Jonas David's Blog, page 50

Be creative

I’ve started Jeff VanderMeer’s new book, Borne, and it is very interesting so far. Although it is YET ANOTHER post apocalyptic story, he is being refreshingly creative with it.

The very first thing we encounter in this destroyed world is not a zombie or a mutant person covered in boils, or a band of scavengers covered in spiky clothes–but a three story tall levitating bear. How does this thing exist? I’m not sure, but I’m very interested to find out.

That newness alone would be almost enough to keep me reading, even if it wasn’t particularly well written.

Newness is a huge appeal. Why do what’s been done and done and done, when you can do literally anything you want? You can come up with anything in that crazy mind of yours, so don’t hold back!

I FINISHED IT

I got to the end of the Glass Bead Game, finally! And boy… did it disappoint.

The final 20% of the book is several poems and three short stories written by the character whose life we just got a long, tired account of. Two of the three stories were actually really good and I thought the book was going to redeem itself with these, since a lot of what made them good was what you learned about the character who supposedly wrote them. But then.

The third and final story, and finale of the book ends with

Spoiler

IT WAS ALL A DREAM

Yes. Seriously. The climax of the story is that a huge portion of the characters life was all a dream/vision and he had some kind of epiphany from this that life itself is pointless and nothing but struggle and pain, so he recedes from life to be a hermit and focus on inner peace.

 

But come on! Any storyteller should know that this as a climax is awful. If it had not been the FINAL story, and literal end to this book, it wouldn’t have been a terrible story. But as a climax, this is very disappointing and I’d expect an experienced writer to know better.

Yes it was written in the 40’s, and maybe this kind of end wasn’t such an overused trope at the time, but that doesn’t excuse it, as it is just as annoying the first time you experience it.

Anyway. Now it’s finally over and I can stop complaining about it. On to the next thing!

There is only one reason to write

Because you want to be famous?   ****X****

Because you want money? ****X****

Because you want everyone to know how smart you are? ****X****

Because you want people to think you are mysterious? ****X****

Because the ghost of PKD has possessed your fingers and is forcing you to scrawl dozens of pages of deep, yet clearly insane ramblings in your crumpled, sweat stained journal every night? ****√****

A piece to the puzzle…

Still running my mind through all the stuff I pulled out of the aether when writing this novel I’m now trying to rewrite.

It is a very satisfying feeling when I find a way to make the pieces fit. A connection clicks and it’s like ‘ah, yes, that must be what I was really planning all along…’

The less I plan, the more I realize I don’t need to. It just gets in the way for me. My true style is ‘write whatever comes to mind and make it sensible later.’

You should try it! Trust yourself to be able to make it work, and revel in the freedom of writing on whims.

Magic vs facts

Ritual, magic, mystical powers–these things seem to comfort and guide people much easier than facts or science.

One of the short stories at the end of the glass bead game features a ‘rain maker’, a sort of shaman type figure who is in charge of when to plant crops, and is supposed to warn of impending storms and droughts, etc. One night, there is a meteor shower, and the village is freaking out, thinking that the world is at an end. The shaman notices that all the stars he’s familiar with are not moving, and determines that this must be something going on in the air between the earth and the stars, not something happening to the stars themselves. He tries at first to tell people this, to explain to them with facts and logic why they should not be afraid, but he can reach no one. When he starts chanting a ritual song, however, the village joins in with him, and unites as one in their chanting at the fiery sky.

This made me think. There is value in religion and ritual in uniting people to a cause. Facts and logic may work on certain types of people, but they often do not. People are not often calmed or spurred to action by statistics or data or proofs.

Perhaps scientists and economists and other figures working in logical and fact based professions should learn the language of ritual, magic, and religion. Maybe with this knowledge, they could find a way to state their warnings and advice in words that will actually sink in.

Somewhat redeemed

Glass bead game has made a slight turn for the better. The main character came up with some of the same complaints I had, and left the order of cloistered obsessives to live in the actual world and do something real with all his knowledge–tutor a child.

His story now seems to be over now, though, and I’m left with several short stories and poetry to close out the novel… very strange structure.

At least not a total waste of time though.

Connect the dots

Reading through this old pile of words, I feel I’m going to have do do a lot of creative interpreting to make it all fit together and make sense. Which is fun. Sometimes when I’m writing I feel like I’m just scattering ideas out there, and I’ll figure out how they are all related later. Actually that’s how it is most the time…

Any dots that don’t fit in the picture, well I’ll just erase them!

Rewriting

That thing I was talking about that had gripped me? Yeah, well, it let go…

I’m really terrible at staying focused…

Now I’ve decided to try something new that I’ve never done in my life… rewriting!

I’m going to go back over one of my unfinished novels, clean it up, and see if I can find the thread of what I was doing and follow it to an end of some kind.

I had around 40k words, so, it seems a shame to let it all go to waste.

Let’s see if I can make something out of it.

Also, its a fun sci fi adventure, instead of whatever pretentious nonsense I was trying to write just now. Got to get back to my roots!

Motivation

Is so very hard to find sometimes. There is no clear path to success, no obvious next step. Everything must be done with the high likelihood that it is a complete waste of energy and time.

I sometimes feel like I’m in a vacuum. That, or one tiny voice in a howling hurricane made of other people.

Will anyone notice if I stop? Does anyone know I’ve started?

Okay, that’s enough melancholy for the week…

Missing the point: Defenders

I just saw the trailer for this new Netflix show combining Jessica Jones, Nick Cage and Iron fist, and it looks terribly tiring and boring.

People punching each other and things exploding is the realm of the mass produced super hero blockbusters we’re all so sick of. The Netflix super hero shows, for the most part anyway, have been thoughtful, interesting and character driven. Whatever this is, it doesn’t look like that, and it seems to have completely missed the point of why these other shows were so popular.

Did anyone really watch Jessica Jones to see her punch and kick people? Or was it the interesting aspects of her character and her struggle with her past? Her development from being a cold loner to being able to trust people? Did people watch Nick Cage to see him punch and kick people? Or was it the intrigue of the character and the message the story contained about crime and the prison system?

Maybe I’m in the minority. Maybe people really do want another ‘team of super heroes punch people and blow stuff up to defeat the super bad-guy that threatens the whole city’ story. There are about a dozen of them per year these days, after all. People must really enjoy them.

I hope I’m wrong and this show is interesting. But I’m expecting wisecrack overload, cool guys walking away from explosions, and twenty minutes of consequence free fight scenes every episode.

Prove me wrong Netflix!