Vacation Week March 16, 2009
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I finally got to spring break. Hooray for that. I’m planning on trying to finally get some serious writing done, and I’ve got some cool ideas to put up here over the next few weeks, once I finally get around to writing them up. Unfortunately, I also need a job, so a lot of time is getting spent putting together resumes and cover letters, and strangely enough comedy stories. When I get some places to post those up here, I think I’ll put them up too. It’s really late, and to be completely honest, the only reason I’m updating is to just have done something in the last few days to prove I’m still alive and keep myself from falling into that trap of not updating much for long stretches of time. Hopefully next time it won’t be one AM when I get around to updating again. Next time I’ll have something with more substance. Probably.
Notebook March 10, 2009
Posted by headgrenade in On Writing, Tools.add a comment
I’ve finally gotten around to carrying a notebook with me wherever I go — to class, work, and such — and I haven’t had something work as well as people have told me before. It’s a wonderful thing to always have paper on hand, for whenever some unusual idea strikes, but having something specific to put them all in, small enough to carry anywhere, but large enough to write more than a word or two per line really makes everything worthwhile.
Of course, I’ve done this with other notebooks before, but I ended up with a smaller sized three subject notebook, that I can more easily tell is not one of my school books, and is divided up so I can work on a few stories at once (which I am always doing, even though I probably shouldn’t). We’ll see how long it lasts before I end up putting it down in favor of some other notebook, but I don’t think I’ve found something so useful to write with since I realized Notepad was much easier to write in than Word or OpenOffice (especially OpenOffice, for me at least). But that’s another story for later, when I’m not staring down midterms and multiple papers.
Back from the Bookstore March 8, 2009
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I love bookstores. There’s always something to be found, looked at, considered, and, given how much I get paid from my part time job, put back on the shelf dejectedly and walk away empty-handed. Okay, well, technically, this time, I bought Night Watch by Sergi Lukyanenko, but there’s plenty of other things I would have loved to have gotten too. Besides, that’s . . . research for monster stories and horror and such. ^_^;
Of course, I went to the writer’s section too. I’ve come across plenty of great books on writing, and there are lots that I still keep trying to collect the capital to obtain. But there’s just so many ridiculous titles: “20 Ridiculously Awesome Plots!” , “How to Sell your Novel Guaranteed*! (*Not Guaranteed)” “Make Writer’s Block Your *****!” Okay, yeah, none of these were real (though some were based off real titles), but it always amazes me to see these on the shelves. I don’t know who buys them, I don’t know who writes them and thinks it’s going to work, and I don’t know how much money they make, which is probably why I don’t understand the second part. Maybe that’s because every other book I’ve read on writing eviscerates these books with a wooden spoon.
There are some awesome writing books out there. Stephen King’s On Writing, all three of Noah Lukeman’s books, John Dufresne’s The Lie that Tells a Truth, and, of course, the amazing, awesome, and unbelievable How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by Orson Scott Card (since I haven’t finished reading Strunk & White’s Elements of Style yet, I needed a placeholder).
I think, reading those first, and realizing that writing wouldn’t ever be easy, is all that keeps me from buying those. I can see why people want those books: if they were true, they can write, they can get published, and that pretty much solves everything, doesn’t it. Everyone has times where they get scared about these things. I do. A book like those, with the “master plots” and “sure fire strategies” sure would calm my nerves faster than a couple beers or a shot of sake. If only, if only. But, as far as I know, they’re not true, or at least not true enough to make things all that much easier.
Back Again March 7, 2009
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I’ve been trying to write something for this all day and failing, so now I’m going to write something rather pointless instead. I’ve finished an anime I’ve been meaning to watch for almost two years, I’ve found an amazingly atmospheric game that shows a complete story without a single line of text or dialogue withing the game; but whenever I try to write about those, I get nothing, so now I’m going for the reverse.
Comedy and Language December 6, 2008
Posted by headgrenade in Analysis, Anime, Comedy, Manga.Tags: Translation
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I’m supposed to be working on a paper for Jewish American Lit right now, or one of my other papers due next week, but I’m really not up for it at the moment. However, the topic, examining three stand-up comedian’s views on Hanukkah and how their comedic styles do, or do not, draw from their Jewish Heritage, will be a lot of fun. Once I start. But not yet. Later.
It got me thinking, though, about the old idea that comedy doesn’t translate well. It doesn’t make sense, when I actually sit down and think about it. I don’t have the book on hand, but the explanation I got about how comedy works is that it can be broken down, eventually, into two types: superiority jokes and incongruous jokes. All humor either makes us feel superior to someone or something, or makes a logical/illogical jump from one point to another. That doesn’t seem to be something dependent on language, so, translating comedy should work.
Okay, yeah, I’ll admit, I don’t think it would necessarily be easy to translate complex word humor and jokes based on specific cultural things, which means yes, in some ways comedy doesn’t translate. But in terms of cultural jokes, that’s a flaw on the part of the reader, not the translator. Okay, not really “fault” but that sort of thing, I guess.
Here’s the thing, though; to use Japanese Anime as a reference, how many various comedy animes and mangas are out, and have done well? How many involve humor in one part or another, that Americans still get? Suzumiya Haruhi, Excel Saga, Azumanga Daioh, Yotsuba, Crayon Shin Chan (sorta), Lucky Start (mostly), Ranma 1/2, Nerima Daikon Brothers, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, or the jokes that come up in dramas and action shows like Evangelion, Full-Metal Alchemist, One Piece, Inu-Yasha, etc. etc.?
The Telescopic Text December 3, 2008
Posted by headgrenade in Analysis, On Writing, Reccomended Reading.add a comment
This is an interesting little experiment that I came across on another blog, mostly on design, but it has some interesting things for writers as well. It’s called Telescopic Text, and it’s just a sentence that can be expanded into a longer, more complex sentence, by clicking on the words. In the end, it always becomes the same thing, but it’s an interesting thing to check out. While the design thing is probably a more interesting element, the actual fact of looking at the writing expand and become more descriptive is another good thing to check out, as a lot of people, myself included, don’t describe things well. Here’s an actual sentence, “I made tea.” being built out into a full paragraph, full of asides, ideas, actions, and sensory effects. Check it out at: Telescopic Text by Joe Davis
Ten Thousand Hours December 2, 2008
Posted by headgrenade in On Writing.Tags: Malcom Gladwell, Outliers
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Malcom Gladwell, author of both Blink and The Tipping Point, has recently released his newest work, Outliers: The Story of Success. And, due to that sort of an opening sentence, you can guess that I am currently reading, and am a strident fan of, Malcom Gladwell’s work, and his newest book as well. Like always, though, something caught my attention, different from the rest (at least so far; I still haven’t gotten to the part where they talk about plane crashes).
He offers a rule for success, the 10,000 hour rule, which states, if you look at the masters of any field of work, they all practiced a minimum of 10,000 hours to master their craft. Art, literature, music, science, mathematics, computer programming, he offers many examples. I don’t feel like going into the book and searching them out right now for other reasons, but they are there. It’s nothing special, when you think about it. Everyone seems to mention that the most important part of any occupation, whether sports or creative or academic, constant practice with whatever medium that is used is the most important. Writing is just the same. I’ve heard other ways of saying this, though I cannot remember the names of the people, such as the famous quote of some Violinist to a fan.
Fan: I would give my life to play like you.
Violinist: I did.
Practice is hard. Doesn’t matter what for, it’s hard, dirty, and oftentimes what comes out of it is pretty useless. (I should know; I read some of my poems I did for practice — boy was that a s***storm and a half) But everyone says it’s important, mainly because, it is. Maybe I don’t have the right to say that yet, but I’m fairly certain, one day, I will have the authority to say that, if only because the bile I spew forth onto clean white paper is so bad from fiction-writing-brain-cells atrophying over the years from lack of mental exercise.
I used to write a lot more than I do recently. I’ve written hundreds of pages for one or two stories, and had the energy to keep going on and on beyond them. But that was some time ago. And for all the writing and working I did, then all the way until now, I don’t think it was ten thousand hours. Maybe four thousand, which, according to the music scale which is used as the primary example, would put me at a perfect place for a middle school music teacher. Hot diggidy damn. Maybe, if I really squeezed, I could get six thousand, which is just enough to not be sucky.
I want to go back to writing again. I miss it. Every time I stop writing, and then go back, I realize more and more how important it is to me. I don’t want to write. I need to write. It’s wonderful to be able to think that sometimes, because at least some part of me then knows that it will be forced to keep writing until the day I die. If it was only a want, I need to be doubly sure to make room for it, to set aside hours to write and compose. But a need, that’s different. That will grab you by the throat in the middle of the night, while spending time with your love the day before she leaves and say “GET OFF YOUR FAT ASS, D*****T!” I know. That was last night, and it felt like a relief to just sit and write again, not just for class, but because I wanted to write a story. Barely got a page done, and it’s clear how ridiculously hard the story I’m trying to write now will be, but it’s started.
I’m going to keep writing here, if only to make sure I have to write, a little bit at least, every day. I don’t know how well that will go. I’m not a consistent, dependable person. I shirk a lot. I procrastinate more than I shirk. And I’ve left a lot of projects by the wayside and forgotten. So, should you come across this discarded blog post some five years in the future, you know what happened. But even if I should fail into nothingness, I wish you the best of luck yourselves, those of you who . . . well, those of you who do anything.
Gundam 00 Update September 4, 2008
Posted by headgrenade in Anime, Mistakes, Plot.Tags: Gundam 00
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This is just a short little post I’m going to do now on Gundam 00; I’ve gotten about halfway through the first season since I last wrote on it, but I don’t want to spend a lot on it at this point until I’ve finished it. To be honest, my opinion has only gotten worse.
However, there’s one thing I noticed from the recap episode that I wanted to bring up. There’s one time in the series where a bus, for reasons of spoiling the story I won’t mention now, explodes, killing a number of people. When I was watching it happen the second time, I noticed the bus stops in front of a line of people, and for a good two or three seconds it sits there, with none of the people moving, and then the explosion, which cuts away before you can see too much damage, before switching back to show the finished carnage.
What bothers me is those people standing there. Maybe it was okay the first time, but when it comes back, everyone knows the bus is going to blow. Yet the people don’t move, or do anything, even though that’s where every single person watching the scene will look. Imagine if they had made the people move; it would make the scene pop and be amazing and suspenseful, because you know what is going to happen but now you’re watching people walk around normally just waiting to die.
Anyone who really gets into writing knows these little details and mistakes and graphic/plot goofs come back to bite you; Gundam 00 has thousands of them. I could probably make a whole series going through each episode pointing out each individual moment where things change or don’t change for no explainable reason. And don’t tell me that people don’t do deep background details; go pick up any copy of the Vagabond manga in your local book store and count how many leaves you can see on a bush, or how many individual blades of grass you can see. You’ll be shocked. And don’t say that would cost too much; I only noticed it that time because it was the second time around and all my focus was on the bus. They knew it would come back, they ought to have put the money there. And they’re Mobile Suit Gundam, the huge behemoth series that basically created an entire genre, or at least stands in the spotlight in it.
Things like that bother me, like a lot of people, because it breaks any sense of realism from the medium you’re watching. It happens in written word and visual media just as much. Plot holes are bad. Don’t worry about filling them. Worry about keeping them from ever existing.
True, Classic Insults September 3, 2008
Posted by headgrenade in Pre-Modern Writings, Reccomended Reading.Tags: Insults, Jewish-American Lit
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My own background is an English major, which, to be completely honest, I’m still working on. It’s a great way to find all sorts of material, though, since what I’m required to read and look through a whole diverse field of literature and other writigns for class. I recently began a Jewish-American Lit. course, and I must say it’s already starting off with a bang.
The truth of the matter is, we’re supposed to be good, kind, respectful people. If everyone was, this world would be a lot better . . . maybe. Maybe just more polite. Whatever. THe point is, though, everyone, once in a while, isn’t that good, kind, respectful people. Sure, when someone makes you angry, you could release that emotion in the easy way by shouting profanities, or making lewd gestures, or hitting them. While writing a letter to the editor may not be on the top of the list anymore, it is a good way to rip someone to itty-bitty bits in a highly public way. Plus, apparently, if you do it really well, you can get published as literature.
[Letter from "a Jew Broker"] is an untitled letter to the Independent Gazetteer in March of 1784, and is attributed to Haym Salomon, a Jewish banker who was pro-American in the American Revolutionary War. The person to whom it was directed at, Miers Fisher, was a Pennsylvanian Quaker who was pro-Tory and attempting to get the government to allow him to create a new bank, citing the reason that “Jewish” bankers were gouging interest rates and damaging the economy for their own greed. What Salomon supposedly wrote in response is one of the most visciously pointed and charged letter I’ve ever read without resorting to profanities. The first several paragraphs basically consist of the writer explaining that Fisher is scum so low in public opinion that even were he to save the world he would be despised; in addition, he is so vile that bodily excriment mixed with dirt and poison would be more palatable than him.
An Excerpt:
You shall yet repent, even in sackcloth and ashes, for the fowl language in which you have expressed yourself. And even the interposition of some well-meaning but mistaken Whigs who, I am sorry to think, have joined you, “nor even the sacred shield of cowardice may protect you,” from your transgressions. Who knows but the beams of that very denomination whom you have traduced may, on one day, perhaps not very remote, warm you into the most abject servility, and make you penitentially solemnize what you have done?
(This quote is taken from Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology, copyright 2001. You can find it on Google Books here)
I don’t know about you, but I hope the next time someone gets pissed off at me, they spin a twenty sentence metaphor about how I am more useless for the good of society than an actual contraption designed to be utterly useless.
