[Sunnan-dæg] The Last of it's Name

These look back/look ahead entries have proven to be less useful than anticipated. Because the lists that get posted here are seldom worked on over the course of the week, and part of each of the last three Sundays have been consumed by these entries to little avail, I'm going to be stopping their posting all together.

However, as one final list, here's what I'm planning on doing between now and the end of the calendar year:

• Outline and completed Dekar 4
• Outline and completed Dekar 5
• Edit and made publicly presentable a very loosely autobiographical novel about an English teacher in South Korea
• Edit and made publicly presentable a poetic novel about mythological creatures
• Edit and made publicly presentable an epic poem about a night in the life of a dishwasher
• Gather and organized all of my poetry
• Gather and organized all of my short stories
• Have 3 short stories accepted for publication
• Have 1 poem accepted for publication

As you might've guessed from such a list of creative writing-related tasks, I'm dropping this update from my blogging schedule so that I can have more time for my fiction and poetry writing.

However, as counter productive as it may seem, I'm still planning to start a video game playlog over over the coming weeks.

Until then keep checking out this blog and my dead language translation blog Tongues in Jars.

The former/The latter has the usual creative writing on Monday, movie review on Friday (this week: The Screaming Skull), and "annotated links" on Saturday. And over at Tongues in Jars, you'll be able to find the second stanza of "Dum Diane vitrea" on Tuesday, and the first of Wiglaf's reactions to Beowulf's death on Thursday.

Back to Top

[Sæternes-dæg] Annotated Links #19: Wonders Outwards, Inwards, and Engineered

1. "This is Not a Real-Life Pokemon, Just the Poodle Moth." TechEBlog 23 September 2012. Web. 29 September 2012.

This article focuses on an image of the poodle moth in nature, and as a pokemon card. It's a brief article that includes no extra description of the animal or an external link.

Nonetheless, this link is included because of its weirdness and how it shows the world's wondrousness.

2.Marable, Eileen. "This Nazi Space Buddha isn't science fiction — it's real." DVICE 27 September 2012. Web. 29 September 2012.

According to this article, information on a Buddhist statue made from meteorite iron was recently released by researchers. This statue is from the 8th-10th centures, but the iron itself fell some 10,000 years ago, along the Siberia-Mongolia border. During the late 1930s it was brought to Nazi Germany, possibly because of the swastika on its chest. This article is written in a sensationalist, yet level-headed style.

This article is included because of its bizarreness.

3. Taylor, Kathleen. "The Brain Supremacy." Huff Post Science 24 September 2012. Web. 29 September 2012.

An article that proposes that the field of neuroscience is going to be a hot spot for future scientific development - as the brain is increasingly better understood, the more it will be treated directly, and the more it will be pleased directly (with things like artificial experiences or direct thought-editing). At the same time, this piece raises the ethical questions important to a world where neuroscience can do all of these things. Taylor writes in a lecture-style register but keeps things moving along smoothly.

This one is included because the matter of brain manipulation is a curious thing.

4. Adams, James. "Why reading more carefully is better." The Globe and Mail 21 September 2012. Web. 29 September 2012.

Adams explains the importance of reading slowly based on observations of reading brains and circulatory systems. According to this article, slow reading gives blood flow to all of the brain, whereas skimming something only gives a blood flow to certain parts of the brain. He writes in a casual but tidy style.

I had to include this one because any research into the body's reaction to reading needs to be shared. Especially when it proposes such positive benefits to slow reading.

5. Kooser, Amanda. "Nintendo zapper hacked to shoot high-powered laser." CBS News 26 September 2012. Web. 29 September 2012.

Over at North Street Labs in Portsmouth, VA, engineers have hacked an NES Zapper to fire a powerful laser. This laser can set things on fire, damage eye sight, or burn skin. A video demonstrating some of its applications is included with this article, and it's written in a direct, simple style.

Because this one is so amazing, it's included.

Back To Top
Closing

Tomorrow, watch for the next look-back/look-ahead entry!

Back To Top

[Freya-dæg] The (Good) Samaritan

{The Samaritan's movie poster, found on IMDb.}

Plot Summary
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing

Back to Top
Plot Summary

Foley (Samuel L. Jackson) has just finished his 25 years in the joint and he's eager to start fresh. He meets with his parole officer, gets himself a job - and reconnects with his old partner's son, Ethan (Luke Kirby).

But Foley's chance meeting with Ethan almost causes his undoing, as it introduces the fiery Iris (Ruth Negga) into his life and threatens to pull Foley back into the very world that he wants so dearly to escape.

But meeting Iris quickly becomes a great thing for Foley. The two become more and more intertwined as a couple. In fact they become so close that there are no secrets between them. Except, as Foley finds out from Ethan, one. It's a secret that could tear Foley and Iris apart and twist the knife that knowing the secret himself has thrust into Foley's heart.

Ethan uses this secret as leverage to bring Foley in for one more big score. But will Foley go along with it? Will he be able to keep Iris in the dark or will she be able to handle the terrible truth? Most importantly, even if forced once more into the world that he vowed to leave behind, can Foley emerge once more as The Samaritan?

Back to Top
The Good

For a Canadian film, The Samaritan is a slick picture that weaves a wondrous atmosphere around its viewer. From the dank streets of Toronto to a moody, Peter-Gabriel-esque sound track, this movie is one that offers more than just an escape, it offers a rewarding journey through the darkest of places.

Samuel L. Jackson gives a much more muted performance than in most of his other movies, as his is a character who's more reflective than violent. But this works well with the other elements of the movie and really helps to sustain its atmosphere. Also, Luke Kirby plays a perfect slime ball, while Ruth Negga does well as an addled lost woman.

{Foley, confronted by Ethan's questions of why he killed his father.}

But slick production values and strong casting aside, this movie pulls out one of the few trumps in the noir genre: the Oldboy card.

The twist that Oldboy deploys in its narrative is more elaborately delivered, but the pared down version found in The Samaritan is incredibly effective. What's more, it also takes some extra time to give greater depth to the entanglement between characters. Further, this device is such a rarity in Western cinema that it comes as a welcome surprise.

Back to Top
The Bad

At the same time, The Samaritan is not without its problems.

The pacing of Foley and Iris' relationship is too fast, for starters. Not that a guy who's just gotten out of prison wouldn't fall for a girl like Iris as quickly as he does, but rather there's very little chemistry between them until Foley takes the initiative.

This makes sense, since Foley plays as the world-weary and in-control ex-con all the way through, while Iris is very much caught up in the world of the pimp's fist: opening to dispense coke, and closing to dole out cruel slavery. This dynamic later becomes something more, as Foley strives to help Iris get herself straightened out, but their bumpy start can't be ignored.

The movie's initiating moment, the one that sets up Ethan's and Foley's motivation for the whole of the movie, is also questionable.

In this moment, Foley is faced with the choice of seeing his best friend and partner being killed before being killed himself, or killing that friend, taking the fall, and having to live through prison. The way that this moment is introduced and then developed over the course of the movie does nothing to show us why Foley chose to live rather than die a Roman death.

After all, when he comes out of prison everything has changed, everyone he meets from his old life says that what they did was "1000 years ago," and he has no connections on the outside whatsoever. We don't even see any reason for Foley to have killed Ethan's father aside from his own cowardice (or, in Ethan's words, "to save his sorry ass").

It could be argued that this is how we're supposed to regard Foley throughout the picture, but this doesn't jive with his actual character as we see him. Throughout the movie he's calm, collected, and entirely together - he knows exactly what he's doing, how to do it, and how to keep calm while doing it. His is not the shakey hand of the coward, but the steady one of the expert.

Maybe there was some pivotal, off-camera moment in prison that turned him from craven to maven, but we don't see it and this creates a distracting disconnect between his apparent motivation for saving himself rather than just dying with his friend. And since the moment in which Foley made this decision is what leads to the rest of the movie, the plot itself is undermined.

Back to Top
Judgment

The Samaritan is a movie that very clearly explains its own lukewarm reception.

Samuel L. Jackson is famous for starring in movies that grab your attention, shake you for an hour and a half and then leave you reeling. Likewise, film noir is a genre known for characters and plots that seize your interest and sweep you around from situation to situation until things conclude in a twist of some sort. Combine these two together, and you rightfully expect a twisted thrill ride that delivers atmospheric, hard-boiled action.

However, this just isn't the case.

The thrills are there, as are the twists and the characters, but nothing necessarily grabs and holds you. The whole movie is better described as a film that very clearly proclaims "I'm noir! ...and I'll just be right over there, okay?"

To really appreciate this movie, you need to be willing to take an active role. Not so that you can follow its complexities, but becuase the movie's not going to do much holding for you. It's a movie to get lost in rather than to be lost in. And that is a very refreshing change from movies in the action/noir genre that try to bludgeon their viewers with madcap sprees.

So, Freya, find this one brooding in the Field of Fallen Films, and bring it up, for it's truly a one that deserves to be seen.

Back to Top
Closing

Tomorrow, watch for Annotated Links #19, and on Sunday for a look back/look ahead entry.

Back to Top

[Moon-dæg] Poem #997b

Context
Sun and Moon
Closing

{A rare sighting, but a jackpot for the celestial paparazzi. Image found on the blog Wish You all the Best.}

Back To Top
Context

Tonight's piece is a sample of my poetry from 2010. This was when I wrote poetry that stuck to a fairly regular form. This specific poem is also an example of my stuff on love that's written in an Elizabethan style; in fact, it's similar to Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" (a.k.a. "Poem #997").

Check it out, and let me know what you think in the comments!

Back To Top
Sun and Moon

A kiss and a peck and a see you tonight
Said the sun to the moon
at the coming of first light
Go my love and hide away
Scarce your face - scarce!

I’ll hide it behind window-blurred bars
And raise around you robes of cloud
As I shed light, generation, elation to those below.

Then, when those look up nightly
through eyes and disembodied words
To the glow of light from my cumulus chase,
We can join behind a dark-wooled herd
To stoke our lights before parting.

Before returning to our days.

Back To Top
Closing

Check back at this blog on Friday for a look for the likeable in The Samaritan (a.k.a. Fury). Then on Saturday, you'll be able to find the newest Annotated Links here, and a look back/look ahead on Sunday.

Back To Top

[Sunnan-dæg] After a Partial Peter Gabriel Eclipse

Over the past week, here's what I've done for the sake of my fiction and poetry writing:

• Outlined four of the five acts of the audio drama that I'm currently working on;
• Worked out all of the climactic events for my perspective characters in Dekar 4 - except for the main female character;
• Begun to research some of the magazines I'm thinking of sending my short story to;
• Noted more story ideas.

By this week's end I'll have:

• Completed my research into magazines and made a short list of five to send my stories to;
• Sent my stories to the first magazine from this list;
• Written up and organized a chapter-by-chapter outline of Dekar 4;
• Written out the next act (4 scenes) of the audio drama I'm working on.

If you're wondering why this second list is fairly similar to the to-do list from last week's entry, my only excuse is that going to see Peter Gabriel in Toronto was a major distraction. In fact, here are the two highlights of the show (thanks to babyVantage and apc611 respectively):



This week's distraction will be a jaunt out to see "Whose Live Is It Anyway" at the Center in The Square. All the same, I'll have ample time for writing and planning, so I think that I'll be able to make short work of this week's to-do list.

Along with that, I'll be posting some creative writing tomorrow, seeking the salient in Samuel L. Jackson's The Samaritan on Friday, and posting "Annotated Links" on Saturday.

Over at Tongues in Jars watch for the first verse (for real this week) of "Dum Diane vitrea" on Tuesday and Beowulf's final words on Thursday.

And, watch for regular updates over at my examiner.com page.

Back to Top

[Sæternes-dæg] Annotated Links # 18: Cultural and Career Vehicles

1. Skelding, Conor. "K is for Kapital, and Not in a Marxist Way." BWOG 22 September 2012. Web. 23 September 2012.

Professor John Lie gave a talk at Center for Korean Research’s Colloquium Series on Korean Cultural Studies in which he didn't speak about K-Pop. Instead, Lie spoke about how Korean pop music is an entirely market and capitalist driven endeavour that is hollow culturally. His evidence is all of the financial backing that the industry receives and its stark contrast to Korea's straightforward and simple traditional music.

This piece is written in a casual style befitting a blog, but with authority. It's included because I find the different perspective on K-Pop's importance refreshing.

2. Cho, Chung-un. "Hallyu can help spread Korean: Minister." AsiaOne 18 September 2012. Web. 23 September 2012.

Choe Kwang-shik, Korean Culture Minister, claims that the world's initial interest in K-Pop is spreading to other cultures. Yet, he posits that even more important than the spread of K-culture in general is the spread of the interest in the Korean language, what he calls the "most important cultural product."

Written in a direct, journalistic style, this article is included because it celebrates the Korean language, a thing truly worth studying.

3. Sofge, Erik. "What Would a Starship Actually Look Like?" Popular Mechanics 20 September 2012. Web. 23 September 2012.

Real physics and space dangers are considered in what an interstellar ship might just look like. The fact that there is no air in space, and so aeordynamics aren't relevant, as well as the problem of space dust perforating sails and hulls because of ships' high speeds are among the things considered.

Sofge wrote this piece in a technical style, but in a tone that is readable - even if some of its paragraphs tend toward lumpiness. Its included because the realities of space-travelling vehicles are excellent things to know for writing science fiction.

4. Hanna, Jeff. "Fantastic Poetry: W&L's Wheeler Uses Terza Rime to Spin a Sci-Fi Story." Washington and Lee Universities: News and Media 20 September 2012. Web. 23 September 2012.

Leslie Wheeler, the Henry S. Fox Professor of English at Washington and Lee University, has just published a collection of speculative fiction poetry. The title poem ("The Receptionist") is set in a fantastical academia, where fantasy creatures and figures stand in for the usual group found in universities.

This article doubles as a light overview/review of the collection and an informative piece. It's included because I find it encouraging that something close to one of my own projects has been carried out and published.

5. Hagy, Jessica. "20 Ways to Find Your Calling." Forbes.com 26 June 2012. Web. 23 September 2012.

This article gives readers a list of 20 questions to ask and things to think about to figure out what you want to do with their lives. The things on this list aren't earth shattering but they're the sort of things that can help to shake loose what might be rattling around in your head.

Written in a casual, easy-going style, this article is included because it offers a way to potentially figure out where your natural skills lay.

Back To Top
Closing

Check back here tomorrow for the week-in-review/week-ahead entry!

Back To Top

[Freya-dæg] Indecision while Meeting Evil

{Meeting Evil's's movie poster, found on IMDB.}

Plot Summary
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing

Back to Top
Plot Summary

John Felton (Luke Wilson) is a father, husband, and realtor floundering in the trough of the housing crash.

He's lost his job, his self-respect, and his passion for living. But on his birthday he crosses paths with a strange character known simply as "Ritchie" (Samuel L. Jackson). As John's attempts to help Ritchie lead from one thing to another John slowly realizes that something is terribly wrong - everywhere they go it seems that people are being killed.

Will the killer eventually strike out at John himself, or the family that he holds dear? Or will John eventually comprehend that in each encounter with Ritchie he's been Meeting Evil?

Back to Top
The Good

For a movie that looks like it was filmed on a steady, many mega-pixel handycam, Meeting Evil has some great cinematography and editing.

For example, after one of the murders, the body is splayed on the road and we get this transition to a convenience store where the scene's opening shot is of a barbie doll splayed out on the floor in the same way. And later in the movie when John is being questioned by the police we see some great use of lights and shadows. And in a similar vein, near the movie's climax there's one shot where the shadow of the falling rain looks like blood dripping down Joni's face.

But, the greatest thing that this movie has to offer is Samuel L. Jackson. He brings all of his chops to the table and really conveys a powerful sense of menace in so many of his scenes.

Just as he's bald in the role, you could say that he's been shorn of all of the ridiculous over-the-top-ness of his role as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction. He still does push things, but each foray into the depth of feeling starts from a calm and centered performance as Ritchie who seems to be as in control of his personality and himself as a martial arts master in a Hong Kong action flick.

Back to Top
The Bad

Yet, at the same time, we're never really told much about Ritchie.

Near the film's end we get a tentative motive for his actions - but it comes from his own mouth, and one of the biggest things that we've learned over the course of the movie is that Ritchie is quite duplicitous. However, this opens up an important question for horror stories based on a single-entity: Is it more terrifying to know the evil that you're encountering, or to not know it at all?

On the one hand, if you know the horror in a clinical, or unremoved way, then it can become less of a threat. That sort of technical knowledge could lead to a technical way to destroy it, or be rid of it and so the threat might be diminished.

Though if the horror was known in a more personal way, then it can seem even more insidious, since it can leave us feeling defenseless and vulnerable. After all, it sets everything on its head.

On the other hand, if you don't know anything about the horror, it gains the element of more widespread surprise. It could come from any direction, it could come in any form, it could do anything. If your imagination has already been slapped across the flanks and sent running, then all of these possibilities give it ample springy space on which to sprint into wild frenzies.

One of the major problems with Meeting Evil is that it never really decides which way to go with its antagonist, Ritchie. It withholds a lot of information until near the end (if what he says about himself can be trusted), but there's also a vague suggestion throughout (made quite clearly as we hear him whistling Dixie throughout the movie and over the end credits) that he is the Devil.

Yet even that possibility isn't fully explored though there's a great set of scenes in which it could be very clearly, but indirectly, established.

Throughout the movie we're shown a little girl wearing red wellington boots who seems to be out walking a little dog. In our first encounter with her, she foils Ritchie's plan to shoot John outright (which is also kind of comical, at least for Ritchie's reaction).


Then, as we look back at the house throughout the movie the girl's always there - like some sort of guardian angel or lurking demon. But even when she and Ritchie speak before he returns to John and Joanie's (Leslie Bibb) house in the last act, all we get out of the interaction is that the girl's dog sometimes bites. So, it's possible that she's an angel working against him, or a demon working with him, but that's all we're left with: a possibility.

The movie also doesn't do quite as much as you'd expect with the fact that John is a victim of the housing crash, and living in a neighbourhood that has been almost entirely cleared out.

In one sense, placing John in this situation might just be a super context-sensitive way to establish how depressed he is and the dire straits of his family, but since it's just there and taken as a given we don't really gain that sense of impending doom that would make Ritchie's confession of motive that much more believable. <*spoilers*>Though, if we really believed what he says about Joanie wanting to kill John, then the ending where they slip into bed and she just asks "everything is going to be okay, right?" before they flick off their lights would make no sense at all.

While we're at it, the way the American family is depicted in this movie is also a little strange. John and Joni are fit and attractive people while their children are both statistics in a survey on childhood obesity. Though the movie does suggest why childhood obesity is such a problem in America right now:

{Just look at all that mac and cheese.}

Back to Top
Judgment

Meeting Evil is the sort of horror movie that lends itself well to discussions of the genre, what works, what doesn't, and what the merits are to either side of the "know the horror/don't know the horror" debate.

In spite of the movie's lending itself to discussion, it doesn't really offer up what a horror needs to: a solid scare that will make your skin crawl each time a stranger knocks on your door to ask for help with their broken down car, or each time you hear someone whistling "Dixie."

What's more, aside from some nice editing and camera work, Luke Wilson and Samuel Jackson not only make up the lion's share of the movie's acting chops, they also seem to have taken up the lion's share of the movie's budget.

So, Freya, it is without any sort of indecision at all that I say let this one be where it lay. Keep it in mind, that we may all discuss and dissect it and its situation in the great Halls of Filmhalla, but don't bother bringing it in from the Field of Fallen Films.

Back to Top
Closing

Check back here tomorrow for the next "Annotated Links," and on Sunday for a look back and a look at the week ahead.

Back to Top

[Moon-dæg] Writing of Pale Horses

Context
Horse Play
Closing

{Smoke rose from his silhouette like steam from a sewer grate. Image found on the blog Mystery Fanfare.}

Back To Top
Context

One of the early stories from my time with the writing group here in town, tonight's bit is a little noir. The exercise that lead to its being committed to paper simply asked for a first person piece.

It might be partially inspired by Sarah Palmer's vision of a white horse in the middle of the second season of Twin Peaks. In fact, in keeping with that show, the bizarre-ness might or might not be real.

Back To Top
Horse Play

Suddenly I saw a white horse pacing behind the curtains. They were drawn but the iridescent fur drew on the sun's fading strength (and the moon's gaining power) just as the snow did, and shone through the window's thin veil. Its silhouette gave me pause and I stood in the middle of the side walk, gawking over side walk snow banks and into the house.

If anyone else had been out walking that night they might have stopped as well. Or slowed down to gather details before calling the police to report a suspicious character staring into windows.

The animal faded from my sight and I took a step closer to the house. Blinked. It was gone. The window was empty.

In my delirium of curiousity I walked over the snow covered yard to close the distance between myself and the pane. Foot prints didn't matter. There was a horse in there. At least there might have been. I had to find out.

With my feet firmly rooted in the snow in front of the covered flower bed beneath the window sill I leaned forward and set my hands onto the rough stone sill. I could feel my gloves stick to the cold of it. My face nearly grazed the glass. My eyes were filled with the curtains' dull floral pattern and the shapes and shadows of things beyond. On my left I also saw the sun, reflected. Tucked behind houses as it was I knew that I needed to act quickly. Where was that horse?

A snort and a stamp caused me to whirl around so quickly that I nearly fell head first into the sill. Thinking of that possibility and trying to grasp what I saw before me set my heart pounding.

The man sitting astride the horse addressed me in an accent that would have wooed queens.

"Terribly sorry sir - but I do fear that my polo ball has fallen into those bushes."

I tried to keep my eyes off the mallet he held in one of his hands. The horse stamped. I felt my palms dampen.

"Oh. In the bushes. What's it look like?" I knelt and pretended to look.

"Small. Red. Ball-like."

I didn't need to turn around to see the look of growing suspicion that I knew was on his face. That would have been a rookie mistake. And I knew I was no rookie. Horse or no he sure was lucky that these were my old jeans. The trip to Missoula hadn't just been about business.

He said something in that accent of his and I could hear him getting closer. I noticed the horseman's shadow riding up and over my own. As much as I tried to convince myself that this was all just about a red ball I knew the truth. I knew I was trapped.

"Oh, do hurry on there." His horse whinnied to show its support for its rider.

I brushed against the side of the house now. Crawling among the shadows that hid the ball - I was delusional, ball, what ball? - as well as any first rate hacker could hide a data file.

Before the man and his horse could close off my escape entirely I closed both fists around the snow and slush. This would take speed, precision. Quick thinking after it was done. I hoped my week away hadn't dulled my senses too much. I rose, whirled, and threw.

Both fistfuls hit with a piff more satisfying tha any deli pastrami on rye and I dashed past - though that bastard horse almost pulled me down with its tail. I knew that I was scot-free when the man's curses were gentler than the breeze and just as incoherent.

At the next block I slowed and patted my pockets, unsure that nothing was lost. I reached into the one on the inside of my coat and pulled out the book concealed within. The image on its cover of a man in a round brim hat and full-on suit sitting behind a cluttered desk while a woman with bare shoulders wearing beads and short hair spoke to him reassured me that all was still there. That all was still all right. That my time off hadn't dulled any senses. There had to be a horse.

Back To Top
Closing

On Friday, definitely be sure to check in for my looking for the likeable (aside from Samuel L. Jackson and Luke Wilson) in Meeting Evil. Then on Saturday, watch for an Annotated Links, followed by the week-in-review/week-ahead entry on Sunday.

Back To Top

[Sunnan-dæg] The First of many Lights

Welcome to the first Sunday Edition of A Glass Darkly.

In keeping with the themes of my other entries in this blog, since Sunday is named for the Sun, these entries will shine a light on what I did related to my writing over the previous week, while also using that light to peer ahead into the next. Yes, there will be lists, but there'll also be a little bit of description. Let's get to it.

As you might remember from the last "Update Entry" I made, I wrote that I was going to provide an update every three days rather than every two. That was back on Monday, and so things have sort of slackened on that end of things.

However, I'm now yanking that slack and drawing in the last parts of that blog update for this Sunday entry. So, in the future, those sorts of blog updates will come out every Sunday. In the meantime, these entries will be all about my writing efforts.

Over the past week, here's what I've done for the sake of my fiction and poetry writing:

• Re-organized the schedule of A Glass Darkly to better accomodate my fiction and poetry writing;
• Come up with the climactic moment for my current fantasy novel (Working title: Dekar 4);
• Made notes for a number of short stories;
• Done some world building for that fantasy series I'm working on (the world's cosmology, history, and magic system, specifically);
• Compiled a list of Canadian science fiction magazines.

As a refresher, here are the things still outstanding from the blog update of August '12:

• Send out two short stories to magazines
• Outline entirety of the fantasy novel I'm writing
• Completed 10 of those chapters
• Completed the next act (4 scenes) of an audio drama I'm working on

It's my hope that I'll have all of these wrapped up come next Sunday.

Until then, don't miss tomorrow's creative writing entry and Friday's look at Luke Wilson and Samuel L. Jackson's Meeting Evil here at A Glass Darkly. Plus, on Saturday, you'll be able to find the newest "Annotated Links" here as well.

And keep an eye out for Tuesday's translation of a poem possibly written by Peter Abelard (of the famed pair of star-crossed medieval lovers Héloïse and Abelard), "Dum Diane vitrea," followed by Thursday's look at Beowulf's burial instructions at Tongues in Jars.

Oh, you might also have remembered that I mentioned a video game blog that I'd be starting up soon. I still intend to start it sooner rather than later, so watch for a link in future entries.

Back to Top

[Freya-dæg] An Audience With Your Highness

{Your Highness' movie poster, found on Wikipedia.}

Plot Summary
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing

Back to Top
Plot Summary

There is an ancient prophesy in the land that says that if a great warlock can lay with a virgin when the two moons meet, he will create a dragon. The Order of the Golden Knights has stopped the warlock before, but many years later all of the knights of the Order have been wiped out, a great warlock has arisen and the moons begin to converge.

Of course, none of that matters to the brash prince Thadeous (Danny McBride), son of King Tallous (Charles Dance) and brother of the all-favoured Fabious (James Franco). He's about as concerned with prophecies and quests as a bear is with a block of cheese. But when his brother returns from yet another successful quest with the virgin Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel) only to have his wedding crashed and his bride carried off by none other than the great wizard Leezar himself (Justin Theroux), Thadeous is forced by his father to join Fabious on his quest to save his bride and ultimately the kingdom.

Will Fabious be successful in averting a doom that will envelope the land, though he is beset on all sides by villains both traitorous and bad? Will Thadeous grow to be more than a spoiled bawd of a king's son? Or will Lazeer prevail?

Only by watching can you find out if this disparate bunch of questors can break Leezar and make him scream Your Highness!

Back to Top
The Good

Your Highness's cast is simply star-studded. Zooey Deschanel, James Franco, and Charles Dance — all of them have sizeable roles in the film and bring all of their acting chops to bear on the film as a whole. What's more, even the lesser known Danny McBride does a great job as Thadeous.

But what really sends this movie over the top in terms of the acting is the sheer devotion that all of the players show to keeping things medieval. The dialogue, the delivery, everything is nicely tinged with the very stuff of high fantasy. It isn't necessarily accurate to actual historical fact, but neither are many high fantasy stories, and neither are many of the medieval romances on which they're based - something which this movie gets quite close to being.

However, rather than being written by some gallant-minded self-styled bard, Your Highness is closer to what might have come about had Geoffrey Chaucer ever wrote a non-historical verse romance.

The movie's writing is also quite strong, and though the plot develops in a more or less expected way, there are enough fantastical elements to keep your interest throughout all of its 100 minutes.

The movie also nicely straddles the line of satire while also keeping the movie's illusion in tact. Watching it, it's very easy to get the sense that the actors know that they're playing in roles and through ridiculous situations, but they maintain their act all the same. The fourth wall is left firmly in place, so much so that the best analogy is that this movie is the way that players of a D&D game might imagine their own games as they're playing them.

And, just like many a D&D game, the movie has some unexpectedly dark moments, such as when the quest seems to be entirely hopeless and Fabious exclaims that "Belladonna will get raped and die" if they don't get to her in time.

But, most importantly, setting this movie apart from In the Name of the King, is that nothing in it is contrived for the sake of action or a good laugh. Instead all of the jokes arise out of the characters' personalities and the setting itself.

Back to Top
The Bad

However, Rotten Tomatoes' consensus on this movie does have it right - the jokes here are almost all based on the same theme. In this regard it's kind of like something that Trey Parker and Matt Stone might have written, and it does run the risk of getting a little thin by the end. Though that remains as only a risk.

Also, there are some things in the movie that are pretty outlandishly off when it comes to medieval culture, even that of a fantasy realm. Such as this:

Powdered wigs and pale faces weren't quite a male fashion statement until the 18th century, which is just a few centuries too late.

There are also some elements introduced early on in the movie that could use some more explanation: Thadeous' distaste for mechanical things (focused entirely on his brother's mechanical bird companion), and why the "triangle face" that Courtney (Rasmus Hardiker) pulls scares him.

{The horrific "triangle face" in action.}

However, as the film picks up and goes on, these things are forgotten by viewer and writer alike. Adding them into the development of Thadeous would have made this movie all the stronger, though. Perhaps, in fact, instead of just temptations to indulge himself, he could have had to face a mechanical being with a "triangle face" in the labyrinth where he and the party find the Blade of Unicorn.

Back to Top
Judgment

Your Highness is a grand farce of a medieval romance comedy. The humour can be overbearing, but the actors, the script, and the chemistry between them all keeps things going at a lovely trot from start to finish. What's more, this movie passed one of the ultimate tests: it was as fun to watch a second time as it was the first.

So, Freya, don't mind the lewd way in which this one comes on to you as you scoop it from the Field of Fallen Films, nor its lascivious words as you fly with it from there to where all great movies deserve to be.

Back to Top
Closing

A Glass Darkly is going to be undergoing some changes starting next week.

Monday's and Friday's entries will continue as usual, but instead of Annotated Links throughout the week and an editorial in the middle, Annotated Links will be moved to Saturday and expanded to five links from three. The editorial is being dropped and will be replaced with a brief update on my writing endeavours that goes live every Sunday.

Check out the first of these Sunday entries on the 17th of the month!

Back to Top

[Wōdnes-dæg] On Education, Work, and Passion

Introduction
Troubled Times for Work
Closing

Back To Top
Introduction

Today's editorial isn't based on any one article so much as it is on experience and general reading.

Back To Top
Troubled Times for Work

Those currently in their 20s are media darlings, in their own strange way. No, we aren't all starring in a hip new TV show or sporting roles as extras in an upcoming movie of tremendous importance. Instead, we're bucking the trend that's been accepted and unquestioned practice in the Western world for centuries.

Many of us who have taken the road of education to get where we are are not quite where we expected ourselves to be. We're living with our parents and/or working a job that doesn't require our university or college-acquired knowledge possibly to pay off debt incurred by that education. If you're in your 20s, chances are, at least one of those is true for you - possibly even all three are.

Reading through articles found on my own and passed onto me by friends and family, it seems that society as a whole is quite disturbed by this. Post-secondary-educated youth living with their parents into their late 20s? Humanities majors and masters serving coffee and waiting tables? Massive debt holding the youth back? The second question may not be anything new, but it's still mentioned consistently enough.

Yet, as direly scarce as fitting employment may be and as impossible as the prospects of following the old "high-school --> post-secondary --> work" life model appear, this doesn't necessarily mean that society is in crisis. Rather, it's in the middle of an opportunity.

As difficult as it can be to stride through debt, go back to living with your parents, or to work a job that you could've been hired for fresh out of high school, the old life model's being disrupted gives those of us in these situations the chance to do something different. It gives us all a chance to step back and to really ask what we want to do with ourselves and what we need to do in order to get there.

The economy is still stabilizing, and the job market is as rocky as ever. But passion is as important as ever, and it's something that can be started anywhere, even if you're not working in the safe and secure 9-5 style job that the old life model dictates. It's strange, and it can be frightening, but we've gone off model and it's for the better.

Back To Top
Closing

Check back here on Friday for a journey amidst ribald jokes looking for gems in Your Highness.

And, in the meantime, be sure to check out my video game writing here.

Back To Top

Blog Update: Putting a Premium on Time (Update Entry #11)

Contrary to what I posted in the last update, I'm going to try to get both the editorial and the creative writing entries back up this week. I'm also going to be giving updates on the last few items on this list every three days from here on in - so the next one will come on Thursday.

Along with the list's growing shorter, I'm also returning to most regular updates since I've joined the ranks of the underemployed. It's not a job I can see myself in five years down the road, but it's a surer way than my freelancing has been to date to help cover the costs of searching for a job requiring English/creative writing/writing/editing skills while based in a small, rural town. This job's also something that puts a premium on time thereby making it much clearer and easier for me to work on fiction.

At any rate, here're the to-do lists's stragglers:

• Sent out two short stories to magazines;
In the process of making time to edit, and search out good homes for them.
• Outlined the entirety of the fantasy novel that I'm currently writing;
Perhaps more important than any list of key events, I've finally figured out the climactic event for this novel. I'm going to be outlining the chapters shortly. Hopefully within the next three days.
• Completed five of those chapters;
The chapters I have right now seem like they need to be re-written, and, in fact, I may end up doing so. As per the next five chapters of the novel? I am still fleshing out what needs to happen to the novel's various characters on the way towards and away from the climactic moment.
• Completed the next act (four scenes) of an audio drama I'm working on;
An outline for this act is going to be constructed first. I need to give myself a coherent end point for the act, since that will fuel my jog towards it.

For my writing about video games, check out my writing about video games here. Also, keep an eye out over the next few days for the launch of another (yes, another) blog that I'll be using as a play log.

And, don't miss tonight's creative writing entry, Wednesday's editorial, or Friday's galavant into David Gordon Green's Your Highness.

Back to Top

[Moon-dæg] An Edit of an Oldie

Context
Alchemical Links
Closing

{One of many bizarre and fascinating images from medieval alchemical texts. Image found on janeteresa.com.}

Back To Top
Context

Tonight's piece is an edit of one of the many variations I wrote for an exercise that demanded a poem be written using "old oatmeal," "gore," and "possibility." It's from almost three years ago, and so was written during the early days of my MA studies in Victoria, BC.

I hadn't been writing much poetry while I was in South Korea, so things were a bit rusty, but an MA writing group helped me to re-invigorate my poetry writing.

Back To Top
Alchemical Links

Old oatmeal on the edge of a spoon
has seen things change from soft to hard to soft again.
Thinking, thoughts like oats and water
Mixed and heated until inseparable
In combinations only possible with that water
and those oats, plus unremembered heat degrees.

Something plentiful made into
something not found in big boxes or on strips
Only in rare conflagrations of perfectly shared passions
Birthing the possibility of true outcomes.

The tender green and virulent potential
of not green is staggering;

The world is no longer separated,
Joined only by a great chain, holding
Down the sequence.

Back To Top
Closing

Check back here on Wednesday for a new editorial, on Thursday for the next blog update entry, and on Friday for some sleuthing for the saving grace of Your Highness.

Back To Top

Blog Update: Posts Will Return (Update Entry #10)

I've completed enough of my list to start posting some regular entries again. On Monday, I'll have a new piece of creative writing up, the rest will start back up again next week.

This is what's left to do:

• Created and posted a hyperlinked portfolio page on these blogs;
Done. You can find it here.
• Sent out two short stories to magazines;
In the process of making time to edit, and search out good homes for them.
• Outlined the entirety of the fantasy novel that I'm currently writing;
I've written out a list of key events in the novel and am building a chapter-by-chapter outline in my mind as I type this.
• Completed five of those chapters;
The form of these chapters is slowly taking shape.
• Completed the next act (four scenes) of an audio drama I'm working on;
The plan from update number eight still needs to be implemented.

While you wait for this blog to come back up, check out my writing about video games here.

And, don't miss next Friday's hunt high and low for the good in David Gordon Green's Your Highness.

Back to Top

[Freya-dæg] A Good Reason to Swear In the Name of the King

{In the Name of the King's's movie poster, found on Wikipedia.}

Plot Summary
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing

Back to Top
Plot Summary

Trouble is brewing in the land of Ehb and realm-wide unrest is afoot. Though usually unarmed and disorganized, hordes of Krug are ravishing the land, destroying villages, and, strangest of all, taking prisoners. Duke Fallow (Matthew Lillard), the nephew of king Konreid (Burt Reynolds) may have a hand in these goings on. Or perhaps it is the mysterious magus Gallian (Ray Liotta), who has secretly taken the warrior/enchantress Muriella (Leelee Sobieski) as a lover who is pulling the strings.

All that's clear is that amidst this strife the humble Farmer (Jason Statham) seeks only to live a quiet life with his wife Solana (Claire Forlani) and son Zeph (Colin Ford). This idyllic life doesn't last, however, as it's not long before the Krug attack Farmer's village.

Now, with his family dispersed, and a desire to restore order to the land in his own way, Farmer sets out with Norrick (Ron Perlman) and Bastian (Will Sanderson) to set right what seems to be so very wrong.

Will this trio be just another group stricken down by powers beyond mortal control, or will they be the ones to catch the villain behind it all and cry "Stop, In the Name of the King"?

Back to Top
The Good

In the Name of the King boasts some of the best acting talent in a fantasy movie (not based on any written/drawn work) of recent memory. We've got Jason Statham on action, Ron Perlman and John Rhys Davies (the king's magus, Merick) on all-around-awesome, Matthew Lillard on ham, and Burt Reynolds on kingly bearing. It's a great ensemble and quite a treat to see them all together.

Plus, Statham in the role of Farmer, gets into the thick of some pretty good action sequences, but more than anything he weilds a boomerang in this movie. A boomerang. He definitely must have stopped off at his local wind temple before the events of this movie began.


What's more, this movie was filmed in Hollywood North - Vancouver and Victoria British Columbia, Canada. And more business for Canadian film is always good, right?

Back to Top
The Bad

As you might have guessed from the lack in the previous section, this is not a movie with a lot of inherent redeeming features. So, let's start working through where this one failed, starting with the most nit-picky and working our way toward the more general of the film's flaws.

First and foremost, sumptuary laws, the medieval codes governing the clothing colours and styles and accessories that can be worn by different parts of society, are not observed.

Solana, Farmer's wife, is the worst violator of these laws. Not only does she have her face done up to look like a noble woman throughout the movie, she also wears purple throughout the movie. Peasants were not allowed to wear purple under most medieval sumptuary laws since it was considered a regal colour. Therefore, either she is a noble woman and we're never told about it, or she's a peasant and somebody on this movie's production team didn't do their research.

Similarly, Statham's use of a boomerang can slide, since for a medieval (European) setting it's a nice exotic touch. But, his possession of a sword, even if it looks like an old and worn one, wouldn't be permitted. Medieval law restricted the ownership of swords to the noble classes, partially as a status symbol and partially because they could be expensive to make. Now, a counter-argument could be made here, but it involves spoilers. So, skip the next paragraph if you'd rather not have this film's plot ruined.

<*spoilers*>It turns out that Farmer is the son of the king. This makes him a noble by blood, and therefore allows him a sword. But, the thing with that is, he isn't recognized as the king's son until a fair bit of wrangling goes on in the last third of the movie. Up until that point he is, even in his own mind, just a peasant, and therefore has no business owning a sword.

Speaking of the classic medieval weapon: Though they make for decent spectacle, the movie's sword fights are far too simple.

Instead of the movie showcasing sword-fighting as an art, what the movie shows is more of the hack-and-stab school of swordfighting. This style kind of works for Farmer, since, even if he's always had his sword, he may not have ever learned how to use it, but the generals, soldiers, and wizards in the movie definitely ought to be beyond the most basic of sword strike-sword counter drills that are prominently featured in each fight.

Perhaps the action choreographer (Tony Ching Siu Tung) was going for a simpler, grittier style of sword-fighting to match the grit implied by the movie's generous smatterings of greys and browns, but people who fight with swords for a living aren't going to make wide, large, unnecessary swings - they're going to make precise, small, movements that give them exactly the power, energy, and force that they need in any given situation. And, when life-long swordsmen and women make such movements, they're going to look far more graceful than they do in this movie.

Now, it must be granted that the movie's actors all get a fair shake at showcasing their talents in a fantasy setting, but Ron Perlman is cheated in this movie. <*spoilers*> Norrick dies near the end of the movie, but we're not given any kind of scene centering on this. We see him get hit, we see him go down, and then we see Bastian, who's with him, declare that he's dead. There's no big speech, there're no tear-felt last words, Perlman's Norrick just dies and then that's it.

Also, more a matter of casting or make-up than acting, Ray Liotta's Gallian shouldn't be in command of planar magic, he should be too busy with a show in Vegas to learn such things. Just look at his mug:


Moving from acts, action, and acting, to the movie's screenplay, it's about as solid as the non-existent forest canopies that the movie's Amazonian elves use to swing down from during a major battle sequence.

As a writer, I can understand any storyteller's fear that loading the beginning of their story with exposition will leave audiences confused, disconnected, and disinterested. But that doesn't mean that you should put most of this exposition (especially those things that you could use to lead to some really amazing plot and character developments) into the last 20 minutes of your movie.

Nonetheless, in In the Name of the King, it is within the last 20 minutes that we learn how the world's magic works, that Gallian somehow made himself king over the erstwhile kingless Krug, that there are only two magi left in the world, that magi can transfer their powers to one another, and that Farmer knows what to do with a sword both in melees and in single combat.

Putting all of this up front, or at least spreading it out could have made the movie much more interesting. Instead, what carries us forward through it is the promise of action and nothing else. What's more, we never learn anything about the world, outside of what we learn in those final 20 minutes, that relates to anything that isn't directly involved in the story.

{Not Isengard.}

Adding insult to the injuries already inflicted on its audiences' sense of taste, the movie rips off Lord of the Rings fairly openly. Galleon's keep is practically Isengard, and the Krug seem to be multiplying beneath it, just as orcs do in Sauroman's domain. Star Wars is also plagiarized, but there are already dozens of movies with protagonists whose fathers turn out to be very prominent figures.

Rather unsurprisingly, In the Name of the King also suffers from something I like to call Titan-itis. This movie malady is named for Clash of the Titans and Wrath of The Titans since both of those movies focus almost entirely on their male characters and their relationships, only bringing female characters into the story when necessary for romantic or plot reasons.

In the Name of the King does the same thing. It may even have a worse case of this illness, since Muriella, a capable, strong woman (warrior/sorceress) seems like she's been torn right from the pages of medieval romance, but she is never actually shown doing anything in the realm of men.

And, topping off all of the movie's shortcomings, its relative production values are likely trumped by those of the two Blind Guardian songs that play over its credits.

Back to Top
Judgment

Epic fantasy movies are a difficult bunch. Other films in the genre, like Labyrinth, or The Never Ending Story, have it pretty easy since they weave their worlds carefully, draw their audiences in, and tackle some dark themes while being disguised as "kids' stuff."

In the Name of the King does none of that.

Even worse, In the Name of the King has almost no redeeming qualities if looked at as a whole. Its storytelling is backwards, its dialogue is awkward and out of place, its world is poorly constructed, and its characters, unfortunately, show almost no growth whatsoever.

Even after becoming king, it seems that Farmer just stays as he is. In fact, aside from Farmer's new title, things will probably wind up as they were at the movie's beginning since Gallian, upon delivering one of the movie's weirdest lines to Solana ("I can feel him in you"), reveals that she is carrying another of Farmer's children.

The movie's action keeps it going, but if you happen to turn your brain on at all during the proceedings you'll quickly find that doing just about anything other than watching this movie would be a better use of your time.

So Freya, avoid In the Name of the King at all costs, and let it rot where it lay. The Field of Fallen Films is truly the best place for it, though even there it may keep some of the others from fertilizing the earth beneath them.

Back to Top
Closing

Check back here next week for a look at another ill-thought of fantasy movie, However, if you really want to see a good underdog fantasy movie, check out Your Highness.

Also, the blog update continues, but it doesn't look like my regular entries will become regular again just yet. Follow me on Twitter (@the_penmin) or follow this blog via email by typing yours into the box to the right of the top of this entry to keep on top of the happenings here at A Glass Darkly!

Back to Top

Blog Update: Perspectives (Update Entry #9)

Things are going to change with this blog, beyond the update, since I've recently found local employment. More on that later, right now, here's the update's status:

• Recorded, edited, and uploaded all of the missing translation recordings (over at Tongues in Jars);
All of the translation recordings have been edited, and now just need to be uploaded. Watch for them tomorrow evening!
• Created and posted a hyperlinked portfolio page on these blogs;
Hyperlinks will be up by the end of the weekend.
• Sent out two short stories to magazines;
I just need to edit them both and figure out where the best places to send them are.
• Outlined the entirety of the fantasy novel that I'm currently writing;
I've read it all and have learned that what I've written is good, but after nine chapters the story is *just* getting started. In hip writer-speak, I have nine consecutive scenes, but not a single sequel, so I already know what I need to do in one regard. Right now I'm working out who the perspective characters need to be.
• Completed five of those chapters;
The form of these chapters is slowly taking shape.
• Completed the next act (four scenes) of an audio drama I'm working on;
The plan from the previous update still needs to be implemented.

While you wait for this blog to come back up, check out my writing about video games here.

And, don't miss this Friday's salvo into In the Name of the King in search of the salubrious!

Back to Top

Blog Update: Plans (Update Entry #8)

There's little to say that can't be said by the list itself. So, without further ado, here's how the remaining tasks stand:

• Recorded, edited, and uploaded all of the missing translation recordings (over at Tongues in Jars);
All of the Beowulf recordings have been edited. However, after a little bit of poking around and double checking I realized that I have about as much as I had to do for the Beowulf recordings left to do with Isidore's Etymologies. This discovery is a minor setback, but it means that this item gets another two days on this list.
• Created and posted a hyperlinked portfolio page on these blogs;
Hyperlinks will be up by the end of the week.
• Sent out two short stories to magazines;
With some feedback in hand, and my own fresh take on one story in particular, it's clear that I need to do some editing. Once that's finished I'll decide whether to push forward with it or to put it through another round of pre-readers. The second story is locked away in a notebook, waiting for some keys.
• Outlined the entirety of the fantasy novel that I'm currently writing;
I still intend to sprinkle reading this throughout my editing slog.
• Completed five of those chapters;
Without a plan, my ideas for these chapters are so nebulous that I can't yet grasp their form.
• Completed the next act (four scenes) of an audio drama I'm working on;
The plan is to finish the draft I have of one of the scenes, do some outlining to get a better sense of where the plot of this audio drama is going, and then to just motor through the next three scenes. As far as plans go, it's a good one, and I'll soon see how it pans out.

For some of my writing about video games check out my examiner page.

And, don't miss this Friday's quest for the positive qualities of In the Name of the King.

Back to Top

Blog Update: Plotting (Update Entry #7)

I've completed the job that I'd picked up last week, so now all of my time will be devoted to finishing this list. Here's what's left to do.

• Recorded, edited, and uploaded all of the missing translation recordings (over at Tongues in Jars);
I've just scratched the surface, so far, having editing the Latin recording of "O Fortuna." I still have the Modern English recording, 14 Beowulf recordings and the newest Telos AM podcast to get through. Tomorrow will see most (hopefully all) of this done).
• Created and posted a hyperlinked portfolio page on these blogs;
Hyperlinks will be up by the end of the week.
• Sent out two short stories to magazines;
I'm in the midst of sending one of these stories to pre-readers.
• Outlined the entirety of the fantasy novel that I'm currently writing;
I still intend to sprinkle reading this throughout my editing slog.
• Completed five of those chapters;
Without a plan, my ideas for these chapters are so nebulous that I can't yet grasp their form.
• Completed the next act (four scenes) of an audio drama I'm working on;
No progress yet.

Things are quiet over there as well, but for some of my writing about video games check out my examiner page.

Back to Top