David Dubrow's Blog, page 33

The Cube Series: An Overview

After having heard so much about the Cube trilogy of movies, I decided to dive right in and watch them. As psychological horror, the first and third films work well, despite their obvious flaws. It’s easy to see how the series has developed a cult following; I didn’t love them myself, but I was reasonably entertained.

The series starts with, well, Cube. It has a gripping first few minutes that show you nothing’s safe and that there’s a great deal to fear. Not long after that we’re introduced to the cast, and that’s where the movie fell down a bit. None of the characters were the least bit likable, which is fine, but their dialogue often descended into unrealistic cliche. Quentin’s descent into angry madness was well-portrayed: the second best performance in the film. The conspiracy-theory doctor and the math girl were okay, but nothing special. David Hewlett as Worth did the best job, though that might be nostalgia talking, as his performance reminded one very much of Dr Rodney McKay in the Stargate series of TV shows. Plenty of horrific deaths and enclosed spaces made this the best film in the series.

The sequel, Cube 2: Hypercube, isn’t a horror film as much as it is a science fiction flick where people die in weird ways. Rather than physical traps to kill the hapless prisoners, this cube has things like tesseracts, variable-speed rooms, and bizarre crystals that cause horrible, if somewhat bloodless deaths. The dialogue here was even worse than in the first movie, though the characters were rather more interesting. One of the few films you’ll see where the comic relief actually worked well. One character becomes a crazy sociopath for no apparent reason, which made little sense, and the special effects were very early 2000’s movie-of-the week. Nevertheless, the weird sciency stuff was pretty neat and made up for the overall flatness of the film.

The series ends with Cube Zero, which calls itself a prequel, of sorts. This is where you see a bit of what’s outside the Cube and who’s in charge. Most of that is nonsensical, though the strange combination of obsolete gadgetry and modern technology made for a compelling aesthetic. In Cube Zero they return to the gritty, industrial feel of the first film, eschewing the clean, sterile atmosphere of Hypercube. We get to see the people who observe the prisoners trapped in the cube, as well as the upper “bosses,” as it were. Hints of a bizarre, theocratic government are hintfully dropped, amidst the disgusting executions and inevitable betrayals. Better than the second film but not as good as the first.

The Cube series is somewhat dated, but entertaining anyway. Give the first one a watch: if you didn’t like it, you probably won’t like its sequels.

Orlando: Our (Non-)Collective Grief

It’s been a little over a week since Omar Mateen, a Muslim* extremist, murdered 49 people at Pulse, a nightclub in Orlando that caters to gay men. You’ve no doubt read the hottest of the hot takes, devoured the smartest of the smart takes, and watched the takeaways on television news. Reams have already been written about this horrific act, and more will be penned by people who are paid by the word. What follows is my unpaid, lukewarm take, which you can take or leave.

I remember September 11, 2001 and its aftermath, when the United States, as a nation, came together to share its collective grief at the latest attack on American soil by Muslim extremists. It was a horrific time, but we shared the burden of anguish in some small measure. It happened to all of us. Obviously I couldn’t pretend to comprehend the grief of a widower, an orphan, a parent who lost a child in that attack; none of us could. But we supported those who did, with the implicit, human understanding that we were a people, a society. We were all Americans.

We’re not a people any longer.

Major media outlets have made it clear that what happened at Pulse is entirely an event owned by a particular identity group. And if you haven’t supported every single aspect of that identity group’s political and social efforts, your support, your shared grief is unwelcome. The New York Times blamed its political adversaries for the shooting, not Mateen. In The Daily Beast‘s eyes, there’s no difference between supporting the traditional definition of marriage and wishing death to homosexuals. According to Anderson Cooper at CNN, if you didn’t Tweet enough about Gay Pride Month, you’ve done harm to the gay community and have no place discussing the Orlando massacre.

Consider the poverty of spirit, the elevation of identity politics over basic humanity that these examples display. That shameful performance wasn’t beneath Anderson Cooper, as Mollie Hemingway said: it is Anderson Cooper. It is CNN and The Daily Beast and The New York Times. It is what America has become: Balkanized identity groups. Don’t make the mistake of calling Cooper’s loathsome behavior a lapse: it’s a lapse when he doesn’t do it. The kimono’s open, and we have seen the sickening ugliness beneath.

If that’s how you want it, then you can have it. If my well-considered and deeply-held beliefs preclude me from mourning when certain Americans have been killed by Muslim extremists, I’ll save my support for the Americans I’m allowed to grieve for. It’s ugly and terrible, but it’s the bed our moral and intellectual betters have made. Why argue with them?

Are you sure you want to support CNN with your cable TV money, knowing that this is what they think of you? Why give The Daily Beast any more clicks after reading that disgusting tripe? Should The New York Times really be called The Paper of Record? You can’t get these outlets to change their minds, but you can deny them an audience for their vitriol. Don’t support media outlets that hate you. And they do hate you; don’t be fooled into thinking otherwise. Your difference of opinion is hate, remember? And your forbearance is weakness.

The Brotherhood of Man, the notion of shared burdens and open arms is over. I don’t like it any more than you do, but it’s better that we acknowledge this now, while the ugliness is fresh in our sight.

*Make sure you remember to pronounce the word “Muslim” as “MOOS-lims,” so you can sound erudite. Saying, “Muzz-lims” is so 2002. It is the current year, after all.

The Slaughtered Bird Book Review: Run to Ground

I reviewed Jasper Bark’s story Run to Ground at The Slaughtered Bird:

Bark is as thoughtful a writer as you’ll read in any genre, and he often uses horror tropes as a pulley, of sorts, to move the machinery of much larger themes. In this case, it’s responsibility, specifically parental responsibility.

Click the link to read the rest of the review. Further instructions await!

The Oppression of “Proper” Grammar

(I had the first draft of this piece written at the end of last week; while the horrible events in Orlando have captured our attention more intently of late, this article is still relevant. We face threats both internal and external.)

I’d like you to do something very difficult for me, keeping in mind that personal growth only occurs through discomfort. That said, I’m asking you to read this article from a site called Everyday Feminism. Just click on it and begin reading. You may be tempted to stop in disgust after the expression, “the occupied territories that people call ‘the United States,'” but soldier on. Get through it. I did and I’m still here. So you can do it, too.

You’ll find terms like “language justice” and “shift our framing” and “weaponizing the language of transness.” None of those terms make sense. Finish it anyway.

Done? Good.

Yes, it’s a Social Justice word salad that insists that proper grammar is racist and that you, sitting here and minding your own business, are a sexist transphobe benefiting from centuries of brutal oppression and that the only remedy is for you to give up everything you’ve worked for, because you earned your wealth on the backs of more deserving people. The entire piece is intellectually, morally, and ethically bereft, in addition to being horribly long and nonsensical. You know that.

And yet people believe it. Lots of people.

We used to laugh at this sort of thing, shake our heads in disgust, and move on. We can’t do that anymore. When we do, we regret it. This stupidity grows like weeds, and you can’t ignore it. Educators who teach your children believe this stupidity. Entertainers you pay to watch believe this stupidity. People you elect to public office believe this stupidity, and often attempt to write it into law.

Don’t ignore this. Mock it. Ridicule it, because ridiculous statements demand ridicule. Anyone who believes this stupidity needs to be laughed out of the arena of ideas. Ask, loudly and in public, why anyone would be so stupid as to not only believe this, but communicate this stupidity to others as though it’s worthy of consideration.

Anything less makes you complicit in your own civilization’s downfall. Like it or not, that’s what’s at stake. You’ve let this silliness slide long enough, haven’t you? Time to say, loud and proud, No more. I reject you. Don’t do business with people who promulgate this stupidity. Don’t watch their shows, patronize their businesses, attend their schools, or vote for them. It’s not enough to decide they’re idiots and move on. Like it or not, we really are in a fight to preserve Western civilization, and in this war there are no civilians. It’s not as though you have to pick up a real gun and run onto a real battlefield: just put your money where your mouth is. Live your principles. Do it a little at a time. A bit here, a bit there. Are you going to die without listening to a Bryan Adams song again? Isn’t there anywhere else to go on vacation other than Disney this year? Just do one thing, and you’ll find that the next one’s easier.

Remember that discomfort I mentioned at the beginning of this piece? Think about the discomfort that the student athletes at Haines High School in Anchorage feel. That’s not a joke. That’s happening today, right now, and you’re the bigot for thinking that there’s something wrong with it. Somehow, there’s something wrong with you. How did that happen? This silliness happened because we ignored the early warning signs. You’re uncomfortable? Think of the discomfort of parents who have to un-teach all kinds of ridiculous crap their kids come home from school with every day. We’re living the consequences of the denial of objective truth, and before long it won’t just be inconvenience and discomfort that’s at stake.

So do you want to fight alongside those of us who honor truth, or are you going to sit back and decide it has nothing to do with you? Your choice.

Just, you know, choose quickly.

Slaughtered Bird Book Review: Amaranthine and Other Stories

I reviewed Erik Hofstatter’s Amaranthine and Other Stories for The Slaughtered Bird:

Hofstatter paints in broad strokes with his writing, leaving the reader appreciative of his descriptive power. Referring to itself as “schlock horror,” the collection lacks depth, which is likely the point: you’re not meant to read too deeply. Just hold on and enjoy the journey.

There’s more, so click the link and check out the review! It might just be up your alley.

Blessed Man Giveaway: Aftermath

Last week I did a promotion for The Blessed Man and the Witch, making it free on Amazon for three days: June 2 through June 4. To support it, I paid for ads through Book Barbarian, FreeBooksy, and Manybooks. In addition, I set up Project Wonderful ads on sites I had decent click-throughs with in the past, plus a few new ones. BookBub didn’t accept my bid, which was disappointing but not unexpected.

In free advertising, I mentioned the giveaway on my social sites and used places like Indie Book of the Day and Digital Book Today.

I set my goals low, mostly because I didn’t know what to expect. I figured I’d give away 100 copies, maybe more, maybe fewer. What’s considered a successful ad campaign when you’re giving away free books? Sales of the sequel, yes, but even that’s difficult to gauge as a hard-and-fast measure of success. Plenty of people will download books just because they’re free and never read them.

As it turned out, I gave away over 3,200 copies of The Blessed Man and the Witch. In Amazon rankings, Blessed Man made it to #4 in Dystopian fiction and #5 in Horror fiction.

I set the paid advertisements to drop on Friday, June 3; unsurprisingly, that’s when most of the downloads occurred.

One thing I noticed is that the “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” section of the book’s product page is markedly different from what it was before, likely reflecting books that had also been given away during that time period. Pleasantly, Blessed Man’s sequel, The Nephilim and the False Prophet, is numbered among them, even though I kept it at full price.

Lacking anything else to measure it against, I think the giveaway was a success. Three thousand more people have the first novel in my Armageddon series on their e-readers than before, and while they didn’t have to pay for the pleasure, they’re now aware of the book, and it’s possible that some of them will read it and be enticed into buying the sequel. Between cover, blurb, and price, The Blessed Man and the Witch was an attractive product (for a short while).

I don’t log into Facebook anymore, so I don’t know if anyone there shared the link to the sale. I’m reasonably sure some of my friends did, and I very much appreciate their efforts.

Several of my Twitter buddies shared the sales link, and I would like to thank them by name: Sean @OddNMacabre (amazing, disturbing artwork), janniegirl g (I don’t know you, but it was kind of you to retweet), Andres Grau (who apparently likes the Target dog), Paul Fairbairn (a new acquaintance), Iain Rob Wright (thank you, sir), Myk Saiten (one of the 10 people on Twitter worth following, other than the people on this list), and Adam Howe (only because I have photos of him in a hot tub filled with creamed corn and a RuPaul lookalike – I’ll get around to deleting those files, buddy, don’t you worry).

Special thanks also to my good friend Holly Evans, who has always been supportive and kind. In publishing, character matters more than you think, and she’s Good People.

Armageddon Giveaway!

Now, as in right now, at this very minute, my novel The Blessed Man and the Witch is available free from Amazon! School’s out for Armageddon, so now’s your time to pick this book up, the first in my Armageddon series.

Of course I think it’s a good deal, but here’s what a few impartial reviewers said about The Blessed Man and the Witch:

Dubrow’s writing is sharp, giving us real pictures of people to whom some truly strange things happen. He adds a dose of realism to each person involved, writing them to vivid life through the myriad little details thrown in. I was engaged from the beginning, enjoying each perspective and caught up in the myriad connections to the central figure of The Blessed Man. The story bobs and weaves like a boxer swift on his feet, the pace driven but not forceful. —Andrea Houtsch

To tell a story of this nature and not seem cheesy and recycled is worth the read. Sure, we all heard and read stories where Armageddon is coming and a New Earth is about to emerge. Somehow, David Dubrow wrote something special here: he fused Old World (The Bible and Magic) with New World (Modern Day goings on, i.e. drugs, turf wars, nightlife, and the like) pretty seamlessly to tell a story that is NOT convoluted. —Andrew Boyd

f you enjoy fantasy and apocalyptic tales of a future America then you will find this novel compelling reading. Not since Stephen King’s THE STAND has an author taken on the end times with such a tale of horror, violence, social commentary, fast-paced action and what Harlan Ellison would call a “dangerous vision.” —Raymond Lyman

It’s difficult – nay, impossible to get a better deal than this, and the giveaway ends at 11:59 PM on Saturday, June 4. Get your free copy today!

And while you’re at it, why not spring for the sequel, The Nephilim and the False Prophet? Only $2.99 for 374 digital pages of pure entertainment.

The Slaughtered Bird Interview: Jeff Conolly and Ben Daniels

I interviewed the authors of Detroit 2020, Jeff Conolly and Ben Daniels, at The Slaughtered Bird:

I would try to go way off the reservation, pitching Detroit 2020 video games and podcast plays. Ben would just smile and say, “That sounds great, but I think we should focus on chapter three.” So we’d write chapter three.

You have to find your fit to co-author well. My manic nature was perfect for drafting. I’d race ahead pumping out words faster than Ben would probably ever want to on his own. His more methodical nature was perfect for tidying behind me. With as fast as I move when I’m writing, I really struggle telling instead of showing. Ben kicked ass at really slowing down and giving the gory details. If you loved some gross, violent visual from the book, it’s likely that you have Ben to thank.

There’s a lot more; they clearly had a lot of fun answering the questions.

Feminist Sci-Fi Fandom

I’m done talking about the various Puppy Species; the luminaries of the movement have shown that their focus isn’t on defending Western civilization, but protecting their own sci-fi rice bowls. That’s understandable to a point, but when genre fiction of any kind is attacked by Social Justice Warriors seeking, as they always do, to destroy what they can’t themselves create, it’s a problem for everybody, not just the non-recipients of an award that does little more than provide a dot whack on a book cover to generate sales.

Still, this Twitter account is worth looking at. Just click on it and start scrolling. That’s feminism in the 21st century for you. This isn’t a parody or a joke. It’s dead serious.

One wonders why they included a male-looking figure in a wheelchair on the banner illustration. The implications are disturbing.

Writers as Political Activists

You probably read Firestarter because you weren’t sure who to vote for: Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan. And you read Joy Luck Club to get insights on the George H.W. Bush/Bill Clinton presidential race. That’s why you read Stephen King and Amy Tan: for the incisive political commentary, to get into the nuts and bolts of American presidential campaigns. Good on you, you’ve-

Wait, what? You don’t?

Then let’s talk about this Open Letter that King, Tan, and hundreds of other writers just had to sign, telling you who you shouldn’t vote for in the 2016 US presidential race.

There’s a massive difference between opining on political issues and telling someone who to vote for. I’ve talked about this before, but it bears mentioning again: everything has been politicized. Everything. So to talk about current events in any context is to engage in political discourse. I don’t like it any more than you do, as few things on this planet are as polarizing as politics, but here we are. Before this ludicrous open letter was excreted and polished as though it were a trophy rather than a clot of shit, I had no idea what Amy Tan’s politics were, and I didn’t care. Now I know, and I still don’t care. For his part, King has made his unreconstructed 1960’s hippie political garbage clear in both his fiction and his non-fiction for decades, if not his whole career, so there’s no surprise there. (Consider this interview with Adam Howe, who won King’s writing contest some time ago and flew from the UK to the US to meet him: one of the things King just had to talk to him about was how awful George W Bush was, and this to someone who wasn’t even American.) So everything’s political. Nevertheless, these writers whining in an open letter about how they oppose Donald Trump crosses the line from commentary into political activism, and political activists belong in political campaigns. If you don’t like how everything’s politics these days, you can start addressing it with each and every name on this list. They’re proudly contributing to the mess.

I say this not as a special pleader for Trump; there’s no person on Earth who can claim they’ve heard me say one positive thing about the man in public or private. But I do object to this stupid, unnecessary exercise in virtue-signaling and political activism. I, unlike the signers of this open letter, respect my readers enough to understand that they have good reasons for voting their respective consciences, even when I disagree. I’m not here as a political activist, but an entertainer.

So not only are certain show-business types going to decide who they play for according to a set of ethics very few share, they’re now telling you how to vote. Whether you agree with this open letter or not (there’s much in it that’s inaccurate, ludicrous, and historically ignorant), at what point do you decide that you’re not going to support political activists with your entertainment budget? This hectoring from the perch of unearned moral superiority has got to end, and the only way these self-appointed elites will get the message is if we. the audience, tell them how little we think of their preaching. Don’t support people who think so little of you. They’re not your betters, not even a little bit.

And this stupid open letter proves it.