Monthly Archives: July 2019

Frameworks for Fiction

In my opinion there are two critical frameworks for constructing fiction in a western tradition, on deals with the plotting and the other with the story but ideally they are used in a complementary fashion.

The plot is a simple ‘If … Then’ construction focused on the character’s objective, the IF portion of the statement is the goal the character must achieve and the THEN is the consequence of failure of success.

A simple example”

IF I do not make it to work on time, THEN I will get fired.

Knowing just this must a writer could craft a story about the troubles for getting to work. If the obstacles in the characters are too easily overcome then the story will lack tension, while if the consequence of failure is too slight then story will feel pointless. IF I am late to work THEN I will not get any of the donuts is a conflict but scarcely one that people will invest much time or emotion into. The relationship between then objective and the cost of failure is the heart of tension and reader engagement. This framework applies to the larger story and to individual scenes and when you’re thinking about larger works like novels it is important to not backslide from serious consequences to lesser ones. If an individual scene has a slight consequence compared to others that have come before it then it is vitally important that a larger goal with a more serious consequence remain unresolved.

Story is about change and can be reduced to the concept ‘I was/believed X and now I am or believe Y.’

The essence of a powerful story is that the reader can identify with the character’s transformation. This works in the positive mold as character grow and become better person, or in the negative when characters are consumed by their baser nature. What is important that that the character is not the same at the end of their journey as they were at the start.

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Thoughts on Religious Liberty

I am a big proponent of individual liberty. We have but one life here in the vast cold and unsympathetic universe and absent harm to other we should be free to live our short allotment of years as we see fit this included adhering to whatever spiritual or religious standard that we might adopt to give our years some sort of meaning.

Recently I listened to an edition of the podcast The Ezra Klein Showand his guest was conservative columnist and critic of popular culture Rod Dreher  If you know anything of Dreher’s writings and work then you know that one of his major themes and one he returned to quite often is that religious liberty, particularly for socially conservative Christians, is under assault with a coming Orwellian nightmare that promises to crush all dissent from the majority opinion. His opinion, if I hear and read it correctly, is that the ‘Culture War’ has already been lost and that protecting the rights of Christians as a beleaguered group under assault from a majority intent on eradicating that Christian thought is an essential role for government.  Well know cases that need protection or are examples of this crushing mindset include the bakeries that refuse to created wedding cakes for same-sex couples, pharmacies that refuse to dispense medications for some purposes, schools that are citizen for terminating the employment because of an employee’s private life, employers demanding exceptions to insurance regulations, and hospitals the refuse to allow certain medical procedures. In Dreher’s opinion each of these cases has at its core a deeply held, critically important test of religious conviction and a state that seems determined to crush religious beliefs where it conflicts with the greater culture. (There is an argument to be made that this religious belief defense is nothing but a cover shielding a deeper and hostile bigotry but true or not that is not thee point I am discussing today.)

A critical element common to all of these cases, and an aspect that I think is far more important, is that in none of these examples are we witnessing the convictions of religious individuals. Each and every one of these cases is an organization, a fictitious person, and often a licensed non-profit, insisting that the rules that apply to other corporations and company do not apply. It is important to note that the creation and protections of fictitious persons, companies, and non-profits, are an act of the state. It is a set of laws created outside of any religious sphere crafted with a secular intent for a secular purpose.  These laws, regulations, and structures in the commercial and profit driven world exist to help shield the assets of entrepreneurs to foster economic growth and stability. They, in effect, say, you John Smith, can create a business and we will treat that business as a person, it’s taxes will be separate from yours, it’s liabilities will be separate from yours, and it’s action will be separate from yours but under Dreher’s argument the companies get all these benefits granted by the culture and the law while also claiming a special protection based upon the creed of it’s owners, despite that business being a separate entity.

Moving into the issue concerning non-profits this becomes even more egregious. Non-Profits are specially licensed and sanctioned to serve a public good, receiving carved out protections backed by the secular state because their mission is defined as something that is intended to benefit society as a whole and not a particular isolated segment or population. It is a perversion of that intent to allow non-profits to discriminate. In South Caroline the governor has petitioned and received a federal waiver that permits a federally funded Christian foster agency to not only refuse to place children with same-sex couples for adoption but also allowing the agency to refuse to place children with Jewish homes because that is a ‘violation’ of their Christian beliefs.

Individuals have the freedom to believe what they wish, but not legal and financial support from secular society.

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Movie Review: Midsommar

Writer/director Ari Aster the creative forced behind last year’s Hereditary  is back with his sophomore feature film project Midsommar. People who are looking for a horror film in the vein of slashers, monsters, and action are likely to be disappointed with Aster’s slow-burn builds, languid deliberate pacing, and long-take, carefully choreographic photography however those who are enamored with psychological and sociological themed horror such as the originalThe Wicker Man  are likely to find something on Midsommarthat will appeal to their tastes,

Midsommar  centers on Dani ( Florence Pugh) and her disintegrating relationship with Christian (Jack Reynor.) Christian is already searching for a way to end the relationship when a familial tragedy shatters Dani leaving her grief stricken and emotionally vulnerable. Six months later Dani and Christian along with their friends Josh (William Jackson Harper) and Mark (Will Poulter) are invited to vacation and enjoy the mid-summer festivities at an isolated commune The Harga in northern Sweden by their exchange student friend Pelle. Once at the Harga subtle cultural conflicts slowly building between the guests, now including a pair of romantically invested UK students, and the residents of the commune. The guests used psychoactive drugs recreationally while the residents consume them for religious purposes, Christian and Mark want to study the commune for their academic advancement, while for the residents their way of life is part of an ancient and sacred tradition, and Mark sees sexual activities as something of pure pleasure the commune considers it more of cycle of life never foregoing the goal of procreation. These conflicts are not expressed in boisterous loud scenes of shouting but rather build layer by layer a growing sense of dread as the two cultures move irreconcilably towards a devastating final reveal. Dani, unlike the others, starts finding a place and a people that see her emotional injury and, though often concerned about the mysterious events that hint at darker motivations and truths, she discovers an acceptance and even a form of healing that Christian has been unable to give. As the film shifts from the second act into the third the plot descends into revelations, betrayals, the final dissolution of Dani and Christian’s relationship and culminates with Dani’s final resolution the more traditional horror film aspects emerge.

With strong echoes of The Wicker Man, which for those of you in San Diego will be playing soon for one day only at the Ken Cinema, Midsommar  is a movie that invites deep consideration and that for many will haunt their thoughts long after the final credits have vanished from the screen. Gorgeously photographed by Pawel Pogorzelski the film manages a continuously building atmosphere of dread and unease in a setting that has no period of true darkness. It is the rare horror film, psychological or otherwise, that attempts much less succeeds at mood building without a heavy reliance on dark deep shadows. The score is a different sort of musical accompaniment and I do not have the required background in knowledge or terminology to adequately explain it but in terms of mood it fit perfectly, enhancing the film’s emotional subtext without telegraphing it in broad blatant techniques. (Though that aspect of my experiences was marred by the deep bass rumblings from the Imax auditorium next tour ours screening Spider-Man: Far From Home.)

The cast is uniformly terrific, playing each character with credible depth and complexity. I want to make a particular note of William Jackson Harper perhaps best known as Chidi on NBC’s hit show The Good Place. Once again Harper is playing a character with a strong academic nature but through the strength of the script and Harper’s with subtle but effective physicality, I never once had any echoes of his role from that show.

Over all I loved the film and it has elevated Aster into a place where I will go see his next film without any other inducements required. Midsommaris a film that is not for everyone, but if you found Hereditary  or The Witchcompelling viewing then you should waste no time in seeing this movie.

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Movie Review: Spider-Man: Far From Home

The first post-Avengers: Endgame  Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Spider-Man: Far From Home  opened this weekend and reviewing it will requires spoilers for Endgame,  though I will refrain from spoilers for Far From Home  as much as possible.

Set five years after the events in Infinity War  and shortly after the return of the ‘snapped’ and after Iron Man’s sacrifice ending Thanos’ threat Far From Home opens with Peter Parker trying to resume his abnormal life as a high school student, he and all his emotionally relevant friends lost five years due to the Snapture (thanks to NPR’s Glen Weldon), while trying to cope with the loss of Tony Stark.

A new threat appears on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s radar when monstrous forces called elementals begin appearing around the world and the sole survivor from a parallel universe Quentin beck where these forces destroyed the Earth is recruited to save this version of Earth. With the major former Avengers either dead, aged out, crippled, or unavailable, Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. conscripts Peter Parker to help Beck save the world.

Peter wants nothing more than to leave the world saving to others, enjoy his high school class’ European Vacation, and possibly get closer to his crush Mary Jane Watson, but the continuing and escalating threat upset Peter’s plans and being the heir apparent to Stark’s mantle carries with it a level of guilt and responsibility that test’s Peter’s character.

Spider-Man: Far From Home  has exciting action set pieces, fine acting, deft, quirky, and often funny dialog but it lacks a strong story leaving it in the midlist of MCU movies. Unlike the last outing for Spider-Man where a padded plot dragged down the pacing this time the flaw is the central conceit of Peter’s motivation as character. As a protagonist Peter is simply far too passive.

In the Western tradition stories are constructed around a protagonist who desires a goal, something the protagonist much work to achieve, and the obstacles that the character most circumvent, defeat, or overcome to achieve their objectives. What your character wants and why they cannot simply have it is the core of a story’s plot. In this movie Peter wants to be left alone. He wants to go his vacation, not be ‘Spider-Man,’ and explore his relationship with M.J. Peter’s objective is not to do the thing the audience is here to see him do and as such the plot must repeatedly intervene and force Peter back onto the track that leads to dashing heroics and exciting action. In short he is pushed and pulled by the plot rather than driving the plot himself with his actins, choices, and needs for an objective. When the script makes the turn from Act 2 to Act 3 it finally creates enough pressure that Peter can no longer hide from his responsibilities and his objectives changes and for the final act he is driving the story, but this transformation comes too late to prevent the majority of the movie from being subjected to rudderless piloting.

How much this passive protagonist bothers someone will be a matter of individual taste. As I have mentioned this time the film’s running time doesn’t feel padded and each action set piece has a strong narrative purpose. There are plenty of humor and character moments to carry a viewer along but for me the lack of a plot driven by Peter’s needs drags the final product down into the mid-tier range of MCU movies.

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Election Concerns

I am very concerned about the 2020 election cycle.

In addition to the on going interference from Russia there is little reason to suspect that other hostile foreign powers will not try to also influence the election. The Administration has made it clear that it intends to do as little as possible on the issue and there are a number of the countries that would seek the advantages of influencing the contests, and not just the presidency. While the 438 individual elections of the House of Representatives is a logistical challenge it would probably be more advantageous of a foreign power to try and effect the balance of powers in the Senate. Given the nature of our system and of the Senate there’s a lot of bang for the buck in influencing those elections.

Beyond interference there is also the very real possibility that we could have an election where the results are outright rejected by one of the parties, and of course I mean Trump. It is not the man’s nature to ever admit a loss, or a failing, or a failure.

Trump made no bones at all before Election Day in 2016 that he would consider a loss to be the result of a ‘rigged’ election. It is one thing for a candidate who had not got their hands on the lever of government to reject a result, but it is quite another thing to possibly have a president refuse to accept defeat in an election. The 2016 contest was decided by a handful of votes in just a few states and even then Trump refused to accept the actual numbers, insisting that his 3 million popular vote floss was a result of fraud, what may he do if this time it is a few thousand votes in a few states that elects his opponent?

I really doubt he would meekly accept the loss and leave, as he should.

What happens in that constitutional crisis, a type we in this country have never experienced? In confronting Trump core supporters the Republican Party have shown all the spine of amoeba. In such a hypothetical I have grave concerns about their ability to due their duty.

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