blablabla


8/24/2013

Weekend Writing Warriors: Ally with Time


Hello and welcome to this week's Weekend Writing Warriors! Today I'll continue with my short story Imposter, and this is what happened the last time. Click on the cover to read the entire story. Just in case you're wondering, I'm giving these snippets a bit of a dramatic polish as I move forward in the story. :)




Paul was used to sitting around, since most of the time, his job entailed waiting, watching and carefully planning his steps. He had long outgrown the phase of tackling his target like a bull to the gate. That kind of mistake had been part of his novice years. Just like that one time, when he pushed himself on an old lady to get at least some kind of result before she went on her vacation and she got suspicious and called the police. Marriage imposter was the ugly word she had used; and it stung. Paul had to leave the city in a hurry, get new ID, and all for wanting too much too soon. Eventually he accepted that he would have to move at a different pace, learning that time, as he knew he had plenty of, was his ally.




8/20/2013

Elysium reviewed


Strange and partly stupid - that's how I would have summed up the experience of watching Elysium two days ago. Today I feel more reconciled with the film, and less offended by the stupid bits. After all, there are some good things to say about this flick.

Staggering audio and CGI create a realistic and raw atmosphere for a story, that takes place in the early 2100s. Not unlike District 9 this film has a suction that immediately grabbed me inwards, and I can't think of any other film being equally successful in world immersion in that short amount of time. The bustle of an overpopulated Earth, and crowded markets - it left me feeling exhausted in a really good way. The shaky camera and aesthetic stabilization techniques are spot on for those nervous moments when we get to see poorly ghetto life on Earth, and zoom in to where Matt Damon's character Max resides in his sad little hut. Director Neil Blomkamp was praised for District 9, his debut in feature film, for referencing his South African background in the movie's vibrantly unglamorous city life, and I think he did it just as well in Elysium.


As one of the themes, the film depicts diametrical life styles of different classes, possibly even modern castes, as in the rich, educated elite and the poor uneducated working class - the majority of people. The portrayal is as poignant as it is realistic, and it leaves little doubt about it being allegorical. Elysium is a space habitat built by and for the elite, and it's their retreat to get away from overpopulated and disease-ridden Earth. There is advanced technology on Elysium to achieve virtually everything; cure all kinds of diseases with one machine called Med-Pod as it works to replicate and restore the entire human gene pool. Incidentally, every house comes with one of these machines.

As my husband in his capacity as professional Scifi buff pointed out to me, having access to that kind of technology would prevent anyone from ever becoming sick, which is something to think about. Yes, yes, stomped by the science geek - so what else is new on Elysium? Maybe longevity, and a carefree existence in luxury?!


But here is where the problems start: the stylistic dichotomy of two worlds can be an interesting device to transport ideas of social change and equality, as far as it's done in a realistic manner.

In this story, it makes sense that the citizens of Elysium are afraid of their little Eden being overrun by illegals trying to plunder their houses and rob them of their fancy candle sticks. What doesn't make sense however is the rich people's refusal to share their awesome technology with everyone. I could understand it, if it were about making money off of millions of earthlings, and pharmacological studies done to provide better services to the rich. But that's not implied in the story. Humans on Earth are Elysium's sick labor slaves, and as such they are treated with contempt. With them only being a short train ride away from Elysium, that would be the ultimate recipe to soon seeing some rich heads on pikes - it's sooooo 18th century!

Everyone who has learned anything about history knows that the way to preserve the rich remaining rich is to keep laborers healthy, fed and unorganized so they'll march to their tune without turning on them - that would be the way to go.

Blomkamp's idea of exploitation is graphic, but it just isn't reasonable, at least for a science fiction film that wants to be taken seriously. I know, they needed the ultimate reason for Damon's character Max to go there, still, it doesn't excuse that they chose a stupid one.

Jodie Foster plays the part of Elysian minister Delacourt, the villain who tries to keep the unprivileged people out and soon attempts a coup d'état against the Elysian council - mainly because they value human life all too much. She, on the other hand, has no objections to shoot down pods transporting illegals to Elysium. By the way, Foster's forced and put-on French accent and silver power bitch suit made horrible choices to represent elitist humans. Just sayin'.
 

Roughed up Matt Damon, on the other hand, was a tad more convincing. I enjoyed his in-your-face way of approaching desperate situations with equally desperate methods, and the sure - why not decision to get bio-medical implants did at least make me laugh. I mean, even in that day and age, it's not the same as getting your hair cut!

Similar to District 9 protagonist Wikus, Max is the unlikely hero, a cowardly and selfish guy who ultimately rises to the challenge of doing the right thing by siding with the oppressed humans. But unlike District 9, much of his world-saving seems to happen along the lines of saving himself, not by factual choice, and that does make a difference in my perception of him. And it also is not that much of a stretch, the character arc is not leading us to a reformed character with a brand new point of view.

Delacourt's go-to outlaw agent Kruger is kinda silly - sort of a caricature version of every villain in every bad movie put together, and the weird mingle-mangle of accents did make him look even more cartoonish. The fact that he is played by Sharlto Coplay makes the performance at least entertaining. And style-wise, I enjoyed the sartorial crossing of a hobo and Mad Max.


The main thing that bothered me about the film is that at some point, the Blockbuster elements took over. I think they squandered its potential. For one, they felt the need to introduce a super computer. Come on people, how likely is it that with all this safety measures, they'd have a central computer, that can be rebooted that easily? How meaningful is social change anyway, when it is brought on by a manner of pushing a reset button on a computer? More importantly, what a depressing idea that errors in bureaucracy should be accountable for the fate of billions! One superhero killing suits?! I don't know. It is a nice idea, but it doesn't seem very plausible.

I don't doubt Blomkamp's vision for Elysium. I'm guessing what it boils down to was the executives and financiers decisions to sacrifice plot and grit to make this film appealing to a large group of people, by keeping its overall message inoffensive and the character's choices largely agreeable. In many ways, it ended up marginalizing the social commentary to make it fit the Blockbuster formula. And that's where it went astray. District 9 was a dangerous movie, a defiant dark horse that merely looked with half an eye for the audience's approval. It broke with convention, and it excelled in telling a sublime story. This one however, wants to fit in with the Blockbuster crowd all too much, that's why, I'm sad to say, it doesn't stand out from it.

A trailer without any plot spoilers

8/10/2013

Weekend Writing Warriors: July 3, 1995

Hey gang, and welcome back to Weekend Writing Warriors. Let's jump right back into the story. I edited this part quite a bit for today. Read up here what happened last week, or click on the cover for the whole short story. Thanks for stopping by. :)



Paul was in his twenties and just barely a man when his grandmother passed away. He remembered the date with great clarity, the broiling day in July under a cloudless sky; a mockery to how he had felt on the inside. Seeing all the people on his way back from her house, living their lives as if this was just any other day. He observed them from the shade, powerless, shivering. There was no caesura, no change in the world, and it sickened him to think that the universe responded by brushing him off with a flawless summer day.
Later on, the media would still talk about July 3 for being the hottest day of 1995 — yet never a word about the other great event of the day.





8/05/2013

The Thief reviewed


This book came with high praise, not as much by the reader, but the author community.
I considered it a good sign that Lois McMaster Bujold herself recommended the YA fantasy/mythic fiction adventure on Goodreads. It couldn't hurt, I thought, to give the book a whirl. It's a surprisingly thin novel, 280 pages, well, at least compared to the boulder-type tomes we the readers come to expect of the fantasy genre. The Thief is the first volume in the "The Queen's Thief" series, and it consists of four successive books. According to author Megan Whalen Turner, there are one or two more novels in the works to complete the cycle.



'The magus stopped. "This is it," he said.
   "This is what?" I asked.
   "This is where you earn your reputation."
   I looked around at the empty rock and river
and the sandy soil under my feet. As far as I could
see, there was nothing to steal, nothing at all.'
                     
                           



Professional thief Gen serves a sentence in the king's prison for bragging about his prior "deeds" and abilities to the wrong people, when the magus, the king's adviser, sends for him. The magus needs the thief's skill to steal a legendary item of immense value - hidden somewhere in a foreign land.

That is basically all I can tell you without spoiling anything about the story. Of course that is not all there is; prepare yourself for twists and surprises along the way as the party sets out on the journey to find the artifact - and the author manages to keep up the suspense until the end.

That is one of the great things about the story, the way it kept surprising me. Not to be mean about fantasy or anything, but it isn't a genre typically known for its great originality or commonly use of the classic arc of suspense. All throughout the novel, much of the tension is created through the clever use of heist and time famine elements.

One part stood out to me as an example for the author's command of language and skill: when Gen, pressed for time, has to go to an underwater temple riddled with traps and tripwires, I found myself holding my breath. It felt like reading an episode of Tomb Raider against a clock ticking in the back of my head.

Also the mythological ideas and folklore elements are quite unique and stunning and provide the layer to interlink both worlds. It's one of the best creation and mythology back stories I have read in ages. Thinking about it, it even gives Lois' Curse of Chalion five-gods world a close run in terms of its theological appeal.

The execution lacks in some other parts of the story, there is an element of repetition in some of the chase scenes, pacing issues, plus at times, the main character's boasting seems a bit over the top, especially in the beginning. Unfortunately it does stand in the way of initially getting emotionally invested in Gen's fate. It seems however, that after the first few chapters, the author did find the right "frequency" to convey the protagonist's strong voice. This aspect not working would have been a major issue, since the first-person narrative is substantial for the story.

But all in all, with the exception of a few flaws and some missing finishing touches here and there, this is a rather successful debut novel. It left me no choice but to immediately pick up the sequels: I think I found them a good home, snugly sandwiched between the Georges.