Have you ever wanted to read a super hero anthology series, serialized on a blog, featuring lots of cliffhangers and mythological references and killing scenes and stuff? No?
WELL TOO BAD BABY, 'CAUSE IT'S HERE!
Sorry I yelled, sometimes I get over-enthusiastic about things... Anyway,
I'm writing a serialized tale of super heroes over at this blog right here. Hope ya like it.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Great Gatsby vs. Huckleberry Finn
Recently, I've noticed something interesting. Great Gatsby, the supposed "Great American Novel" written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, seems to be popping up everywhere in pop culture, or more specifically the Internet. (Warning: LINXPLOSION) There's this really cool game that's kind of amazing. Basically, it takes the Great Gastby setting/plotline, and puts it into a Mario-esque video game. As someone who's not a video game nerd, but does like Gatsby, I've gotta say it's a really fun game.
Then there's the Vlogbrothers, otherwise known as Nerds Unite, who are actually doing a book discussion on The Great Gatsby. It's really fascinating, partially because it's a good video, but also just because it's a book discussion... on Youtube. You just don't see that very often.
As if that isn't enough, there's another Youtube video, this time a song, which claims to be a "rap" about Gatsby. Now, I'd argue it's more rap-esque, but I don't know the rap genre all that well, so I could be wrong. But the basic point is that it's a pretty good song that's inspired by The Great Gatsby.
And I realized, Fitzgerald has gotten a lot of attention from pop culture recently. And I was wondering why. A part of it is simply that it has that reputation as the "Great American Novel," so whenever Americans want to talk about a book, there's a good chance they'll choose Gatsby.
But there's more to it than that. Scarlet Letter is mentioned in that rap song I linked to above, and it also got a semi-adaption in the recent movie, Easy A. Hemingway's always got tons of attention, probably due to his insane macho antics. One of the theaters near me recently put on a play adaptation of Old Man and the Sea (it went about as well as you'd expect.) Midnight in Paris featured Hemingway (I think. I didn't actually see it, so for this one I'm merely going by word-of-mouth.)
And my basic point with all of this is to point out that there really are quite a few references to literature, specifically the American kind, in our popular culture. But y'know who you never see mentioned? Mark Twain. When's the last time you saw a film adaptation of Huckleberry Finn? Tom Sawyer? Songs? Hell, there was a good amount of discussion on the radio about his new memoir, but other than that, and other than all the controversy over his use of the N-word, how much has society really talked about Twain?
In all honesty, it's not been much at all. Which is a shame, because Mark Twain is an awesome writer. However, there are a few problems with him that make him removed from the American zeitgeist. First of all, he uses the N-word a lot. This makes reading his book aloud really awkward. Trust me. For English class, I had to read some passages aloud. In front of my teacher and peers. Awkward.
Then there's the problem that his most revered work, Huck Finn, is kind of a kid's book. It's a fun book. It's a good book. But it's also a kid's book. It features a young boy, who learns various life lessons along a river as he travels with his best friend/former slave, Jim. In all honesty, the book reminds me a lot of that old Disney Channel movie, The Color of Friendship, except that the Disney movie features more girls in it... and less slavery. It's a good kid's book and it's an interesting read, but I'm not sure if it's worth all of the hype it sometimes get as an "American Classic."
Unfortunately, it just doesn't have the chops to make it in the vicious circle of American pop culture, whereas Gatsby has so much about it that's even relatable to the modern day. The protagonist, Nick Carraway, isn't so sure about the American dream. Gatsby has flung himself into the American dream, and climbed the socio/economic ladder , but hasn't stopped to think if it's been for the better. And there are a bunch of rich whiny people. Lots and lots of whiny rich people. Huck just doesn't have that sort of relatability, unless you own slaves, in which case I'd like to smack you.
Anyway, it's a shame that Mark Twain hasn't gotten as much attention as I think he deserves. However, there was a bright light when his memoirs were released after a hundred years (feel free to shit yourself, it's a long time to wait for a book. And you thought it was a long wait between the Harry Potter books!) People were actually talking about him. On the radio. And y'know what? It was an amazing book that deserved its attention. I can confidently say it's ten times better than Huck Finn. And numbers can't even express its relation to Twilight. Really. One guy tried. He exploded.
It's difficult to describe, but some reviewer-guy on the back of the book said it was kind of like a Cubist Autobiography, and I totally see where he's going with that. Essentially, it feels like you're sitting on a porch, listening to Twain tell various stories about himself. He's not going in chronological order. He doesn't give a damn about chronology. And you shouldn't either. Quite frankly, I think it's a lot closer to a "Great American Novel" than Huck. Unfortunately, it's not a novel. But it's still really good.
Maybe that's why Twain hasn't gotten the attention he deserved. Huck Finn is really popular among classrooms. And modern-day Americans could really learn to love Twain. But they're not going to learn to love Finn. And until the classrooms realize that, Twain will probably be in the ghetto of "Great American Authors."
Addendum: Yeah, so I got interested in seeing what Huck Finn adaptations were out there. Not a lot of recent stuff, but there was this Disney movie called The Color of Slaves. Wait, I'm sorry, that's not right. Uh, here we are. It was just called The Adventures of Huck Finn. I was close. But the more interesting adaptation was probably two Japanese anime called Huckleberry Finn No Bouken and Huckleberry Finn Monogatari. It simply amazes me that more Japanese children might have been exposed to an American classic, than actual American children.
I was also curious what other books were considered American classics. It was cool to see Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird on the list, because I love both of them. PBS mentioned On the Road as a possibility, which made me shit sunshine (which means I like the book and therefore liked the mention, just in case that wasn't clear.)
Less promising was the mention of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita as a possibility. I mean, it's got a good prose style, but it's all about an old perv who wants to get into this little girl's pants. I mean, maybe if it was the Great Republican Novel, or even the Great Priest's novel, but the Great American Novel? (ZING!)
Then there's the Vlogbrothers, otherwise known as Nerds Unite, who are actually doing a book discussion on The Great Gatsby. It's really fascinating, partially because it's a good video, but also just because it's a book discussion... on Youtube. You just don't see that very often.
As if that isn't enough, there's another Youtube video, this time a song, which claims to be a "rap" about Gatsby. Now, I'd argue it's more rap-esque, but I don't know the rap genre all that well, so I could be wrong. But the basic point is that it's a pretty good song that's inspired by The Great Gatsby.
And I realized, Fitzgerald has gotten a lot of attention from pop culture recently. And I was wondering why. A part of it is simply that it has that reputation as the "Great American Novel," so whenever Americans want to talk about a book, there's a good chance they'll choose Gatsby.
But there's more to it than that. Scarlet Letter is mentioned in that rap song I linked to above, and it also got a semi-adaption in the recent movie, Easy A. Hemingway's always got tons of attention, probably due to his insane macho antics. One of the theaters near me recently put on a play adaptation of Old Man and the Sea (it went about as well as you'd expect.) Midnight in Paris featured Hemingway (I think. I didn't actually see it, so for this one I'm merely going by word-of-mouth.)
And my basic point with all of this is to point out that there really are quite a few references to literature, specifically the American kind, in our popular culture. But y'know who you never see mentioned? Mark Twain. When's the last time you saw a film adaptation of Huckleberry Finn? Tom Sawyer? Songs? Hell, there was a good amount of discussion on the radio about his new memoir, but other than that, and other than all the controversy over his use of the N-word, how much has society really talked about Twain?
In all honesty, it's not been much at all. Which is a shame, because Mark Twain is an awesome writer. However, there are a few problems with him that make him removed from the American zeitgeist. First of all, he uses the N-word a lot. This makes reading his book aloud really awkward. Trust me. For English class, I had to read some passages aloud. In front of my teacher and peers. Awkward.
Then there's the problem that his most revered work, Huck Finn, is kind of a kid's book. It's a fun book. It's a good book. But it's also a kid's book. It features a young boy, who learns various life lessons along a river as he travels with his best friend/former slave, Jim. In all honesty, the book reminds me a lot of that old Disney Channel movie, The Color of Friendship, except that the Disney movie features more girls in it... and less slavery. It's a good kid's book and it's an interesting read, but I'm not sure if it's worth all of the hype it sometimes get as an "American Classic."
Unfortunately, it just doesn't have the chops to make it in the vicious circle of American pop culture, whereas Gatsby has so much about it that's even relatable to the modern day. The protagonist, Nick Carraway, isn't so sure about the American dream. Gatsby has flung himself into the American dream, and climbed the socio/economic ladder , but hasn't stopped to think if it's been for the better. And there are a bunch of rich whiny people. Lots and lots of whiny rich people. Huck just doesn't have that sort of relatability, unless you own slaves, in which case I'd like to smack you.
Anyway, it's a shame that Mark Twain hasn't gotten as much attention as I think he deserves. However, there was a bright light when his memoirs were released after a hundred years (feel free to shit yourself, it's a long time to wait for a book. And you thought it was a long wait between the Harry Potter books!) People were actually talking about him. On the radio. And y'know what? It was an amazing book that deserved its attention. I can confidently say it's ten times better than Huck Finn. And numbers can't even express its relation to Twilight. Really. One guy tried. He exploded.
It's difficult to describe, but some reviewer-guy on the back of the book said it was kind of like a Cubist Autobiography, and I totally see where he's going with that. Essentially, it feels like you're sitting on a porch, listening to Twain tell various stories about himself. He's not going in chronological order. He doesn't give a damn about chronology. And you shouldn't either. Quite frankly, I think it's a lot closer to a "Great American Novel" than Huck. Unfortunately, it's not a novel. But it's still really good.
Maybe that's why Twain hasn't gotten the attention he deserved. Huck Finn is really popular among classrooms. And modern-day Americans could really learn to love Twain. But they're not going to learn to love Finn. And until the classrooms realize that, Twain will probably be in the ghetto of "Great American Authors."
Addendum: Yeah, so I got interested in seeing what Huck Finn adaptations were out there. Not a lot of recent stuff, but there was this Disney movie called The Color of Slaves. Wait, I'm sorry, that's not right. Uh, here we are. It was just called The Adventures of Huck Finn. I was close. But the more interesting adaptation was probably two Japanese anime called Huckleberry Finn No Bouken and Huckleberry Finn Monogatari. It simply amazes me that more Japanese children might have been exposed to an American classic, than actual American children.
I was also curious what other books were considered American classics. It was cool to see Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird on the list, because I love both of them. PBS mentioned On the Road as a possibility, which made me shit sunshine (which means I like the book and therefore liked the mention, just in case that wasn't clear.)
Less promising was the mention of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita as a possibility. I mean, it's got a good prose style, but it's all about an old perv who wants to get into this little girl's pants. I mean, maybe if it was the Great Republican Novel, or even the Great Priest's novel, but the Great American Novel? (ZING!)
Friday, July 15, 2011
Well this is awkward...
Hey, all. So, sorry about the twenty-four hour fail-athon. I only got around a quarter of the way through. But luckily, no one reads this blog! :)
Worry not. I've actually got a new project coming soon. I'll be releasing more details soon.
Worry not. I've actually got a new project coming soon. I'll be releasing more details soon.
Monday, July 11, 2011
"Epic" Fantasy
Is it just me, or does pretty much every epic fantasy book spend the first 200 pages showing the protagonists walking through a forest? I mean, I don't mean to knock Lord of the Rings or The Wheel of Time or anything like that, but...
Really guys? Really?
In all honesty, the only epic fantasy I've ever read from start to finish was Tolkien's The Hobbit. It was a pretty good book and I really enjoyed it. Sure, they spent a lot of the time in a forest, but I was kind of young when I read it, so I didn't know any better. But seriously, every epic fantasy book tends to start out with a large group of protagonists, one of them being a wide-eyed youthful innocent kid who just wants to see the world, but just doesn't want to leave his home. The protagonists chit-chat for a little while, dropping ominous hints about some big peril or other in the forest. We learn a bit about the history of the world, and then BAM! some evil infests the town. In Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, that means monsters coming from the forest and pretty much raping everything (but not literally raping, 'cause that'd be more than a little weird...). In Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, that just means, "Oh noes! Looks like this didleedoo of a ring I gots here ain't good! I gots to leave the town to gets rid of it!" Essentially, evil forces the protagonist out of his hometown (the innocent youth is never a girl, mind you). Then he spends the rest of the 200 pages walking around in the forest, worrying about that murky, shadowy evil.
Quite frankly, it gets really old really quickly. If you're lucky, you might get a few glimpses at the evil. But there aren't many awesome action scenes, especially awesome action scenes where the hero wins. It's just kind of a bore. And I'm wondering: is there any epic fantasy out there that, oh, I don't know, actually has an interesting beginning to it?
Because I'm going to be up front about this: I haven't finished Wheel of Time or Lord of the Rings. And I'm wondering, am I looking in the wrong spot? Is there a better, more interesting gateway into epic fantasy literature? I think R. E. Howard is great, so it's not like I'm predisposed against fantasy in general. There's nothing wrong with elves, orcs, barbarians or mages. Actually, they're pretty cool.
I mean, I liked Xena: Warrior Princess when I was younger, for reasons completely unrelated to the plot and completely related to Lucy Lawless, but nonetheless, I have no problem with fantasy setting, but instead have problems with fantasy execution.
So is there anything out there for me that actually involves a good plot?
Really guys? Really?
In all honesty, the only epic fantasy I've ever read from start to finish was Tolkien's The Hobbit. It was a pretty good book and I really enjoyed it. Sure, they spent a lot of the time in a forest, but I was kind of young when I read it, so I didn't know any better. But seriously, every epic fantasy book tends to start out with a large group of protagonists, one of them being a wide-eyed youthful innocent kid who just wants to see the world, but just doesn't want to leave his home. The protagonists chit-chat for a little while, dropping ominous hints about some big peril or other in the forest. We learn a bit about the history of the world, and then BAM! some evil infests the town. In Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, that means monsters coming from the forest and pretty much raping everything (but not literally raping, 'cause that'd be more than a little weird...). In Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, that just means, "Oh noes! Looks like this didleedoo of a ring I gots here ain't good! I gots to leave the town to gets rid of it!" Essentially, evil forces the protagonist out of his hometown (the innocent youth is never a girl, mind you). Then he spends the rest of the 200 pages walking around in the forest, worrying about that murky, shadowy evil.
Quite frankly, it gets really old really quickly. If you're lucky, you might get a few glimpses at the evil. But there aren't many awesome action scenes, especially awesome action scenes where the hero wins. It's just kind of a bore. And I'm wondering: is there any epic fantasy out there that, oh, I don't know, actually has an interesting beginning to it?
Because I'm going to be up front about this: I haven't finished Wheel of Time or Lord of the Rings. And I'm wondering, am I looking in the wrong spot? Is there a better, more interesting gateway into epic fantasy literature? I think R. E. Howard is great, so it's not like I'm predisposed against fantasy in general. There's nothing wrong with elves, orcs, barbarians or mages. Actually, they're pretty cool.
I mean, I liked Xena: Warrior Princess when I was younger, for reasons completely unrelated to the plot and completely related to Lucy Lawless, but nonetheless, I have no problem with fantasy setting, but instead have problems with fantasy execution.
So is there anything out there for me that actually involves a good plot?
Baccano!
I just have to say it: Baccano! is a flipping great series. I know they're not as popular as the long-running shonen series, but I absolutely love those 12-24 episode anime that show you a one-off perspective of the world. They just tend to be so damn exhilarating, with crazy-ass plot twists at every step in the game.
I definitely have to put Baccano! in that group of bizarre anime. It's a pretty complex show, but at its core it is the story of a group of people who got their hands on an immortality elixir. Of course, all sorts of craziness ensues. A lot of that craziness comes from the time hopping, which might happen 20 times in one episode. There's an episode that flashes back to 1711, one that flashes forward to the 21st century, and all sorts of craziness in-between. Even when it stays at the focal point of the story--from around 1930-1933--it manages to hop backwards and forwards. For instance, in the very first episode, we see the endings to three different stories that we'll only learn more about in later episodes.
And that's another thing that makes the series so crazy-awesome. It's already got that scatter-brained quality with the Kurt Vonnegut level of time hopping, but it also takes a soap operatic number of characters, puts them all into their various personal plot lines, and manages to make it all coalesce into one beautiful whole in the end.
Truth be told, I'm trying not to give too many specifics, because I don't want to ruin the show for anyone who hasn't seen it but wants to. But I think giving this little excerpt from the very beginning of the series shouldn't spoil too much. It features the Vice President of an information brokerage/newspaper publisher and a young girl who has a close, father-daughter relationship with him.
"Carol: Our job is not to think about things, but to report to others the outcome of what has already happened...
Vice President: It's true, our job is to convey the truth to others, but the moment that we obtain any information, be it truth or falsehood, we must not stop thinking. We must not stop at just determining whether the information is true or false. Such is the responsibility of those who deliver information to others.
Carol: But, what is there to think about? Just thinking about something doesn't change whether or not it's true, right?
Vice President: Yes, it does change."
To see an anime get that philosophical in the first episode was a great experience and one which showed me how much I would like this anime. However, it's not just philosophy. There are so many murdering psychopaths on this train that the heap-loads of action were destined to occur.
Of particular note is Ladd Russo, hitman for a Chicago mafia who expresses his passionate love for his fiancée, Lua Klein, by stating that he could only bear to kill her after he'd killed everyone else in the world. Let me point this out. His goal in life: to kill everyone in the world.
I would say the biggest hurdle in watching this series is the first episode: there are so many characters to keep track of and so many divergent plot lines which take a while to get connected. Therefore, the first episode seems like a muddle of confusion. But trust me, by the end all of that confusion is turned into sheer bliss at discovering so much about the myriad characters.
There's something (legally) intoxicating about the way that all these characters are running around so close to each other, bumping into each other's plot lines and causing all sorts of havoc, where only the viewer gets the holistic view of what's happening, so all the characters have to run around, without quite understanding the implications of their actions. This was particularly notable in the introductions between various characters. You might have been following these characters for five or six episodes, absorbing their escapades in bite-sized pieces, and then you get to see two of the characters bump together, and it's interesting to see the way they present themselves to each other. Apathy where there should be loathing, interest where there should be fear, etc. It's just a lot of fun to watch.
To top it all off, there's a good deal of mystery as well. And it's not just mystery in the "How is it all gonna end?" sort of way. But there's also the question of, "What is this massive monster going from car to car literally killing all the passengers?" That's a mildly interesting tertiary question. And there's the question of, "Why is it some people are getting killed, but they're not dying?" That's, y'know, kinda cool.
But yeah. I don't really know what else to say, except to try the first couple of episodes. Remember what I said about the first episode being tough to get through, and don't let that deter you. Because trust me, by the end, Baccano! had some of the best episodes I've ever seen in an anime.
I definitely have to put Baccano! in that group of bizarre anime. It's a pretty complex show, but at its core it is the story of a group of people who got their hands on an immortality elixir. Of course, all sorts of craziness ensues. A lot of that craziness comes from the time hopping, which might happen 20 times in one episode. There's an episode that flashes back to 1711, one that flashes forward to the 21st century, and all sorts of craziness in-between. Even when it stays at the focal point of the story--from around 1930-1933--it manages to hop backwards and forwards. For instance, in the very first episode, we see the endings to three different stories that we'll only learn more about in later episodes.
And that's another thing that makes the series so crazy-awesome. It's already got that scatter-brained quality with the Kurt Vonnegut level of time hopping, but it also takes a soap operatic number of characters, puts them all into their various personal plot lines, and manages to make it all coalesce into one beautiful whole in the end.
Truth be told, I'm trying not to give too many specifics, because I don't want to ruin the show for anyone who hasn't seen it but wants to. But I think giving this little excerpt from the very beginning of the series shouldn't spoil too much. It features the Vice President of an information brokerage/newspaper publisher and a young girl who has a close, father-daughter relationship with him.
"Carol: Our job is not to think about things, but to report to others the outcome of what has already happened...
Vice President: It's true, our job is to convey the truth to others, but the moment that we obtain any information, be it truth or falsehood, we must not stop thinking. We must not stop at just determining whether the information is true or false. Such is the responsibility of those who deliver information to others.
Carol: But, what is there to think about? Just thinking about something doesn't change whether or not it's true, right?
Vice President: Yes, it does change."
To see an anime get that philosophical in the first episode was a great experience and one which showed me how much I would like this anime. However, it's not just philosophy. There are so many murdering psychopaths on this train that the heap-loads of action were destined to occur.
Of particular note is Ladd Russo, hitman for a Chicago mafia who expresses his passionate love for his fiancée, Lua Klein, by stating that he could only bear to kill her after he'd killed everyone else in the world. Let me point this out. His goal in life: to kill everyone in the world.
I would say the biggest hurdle in watching this series is the first episode: there are so many characters to keep track of and so many divergent plot lines which take a while to get connected. Therefore, the first episode seems like a muddle of confusion. But trust me, by the end all of that confusion is turned into sheer bliss at discovering so much about the myriad characters.
There's something (legally) intoxicating about the way that all these characters are running around so close to each other, bumping into each other's plot lines and causing all sorts of havoc, where only the viewer gets the holistic view of what's happening, so all the characters have to run around, without quite understanding the implications of their actions. This was particularly notable in the introductions between various characters. You might have been following these characters for five or six episodes, absorbing their escapades in bite-sized pieces, and then you get to see two of the characters bump together, and it's interesting to see the way they present themselves to each other. Apathy where there should be loathing, interest where there should be fear, etc. It's just a lot of fun to watch.
To top it all off, there's a good deal of mystery as well. And it's not just mystery in the "How is it all gonna end?" sort of way. But there's also the question of, "What is this massive monster going from car to car literally killing all the passengers?" That's a mildly interesting tertiary question. And there's the question of, "Why is it some people are getting killed, but they're not dying?" That's, y'know, kinda cool.
But yeah. I don't really know what else to say, except to try the first couple of episodes. Remember what I said about the first episode being tough to get through, and don't let that deter you. Because trust me, by the end, Baccano! had some of the best episodes I've ever seen in an anime.
Web Fiction
Right now, we're living in a period of complete upheaval. On the one hand, that's kind of obvious, with the internet and all. Pretty much everyone knows about blogs, online periodicals, youtube videos, search engines, etc. These are things that have changed the way society as a whole thinks about itself. In pretty much every period of time, there's been some sort of revolution, be it technological, political, religious, etc. But the thing that makes the Internet so revolutionary is the way that it's changed our perspective about so many things. I think that's the reason people have missed one of the biggest changes of all: fiction posted online.
Oh, sure. Enough people in the world know about fan fiction. That's been pretty well-covered by the media and there's certainly enough knowledge out there about it for it to be made fun of quite often. But people don't realize that there's quite a lot of original stuff out there as well. Web Fiction Guide is probably the most popular compiler of all the non-fan web fiction out there. And if you look at it, there's a helluva lot of stuff in there for people to look at. There's a genre for almost everyone and enough reading material to keep anyone happy for quite a while.
So why isn't it more popular already? Well, in all honesty, I think that's in large part a consequence of two different factors. The first one is pretty simple: a lot of people aren't comfortable reading online. With such a large part of my life spent in front of this small flashing box, that fact often surprises me, but it's true. Even at my old high school, which was filled with a lot of tech-savvy teenagers, people would be surprised if I said I had just read a book online. I guess the computer's a part of the reason why my eyesight is so bad at such a young age, but at this point, my eyes really don't feel the strain of reading online. Go figure.
And the other factor is simply that everything takes time to catch on. A lot of the internet revolutions might have happened at a very fast clip, but change usually doesn't happen like that. Think of how long it took for people to be allowed to admit they weren't Christians. Centuries? Think of how long it took for Facebook to change the way we look at socialization. A year, tops. A part of that is simply a consequence of the material: it doesn't take long to set up a facebook account, just as it doesn't take long to type a search query into a box. These are very quick things to do, so it makes sense that their popularity would spread like wildfire.
Reading fiction is a wholly different matter entirely. It's a more immersive, time-consuming process. You grow attached to the characters, you wonder at what's going to happen next, and it somehow takes on a more visceral importance than the latest kitten video on Youtube (not that kitten videos on Youtube aren't important, or anything. I mean, where would civilization be without kitten videos? Is this a digression? I think it is...). In essence, that means change is less quick to happen. People don't want to abandon literature that they feel is guaranteed to give them a certain level of quality. Of course, they could get the same exact text from the Internet, from places like Project Gutenberg, but people are still reluctant to give up their paper books. They've grown accustomed to the way they read and they're not going to change anytime soon.
But that's not so much of a problem, because there are still enough people out there writing their own novels on blogs, completely eradicating the relevance of the publishing industry. They're essentially standing up and saying, "I've got something to say and I'm going to say it, no matter what others may think." Surprisingly, they've met with more success than you'd expect. One of the most popular authors, Alexandra Erin, frequently gets over 100 comments on her most popular blog, Tales of MU. Of course, that's nothing compared to the thousands of comments that things like, "Charlieisocoolike," get on Youtube. But given that "Charlieisoocoolike" posts videos that are from 2-4 minutes and Alexandra Erin's posts are 3,000-4,000 words, it seems fair to surmise that a fair number of people are spending a fair amount of time with web fiction.
So what does that mean for the future? Does that mean web fiction will become popular tomorrow? Next year? Within the decade? We can't really know what the future holds for sure, but I'd like to think that people will soon realize the many benefits of web fiction. E.g, it's free, it's diverse, and it's got a wild sense of serialization. What's not to love?
I guess it could use some more LOLcats...
(NOTE: Yeah, my post is ten minutes late. What're you going to do about it?)
Oh, sure. Enough people in the world know about fan fiction. That's been pretty well-covered by the media and there's certainly enough knowledge out there about it for it to be made fun of quite often. But people don't realize that there's quite a lot of original stuff out there as well. Web Fiction Guide is probably the most popular compiler of all the non-fan web fiction out there. And if you look at it, there's a helluva lot of stuff in there for people to look at. There's a genre for almost everyone and enough reading material to keep anyone happy for quite a while.
So why isn't it more popular already? Well, in all honesty, I think that's in large part a consequence of two different factors. The first one is pretty simple: a lot of people aren't comfortable reading online. With such a large part of my life spent in front of this small flashing box, that fact often surprises me, but it's true. Even at my old high school, which was filled with a lot of tech-savvy teenagers, people would be surprised if I said I had just read a book online. I guess the computer's a part of the reason why my eyesight is so bad at such a young age, but at this point, my eyes really don't feel the strain of reading online. Go figure.
And the other factor is simply that everything takes time to catch on. A lot of the internet revolutions might have happened at a very fast clip, but change usually doesn't happen like that. Think of how long it took for people to be allowed to admit they weren't Christians. Centuries? Think of how long it took for Facebook to change the way we look at socialization. A year, tops. A part of that is simply a consequence of the material: it doesn't take long to set up a facebook account, just as it doesn't take long to type a search query into a box. These are very quick things to do, so it makes sense that their popularity would spread like wildfire.
Reading fiction is a wholly different matter entirely. It's a more immersive, time-consuming process. You grow attached to the characters, you wonder at what's going to happen next, and it somehow takes on a more visceral importance than the latest kitten video on Youtube (not that kitten videos on Youtube aren't important, or anything. I mean, where would civilization be without kitten videos? Is this a digression? I think it is...). In essence, that means change is less quick to happen. People don't want to abandon literature that they feel is guaranteed to give them a certain level of quality. Of course, they could get the same exact text from the Internet, from places like Project Gutenberg, but people are still reluctant to give up their paper books. They've grown accustomed to the way they read and they're not going to change anytime soon.
But that's not so much of a problem, because there are still enough people out there writing their own novels on blogs, completely eradicating the relevance of the publishing industry. They're essentially standing up and saying, "I've got something to say and I'm going to say it, no matter what others may think." Surprisingly, they've met with more success than you'd expect. One of the most popular authors, Alexandra Erin, frequently gets over 100 comments on her most popular blog, Tales of MU. Of course, that's nothing compared to the thousands of comments that things like, "Charlieisocoolike," get on Youtube. But given that "Charlieisoocoolike" posts videos that are from 2-4 minutes and Alexandra Erin's posts are 3,000-4,000 words, it seems fair to surmise that a fair number of people are spending a fair amount of time with web fiction.
So what does that mean for the future? Does that mean web fiction will become popular tomorrow? Next year? Within the decade? We can't really know what the future holds for sure, but I'd like to think that people will soon realize the many benefits of web fiction. E.g, it's free, it's diverse, and it's got a wild sense of serialization. What's not to love?
I guess it could use some more LOLcats...
(NOTE: Yeah, my post is ten minutes late. What're you going to do about it?)
I Spy, You Spy, We All Spy For... Oh, just Pretend it's Witty, Okay?
I Spy, starring Bill Cosby and Robert Culp, is one of those series that I've wanted to watch for a while. You see, when I was growing up, I kind of had this massive love for spies. As I showed in the last post, I had an unhealthy adoration for James Bond. But it was so much more than that. I grew up watching old Get Smart reruns on TV Land. There was this series of books called the Alex Rider series starring a tweenage spy. The Mission: Impossible movie series taught me to respect Tom Cruise, despite his Scientology and what not. The Mission: Impossible TV series taught me that not all spies were cool. (ZING!)
But really, I've always kind of had this love of spies, but there really weren't all that many spies for me to read/watch being created in the 90's. I guess it was the whole, "end of the Cold War, no one cares about National Security" period of the country that I actually kind of love, but for whatever reason, spies weren't really all that popular.
Thankfully, the spy genre made a resurgence in the 00's (I feel like I should insert a James Bond joke here, but I can't think of a good one. Oh well.) People actually like this stuff now! That means I got some cool new stuff--like I loved Alias when that was around--but it also means that some of the older stuff is more easily available.
One example being I Spy! (My god I take a long time to get to a point, don't I?) Having found this on Hulu/Youtube (bastards on Hulu took it down), I've realized how kickass Bill Cosby. Yeah, it took me a while to figure out how awesome Bill Cosby is.
The basic premise of the show is that Robert Culp is this tennis star who's agreed to spy for the US government and Bill Cosby, another spy, pretends to be Culp's tennis trainer. It's a really fun show, and there tend to be a couple of really cool twists and turns, which is nice, but you can find that on other shows, as well. What really sets this show apart from others is the interactions between Bill Cosby and Robert Culp. Apparently, they quite frequently abandoned their script in favor of doing a little bit of improv, which added a good deal of color and characterization to the show. At least I think it did. I can't say I know for certain I know where they improvised and where they were following the script, but sometimes you can just tell when an actor just made something up on the spot. More than once I think I've seen Bill Cosby smirk slightly after he said a throwaway comedy line that sounds more like him than the writers of the scripts.
Going back to the basics of the show, Culp was in charge of the action-spy stuff, whereas Bill Cosby's main role was supposed to be comedy. However, having watched the first three episodes, I've got to say, Cosby's character seems a lot more competent than Culp, which is somewhat surprising, given the era. (My grandparents apparently didn't like the show because Cosby was black. Lol.)
Cosby was always the one doing his job by using his smarts, whereas Culp seemed to use large theatrics and playing the idiot to get himself out of a lot of situations. Just looking at one example, in the second episode, Culp walks into the office of some import-export business. This particular office has an important device that Cosby and Culp need to recover. So Culp, trying to "case" the place, walks in with a box of firecrackers "for his nephew." Talking to the girl at the desk, he's looking around, figuring out what's going on, when he "accidentally" sets off the firecrackers by lighting them with his cigarette. He then watches as the boss rushes to a safe, making sure his prized gadget hasn't been stolen. It's a trick that works, and it's a trick that's a lot of fun to watch, but it involves Culp acting like a stupid tourist. Y'see, Cosby never would have done that. In that very same episode, we learn that he was a linguist and we learn that he's really good at making bombs. He doesn't play the spy game stupid. He plays it smart.
Also, the spy action is surprisingly gritty, given the era. Cosby and Culp frequently get beaten up, showing cuts and scars and such, which is a lot of fun. But there's also a darker air to the whole show. It's got this slight noir tinge, with people constantly double-crossing and tricking each other. This was on at the same time as The Prisoner, so I suppose the attitude shouldn't surprise me too much. But keep in mind, I was raised on re-runs of Gilligan's Island, which was originally broadcast during the same period as I Spy (1967-ish), so the idea that not every character was happy and honest by the end of the episode came kind of as a surprise to me. It leads to some interesting ideas about what the other ship-wrecked islanders would have done to Gilligan if they weren't so darn bright and cheerful.
But back to I Spy, it really had a special quality to it. As opposed to The Prisoner, which relied on a single premise, or Get Smart, which relied on large helpings of comedy, Cosby and Culp managed to create a spy show which worked week-in-week-out without becoming too cheesy or limited.
It's more difficult to find a show like that than you'd suspect. (Here's looking at you, Mission: Impossible.)
But really, I've always kind of had this love of spies, but there really weren't all that many spies for me to read/watch being created in the 90's. I guess it was the whole, "end of the Cold War, no one cares about National Security" period of the country that I actually kind of love, but for whatever reason, spies weren't really all that popular.
Thankfully, the spy genre made a resurgence in the 00's (I feel like I should insert a James Bond joke here, but I can't think of a good one. Oh well.) People actually like this stuff now! That means I got some cool new stuff--like I loved Alias when that was around--but it also means that some of the older stuff is more easily available.
One example being I Spy! (My god I take a long time to get to a point, don't I?) Having found this on Hulu/Youtube (bastards on Hulu took it down), I've realized how kickass Bill Cosby. Yeah, it took me a while to figure out how awesome Bill Cosby is.
The basic premise of the show is that Robert Culp is this tennis star who's agreed to spy for the US government and Bill Cosby, another spy, pretends to be Culp's tennis trainer. It's a really fun show, and there tend to be a couple of really cool twists and turns, which is nice, but you can find that on other shows, as well. What really sets this show apart from others is the interactions between Bill Cosby and Robert Culp. Apparently, they quite frequently abandoned their script in favor of doing a little bit of improv, which added a good deal of color and characterization to the show. At least I think it did. I can't say I know for certain I know where they improvised and where they were following the script, but sometimes you can just tell when an actor just made something up on the spot. More than once I think I've seen Bill Cosby smirk slightly after he said a throwaway comedy line that sounds more like him than the writers of the scripts.
Going back to the basics of the show, Culp was in charge of the action-spy stuff, whereas Bill Cosby's main role was supposed to be comedy. However, having watched the first three episodes, I've got to say, Cosby's character seems a lot more competent than Culp, which is somewhat surprising, given the era. (My grandparents apparently didn't like the show because Cosby was black. Lol.)
Cosby was always the one doing his job by using his smarts, whereas Culp seemed to use large theatrics and playing the idiot to get himself out of a lot of situations. Just looking at one example, in the second episode, Culp walks into the office of some import-export business. This particular office has an important device that Cosby and Culp need to recover. So Culp, trying to "case" the place, walks in with a box of firecrackers "for his nephew." Talking to the girl at the desk, he's looking around, figuring out what's going on, when he "accidentally" sets off the firecrackers by lighting them with his cigarette. He then watches as the boss rushes to a safe, making sure his prized gadget hasn't been stolen. It's a trick that works, and it's a trick that's a lot of fun to watch, but it involves Culp acting like a stupid tourist. Y'see, Cosby never would have done that. In that very same episode, we learn that he was a linguist and we learn that he's really good at making bombs. He doesn't play the spy game stupid. He plays it smart.
Also, the spy action is surprisingly gritty, given the era. Cosby and Culp frequently get beaten up, showing cuts and scars and such, which is a lot of fun. But there's also a darker air to the whole show. It's got this slight noir tinge, with people constantly double-crossing and tricking each other. This was on at the same time as The Prisoner, so I suppose the attitude shouldn't surprise me too much. But keep in mind, I was raised on re-runs of Gilligan's Island, which was originally broadcast during the same period as I Spy (1967-ish), so the idea that not every character was happy and honest by the end of the episode came kind of as a surprise to me. It leads to some interesting ideas about what the other ship-wrecked islanders would have done to Gilligan if they weren't so darn bright and cheerful.
But back to I Spy, it really had a special quality to it. As opposed to The Prisoner, which relied on a single premise, or Get Smart, which relied on large helpings of comedy, Cosby and Culp managed to create a spy show which worked week-in-week-out without becoming too cheesy or limited.
It's more difficult to find a show like that than you'd suspect. (Here's looking at you, Mission: Impossible.)
The Importance of Being Corny
"James Bond is supposed to be corny, damn it!"
Not so long ago, I found myself saying this in the middle of what had otherwise been a polite conversation about the merits of the various James Bonds. My friend insisted that James Bond was at his best in the books, because that was Bond at his most intellectual, while I felt that the James Bond movies were the best, because they were just so damn fun.
That is why, no matter how much I love Sean Connery and some of his best movies, like Goldfinger and From Russia with Love, Roger Moore will always be my favorite James Bond. (I think a puppy might die every time I say that. I'm kind of hoping not.)
But no, really, Roger Moore is by far the best James Bond of all time. Let me explain why.
Okay, first of all, one of his movies is called Octopussy. Oh, sure, you could say Ian Fleming is to be credited for that, since he went and created the title in his book, or whatever. But think about it: what other actor could you see playing in this film without making it sound ridiculous? Could Daniel Craig be in a movie called Octopussy, without looking confused and completely out of place? Didn't think so. His Bond seems to have trouble getting human pussy. And we all know how difficult it is to get Octopussy. But trust me, when it happens, it's so worth it... (I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure how a civilized conversation about James Bond turned into one massive pussy joke. Do you see what James Bond does to me?)
Second, Live and Let Die features a title song from Paul friggin' McCartney. Not only that, it features some cool New Orleans jazz, three death scenes in the first five minutes, and speedboat chases. Was Pierce Brosnan cool enough to have both jazz music and Paul McCartney in the soundtrack for any of his films? Didn't think so.
Quite frankly, I think there was something about his movies that were so fun-loving, that made it work. I do really like Daniel Craig in the role, but he really takes it all too seriously. Sure, it's fun to see Craig killing a bunch of people, getting really angry, and blowing things up. But that's not really Bond to me. Bond is more of a cool, suave character. He doesn't really break a sweat all that much, even when he has a gun pointed to his head (or, because James Bond villains can never be simple, it's more likely that he has a gold-cutting laser pointed towards his crotch.) His most powerful negative emotion should be mild concern, like if a bomb is about to blow up and he's three seconds away from disarming it, but he's only got two seconds before it explodes.
Because here's the thing: it's just a movie. And I think the Bond franchise epitomizes that more than most other film series. You know he's going to survive in the end. He has to, because there are going to be more movies. You know he's going to sleep with at least one woman and probably more, because a girl would have to be insane not to accept the advances of James Bond. And you know he's going to face off against a quirky villain, with an even quirkier henchman, just because those quirks make the film so much fun to watch.
And I suppose Sean Connery has villains that are almost as cool, like Odd Job, and that Russian maid with the knife in her shoe whose name I've forgotten. But they just can't beat luminaries like Jaws, who was awesome enough to feature in more than one movie, or Scaramanga, played by the always-awesome Christopher Lee.
Not satisfied yet? Need more proof? Alright then, how about this: Roger Moore wasn't satisfied with the awesomeness of his movie basically being set in Harlem, with the jazz and Paul McCartney soundtracks. He felt like there had to be another awesome hook to drag the viewer in. So what does he do? Quite literally, he fights against a henchman named "Tee Hee," who has a frigging hook for a hand. And one of the ways he tries defeating Bond is by setting his pet crocodiles on him.
Am I the only one who sees this as the coolest idea for a James Bond movie EVER?
Okay, alright. You just think I'm some psychopathic blogger who doesn't know shit from shinola. You make a good point. But you know who else thought Roger Moore was a good James Bond? Christopher Walken, who so approved of Roger Moore that he was even the villain in one of his films!
That convinces you, right? Right? Ugh. That's probably a no. Well, then. Octopussy.
If Octopussy doesn't convince you, I don't know what will.
Not so long ago, I found myself saying this in the middle of what had otherwise been a polite conversation about the merits of the various James Bonds. My friend insisted that James Bond was at his best in the books, because that was Bond at his most intellectual, while I felt that the James Bond movies were the best, because they were just so damn fun.
That is why, no matter how much I love Sean Connery and some of his best movies, like Goldfinger and From Russia with Love, Roger Moore will always be my favorite James Bond. (I think a puppy might die every time I say that. I'm kind of hoping not.)
But no, really, Roger Moore is by far the best James Bond of all time. Let me explain why.
Okay, first of all, one of his movies is called Octopussy. Oh, sure, you could say Ian Fleming is to be credited for that, since he went and created the title in his book, or whatever. But think about it: what other actor could you see playing in this film without making it sound ridiculous? Could Daniel Craig be in a movie called Octopussy, without looking confused and completely out of place? Didn't think so. His Bond seems to have trouble getting human pussy. And we all know how difficult it is to get Octopussy. But trust me, when it happens, it's so worth it... (I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure how a civilized conversation about James Bond turned into one massive pussy joke. Do you see what James Bond does to me?)
Second, Live and Let Die features a title song from Paul friggin' McCartney. Not only that, it features some cool New Orleans jazz, three death scenes in the first five minutes, and speedboat chases. Was Pierce Brosnan cool enough to have both jazz music and Paul McCartney in the soundtrack for any of his films? Didn't think so.
Quite frankly, I think there was something about his movies that were so fun-loving, that made it work. I do really like Daniel Craig in the role, but he really takes it all too seriously. Sure, it's fun to see Craig killing a bunch of people, getting really angry, and blowing things up. But that's not really Bond to me. Bond is more of a cool, suave character. He doesn't really break a sweat all that much, even when he has a gun pointed to his head (or, because James Bond villains can never be simple, it's more likely that he has a gold-cutting laser pointed towards his crotch.) His most powerful negative emotion should be mild concern, like if a bomb is about to blow up and he's three seconds away from disarming it, but he's only got two seconds before it explodes.
Because here's the thing: it's just a movie. And I think the Bond franchise epitomizes that more than most other film series. You know he's going to survive in the end. He has to, because there are going to be more movies. You know he's going to sleep with at least one woman and probably more, because a girl would have to be insane not to accept the advances of James Bond. And you know he's going to face off against a quirky villain, with an even quirkier henchman, just because those quirks make the film so much fun to watch.
And I suppose Sean Connery has villains that are almost as cool, like Odd Job, and that Russian maid with the knife in her shoe whose name I've forgotten. But they just can't beat luminaries like Jaws, who was awesome enough to feature in more than one movie, or Scaramanga, played by the always-awesome Christopher Lee.
Not satisfied yet? Need more proof? Alright then, how about this: Roger Moore wasn't satisfied with the awesomeness of his movie basically being set in Harlem, with the jazz and Paul McCartney soundtracks. He felt like there had to be another awesome hook to drag the viewer in. So what does he do? Quite literally, he fights against a henchman named "Tee Hee," who has a frigging hook for a hand. And one of the ways he tries defeating Bond is by setting his pet crocodiles on him.
Am I the only one who sees this as the coolest idea for a James Bond movie EVER?
Okay, alright. You just think I'm some psychopathic blogger who doesn't know shit from shinola. You make a good point. But you know who else thought Roger Moore was a good James Bond? Christopher Walken, who so approved of Roger Moore that he was even the villain in one of his films!
That convinces you, right? Right? Ugh. That's probably a no. Well, then. Octopussy.
If Octopussy doesn't convince you, I don't know what will.
Ten People Who Inspire Me, Part 2
So, this actually started out as one post, but loquaciousness won the day, so now you're getting a gander at a two-part post!
6. Grant Morrison- Hm, just like I started out last post with a British comic book author, so too with this one. It's kind of interesting, how so many of my favorite authors manage to be British. I mean, I'm really not an Anglophile. I only have a few British friends, I don't see much merit in Monty Python, and though I love the Beatles, I am of the realization that they aren't deities (*gasp*).
But what inspires me so much about Grant Morrison is his imagination. Whereas Alan Moore is so cool for the way he humanizes super heroes, Grant Morrison really takes these spandex-clad heroes to a whole new level of imagination.
For instance, there's this group of super heroes called Doom Patrol, who were supposed to be, "The World's Weirdest Superhero Team." But in the 80's, they were a bunch of angsty teens led by an old bald guy in a wheel chair. As you can tell, the X-Men had exerted something of an influence (though to be fair, the bald guy had been there all along.) Well, whereas most comic book writers would look at an assignment and either say, "Yipee! I've always wanted to write an X-Men rip-off!) or, "Amsterdammit, how am I gonna be original with this?" Grant Morrison saw the title "World's Weirdest Superhero Team," and drove the whole book in a completely different direction. Killing off half the cast, he inserted some of his own characters, like Crazy Jane, who had 64 super powers to match each of her 64 personalities. The book was a smash success.
Simply put, he looks at what makes super heroes tick, but instead of deconstructing them and sending them crashing down to earth, he takes those absurdities and exults them, celebrating them.
7. Walter Gibson- Well, this one was a tough one for me. You see, Walter Gibson was the 30's author of many of the old Shadow pulp novels. Essentially, twice a month he wrote a novel about a double-gunned avenger of justice, who used the help of his many cohorts to stop crime. So he was essentially writing 70,000 words EVERY OTHER WEEK, which I imagine as being bloody difficult.
Of course, his novels were mostly crud. I don't want to step on the guy or anything, but the stories are pretty one-dimensional. The character of The Shadow is infuriating. He's not characterized all that much, but is instead shown cackling all over the place, telling his followers what to do, and occasionally shooting people. I can deal with the fact that that sounds more like a villain's job than a hero's, but frankly the villains were the only interesting parts of the story. They tended to have all of these quirks and personality quirks. But when it came to the actual protagonist, the characterization was terrible.
So why the heck am I putting him as one of the ten people who inspire me most? Well, to be completely honest, quantity beat quality in my eyes, with him. To this very day it shocks me that someone could write so many words in such a short period of time. And it really opens my eyes to the fact that not all literature is about crafting the perfect sentence or dazzling people with witty plot twists. Sometimes, it's just about simple entertainment, or even just simple communication. And that's pretty cool.
8. Jack Kerouac- Truman Capote said, in regards to Jack Kerouac's works, "That's not writing, that's typing." Well I've actually gotta disagree with him on that one. Walter Gibson? That's just typing. Jack Kerouac? That's just genius.
He's probably most remembered for his crazy prose style, his road trips, and his hedonistic life styles, but there's so much more to him than that. There really are two poles to his personality, with the one side being the crazy, drinking, partying side, but there's also the quieter, more melancholic side. Sometimes, he has these philosophical thoughts which are so amazing when juxtaposed with his more hedonistic exterior. I feel like he's such a deep person and that's why I've loved all the books of his that I've read. I feel like I'm not explaining this well, so I'll throw up a quote of his:
"I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn't know who I was - I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I'd never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside, and the creak of the old wood of the hotel, and footsteps upstairs, and all the sad sounds, and I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didn't know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds. I wasn't scared; I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost."
9. Clint Eastwood- OK, this probably seems like another strange choice, because I'm not exactly running around with a Magnum .44, asking criminals if they're feeling lucky. I'm not a cowboy and I most certainly have a name. So why did I choose him?
Well, I honestly respect Clint as an actor. He's not exactly a character actor and he only plays one or two sorts of characters over and over again, but that's alright, because what he does do, he's very good at. And that's all that really matters. I know actors think it's so important to play a variety of roles, but why is that? If you find one roll you're good at, why not stick to it? I guess this slot just as easily could have been filled by Jack Nicholson or Alec Baldwin, but quite frankly there was this massive Dirty Harry marathon on AMC not too long ago and it just validated in my mind the awesomeness of Clint.
10. Aaron Sorkin- Strangely enough there's a small link between Aaron Sorkin's inspiration and Craig Ferguson's. Essentially, I love conversation, and as far as conversational writers go, Aaron Sorkin's the best. He's probably most well-known for West Wing, or maybe the Social Network. But either way, I just love the words he puts into people's mouths.
I think I wish I could speak like I was in something Aaron Sorkin had written. I wish all my conversations were super-fast, involving me walking from room to room, looking like I had something important to do, while arguing whether or not abortion should be legal, or something.
So that's it. Those are the ten people who I think inspire me the most. Those are the ten people you can blame for what you see before you.
6. Grant Morrison- Hm, just like I started out last post with a British comic book author, so too with this one. It's kind of interesting, how so many of my favorite authors manage to be British. I mean, I'm really not an Anglophile. I only have a few British friends, I don't see much merit in Monty Python, and though I love the Beatles, I am of the realization that they aren't deities (*gasp*).
But what inspires me so much about Grant Morrison is his imagination. Whereas Alan Moore is so cool for the way he humanizes super heroes, Grant Morrison really takes these spandex-clad heroes to a whole new level of imagination.
For instance, there's this group of super heroes called Doom Patrol, who were supposed to be, "The World's Weirdest Superhero Team." But in the 80's, they were a bunch of angsty teens led by an old bald guy in a wheel chair. As you can tell, the X-Men had exerted something of an influence (though to be fair, the bald guy had been there all along.) Well, whereas most comic book writers would look at an assignment and either say, "Yipee! I've always wanted to write an X-Men rip-off!) or, "Amsterdammit, how am I gonna be original with this?" Grant Morrison saw the title "World's Weirdest Superhero Team," and drove the whole book in a completely different direction. Killing off half the cast, he inserted some of his own characters, like Crazy Jane, who had 64 super powers to match each of her 64 personalities. The book was a smash success.
Simply put, he looks at what makes super heroes tick, but instead of deconstructing them and sending them crashing down to earth, he takes those absurdities and exults them, celebrating them.
7. Walter Gibson- Well, this one was a tough one for me. You see, Walter Gibson was the 30's author of many of the old Shadow pulp novels. Essentially, twice a month he wrote a novel about a double-gunned avenger of justice, who used the help of his many cohorts to stop crime. So he was essentially writing 70,000 words EVERY OTHER WEEK, which I imagine as being bloody difficult.
Of course, his novels were mostly crud. I don't want to step on the guy or anything, but the stories are pretty one-dimensional. The character of The Shadow is infuriating. He's not characterized all that much, but is instead shown cackling all over the place, telling his followers what to do, and occasionally shooting people. I can deal with the fact that that sounds more like a villain's job than a hero's, but frankly the villains were the only interesting parts of the story. They tended to have all of these quirks and personality quirks. But when it came to the actual protagonist, the characterization was terrible.
So why the heck am I putting him as one of the ten people who inspire me most? Well, to be completely honest, quantity beat quality in my eyes, with him. To this very day it shocks me that someone could write so many words in such a short period of time. And it really opens my eyes to the fact that not all literature is about crafting the perfect sentence or dazzling people with witty plot twists. Sometimes, it's just about simple entertainment, or even just simple communication. And that's pretty cool.
8. Jack Kerouac- Truman Capote said, in regards to Jack Kerouac's works, "That's not writing, that's typing." Well I've actually gotta disagree with him on that one. Walter Gibson? That's just typing. Jack Kerouac? That's just genius.
He's probably most remembered for his crazy prose style, his road trips, and his hedonistic life styles, but there's so much more to him than that. There really are two poles to his personality, with the one side being the crazy, drinking, partying side, but there's also the quieter, more melancholic side. Sometimes, he has these philosophical thoughts which are so amazing when juxtaposed with his more hedonistic exterior. I feel like he's such a deep person and that's why I've loved all the books of his that I've read. I feel like I'm not explaining this well, so I'll throw up a quote of his:
"I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn't know who I was - I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I'd never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside, and the creak of the old wood of the hotel, and footsteps upstairs, and all the sad sounds, and I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didn't know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds. I wasn't scared; I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost."
9. Clint Eastwood- OK, this probably seems like another strange choice, because I'm not exactly running around with a Magnum .44, asking criminals if they're feeling lucky. I'm not a cowboy and I most certainly have a name. So why did I choose him?
Well, I honestly respect Clint as an actor. He's not exactly a character actor and he only plays one or two sorts of characters over and over again, but that's alright, because what he does do, he's very good at. And that's all that really matters. I know actors think it's so important to play a variety of roles, but why is that? If you find one roll you're good at, why not stick to it? I guess this slot just as easily could have been filled by Jack Nicholson or Alec Baldwin, but quite frankly there was this massive Dirty Harry marathon on AMC not too long ago and it just validated in my mind the awesomeness of Clint.
10. Aaron Sorkin- Strangely enough there's a small link between Aaron Sorkin's inspiration and Craig Ferguson's. Essentially, I love conversation, and as far as conversational writers go, Aaron Sorkin's the best. He's probably most well-known for West Wing, or maybe the Social Network. But either way, I just love the words he puts into people's mouths.
I think I wish I could speak like I was in something Aaron Sorkin had written. I wish all my conversations were super-fast, involving me walking from room to room, looking like I had something important to do, while arguing whether or not abortion should be legal, or something.
So that's it. Those are the ten people who I think inspire me the most. Those are the ten people you can blame for what you see before you.
Ten People Who Inspire me the Most, but in No Particular Order, 'cause That'd be Too Hard, Part 1
I figured I might need some inspiration for this crazy didleedoo blogathon thing I'm doing, so why not make a list of the ten people who inspire me the most?
1. Alan Moore- I. Love. Alan. Moore. It's kind of a problem, really. But what can I say? The guy knows how to form a sentence AND he's the master of creating really friggin' cool ideas. Everyone knows Watchmen was amazing, because it took these two-dimensional Charlton comics characters and made them so human. It took the man twelve months to completely change our views on the caped crusaders.
But he's done so much more than that. Another great example of his work is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, where he took characters from all these different literary periods and smooshed them into one massive, eon-spanning universe. Honestly, reading that as a sophomore in high school completely changed my views on literature in general. I really got into that idea of the "Great Conversation," or that idea that the great works of literature are connected, and thus in a way they're almost communicating with each other.
And he's a good enough writer, even when he's not shifting your paradigm to a completely new level. Like in Top Ten, he told a Hill Street Blues-esque police procedural story WHERE EVERYONE HAD SUPER POWERS. It was pretty cool and a lot of fun, and showed that he's a good-enough writer that sometimes, he can just entertain.
2. Frank Sinatra- What can I say? In regards to my music tastes, a lot of the oldies really are goodies. Somehow, the guy managed to smoke, yet still be able to belt out of powerful song. Better yet, he pretty much sang from the 40's into the 90's, and for most of the time successfully. As opposed to many singers, he adapted to the times, and I can really respect that.
As if that wasn't enough, what really got him on the list was the fact that he was also an actor, who acted in quite a few films (around 50, according to Netflix). And he wasn't just some two-bit actor who got his foot in the door because of his singing. He was actually a really good actor. And it's kind of astonishing that someone can have such a big career in films, yet still be remembered mainly for his singing. And he was in my favorite film, Manchurian Candidate! Need I say more? Didn't think so.
3. Satoshi Kon- This one probably seems a little bit like out of left field, but I actually like anime quite a lot. I don't know why, but there seems to be something so surreal about the genre, that can't be found elsewhere. Every time I dip my toes into an anime (and I mean the 12-26 episode gems. I'm not talking about those ba-jillion episode anime, which might be good, but still can't beat things like Paranoia Agent, Cowboy Bebop, or Baccano!), I find this completely new experience that I wasn't quite expecting. And quite often, that experience changes my view of the world, ever so slightly.
As you might have surmised, Satoshi Kon is the master of this perspective-shifting. Director of the anime series Paranoia Agent, and films like Perfect Blue, Paprika, and such, anything he's done is such a trip. Yet at the same time, he's simply using the medium to tell a story he likes, in a way that's strangely personal to him. He takes the tools he has and does things completely unexpected with them, simply because that's who he is. And that's something I can respect.
4. Craig Ferguson-I love talking. It's really quite fun to do, when you get right down to it. The exchange of words and information from one person to another, sometimes meant to educate, sometimes meant to entertain, and quite often simply meant to pass time is an amazing thing to behold and even more fun to take part in.
And there's just something so beautiful about the way this old Scottish talk show host does it. Every time he comes on at, like, 12:30, he does so with a certain irreverent bombast. He basically looks and the world and says, "Aw, screw it. I'm not here to be nice and warm and fuzzy. I'm here to make some fun penis jokes, and keep you up for as long as possible." Yet for all he tries to convince us that he doesn't really care about people, he really does pay attention, and you can tell in his interviews that he's trying his best to keep all his guests comfortable.
Well, perhaps comfortable isn't the right word, given the fact that he's so prone to telling his guests he's going to start and awkward pause and he does just that. But I guess he always makes sure that his guests are having fun. He cares about people while making them laugh. In my day-to-day life, I think I've always striven to do that.
5. Ray Bradbury- Oh, Ray. I don't even know where to begin with you. You're probably most famous for warning people against the perils of television in your seminal work, Fahrenheit 451, yet one of my favorite things to do is watch vintage television (or Craig Ferguson), so how can I say you've inspired me? Well, suffice it to say it's a pretty complex relationship.
I started out reading Fahrenheit 451 in 7th grade. Didn't like it much. It was too depressing for me back then, with all its dystopian vibes and the belief that an individual couldn't change society until society was ready to change. But then I had to read it for school in my Sophomore year and it was another one of those books that completely changed the way I looked at things. Suddenly, I realized that maybe the Internet was shortening my attention span, just like Bradbury had warned television might. But that didn't really change things too much (as can be evinced by this little blog post right here). Instead, what really impacted me was the way he weaved sentences, and the way he created such depressingly relatable characters. He told some dang good stories and he told them well. And that was good enough for me.
NEXT: Part 2 of People Who Inspire me!
1. Alan Moore- I. Love. Alan. Moore. It's kind of a problem, really. But what can I say? The guy knows how to form a sentence AND he's the master of creating really friggin' cool ideas. Everyone knows Watchmen was amazing, because it took these two-dimensional Charlton comics characters and made them so human. It took the man twelve months to completely change our views on the caped crusaders.
But he's done so much more than that. Another great example of his work is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, where he took characters from all these different literary periods and smooshed them into one massive, eon-spanning universe. Honestly, reading that as a sophomore in high school completely changed my views on literature in general. I really got into that idea of the "Great Conversation," or that idea that the great works of literature are connected, and thus in a way they're almost communicating with each other.
And he's a good enough writer, even when he's not shifting your paradigm to a completely new level. Like in Top Ten, he told a Hill Street Blues-esque police procedural story WHERE EVERYONE HAD SUPER POWERS. It was pretty cool and a lot of fun, and showed that he's a good-enough writer that sometimes, he can just entertain.
2. Frank Sinatra- What can I say? In regards to my music tastes, a lot of the oldies really are goodies. Somehow, the guy managed to smoke, yet still be able to belt out of powerful song. Better yet, he pretty much sang from the 40's into the 90's, and for most of the time successfully. As opposed to many singers, he adapted to the times, and I can really respect that.
As if that wasn't enough, what really got him on the list was the fact that he was also an actor, who acted in quite a few films (around 50, according to Netflix). And he wasn't just some two-bit actor who got his foot in the door because of his singing. He was actually a really good actor. And it's kind of astonishing that someone can have such a big career in films, yet still be remembered mainly for his singing. And he was in my favorite film, Manchurian Candidate! Need I say more? Didn't think so.
3. Satoshi Kon- This one probably seems a little bit like out of left field, but I actually like anime quite a lot. I don't know why, but there seems to be something so surreal about the genre, that can't be found elsewhere. Every time I dip my toes into an anime (and I mean the 12-26 episode gems. I'm not talking about those ba-jillion episode anime, which might be good, but still can't beat things like Paranoia Agent, Cowboy Bebop, or Baccano!), I find this completely new experience that I wasn't quite expecting. And quite often, that experience changes my view of the world, ever so slightly.
As you might have surmised, Satoshi Kon is the master of this perspective-shifting. Director of the anime series Paranoia Agent, and films like Perfect Blue, Paprika, and such, anything he's done is such a trip. Yet at the same time, he's simply using the medium to tell a story he likes, in a way that's strangely personal to him. He takes the tools he has and does things completely unexpected with them, simply because that's who he is. And that's something I can respect.
4. Craig Ferguson-I love talking. It's really quite fun to do, when you get right down to it. The exchange of words and information from one person to another, sometimes meant to educate, sometimes meant to entertain, and quite often simply meant to pass time is an amazing thing to behold and even more fun to take part in.
And there's just something so beautiful about the way this old Scottish talk show host does it. Every time he comes on at, like, 12:30, he does so with a certain irreverent bombast. He basically looks and the world and says, "Aw, screw it. I'm not here to be nice and warm and fuzzy. I'm here to make some fun penis jokes, and keep you up for as long as possible." Yet for all he tries to convince us that he doesn't really care about people, he really does pay attention, and you can tell in his interviews that he's trying his best to keep all his guests comfortable.
Well, perhaps comfortable isn't the right word, given the fact that he's so prone to telling his guests he's going to start and awkward pause and he does just that. But I guess he always makes sure that his guests are having fun. He cares about people while making them laugh. In my day-to-day life, I think I've always striven to do that.
5. Ray Bradbury- Oh, Ray. I don't even know where to begin with you. You're probably most famous for warning people against the perils of television in your seminal work, Fahrenheit 451, yet one of my favorite things to do is watch vintage television (or Craig Ferguson), so how can I say you've inspired me? Well, suffice it to say it's a pretty complex relationship.
I started out reading Fahrenheit 451 in 7th grade. Didn't like it much. It was too depressing for me back then, with all its dystopian vibes and the belief that an individual couldn't change society until society was ready to change. But then I had to read it for school in my Sophomore year and it was another one of those books that completely changed the way I looked at things. Suddenly, I realized that maybe the Internet was shortening my attention span, just like Bradbury had warned television might. But that didn't really change things too much (as can be evinced by this little blog post right here). Instead, what really impacted me was the way he weaved sentences, and the way he created such depressingly relatable characters. He told some dang good stories and he told them well. And that was good enough for me.
NEXT: Part 2 of People Who Inspire me!
Oh no...
I'm something of a psychopath. I imagine there've been a variety of ways to discern this little tidbit, such as the various posts I've made on this blog, or the title of it (really, you can't say I didn't warn you.) Well, I think I've topped my psycho-mania and brought it to a whole new level. For you see, today I'm going to do a blogathon.
24 hours. 24 posts. 24,000 words. It's enough to make Jack Bauer proud.
There'll be a new post at the top of every hour. This post doesn't count, because, well, it's kind of lame. I'd explain this whole shindig a bit more, but I really can't, because I've got to go write my post for 1 PM! Wish me good luck! Toodledoo!
24 hours. 24 posts. 24,000 words. It's enough to make Jack Bauer proud.
There'll be a new post at the top of every hour. This post doesn't count, because, well, it's kind of lame. I'd explain this whole shindig a bit more, but I really can't, because I've got to go write my post for 1 PM! Wish me good luck! Toodledoo!
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