A HILL OF BEANS
Of course I’m referring here to that classic line in the movie CASABLANCA where Rick (played by Humphrey Bogart) says to lover Ilsa (played by Ingrid Bergman), I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.” That’s not to lessen the other incredibly timely and unforgettable lines in the movie like “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine,” “We’ll always have Paris” and “Here’s looking at you, kid.” But what exactly made a “camp” movie like CASABLANCA great and it’s equally camp lines so poignantly relative? My opin: The movie expressed some of the sadness of living a life to the best of one’s ability in a time of war when people subconsciously knew they had little control over their lives and fates. I think what makes it “camp” yet so moving, is that it is an expression of what many feel today, with global changes looming that will affect every aspect of our lives.
Maybe our lives, in the big picture aren’t much more than “a hill of beans,” but they’re OUR hill of beans — OUR collection of experiences and feelings that taken together and smoothed out by our unique ability to want to remember the good, the best, the most pleasant — is OURS. The world can take what it will, but can’t take one’s memories away.
In the Amazon-genre-bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, “Taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live.” Challenging and dangerous, but a cauldron memory-making of experiences that for each of the three amounts to a lot more than just a “hill of beans.” And I like to remind that it’s not about the “side” one takes, it’s about the human experience that results.
In the sequel, PROPHECY, that I’m currently writing, I posit that it is the sum total of our lifelong experiences that constitutes the “soul” that will ultimately guide us after death to another universe where our journey continues. Watch for PROPHECY by Raymond Gaynor. Raymond Gaynor is the pen-name of the multi-award-winning, reclusive actor-author-artist-dancer-photographer-videographer Daniel S. Janik, who, in his own words, “lives and breathes” San Francisco. He has published with William Maltese on the Tripler and Clarke gay political thriller, TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) and with multi-award-winning A. G. Hayes on the fifth Koski & Falk adventure, QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016). He is the author of numerous fiction, “sci-fu” and non-fiction works published under a variety of different pseudonyms. — https://janik.yolasite.com.
The Edge of Madness
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
THE EDGE OF MADNESS is available in printed, digital and audio formats, and has been purchased by K. Simmons Productions for manga, animation and cinematic treatment.
Maybe our lives, in the big picture aren’t much more than “a hill of beans,” but they’re OUR hill of beans — OUR collection of experiences and feelings that taken together and smoothed out by our unique ability to want to remember the good, the best, the most pleasant — is OURS. The world can take what it will, but can’t take one’s memories away.
In the Amazon-genre-bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor, “Taking up where TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) by Raymond Gaynor and William Maltese left off, NewAmerica, a shadow of its former United States of America, provides a challenging and dangerous future place for three young firebrands to live.” Challenging and dangerous, but a cauldron memory-making of experiences that for each of the three amounts to a lot more than just a “hill of beans.” And I like to remind that it’s not about the “side” one takes, it’s about the human experience that results.
In the sequel, PROPHECY, that I’m currently writing, I posit that it is the sum total of our lifelong experiences that constitutes the “soul” that will ultimately guide us after death to another universe where our journey continues. Watch for PROPHECY by Raymond Gaynor. Raymond Gaynor is the pen-name of the multi-award-winning, reclusive actor-author-artist-dancer-photographer-videographer Daniel S. Janik, who, in his own words, “lives and breathes” San Francisco. He has published with William Maltese on the Tripler and Clarke gay political thriller, TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2009) and with multi-award-winning A. G. Hayes on the fifth Koski & Falk adventure, QUANTUM DEATH (Savant 2016). He is the author of numerous fiction, “sci-fu” and non-fiction works published under a variety of different pseudonyms. — https://janik.yolasite.com.
The Edge of Madness
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
THE EDGE OF MADNESS is available in printed, digital and audio formats, and has been purchased by K. Simmons Productions for manga, animation and cinematic treatment.
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