This one so far is a normal human character, not someone trying to force their personality down your throat in every paragraph. It’s nice. I can’t say that I ‘like’ him, yet, but this kind of writing certainly makes it easier to like the character.

Interested for more…

Odd people

I’ve been listening to Odd John[image error] recently, and the character is so ‘high above’ regular humans that he sees them as friendly animals. Hi arrogance is abbrasive, but his overwhelming curiosity and passion for knowledge makes up for it and makes him a likable character.

How to write terribly smart characters without being terribly smart yourself? Probably by leaving a lot of it up to the imagination of the reader… however, getting the mannerisms and way of speaking/acting etc right, could be difficult.

Maybe it’s enough for the character to be ‘odd’. Different ways of thinking would be reflected in different ways of acting, so getting to know some strange, off-kilter, or even somewhat mad people might be a useful way to write a super smart character…

Sometimes, you can’t tell one from the other…

1Q84: Long, rambling, long, repetitive, too long, doesn’t make sense in the end

I finally finished the 1300 page monster 1Q84 [image error] and am glad its over. This is a markedly different experience from a different very long book I read this year[image error] that left me physically aching for more at the end of it.

IQ84 is interesting, weird, creepy at times, creative and has some nice imagery, but it just goes on and on and on. There are large numbers of pages devoted to describing characters cooking dinner, brushing their teeth, taking baths, looking into shop windows, walking down streets, getting dressed, getting undressed, making coffee, cleaning house, and so on. I wonder if this book was written at the height of Marukami’s popularity and his editor was afraid to confront him, or something, because it is in desperate need of cleaning up.

The worst part is he doesn’t do anything with all these pages. The story still doesn’t make any sense in the end. It’s nonsense. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World[image error] was the same way, so maybe that is just Marukami’s style: pulling random stuff out of thin air and damn the sense of it. These stories both dealt with dual worlds, and characters that were connected across worlds as well. I wonder if he can write anything else… I’m not sure I have the patience to find out.

Word Peevs: we all have them!

Often times:   Why don’t you just say ‘often’?

Begs the question: 95% of the time you mean ‘raises the question.’

Familiar pronounced as Fur-miliar: Unless you are talking about your cat…

The problem is, is…: The thing is, is this is really annoying for me. The question is, is this annoying to anyone else?

Don’t get me wrong…: Whenever I read this, it irreversibly changes the tone of whatever I’m reading into a sing-songy newscaster kind of voice. Don’t get me wrong, if that’s what you’re going for, then do it! But otherwise, you might want to pick a less cliche phrasing.

Structuring sentences like this: “Turning in my chair, I vomited with irritation.” Instead of “I turned in my chair and vomited with irritation.” Or “I turned in my chair. Irritable vomit spewed forth.” Even worse is stringing the ings like “Turning in my chair and vomiting with irritation, I read this sentence.” Even worser if EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE is structured this way.

Scantily-clad: Another cliche, but this one particularly annoys me because nowhere else ever are the words ‘scantily’ and ‘clad’ used, except right next to each other. Please say something else.

And here are some from my writing/editing friends:

I’ll be there in three days’ time: Three days. Just, three days. Would you ever say “I’ll have three pounds’ weight of carrots please.” No, you wouldn’t.

For all intensive purposes: This is a double annoyance because the correct phrase, ‘for all intents and purposes’ is redundant.

Reply back or respond back: Could you reply forward, or to the left?

Unthaw: I have never heard this but have been assured it is a real thing people say when they mean ‘thaw’, not an ironic way to say ‘freeze’.

Alot: A lot, as in one lot of stuff. I have a bad feeling this will end up in the dictionary eventually, though.

I could of died: I may HAVE died just reading that. Please send help.

Definate: This is not a word. Please pay attention to the squiggly. It knows more than you.

Proberly and suposably: Probably you should read a book now and then. Supposedly it helps with understanding what words are.

Per se: I know some people who say this all the time, per se. I wonder, per se, if they know what it means.

I’m sure I’ll come up with more and post them as they strike me…

What are your word peeves?

Crime and Punishment

An exciting psychological thriller? A philosophical thinkpiece on morality? A tragedy? Mystery? All of these?

I quite enjoyed Crime and Punishment[image error] if you can’t tell. Some of the conversations were very intense, and ambiguous too–I was so intent on Rodion’s interactions with Porfiry, I could not decide whether he knew or not! It was so well done. I also just now learned that my favorite TV detective, Columbo[image error] was based on Porfiry! No wonder I loved those scenes so much…

This was a really amazing and entertaining book, and if you haven’t read it, or only read it in highschool, I highly recommend giving it a go!

Old music

Been listening to some old songs I haven’t heard in a while and it’s strange how much music draws you back into the past. What you were doing when listening to the music the first time, with supreme clarity sometimes, can come flooding right back with just a few notes…

Nature

Is interesting, and I find it hard not to write about it. Insects, animals, trees, weather. It’s all super cool and fun to describe. I might go off on tangents though… Is it as fun to read about as it is to write about?

I guess I’ll find out…

Game of thrones season 7 episode 02 spoilers

So does Grey Worm have a worm or not?

Screw all Greyjoys except Yara

We’ve been overdue for some Varys awesomeness and boy is he awesome. He knows just what to say to make Dani like him. Such a pro.

I was the only one in my viewing group that was sad Arya turned back toward Winterfell. I want her to complete her list!

Samwell slicing off Jorah’s nipple then a cut right to someone cracking open a hot pie was so perfect we had to rewind and watch it a second time. WTF

I hope Sansa takes over the north and somehow takes the reigns from Jon

The whole meeting of Jon and Dani seems really rushed and contrived but the season is short and we got to get there some point so…

A mountain of dragonglass seems too late when the zombies are already crossing into the north… seems it would take years to set up a mining/smithing operation or whatever. I don’t understand time on this show.

Euron just showed up randomly last season and started killing well established people. This is not good writing. It is a cheaty way to make us instantly hate someone. I don’t like hating someone because so far on this show you can kind of get behind everyone even if they are garbage. This guy, though, is not likable in any way and is killing cool characters. So, they better kill him off soon in a satisfying way.

Time stopping powers

Very often, unusually often probably, I wish I could stop time and just sit and read or write all day. Now I wonder why our world is such that I need to imagine fantastic powers for myself, just in order to read all day…

In the future, unless things change, even when we have robots and AIs to do all conceivable work for us that is needed to survive, corporations and those in power will still find ways to eat up all our time with work.

If AIs and robots are going to take up all the jobs (and they will) we need a society that doesn’t require money or work to live. It’s not the society we’re in now, I can tell you that much…

Valerian and the city of a thousand planets (2017)

I wanted to see this movie, based on this graphic novel[image error], because it looked like an original idea, and we usually get about one of those per year among the tide of super hero sequels, remakes, reboots, and brand name movies. It was pretty original, and had lots of elements I hadn’t seen before. It was also long, tiring, ham handed, and boring for long sections. Spoilers:

Cut the first half hour of the movie. During all the action (lots of it very interesting and creative and cool looking) I kept wondering ‘when am I going to care?’ These characters I don’t know are running around doing stuff I don’t care about, and there is no tension. There is no feeling of weight or consequence. It’s just ‘stuff happening.’ Some of it is interesting, this movie is definitely good at being creative and interesting. But… that can’t be all there is.

There problem is the characters. The movie, I think, takes for granted that I’ll like and care about them, and puts no effort into helping me do so. They are both very wooden… deadpan almost. They have no defining characteristics that I can think of. Valerian at first seems to be the one who just does whatever without any plan, while Laureline is the by the book planner. Then at the end they randomly switch roles and Valerian says ‘I’m a soldier, I obey the law, the rules’ to paraphrase. Probably this is just so the woman character can be the emotional one breaking the rules for love. Though everything leading up to that end should have had Valerian doing that. What a mess.

The Bubble character was really fun and likable, once you got past the overly drawn out, awkward and pointless pole-dance scene. Then the writers kill her off once she’s completed her job helping the characters, and Val and Laura have a very forced moment of sadness before they move on and we all conveniently forget we ever met Bubble.

At the end, I was trying to remember what other movie I’ve seen where the military destroys the planet of a primitive race of tall blue people who commune with nature. Hmm, I can’t remember.

I’m probably being too hard on this movie. It does get a lot of points for coming up with interesting ideas and having a plot that made sense and I could follow most the time. However, it was missing something. Heart and soul maybe. I just didn’t care most the time. All the bright lights and pretty colors washed over me while I waited to feel anything at all. I perked up a few times with an ‘ooh that is really neat’, but not that often.

Over all, flashing lights and loud noises, signifying nothing.