Everything in a Book

            This is another cliché I have trouble with. Mostly because I’ve been in academia and I know what types of books are out there. You will not find ancient tomes with descriptions of demons and a crucial piece of information that explains exactly how to resolve a supernatural situation.

            For this one I blame the Buffy show (though I’m sure it wasn’t the first to abuse such an idea, merely the one that sticks in my mind). And why, why do these supernatural villains allow for the existence of these books in the first place. You would think that a demon who gets banished to hell would make a note the first time it happens and make a to-do list. “First thing I do when I get out in five thousand years is find that fricking book and burn it.”

Or maybe after getting banished the last time, spread the word? “Hey, Mort, yeah, I just got banished back here. Listen, if you get out, make sure the first thing you do is to destroy this book the Slayer has in her library. Yeah, do that and they won’t be able to send you back. Pass it on.”

Mental Health

            Usually I’d be going into a post Crime Bake discussion, but that’s not the case. One of the reasons I enjoy Crime Bake (any writing conference, really) is the people. And it’s a generic sort of thing. Yes, I highly value the friends I’ve met (hi guys!), but really it’s because I can turn off teaching. I get to be a writer during that weekend, and nothing else. Let me emphasize that. I get to be a writer.

            This may not seem like a big thing, but it’s vital for my mental health. Writing is something that energizes and revitalizes. I can be my characters on their adventures, which takes me out of the drudgery of everyday life, and to go to a conference filled with other people that all feel the same way, and to be able to talk about such things without getting weird stares (all the writers know what I’m talking about), is also rejuvenating.

            So it’s my intention to make sure I get that rejuvenation from an extra dose of writing this week. Now, if you’ll excuse me (or even if you won’t).

           

F3 The Ship

            Pallas Station, as was the case with most stations in the Alliance Core, boasted a large size. Over fifty thousand people called the station home. Everything that could be offered by the system was, in fact, offered. Pallas orbited a Neptunian ice giant at the lagrangian point for its largest moon, Antioch, which also happened to be outside the scattered ring system.

No Crime Bake for Me

            Sadly, I could not attend Crime Bake this year, but I hope to return, conditions permitting. I’ve made too many good friends and had too much fun in Boston. So, in the words of Ahnold, “Ah’ll be bahck.”

           

Einstein Sue

            I watched a Sylvester Stallone movie called Escape Plan a few months back that utilized a character type I’ve come to hate, which is a type of Mary Sue. This particular brand of Mary Sue, regardless of gender, annoys me because there is a certain body of knowledge people come with and tend to specialize in.

Can Sly be a prison architect? Sure. Can he literally write the book on prison architecture? Sure (even if it’s over the top). Can he know the habits of prisoners and analyze prisons for escape routes? Yes. Can he know how to use a sextant? Erm, maybe if he spent a lot of time sailing growing up. Can he MacGyver one into existence with materials he got from prison. No. Just no. Can he, using only a vague reading given to him by another prisoner who had no view of the horizon determine his latitude? No. Absolutely not.

This type of thing is becoming increasingly common in storytelling. Characters with expertise in every body of knowledge come forward to save the day with facts that only they could possibly possess.

To me the prototype for this kind of character is actually a historical and modern day favorite: Sherlock Holmes. His encyclopedic knowledge of everything removes most of the humanity from the character. No one can expect to know everything. Even Gregory House looked on with skepticism when a med student “expected [him] to know the kind of snake by the shape of the puncture.”

When characters like Sly enter the picture, with too much innate knowledge, I’m drawn out of the story. I can almost never get back into it, either. It’s why I can’t read Holmes any more, simply because of how preposterous it is that Holmes has this level of knowledge.

Data. Lt. Commander Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation can have this level of knowledge. That’s appropriate. That makes sense. But even data has to stop and learn something new. Even if it only takes him a few seconds to do so.

F3 Unfair Logic

            Another Halloween. Jen and Jessie loved it because I closed the office at lunch. There was something about this particular Halloween that didn’t sit right with me. The sun didn’t shine as bright, the air held an otherworldly chill that cut to my bones, and I didn’t want to be anywhere other than home, secure behind the consecration.

Vindictive towards Characters

            The line to “kill your darlings” really applies to words and sentences (except in the case of George R.R. Martin). So I don’t go on a killing spree in my books, but I have become vindictive and started torturing some of them.

            I’ve always adopted a noir attitude with regards to my endings. There are no true happy endings, more like surviving to try again tomorrow. Oh yeah, and there’s an extra weight around your neck, making it that much harder to keep your head above water.

            My torture also isn’t physical. I’m messing with my characters’ heads, pondering ethical dilemmas, blurring lines of right and wrong, giving them choices doing the right thing and doing a different right thing as well as dropping other changes that seem innocuous at the time, but will germinate (or maybe fester) as time goes on.

            It’s a wonder my characters don’t hate me. They might prefer Martin to what I’m doing.

           

First Blush

            I watched “The Saint” recently. the Val Kilmer film, not the Roger Moore series. Get over it. And there’s a scene where a Russian scientist is trying to make a formula for cold fusion work, but can’t, and he says something to the effect that “the formula appears revolutionary at first blush.” This is exactly how new curriculum is. We come up with an idea, develop it for the whole semester, and then implement it.

From the moment we conceive it and throughout the semester, we’re hopeful. We can even experience great successes during the semester, but the first blush impression is not the whole story. Only when the semester has ended can we determine if the curriculum was a success.

We’ve all been burned by the final projects of the semester where the students simply give up. I can’t blame them (at least not entirely) because I remember my days as an undergrad and the need to simply finish a course. But when the numbers are stacked against us that the majority of students didn’t get it, it’s back to the drawing board.

F3 Old School

            “Fascinating, isn’t it, Captain?” Reese asked.

            “What is?” Flynn replied. They sat at a small café on Hugo station. Flynn occupied himself with reviewing the list of supplies they needed to repair Calypso.

Student Exploration

            Before the semester began, I helped a friend develop her curriculum for a composition class. After throwing out several ideas because of the massive work involved and the unlikelihood of getting a positive student response, we finally hit upon an idea of personal exploration. It revolves around three questions, each one to become the heart of an essay: Who are you? Why are you here? Where are you going?

            We’re hopeful that this will elicit the correct response and critical inquiry from the students, but, like any curriculum, it’s a gamble, one we won’t know if it worked until after it’s all over, when those final essays and grades are tallied.

            Oh, and I realize now that I kind of cribbed the personal exploration theme from Crusade, hence the video.