Echoes 20 is done. The epilogue is done. The afterword has some things I want to add, and this all needs to be edited, but...it's done.
I hope to have this up by Saturday.
I still kind of need a title, though.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
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Angels & Demons |
First, the Echoes progress report: still working. Fourth act now, but I also went ahead and wrote the epilogue, which means I'm...close. Maybe by the end of the week. If I can get this one difficult part out of the way, maybe sooner than that, even. I will have to finish writing the second afterword, however.
Now, in my continuing reviews of movies I see, I discuss Angels & Demons. And no, I don't care for ampersands.
I'm a physicist by trade, you might say, so immediately a plot that revolves around an antimatter bomb gets my attention. Of course, this near-opening scene involving scientists at the LHC is full of hogwash and inaccuracy. First, antimatter is terribly difficult to produce in large (that is, macroscopic) quantities, certainly not enough for three vials or tubes or what have you. Second, while it would be magnetically contained, it wouldn't be conveniently portable for your terrorism needs. But I digress somewhat; that's a weakness of Brown's book more than the movie. The movie has enough problems on its own.
I will say that, like the other movies I criticize, I generally enjoyed the film, but I also wish to learn from the mistakes of filmmakers and the weaknesses in their presentations to improve my own writing. Thus, every time a filmmaker chooses to forgo logic and consistency for plot or aesthetic reasons, we should judge whether the choice is effective, reasonable, and moreover, not distracting in and of itself. There are several such choices in this movie, and I shall break them down in detail.
A recurring element most people will notice is timing. The four cardinals will be executed on the hour from 7 to 11, and to bomb will go off at 12 midnight. Fair enough, we can accept that. What must be scrutinized, however, is how Langdon and everyone else is always conveniently late. It's a cheap tactic to build tension, and it also puts into question everyone's ability to do a task. Just once, I would've liked to see Langdon arrive half an hour early at the right scene, only to be waylaid or entangled in order to buy time for the execution. I know well the temptation to fudge timing to make things work on a dramatic level, but it has to be done with care, in a way that timing coincidences merely clean up the story. As it is, this seems a cop-out in this movie, that Brown (or Howard) wanted to make things happen a specific way in spite of the characters, as a way to manipulate the audience.
Perhaps the most audience-manipulating tactic of all, however, is the misdirection with the Camerlengo, Father McKenna, and Commander Richter of the Swiss Guard. All along, Richter has been setup as the villain behind it all, taking the journals, perhaps cutting power to the archives to kill Langdon with low oxygen (another point I would debate; rate of oxygen consumption in a room like that does not strike me as plausible). Then we find out the father is the villain instead (which has been established well, I will say, both for his speech in the Sistene Chapel to the College of Cardinals and his previous remarks about the Higgs boson, which in turn made me laugh every time they called it the "God" particle; nobody calls it that), but this leaves dangling questions. Why does Richter wish to stop Langdon from saving the last cardinal? Why does he take the journals and not bring Vittoria in on the father's duplicity right then and there? If Richter didn't cut the power to the archive at that specific moment to kill Langdon, is it just a coincidence, as we are led to believe was a cover? Richter's actions, I think, are not consistent with a good guy with good intentions, even if Father McKenna's are consistent with a villain after all (though I don't believe he could've foreseen election to the papacy--that, at best, could've been only a bonus; as an ideologue, McKenna could only have hoped to galvanize the cardinals into a reaction against science, nothing more).
Overall, though, an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
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Back from vacation |
I'm back from vacation in Florida, just yesterday now. I learned how to ride a bike (and fell off one the day before we left). We ate like kings without breaking the bank, either, as the three families rotated cooking duties. All in all, a relaxing trip.
My work on the last chapter of Echoes continues, however. To give some perspective, I now have three different drafts of the chapter, all over 7000 words (though most of them have some shared content), and none of them are finished. I do think I'll finish the current draft I'm working on--I'm stuck on the fourth act--but it'll be a few days before I've completed it, let alone proofread that and the epilogue.
To relieve some of my frustrations, I put typing fingers to paper on Identity, breaking the rule I'd tried to adhere to not to start the story until I outlined it fully, but it was a refreshing exercise (even if I throw away everything I've written, which is only about 2500 words). I'm still ambivalent about whether to use first-person or third-person in this story, whether I should do something closer to Nicholas Torrence or to Echoes. Echoes is very choppy on balance: I could easily jump between half a dozen perspectives in the course of a chapter, or three or four in an act alone. The times I haven't done this (really just "The Brothers Hikari" and the first three acts of chapter twenty) have been, in my opinion, more artistic than the others (although "Imitations of Roll" and "Selfishness" are among the best chapters).
Writing Identity in first-person rather than third vastly changes the dynamics of the piece. Instead of an ensemble plot, I have to put most of those extra plot lines into subtle scenes that don't spell out the whole story (because the narrator, which I strongly believe will be Akane) couldn't know them. Third-person would allow me to make explicit more of these plots and allow the reader to anticipate the disasters that come when plots collide. Hence, a drawback in terms of plot, but the first-person always lends itself to a certain fluidity, one that only a single-perspective third-person could match, but only at the cost of intimacy. First-person really draws you in...or spits you out, as the case may be. When I outline the story, though, I think I'll have a better idea of how I want to do it.
Which brings me to another question, one I've always struggled with: is it better to work on one story, and stay stubbornly focused on that story even when it frustrates you, or is it better to have many concurrent projects, and as one puts up a block, move on to the next?
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
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On Terminator |
It's been a while, hasn't it? That means it's been slow going on Echoes, too, I'm afraid, as I torched my second attempt to finish at 9k words and reverted to the first story idea. To my dismay, this chapter has been very difficult to write, as it's not action-focused but introspective, and while my second idea did the introspective very well, it also had some logical impossibilities; hence, torched. Even still, it is coming along (I'm about through the third act of four or five, around 7500 words), and there's an epilogue after that, so fun times. I'm hoping to finish the chapter before I leave for Florida on Saturday, but that...may be a bit hopeful.
But let's talk about Terminator Salvation! I've been a fan of the series for years now, even though I've yet to get into The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I spose I should try that sometime, huh? The Terminator concept, however, is a very realistic one (time travel aside), and the idea of a post-apocalyptic world...well, who hasn't done that one.
I was disappointed somewhat, I think, with Rise of the Machines. Granted, that was a while ago, but I was looking forward to this new film to see what they could do with it. I mean, we all know what happens--man wakes up as a terminator, good times. The point, as it is in much good literature, is a personal journey. Connor has to balance his duty to the resistance against what he knows is necessary to preserve his own existence and the existence of humanity as a whole. Wright, once he realizes what he is, determines to find out how this happened and why. But these odysseys come across somewhat...underwhelming. Connor's refusal to bomb Skynet is predictable, and it comes with an equally predictable refusal from his subordinates and the other resistance fighters who listen to him over the radio. All well and good, but he makes little argument except that there are civilians, refugees, hostages. Aside from being a voice on the radio, he's done nothing to earn the loyalty of strangers. Maybe that in itself is enough, but it does leave a question there.
Wright's plotline depends on similar contrivances. Maybe Skynet knew where to find Kyle Reese and planted Wright in the area to link up with him. Dandy, but why not just take Reese? Why depend on a machine with free will when that will can bite you in the rear? I mean, the entire stupidity of the plot manifests itself when Connor, for no good reason, mentions how a terminator killed his father and refers to him by name, and Wright just so happens to have met Kyle Reese. How fortunate. The pilot he saves falls in love with him, to the point that she risks her life to free him, and that's the most moronic of all, knowing as we do that there are more life-like terminators, ones with human flesh and blood, even if they don't quite act human all the time. Maybe those models haven't been unleashed by 2018 (and the Arnold we see at the end is the first), but that's not at all clear, and there should be, I think, more doubt on her part. Perhaps there was, and they cut it for time.
Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed the movie. That said, plot revolves around conflict, both internal and external, and there was a lot of capability to improve this plot. Make John's primary goal to find Reese. Make Wright's goal to find out how he still lives, knowing that he died. Put the pieces in place and let them move themselves. Speeding up plot with poor coincidences weakens the movie as a whole.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
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"Glimpse" posted, progress on Echoes |
I received permission from M.Zephyr Sunday night to post "Glimpse," and after some last-minute polishing (a job never fully realized, I fear), I posted it to FFN Monday afternoon. Thus far, the response has been very positive, and I'm pleased that my writing has endured some scrutiny from a wider audience. It's also, in my mind, a good way to get my name out there for when I get to working on Identity.
Something I also noticed was just how much interest in fandom drives response. For Echoes, I'm lucky to get 70-80 hits when I update. For "Glimpse," I've received approximately 600 hits just in the first day (which started around noon). In a way, it makes me sad that Rockman is as small a fandom as it is (or at least, for its size, a fandom fragmented by many different games, shows, and other media--this is why EXE used to have its own category, after all), but it also makes me excited to join a larger community of people. At any rate, it should be an interesting experience.
I've finished the second act of chapter 20 of Echoes. Perhaps this business with "Glimpse" has been a distraction, but I've found the chapter difficult to write thus far, which saddens me, but I do think it's coming together. I'm hopeful.
Monday, May 11, 2009
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Star Trek |
I've been reworking chapter 20 of Echoes from a different angle (which may necessitate a chapter title change; too bad, I liked "Prodigal Daughter" so much, but this angle works a lot better to tie things together, so I'm sticking with it for now). I've also put a second look on "Glimpse," and I may be posting that shortly. For now, however, let's talk Star Trek.
I'm a big Star Trek fan, have been for years now. I've watched most of the series before Enterprise, rather like how I watched basically all of Stargate SG-1 but disconnected with Atlantis. But, I was intrigued to hear of the new film, and thus, at 10:40 this Mother's Day morning, I went to see it at the AMC by the mall.
On IMAX.
I'd read the review on IGN. The commentator said that there were logical snags, but if you could suspend your disbelief, you would overall enjoy the movie, and I agree with that assessment. Indeed, I viewed these snags as, for the most part, what they were intended to be: moments to increase dramatic impact that, sadly, were awkward to handle. Spock being marooned on another planet to witness the destruction of Vulcan has all manner of physics fail unless we're talking about a moon, after all, something that was never said. The idea that the Enterprise couldn't escape a black hole at warp and had to "eject the core" to create a blast to get away was total and utter bull, as well. The mark of bad artistic license is when there are perfectly good ways to avoid such liberties: keeping Spock on Nero's ship, for example, would easily accomplish what he wanted and wouldn't be as mind-numbingly stupid as to leave him on a planet where he could be found. I can see why they didn't--it allowed them to work in Scotty and so on and so forth, but already the movie feels like a set of amazing coincidences, perhaps suggestive of fate, perhaps of laziness.
But overall, it's a fun movie. I liked it quite a lot, especially the visual style used to make the Enterprise look both futuristic and grounded in the real world. The one thing that really bugs me, though, is the ending: that we're stuck with an altered reality, one where things did not turn out as they should, with Vulcans decimated to all but extinction levels. Personally, I would've liked to see old Spock find some way to undo the damage, restore the old timeline, and check in with the Enterprise just to make sure that everything's all right and they way it should be. It would've worked. Maybe this is a sequel hook, but it does...bug me.
Something they said in the IGN review is that the movie is a bit soulless, lacking Roddenberry's exploration of scientific and moral issues. In truth, I feel these aspects are best suited to the episodic nature of television. For a movie, you have to choose one big thing, and the choice here was character, the growth of Kirk and Spock into heroes. Spocks Vulcan/Human conflict, Kirk's own reluctance to meet authority and come into his own--these things are eternal and will transcend our time in ways that a more prescient film may not. There's room for both, of course; it's just a choice.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
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"Glimpse," fresh eyes, and "Prodigal Daughter" |
After I got back from my relativity final on Thursday, I finished "Glimpse." When I'd left it last, I'd felt like I just didn't know how to write something short. Maybe, to an extent, I still don't. I had only a vague outline, one that I altered and embellished to a large extent. Hey, I wrote about 7,000 words today. That much writing is actually kind of dangerous, I think. You start losing perspective, and there's quite a bit about timing and stuff that I'd like to tweak, but it was an enlightening experience, to write, in essence, a story with only one perspective, to 11,500 words over 11 scenes. (Is my math background showing?)
When MZephyr gets back from his trip, I intend to ask his permission to post this story--it wasn't wholly my idea, after all, even if I did build on it in my own ways. I actually welcome the time I will have to think it over; I ended up incorporating an idea that might be more intriguing than the original wish approach, and having looked at "Resurrection and Life" again (after not seeing it for a few days), it reminded me why I toyed with a rule of not posting without at least a few days away from a piece. It helps to look at this stuff with fresh eyes, after all.
I'm about to finish the first act of "The Prodigal Daughter." This is where everything collapses and condenses, so I've found it somewhat difficult to do, at least in the build up to the confrontation that will happen later. But, in the end, everyone's been looking for the same thing, haven't they? Maybe they have.
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