Robert C. Day's Blog, page 44
June 18, 2016
Millennialism
Broadly speaking, this refers to a group that takes an end of daysapproach to the unfolding of history. John (sorry, I can’t be more specific than that) proposed that the end will be presaged by four horsemen:Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death.
But before we get into all of that – here’s one popular approach to dramatic fiction: the three-act structure. The three acts are described thus:
The first chunk sets up a whole slew of dominoes: characters, backstory, setting etc. and (most important...
June 17, 2016
Scapegoat
An individual selected to bear the blame that properly belongs to a group, e.g. Jesus (the Lamb of God).
This left me wondering what the difference between Jesus and Christ is. I found something about this on the internet (oh what would we do without the internet? me? I’d probably just make things up. hmm – actually I do that anyway (oops – bang go half my devoted and loving followers (yep – that mean you))). Anyways – here’s what I found:
Jesus was born of blood and (Flesh) and was Conscious...
June 16, 2016
Messiah
This is a really interesting subject actually. Apparently a messiah is aheroic leader or saviour king who will rescue the people from their hardship, andhas the following qualities:
Great political leader Well-versed in and observant of thelaw Charismatic and inspirational Great military figure Great and righteous judge Fully normal human being.Can you imagine such a person? I’m pretty sure that one doesn’t exist right now. You only have to look at the state of politics of any nation in th...
June 14, 2016
Sewer System
There are several stages involved in theremoval of contamination from anything, including writing.
Pretreatment
This involves removing the big lumps of rubbish before you even start writing and usually involves self-censorship on the basis of your perception as to what would be acceptable by society and your Aunt Mabel. It involves sitting down and thinking of a suitable big idea to write about. Certain themes would be discarded from the mix at this stage, such as titles like ‘Life in the Mid...
June 13, 2016
Avatar
Avatar – the manifestation or incarnation of a deity in human or animal form.
It’s sad but, to be able to sell loads of books you either need to be crazy-famous, or you need to be gifted at wooing an audience by some other means. Even if you are a God amongst writers, but don’t have the knack of getting on with people, you are stumped.
On the other hand, there are people out there who are oozing with fame and popular appeal but they can’t string two sentences together to save their toffee.
B...
June 12, 2016
Reincarnation
Those of you who have thrilled to the successful 2011 Disney financed, British-American, 3D computer-animated, fantasy, romantic-comedyfamily film:Gnomeo & Julietmay not know that it is loosely based on an obscure little American musical called West Side Story, which in turn uses as its foundation a little-knownplay by someone called William Shakespeare.
Will named his scrappy little playRomeo and Juliet –obviouslya blatant rip-off of Disney’s brilliant title. But before you start thinking th...
June 11, 2016
The Devil
The Devil is billed (in the book 1001 Ideas that Changed the World) as something thought up by mankind about 3,516 years ago. I don’t know about you, but it makes me wonder why they wanted to think up something as fearsome as that.
I can just imagine some guy sat on a bench thinking (in Hebrew) about the plot for his next blockbuster novel. He’s got the name of the protagonist, but he needs to throw something in there to spice up the story – some obstacle to make his hero sweat for a while. S...
June 10, 2016
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve – historical or allegorical? I don’t know enough to say either way but here’swhat happened when I tried tofigure outthe types of words found in this passage:
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves t...
June 9, 2016
Angels
I am in sore need of an angel to teach me how to recognise the angels that stand before me in plain sight.
All the gifts that you have given me, lay idle because I have forgotten who I am.
Teach me again how I might rise.
Show me peace.
Heal me.
Ten little angels to help you to recognise and release the writer person in you:
Trouble. Just when you think that it can’t get any worse – write about it. People. They are a gift to us at all times and in all places, and that includes you. Emptiness...June 8, 2016
Zoroastrianism
Raging around and through you is an immense, all pervading, cosmos spanning battle between:
Asha (truth, order, justice, creation and righteousness) and Druj (falsehood, deceit, chaos, natural decay and the lie).You – thesoul havebeensent into the mortal world to collect the experiences of life and to help asha by having‘good thoughts, good words, good deeds’.
Now if that isn’t an awesome plot for a novel, I’ll eat my fingernails!
Yeah, yeah – I know – it’s all been done before, and with a...
