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letterboxd · 4 years ago

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After Agnès: Ten French Filmmakers to Watch in 2021.

It’s not every day that a grass-roots fandom inspires a Letterboxd Easter egg, but the love for Portrait of a Lady on Fire was so strong that those flames are here to stay. With a new Céline Sciamma fairytale on the horizon, we invited Sarah Williams—one of the #PortraitNation instigators—to highlight ten femmes de cinéma with new works due out this year, and suggest films from their back catalogs to watch now.

Among many dramatic moments in cinema in 2020, there was the resignation of the entire César Academy board, following protests about the nomination of filmmaker and child rapist Roman Polanski (dubbed ‘Violanski’ by French feminists). Then there were the walkouts at the 45th César Awards ceremony itself, led by actress Adèle Haenel, after Polanski won there. Firm calls for change followed from Le Collectif 50/50, a movement that has urged parity on festival selection committees, after seeing how few female filmmakers were allowed into competition categories. (They have had some success, particularly with Cannes, where selection committees have moved towards more transparency and a better gender balance.)

Actress Adèle Haenel has a message for the 2020 César Awards, shortly before walking out of the ceremony.

This year’s Césars were tame, by comparison: actress Corinne Masiero stripped on stage, using her brief spotlight to focus on the pandemic and the crisis of shuttered cinemas across France. May they open as soon as it’s safe, because many of the filmmakers prominent in these social movements have new movies on the horizon. As the older generation retires, this newer group of progressive filmmakers is making waves on the festival scene, working from perspectives often denied or overlooked in mainstream cinema. French cinema is at a sort of crossroads, and the next Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Divines or BPM could be just around the bend.

Letterboxd members are well schooled in the power of Agnès, and Céline Sciamma has entered the worldwide critical sphere—and Letterboxd’s highest ranks—thanks to the success of Portrait of a Lady on Fire (🖼️🔥 forever), but there are many more French storytellers worthy of your watchlists. Alongside Sciamma, here are nine more for your consideration.

Céline Sciamma’s ‘Petite maman’.

Céline Sciamma

Coming soon: Petite maman Watch now: Water Lilies, Tomboy and Girlhood

Before her worldwide hit Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Céline Sciamma helmed a trilogy of acclaimed coming-of-age stories, Water Lilies, Tomboy and Girlhood. Her fifth feature, Petite maman, both lives in the world of this trilogy, and radically differs from the trio.

Petite maman premiered at the 2021 Berlinale, where the North-American rights were snapped up by NEON, Sciamma’s partner on Portrait’s release. In the film, Nelly (Joséphine Sanz) is eight years old when her grandmother dies, and she goes with her parents to help empty the house. One morning, her mother, Marion (Nina Meurisse) disappears, and she finds a young girl also named Marion (Gabrielle Sanz) building a fort in the same place her mother had as a child. A non-traditional view of motherhood, Petite maman’s supposed twist is never meant to be a twist at all, as this Miyazaki-like fairytale never tries to hide where Nelly’s mother really is.

Unlike other time-travel films, Petite maman is not concerned with physics. It’s a gentle act of love that blurs generational lines, answering the question of what it would be like to see life through your parents’ eyes at your age.

What Sciamma does here is radical even for her, creating an entire film that lies in a safer place of childhood. Where in Water Lilies, Girlhood and, especially relevant, Tomboy, shot in the same forests of Cergy, she depicts the full violence that comes with adolescence, the two young girls here console each other, and don’t have a camera on them for the rougher events of their childhoods.

Sciamma’s earlier films about youth feel like personal catharsis, but also unflinchingly show coercion, a child being outed, and teenage gang violence. With Petite maman, the two young girls are allowed to live in the more innocent parts of their childhoods, and though they deal with grief, worries of abandonment, and one nervously awaits a major surgery, Sciamma now tells a weighty story without needing to show pain on screen.

The end result is a warm, nostalgic film that isn’t bound by time period or the specifics of setting. It’s a live-action Ghibli fairytale that, despite having Sciamma’s youngest leads, has matured from her earlier work. The plays acted out by the children sometimes parallel their own stories, and once, in a scene of a countess and maid, almost seem to be calling back to past films, in this case Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Many times, including at the film’s Berlinale Q&A, Sciamma has said she does not write characters, but stories and situations to enter. This feels more than true with this latest effort, a steady hand extended to an audience, promising us that it will be okay, some day.

Alice Diop’s ‘We’.

Alice Diop

Coming soon: We (‘Nous’) Watch now: Towards Tenderness (‘Vers la Tendresse’)

Through the many shortcomings and scandals of France’s César Awards, a memorable win of recent years was Alice Diop’s 2017 award for best short film for Vers la Tendresse (Towards Tenderness), a prize she dedicated to victims of police violence. The film is a 38-minute poetic exploration of how men view sex and romance in the French banlieues (suburbs). One line in the film summarizes Diop’s central thesis: “It’s just hard to talk about love. We don’t know what it is.” These young men struggle to conceptualize love from what they are taught, and their flaws are laid bare in the name of understanding the limitations of masculinity.

Though more abstract, Diop’s new film, We, which had its premiere in the 2021 Berlinale industry selection, comes from a similar desire for collective understanding. The train line of the RER B crosses Paris from north to south, and with it, so does an attempt to connect fragmented stories around the city. The film heavily recalls the Varda tradition that a documentary can be made just by walking and waiting. Using a series of suburban vignettes, Diop is able to piece together a wildlife conservatory of ordinary lives, looking at her own community and trying to capture the warmer side of society. She talks to a mechanic, a writer, and even her own father, in a sort of David Attenborough of human landscapes. We weaves through parts of the city with overwhelmingly Black and immigrant populations, building a nostalgic breed of documentary not focused on the gotcha! reveal.

Rebecca Zlotowski’s ‘An Easy Girl’ (2019).

Rebecca Zlotowski

Coming soon: Les enfants des autres Watch now: An Easy Girl (‘Une fille facile’)

Writer and director Rebecca Zlotowski has steadily released a film every three years since 2010. Her stories have centered on Jewish and North-African characters, and her television series Savages, based on a series of novels from Sabri Louatah, focuses on the attempted assassination of a fictional Arab President-elect in France. Very little has been spilled about Zlotowski’s newest film, Les enfants des autres, which began shooting in March. We know that Virginie Efira and Roschdy Zem are attached, and there were casting calls looking for children, and for extras for a scene set in a synagogue.

Though each of her four previous features have their strengths—and I’m even partial to Planetarium, an overzealous magical-realist film about American sisters with a supernatural gift, set in the Parisian film industry around the rise of anti-semitism—2019 Cannes selection An Easy Girl, readily accessible on Netflix, is a choice pick. Notable for its controversial casting of Zahia Dehar, who became infamous for relations with the French national football team while an underage sex worker, this choice proved to be a clever deception in a film about how women said to be easy with men are dismissed.

Dehar plays the older cousin to newcomer Mina Farid’s Naïma, a sixteen year old who longs for her cousin’s seemingly glamorous lifestyle. Naïma soon learns this life isn’t just fashion, but about learning to please wealthy men in order to get what she wants, while never having to give too much of herself away. While most of the director’s closest contemporaries are pioneers of a coherent movement of female gaze, Zlotowski chooses here to shoot through a decidedly male gaze, challenging her audiences’ perceptions of how they treat her characters before we come to understand them.

Also noteworthy is Zlotowski’s debut feature Dear Prudence, based around a diary she’d found in the street. Starring a very young Léa Seydoux as a seventeen-year-old girl who joins a motorcycle gang after the death of her mother, the film’s unique source material makes this Zlotowski’s most intimate film.

Julia Ducournau’s ‘Raw’ (2016).

Julia Ducournau

Coming soon: Titane Watch now: Raw (‘Grave’)

Julia Ducournau’s cult-favorite, coming-of-age, cannibal gorefest Raw quickly made her a name to watch. When Garance Marillier’s Justine tastes meat for the first time at a veterinary-school hazing, it awakens a cannibalistic desire within her. Shot as one would an erotic realization, Raw is at its essence an uncontrollable thread of self discovery.

Already backed by NEON for US distribution, with a possible mid-2021 release date, Ducournau’s follow-up Titane looks to be a wild thriller, if somewhat more traditional than the teenage “monstrous feminine” body-horror of her early work. Much of the production has been kept under wraps, but we know Vincent Lindon stars alongside newcomer Agathe Rousselle. Lindon plays the father of a mysterious young man named Adrien LeGrand, who is found in an airport with a swollen face, claiming to be a boy who had disappeared ten years before. Ducournau is a filmmaker unafraid to shy away from the provocative, and Titane is all but guaranteed a major platform come premiere.

Catherine Corsini’s ‘La Fracture’ (2021).

Catherine Corsini

Coming soon: The Divide (‘La fracture’) Watch now: Summertime (‘La belle saison’), An Impossible Love (‘Un amour impossible’)

Coming a generation before many of the other filmmakers here, Catherine Corsini is best known for her complex romantic dramas. Her most recent are the 1970s feminist-tinged Summertime (2015), starring Cécile de France and Izïa Higelin as a couple torn between rural farmlands and Paris, and An Impossible Love (2018), a novelistic chronicle of a couple (Niels Schneider and Virginie Efira) as their relationship sours from 1958 to the present day.

Summertime, which is currently available to rent or buy in the US, is Corsini’s first film to consciously depict a relationship between two women (though 2001’s Replay is ambiguous as to what is happening between Pascale Bussières and Emmanuelle Béart’s characters). The young lovers learn what freedoms they gain and lose between the pastoral countryside, and the feminist organizers they run with in Paris. It’s a fairly standard romantic arc, but illuminates a fiery counter-culture feminist era, and is a staunchly progressive film from a national cinema built so firmly upon a more traditional view of seduction.

La fracture, Corsini’s latest (and the third film produced by her life partner Elisabeth Perez) centers on yet another couple (Marina Foïs and Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) who are on the verge of breaking up when a demonstration outside causes tensions to rise at the hospital they’re confined within. A relationship under strain alongside French protest culture? Extremely French subject matter indeed.

Claire Burger’s ‘Real Love’ (2018).

Claire Burger

Coming soon: Foreign Language (‘Langue étrangère’) Watch now: Real Love (‘C’est ça l’amour’)

Most likely known for her Clouzot-tinged music video for Kompormat’s ‘De mon âme à ton âme’, starring Adèle Haenel, Claire Burger is a filmmaker heavily rooted in location. Her past films, including a graduation short and two features, have been set in the north-eastern town of Forbach, where she grew up, just fifteen minutes from the German border. This looks to be a thread that runs through her next film: Foreign Language is about a friendship between two girls who live on either side of the French-German border. BPM producer Marie-Ange Luciani is set to produce; a poster for BPM made a cameo in Burger’s last feature, Real Love.

A personal story, Real Love is one of non-traditional fatherhood and a family that does not rely on masculinity. When his wife leaves, Mario (Bouli Lanners) is left to raise his two teenage daughters in their small town, all while taking part in a community-theater production. Most of the film is told from the perspective of the younger daughter (Justine LaCroix), experiencing first love with a girl from school, who doesn’t seem to want anything serious.

Notably, after her debut and a lengthy series of short films, this was the first time Burger, who edits her own films, cast professional actors, in the case of Lanners and Antonia Buresi (as a theater director). Yet it is the performance of the actresses playing the sisters that most touched the hearts of Letterboxd fans—as Lyd writes, “Maybe it was the opera music or the fantastic performances by Justine Lacroix and Sarah Henochsberg as the daughters, but it just affirmed so many things about life choices and the tipsy-turvy nature of love as just, everything.”

Marie Amachoukeli’s ‘Party Girl’ (2014).

Marie Amachoukeli

Coming soon: Rose Hill Watch now: Party Girl

A rare non-Sciamma project backed by producer Bénédicte Couvreur, Marie Amachoukeli’s solo debut is much anticipated, after Party Girl, where she was one-third of a directing trio with Claire Burger and Samuel Theis (who is shooting a feature of his own titled Petite Nature). Outside the collaborations with Burger, which began in film school, Amachoukeli is screenwriting for a number of films including Franco Lolli’s The Defendant, and has collaborated with animator Vladimir Mavounia-Kouka on two shorts, The Cord Woman and I Want Pluto to Be a Planet Again. A synopsis has yet to be released for Rose Hill, but in an old interview with Brain magazine, Amachoukeli mentioned searching for backers for a lesbian spy comedy.

Party Girl is essentially docu-fiction, with actors cast as versions of themselves building an authentic troupe of real people. Though it’s a collaboration, Amachoukeli shines as a screenwriter, introducing the story of a bar hostess who still lives the partying, single life of a woman in her twenties, despite having reached sixty. She is thrown when a man asks her to marry him, and she must reconstruct her outlook on love. From such young filmmakers, Party Girl is a sensitive portrait of an imperfect, ageing woman, which feels so rare in a cinematic landscape that longs for a fountain of youth.

Audrey Diwan’s ‘Happening’ (2021).

Audrey Diwan

Coming soon: Happening (‘L’evenement’) Watch now: Losing It (‘Mais vous êtes fous’)

French memoirist Annie Ernaux works by reconstructing her life over and over as time passes. One of her more well-known books, L’évènement, retraces her experiences trying to get an abortion in 1963, during a time when the procedure was banned in France.

Audrey Diwan—whose 2019 debut film Losing It follows a pair of young parents (the always-charming Pio Marmaï and Céline Sallette) working through the father’s spiral into addiction and recovery—has a knack for solid performances. She’s able to write a relationship under strain with nuance, and Céline Sallette’s character shows strength as a mother choosing between protecting her children and repairing her relationship to their troubled but good-hearted father, whom she still loves dearly. This skill for writing family should pair well with Ernaux’s deeply personal prose.

Happening sweeps up a small army of promising young actors: Being 17 star Kacey Mottet Klein, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire and School’s Out supporting breakout Luana Bajrami, appear alongside lead actress Anamaria Vartolomei. Her character, Anne, is a bright student who risks everything once her pregnancy starts showing, so that she can finish her studies. Audrey Diwan’s film isn’t the only Ernaux adaptation currently, with Danielle Arbid’s Passion Simple having premiered at Venice in 2020.

Claire Simon’s ‘I Want to Talk about Duras’ (2021).

Claire Simon

Coming soon: I Want to Talk About Duras Watch now: Mimi

One of few figures to bridge cinema and literature equally, Marguerite Duras was a social commentator on her world; she grew up poor in French-colonized Vietnam, took on a staunch leftist perspective, and developed a singular tone in her observational assertions. Duras’s 1975 film India Song, based on her novel of the same name, was a landmark in feminist film. Through a hypnotic structure (“a viewing experience like no other, one that touches all of the senses,” writes Carter on Letterboxd), India Song delivers a strong criticism of class and colonialism through its story of Anne-Marie Stretter (Delphine Seyrig), a French ambassador’s wife in 1930s Kolkata.

In I Want to Talk About Duras, writer-director Claire Simon (best known for her documentaries on the seemingly mundane) adapts a transcript of conversations between Duras (Emmanuelle Devos) and her much younger partner Yann Andréa Steiner (Swann Arlaud), in which the pair break down the codes of love and literature. These conversations were published in a book named after Steiner, who met Duras when he approached her after a screening of India Song.

The highlight of Simon’s previous work is Mimi, in which she settles down in the countryside with an old friend, and tells her life story over 105 minutes. Recently programmed as part of Metrograph’s Tell Me: Women Filmmakers series, it’s clear the film was selected for its authenticity. However, many Letterboxd members may heavily benefit from seeing The Graduation, her 2016 documentary about the famous Parisian film school La Fémis, and its difficult selection process. Most of the other filmmakers in this list passed through its gates, and Claire Simon’s Wiseman-lite documentary sheds light on the challenges these young people take upon themselves for a chance at a world-renowned filmmaking education.

Amandine Gay’s ‘Speak Up’ (2017).

Amandine Gay

Coming soon: A Story of One’s Own (‘Une histoire à soi’) Watch now: Speak Up (‘Ouvrir la voix’)

Amandine Gay has much to say about access to film school—and opportunities in the film industry—for those outside the mainstream. Initially on the radar for her Afro-feminist activism, Gay arrived on the cinema scene with Speak Up, a narrative reclamation focusing on the diaspora in France and Belgium.

Talking to Francophone Black women who may not be considered formal scholars, allowing her subjects to speak as experts on their own experiences, Gay disproves the idea that France is a race-blind society. She shoots mainly in regal close-ups and using natural light, allowing her subjects the clarity to speak for themselves, unfiltered. (And to put to bed the misconception that Black performers are harder to light, one of many important angles discussed in an excellent interview with Letterboxd member Justine Smith.)

Using family photos and home videos from subjects, Gay’s engaging documentary work is a mouthpiece to spark conversation. Her next documentary, Une histoire à soi, centers on transnational adoption and will likely take a similarly conversational approach in exploring a unique cultural divide; putting the microphone in front of those who can provide a first-person point of view. Though not officially backed yet, she’s also—for years!—teased a Black lesbian sommelier film on podcasts and in interviews. That’s a story that I hope won’t need much more maturing before we see it. A votre santé.

Related content

Feature-length French films by Women—Sarah’s list

The Official Top 100 Narrative Feature Films by Women Directors—featuring Portrait of a Lady on Fire at number one

Little White Lies: 100 Great Movies by Female Directors

Follow Sarah on Letterboxd

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latenightcinephile · 3 years ago

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#709: 'Doctor Zhivago', dir. David Lean, 1965.

There's not necessarily a lot of in-depth analysis to do with a film like Doctor Zhivago, because David Lean was never really a flashy director who imbued his films with a lot of polyvocality. Lean has six films on this list, and all of them are solid, workmanlike pieces of filmmaking - many of them are melodramas, and many of them are literary adaptations of massive works of fiction. Doctor Zhivago, despite being set fifty years before it was made, is based on Pasternak's 700-page novel of 1957, which also makes it one of the shortest turn-around times between source material and adaptation in Lean's career.

I suspect that, were it not for their runtimes (Doctor Zhivago clocks in at about 200 minutes), these films would be excellent sources for teaching film students how to undertake textual analysis, because this one in particular shows Lean at his most streamlined. He doesn't try to do anything flashy, but he has an innate and honed understanding of how to create meaning with great economy, and he employs this talent rigorously throughout.

While the majority of the reviews of Doctor Zhivago were glowing about the performances of the actors, the film was criticised both for its runtime and for the way in which it reduces the historical context of the novel to mere backdrop. Zhivago (Omah Sharif), a doctor-poet during the October Revolution of 1917 and the ensuing civil wars, is in a happy relationship with his wife, Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin), but his path keeps crossing that of Lara (Julie Christie). The intense emotional bond between them, enhanced by Zhivago's increasing history with Lara (he is tangentially involved with, or present for, most of the turning points in Lara's life), makes their coupling inevitable, and also means that at various points Zhivago must betray his love for Tonya or for Lara, before eventually abandoning them both to protect his ideals. Contemporary critics noted that the true tragedy of the novel is that Zhivago agrees with the revolutionary politics but can't stomach the means by which those ends are attained. For Lean, it seems, the tragedy of the story is that the revolution puts Zhivago in a position where he must betray his love or his values - he cannot have both - and his attempts to have both are the moments where he is in the greatest peril. Lean's films are always about the human emotions at the heart of the stories, and so it's perhaps not surprising that the politics in Doctor Zhivago are somewhat empty of impact, even though they're shown in a stunning way.

Fittingly for a melodrama, at no point in this film are the human emotions higher than when a character must depart, seemingly forever. Lara is the principal 'leaving' character: she receives the same filmic treatment twice, once when her time as a nurse attending with Zhivago is over, immediately after Zhivago has first expressed his love for her, and once when Lara must flee with her daughter under the protection of her former abuser, Komarovsky (Rod Steiger). Both times, Zhivago is framed in close-up watching her leave, the camera lingering on Sharif's tear-filled eyes as the carriage Lara is in grows steadily more distant.

I've written before on the topic of 'bullshit colour theory', and this film is an excellent example of how meaning can be created through repetition alone, rather than through any inherent meaning in a particular symbol. Periods of happiness with Lara are frequently accompanied by yellow flowers - the sunflowers in the field hospital; daffodils in the fields of Varykino; even a yellow flower in a picture by Katya, Lara's daughter, prominently displayed in Lara's home. In addition, Lara's musical theme occurs on the soundtrack a lot, but in these moments it's played on the balalaika, an instrument associated with Zhivago. Finally, while sunshine is obviously associated with moments of happiness, Lara's sunshine is that rich golden-orange colour of sunsets and winter suns. In the first of Lara's departures, all three of these symbols occur simultaneously, drenching the film in excessive imagery that becomes the viewer's main memory of Lara - not an unimpressive feat considering we mostly see her in the snowy depths of despair.

As the political situation gets progressively worse, Lean also removes colour from the rest of the film, until the dominant colours are black, white and red. Red, which under bullshit colour theory would represent love, is instead associated with rebellion - but in those moments where Zhivago is actually forced into rebellion that colour is also absent, meaning that Zhivago becomes equally unmoored from both of the structuring principles of his life. (Love and politics are polar opposites in the film: Strelnikov (Tom Courtenay) tells Zhivago "The personal life is dead in Russia. History killed it.")

Interestingly, Lean mostly achieves this effect through lighting: while we don't see much of Zhivago and Tonya's house before the revolution occurs, it's clear that it has not been painted black in the intervening time. Lean has just changed the natural light for artificial light, robbing the dark colours of their nuances. Towards the end of the good times in any one place, we steadily see fewer scenes shot during the day, as well, making the film feel like it's naturally tending towards disaster.

There's a lot of other things I could delve into in Doctor Zhivago, but in hindsight it all seems to merge together into a seamless and uniform sense of confident ability. David Lean knows how to make a film that does exactly what he wants it to do. He's made the filmic relationship between Zhivago and Lara so intense that everything else pales a little when neither of them are on the screen. Is this a bit troublesome when the novel is set in a period of crucial political history? Maybe. Is it troublesome when there's a framing device you're meant to care about as much as the central plot? Maybe. But I would be genuinely surprised if Lean didn't look at those elements and say to himself, 'Right, but where's the story?'

#1001 movies #David Lean #Doctor Zhivago #epic

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hekatepoetryxxwriting · 3 years ago

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Experiments in Writing: A Critique of Creative Work Within Queering, Feminism, and the Work of Sigmund Freud

For my creative work that I undertook in this module, I chose to focus on the idea of Queering. As well as this, I found myself influenced by the theories and works of Sigmund Freud[1], as well as using several feminist texts, both literary and theoretical, to try and establish a connection between the three ideas within my writing. Due to the essay Freud wrote on The Uncanny[2], he theories and ideas are already heavily tied to gothic literature as a whole, which made connecting him to my work a lot easier. I focused on short stories based upon fairy tales and attempted to alter the narrative of each of the original texts to suit the concept I had come up with. Based upon some of the work from lessons, I used a form of metalepsis[3]within my stories, trying to shift the perception of gender and sexuality within a gothic literate format. I was inspired to take this route by one of my favourite authors, a feminist writer called Angela Carter[4]. Her work in The Bloody Chambers and Other Stories[5] was a major source of inspiration for my work and helped me to develop my writing format and style throughout this module. I chose to focus my work on these theories as I felt that they were somewhat contradictory of one another, and I felt that the juxtaposition of these ideas would help to elevate my writing towards something outside of the usual style I worked in.

For my first creative piece, a short story titled The Wolves in the Woods, I wanted to focus mostly on several of Freud’s most infamous theories. The creative work itself was heavily inspired by a short story written by Angela Carter called The Company of Wolves[6]. I had read this story during college and found the way she addressed gender play and sexuality a fascinating plot device. Not only this, but the way that she would take fairytales that were commonly known amongst readers and adjusted the story to appeal to a wider feminist reading. I agree that a lot of fairytales have subtle sexist undertones that usually place women and men in specific boxes, and I enjoyed reading Carter’s reimagining of this.

Because of the theories I had been researching for the module, I found that writing influences like Carter were juxta-positioned with theories like Freud. One of the main theories I hoped to translate into creative work was the three agents of Freud’s idea of the psyche, often referred to as the ‘id, ego, and super-ego’[7]. As Freud explains, the id ‘contains everything that is inherited, that is present at birth, is laid down in the constitution — above all, therefore, the instincts, which originate from the somatic organization, and which find a first psychical expression here (in the id) in forms unknown to us’[8]. The ego and super-ego, on the other hand, represented the more intelligent side of humans, made of ideas like common sense and cultural norms and opinions taught to children by their parents and the society they live in. This concept of basic instinct versus the laws of society was something I could instantly connect to the gothic literature of Carter, as well as feminism and Queering due to their association with being historically against society’s idea of normal.

When I began to plot out my creative work, I realised that the entire concept of a werewolf was a literary device for man’s inner turmoil between instinct and reason, aka the id and the ego/super-ego. I attempted to flout the tropes of romance writing by presenting a werewolf who, unlike many other fictional interpretations, does not ignore the basic animalist instincts for his love interest. Rather, they compromise, accepting equal shares of idand ego, whilst completely casting aside the rules society sets, therefore ignoring the concept of the super-ego. By casting aside the rules that are hinted at through the story, the protagonist is freed, as shown by the ending of the story being ‘amongst the howls beseeching the night, was a woman’s cries of joy entering the chorus’[9].

Throughout the beginning of the story, the structure of the super-ego is important to the world-building of the setting. Another of Freud’s theories that I used for my first creative piece was the Madonna-Whore complex, which suggests that women either fit the role of the pure virginal wife, or the corrupted succubus. The implication of the theory is that women can only be one or the other, with the Madonna being the ‘preferred’ female archetype. In The Wolves in the Woods I allowed my protagonist to undergo a narrative transformation using the Queering literary device metalepsis. Judith Butler’s point on metalepsis helped to carve the character development in my work through her statement that ‘the performativity of gender revolves around this metalepsis… performativity is not a singular act, but a repetition, a ritual’[10]. Through my first creative piece, I tried to show a progression from a Madonna-like character to someone who embodies the whore, which is summed up by the end of my story in a paragraph ‘She is not the trodden women of the village, with their heads wrapped in silk, hidden from men and from the world. Now she sits upon the lap of the wolf, who stares at her with pupils blown wide, ears open and perked’ [11]and separates her from the other women, transforming her in just two sentences and completing the metalepsis.

However, this is not the only instance of metalepsis in this story. Whilst this is more of a metaphorical sense of metalepsis, the actual idea of a werewolf is a physical form of this literary device. This was another way of connecting the two characters. They both undergo some form of transformation and simultaneously must learn to adapt due to their place in the world. To make this clearer, I used repetition in the way they were described to further suggest the idea that their roles in society were different. These sentences, ‘Lycanthrope: the ability to shift, to transform, to adapt’ and ‘Woman: the ability to shift, to transform, to adapt’ were written this way because they also implied that both Lycanthrope and Woman were ‘things’ rather than people.

A major point to the majority of my stories was taking traditional gender roles within fairy tales and adjusting the narrative around them, which is one of the entire concepts behind the literary device of metalepsis. I did research on masculinity within fairy tales[12]- and gothic literature in general- and found a few feminist articles that discussed how these male characters were influenced by the masculine ideals of the time, and how it affects the narrative of the novels they appear in as a whole[13]. An essay by Alice Neikirk found evidence that ‘Rather than being a mere reflection of societal ideals, these fairytales perpetuate Christian, patriarchal concepts as a means of maintaining the gender hierarchy’[14]. I find that exploring fairytales through Freudian concepts was easy, as a lot of Freud’s theories focused on societal expectations and the way they can shape the human psyche. To an extent, fairytales, including my own, are a prose form of rules and morals set by the society who shares them, usually used as a form of control over children, mainly young girls.

Therefore, when applying psychoanalytical theories to my work, I attempted to subvert some of the typical rules set in fairytales by changing the roles of characters. An example of this is my final story, Eilidh’s Prince, which featured a lesbian romance whereupon one of the characters assumes the role of a man for a brief period. I felt that this was the best choice for the plot because of the symbolism of castration anxiety that is prevalent throughout the story. This is something I made clear when I chose to write the line ‘A fanged rose, a vertical grimace they cower from, lest it bite back’[15]. The idea of castration anxiety[16] is another of Freud’s theories, something he viewed as part of the uncanny. The idea is that men fear castration, perhaps as a punishment for their lust or simply the idea of becoming women, but I attempted to transform this idea by having a woman become a man temporarily, knowing the ‘fanged rose’ was not something she had to fear. I wanted to create a sense of dramatic irony that also came from Carter’s work. One story in particular that inspired me for this was ‘The Erl-King’ where the title character is described as ‘an excellent housewife’[17]. Through this, Carter has transgressed the usual boundaries of gender, and attributes feminine qualities to her male character. I took my version a little more literally and allowed my love interest to dress as a male.

For the other story in my collection, The Fae Prince and The Pomegranate[18], I also had used The Erl-King[19]as my main inspiration. However, unlike my two other pieces, this one was also partially inspired by historical mythology, which is another passion of mine. The mythology I chose to use for my work was the story of Hades, God of the Underworld, and Persephone[20]. Greek Mythology lends itself to fairytales as they could technically be considered a tale of their own time. Not only this, but I find that the nature of the Celtic myth of Fae is similar to the rules of the Underworld according to Greek accounts of Hades and Persephone. The main rule that comes to mind between both is that eating in their respective territories, according to legends, will force the victim to remain there forever. However in doing my research I found that certain myths suggest that Persephone had in face willingly gone to the Underworld, hence her name changing from Kore (meaning ‘the maiden’) to Persephone, which means ‘the bringer of death’[21]. The use of the pomegranate as a way of tying the Prince to the mortal girl and by extension her world was my way of applying both Fae rules and still using the mythology that I had used to construct the story’s foundations.

In conclusion, I enjoyed using these theories and influences to create my stories. I found that the use of experimental ideas and writing gave me more freedom than the usual styles I had been writing in. Comparing feminism and queering with the likes of Freud proved to be quite a challenge, but I feel that it paid off, as I have been able to create an unusual set of stories heavily inspired by authors’ works that I have long looked up to as gothic fantasy literature with heavy symbolism and use of metaphors and euphemisms that made the stories more interesting.

[1] Martin Evan Jay, "Sigmund Freud | Biography, Theories, Works, & Facts", Encyclopedia Britannica <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sigmund-Freud> [Accessed 18 April 2021]. [2] Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny (London: Penguin Books, 1919). [3] "Metalepsis - Definition And Examples Of Metalepsis", Literary Devices <https://literarydevices.net/metalepsis/> [Accessed 18 April 2021]. [4] "Angela Carter", Angelacarter.Co.Uk, 2014 <https://www.angelacarter.co.uk/> [Accessed 18 April 2021]. [5] Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1979). [6] Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1979). [7] Saul Mcleod, "Id, Ego, And Superego | Simply Psychology", Simplypsychology.Org, 2019 <https://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html#:~:text=According%20to%20Freud%20psychoanalytic%20theory,id%20and%20the%20super%2Dego.> [Accessed 18 April 2021]. [8] Sigmund Freud, "An Outline Of Psycho-Analysis", 1940. [9]Shannon Hutton, Experiments CW1 [10] Judith Butler, Performative Acts And Gender Constitution: An Essay In Phenomenology And Feminist Theory (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1988) <https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3207893.pdf> [Accessed 19 April 2021]. [11]Shannon Hutton, Experiments CW1 [12] Alice Neikirk, "...Happily Ever After (Or What Fairytales Teach Girls About Being Women)", Hilo.Hawaii.Edu <https://hilo.hawaii.edu/campuscenter/hohonu/volumes/documents/Vol07x07HappilyEverAfter.pdf> [Accessed 18 April 2021]. [13] "Masculinity In Victorian Gothic Novels", Ukessays.Com, 2017 <https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-literature/masculinity-in-victorian-gothic-novels-english-literature-essay.php> [Accessed 18 April 2021]. [14] Alice Neikirk, "...Happily Ever After (Or What Fairytales Teach Girls About Being Women)", Hilo.Hawaii.Edu <https://hilo.hawaii.edu/campuscenter/hohonu/volumes/documents/Vol07x07HappilyEverAfter.pdf> [Accessed 18 April 2021]. [15]Shannon Hutton, Experiments CW1 [16] Sigmund Freud, "Freud: On Narcissism", English.Hawaii.Edu <http://www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/narc/guide5.html> [Accessed 19 April 2021]. [17] Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1979). [18]Shannon Hutton, Experiments CW1 [19] Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1979). [20] "Myth Of Hades And Persephone", Greek Myths & Greek Mythology <https://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/myth-of-hades-and-persephone/> [Accessed 18 April 2021]. [21] "Persephone: Goddess Of Spring And The Underworld", THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY <https://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Persephone.html> [Accessed 20 April 2021].

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2020 in Movies - My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 1)

30. BODY CAM – in the face of the ongoing pandemic, viral outbreak cinema has become worryingly prescient of late, but as COVID led to civil unrest in some quarters there were a couple of 2020 films that REALLY seemed to put their finger on the pulse of another particularly shitty zeitgeist. Admittedly this first one highlights a problem that’s been around for a while now, but it came along at just the right time to gain particularly strong resonance, filtering its message into the most reliable form of allegorical social commentary – horror. The vengeful ghost trope has become pretty familiar since the Millennium, but by marrying it with the corrupt cop thriller veteran horror screenwriter Nicholas McCarthy (The Pact) has given it a nice fresh spin, and the end result is a real winner. Mary J. Blige plays troubled LAPD cop Renee Lomito-Smith, back on the beat after an extended hiatus following a particularly harrowing incident, just as fellow officers from her own precinct begin to die violent deaths under mysterious circumstances, and the only clues are weird, haunting camera footage that only Renee and her new partner, rookie Danny Holledge (Paper Towns and Death Note’s Nat Wolff), manage to see before it inexplicable wipes itself. Something supernatural is stalking the City of Angels at night, and it’s got a serious grudge against local cops as the increasingly disturbing investigation slowly brings an act of horrific police brutality to light, until Renee no longer knows who in her department she can trust. This is one of the most insidious scare-fests I enjoyed this past year, sophomore director Malik Vitthal (Imperial Dreams) weaving an effective atmosphere of pregnant dread and wire-taut suspense while delivering some impressively hair-raising shocks (the stunning minimart sequence is the film’s undeniable highlight), while the ghostly threat is cleverly thought-out and skilfully brought to “life”. Blige delivers another top-drawer performance, giving Renee a winning combination of wounded fragility and steely resolve that makes for a particularly compelling hero, while Wolff invests Danny with skittish uncertainty and vulnerability in one of his strongest performances to date, and Dexter star David Zayas brings interesting moral complexity to the role of their put-upon superior, Sergeant Kesper. In these times of heightened social awareness, when the police’s star has become particularly tarnished as unnecessary force, racial profiling and cover-ups have become major hot-button topics, the power and relevance of this particular slice of horror cinema cannot be denied.

29. BLOOD QUANTUM – 2020 certainly was a great year for horror (even if most of the high profile stuff did get shunted into 2021), and this compellingly fresh take on the zombie outbreak genre was a strong standout with a killer hook. Canadian writer-director Jeff Barnaby (Rhymes for Young Ghouls) has always clung close to his Native American roots, and he brings strong social relevance to the intriguing early 80s Canadian setting as a really nasty zombie virus wreaks havoc in the Red Crow Indian Reservation and its neighbouring town. It soon becomes clear, however, that members of the local tribe are immune to the infection, a revelation with far-reaching consequences as the outbreak rages unchecked and society begins to crumble. Barnaby pulls off some impressive world-building and creates a compellingly grungy post-apocalyptic vibe as the story progresses, while the zombies themselves are a visceral, scuzzy bunch, and there’s plenty of cracking set-pieces and suitably full-blooded kills to keep the gore-hounds happy, while the horror has real intelligence behind it, the script posing interesting questions and delivering some uncomfortable answers. The characters, meanwhile, are a well-drawn, complex bunch, no black-and-white saviours among them, any one of them capable of some pretty inhuman horrors when the chips are down, and the cast, an interesting mix of seasoned talent and unknowns, all excel in their roles – Michael Greyeyes (Fear the Walking Dead) and Forrest Goodluck (The Revenant) are the closest things the film has to real heroes, the former a fallible everyman as Traylor, the small-town sheriff who’s just trying to do right by his family, the latter unsure of himself as his son, put-upon teenage father-to-be Joseph; Olivia Scriven, meanwhile is tough but vulnerable as his pregnant white girlfriend Charlie, Stonehorse Lone Goeman is a grizzled badass as tough-as-nails tribal elder Gisigu, and Kiowa Gordon (probably best known for playing a werewolf in the Twilight movies) really goes to the dark side as Joseph’s delinquent half-brother Lysol, while there’s another memorably subtle turn from Dead Man’s Gary Farmer as unpredictable loner Moon. This was definitely one of the year’s darkest films – largely playing the horror straight, it tightens the screws as the situation grows steadily worse, and almost makes a virtue of wallowing in its hopeless tone – but there’s a fatalistic charm to all the bleakness, even in the downbeat yet tentatively hopeful climax, while it’s hard to deny the ruthless efficiency of the violence on display. This definitely isn’t a horror movie for everyone, but those with a strong stomach and relatively hard heart will find much to enjoy here. Jeff Barnaby is definitely gonna be one to watch in the future …

28. THE MIDNIGHT SKY – Netflix’ big release for the festive season is a surprisingly understated and leisurely affair, a science fiction drama of big ideas which nonetheless doesn’t feel the need to shout about it. The latest feature in the decidedly eclectic directorial career of actor George Clooney, this adaptation of Good Morning, Midnight, the debut novel of up-and-coming author Lily Brooks-Dalton, favours characterisation and emotion over big thrills and flashy sequences, but it’s certainly not lacking in spectacle, delivering a pleasingly ergonomically-designed view of the near future of space exploration that shares some DNA with The Martian but makes things far more sleek and user-friendly in the process. Aether, a NASA mission to explore K-23, a newly-discovered, potentially habitable moon of Jupiter, is on its return journey, but is experiencing baffling total communications blackouts from Earth. This is because a catastrophic global event has rendered life on the planet’s surface all but impossible, killing most of the population and driving the few survivors underground. K-23’s discoverer, professor Augustine Lofthouse (Clooney), is now alone at a small research post in the extreme cold of the Arctic, one of the only zones left that have not yet been fully effected by the cataclysm, refusing to leave his post after having discovered he’s dying from a serious illness, but before he goes he’s determined to contact the crew of Aether so he can warn them of the conditions down on Earth. Despite the ticking clock of the plot, Clooney has reigned the pace right in, allowing the story to unspool slowly as we’re introduced to the players who calmly unpack their troubles and work over the various individual crises with calm professionalism – that said, there are a few notable moments of sudden, fretful urgency, and these are executed with a palpable sense of chaotic tension that create interesting and exciting punctuation to the film’s usually stately momentum, reminding us that things could go suddenly, catastrophically wrong for these people at any moment. Clooney delivers a gloriously understated performance that perfectly grounds the film, while there are equally strong, frequently DAMN POWERFUL turns from a uniformly excellent cast, notably Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo as pregnant astronaut Dr. “Sully” Sullivan and her partner, mission Commander Adewole, and a surprisingly subtle, nuanced performance from newcomer Caoilinn Springall as Iris, a young girl mistakenly left behind at the outpost during the hasty evacuation, with whom Lofthouse develops a deeply affecting bond. The film has been criticised for its slowness, but I think in this age of BIGGER, LOUDER, MORE this is a refreshingly low-key escape from all the noise, and there’s a beautiful trade-off in the script’s palpable intelligence, strong character work and world-building (then again, the adaptation was by Mark L. Smith, who co-wrote The Revenant), while this is a visually stunning film, Clooney and cinematographer Martin Ruhe (Control, The Keeping Room) weaving an evocative visual tapestry that rewards the soul as much as the eye. Unapologetically smart, engrossingly played and overflowing with raw, emotional power, this is science fiction cinema at its most cerebral, and another top mark for a somewhat overlooked filmmaking talent which deserves to be considered alongside career highs such as Good Night & Good Luck and The Ides of March.

27. PALM SPRINGS – the summer’s comedy highlight kind of snuck in under the radar, becoming something of an on-demand secret weapon with all the cinemas closed, and it definitely deserves its swiftly growing cult status. You certainly can’t believe it’s the feature debut of director Max Barbakow, who shows the kind of sharp-witted, steady-handed control of his craft that’s usually the province of far more experienced talents … then again, much of the credit must surely go to seasoned TV comedy writer Andy Siara (Lodge 49), for whom this has been a real labour of love he’s been tending since his film student days. Certainly all that care, nurture and attention to detail is up there on the screen, the exceptional script singing its irresistible siren song from the start and providing fertile ground for its promising new director to spread his own creative wings. The premise may be instantly familiar – playing like a latter-day Saturday Night Live take on Groundhog Day (Siara admits it was a major influence), it follows the misadventures of Sarah (How I Met Your Mother’s Cristin Miliota), the black sheep maid of honour at her sweet little sister Tala’s (Riverdale’s Camila Mendes) wedding to seemingly perfect hunk Abe (the Arrowverse’s Superman, Tyler Hoechlin), as she finds herself repeating the same high-stress day over and over again after becoming trapped in a mysterious cosmic time-loop along with slacker misanthrope Nyles (Brooklyn Nine Nine megastar Andy Samberg), who’s been stuck in this same situation for MUCH longer – but in Barbakow and Siara’s hands it feels fresh and intriguing, and goes in some surprising new directions before the well-worn central premise can outstay its welcome. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the cast are all excellent – Miliota is certainly the pounding emotional heart of the film, effortlessly lovable as she flounders against her lot, then learns to accept the unique possibilities it presents, before finally resolving to find a way out, while Samberg has rarely been THIS GOOD, truly endearing in his sardonic apathy as it becomes clear he’s been here for CENTURIES, and they make an enjoyably fiery couple with snipey chemistry to burn; meanwhile there’s top-notch support from Mendes and Hoechlin, The OC’s Peter Gallagher as Sarah and Tala’s straight-laced father, the ever-reliable Dale Dickey, a thoroughly adorable turn from Jena Freidman and, most notably, a full-blooded scene-stealing performance from the mighty J.K. Simmonds as Roy, Nyles’ nemesis, who he inadvertently trapped in the loop before Sarah and is, understandably, none too happy about it. This really is an absolute laugh-riot, today’s more post-modern sense of humour allowing the central pair (and their occasional enemy) to indulge in far more extreme consequence-free craziness than Bill Murray ever got away with back in the day, but like all the best comedies there’s also a strong emotional foundation under the humour, leading us to really care about these people and what happens to them, while the story throws moments of true heartfelt power at us, particularly in the deeply cathartic climax. Ultimately this was one of the year’s biggest surprises, a solid gold gem that I can’t recommend enough.

26. THE LAST DAYS OF AMERICAN CRIME – Body Cam’s fellow heavyweight Zeitgeist fondler is a deeply satirical chunk of speculative dystopian sci-fi clearly intended as a cinematic indictment of Trump’s broken America, but it became far more potent and prescient in these … ahem … troubled times. Adapted by screenwriter Karl Gadjusek (Oblivion, Stranger Things, The King’s Man) from the graphic novel by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini for underrated schlock-action cinema director Olivier Megaton (Transporter 3, Colombiana, the last two Taken films), this Netflix original feature seemed like a fun way to kill a cinema-deprived Saturday night in the middle of the First Lockdown, but ultimately proved to have a lot more substance than expected. It’s powered by an intriguing premise – in a nearly lawless 2024, the US government is one week away from implementing a nationwide synaptic blocker signal called the API (American Peace Initiative) which will prevent the public from being able to commit any kind of crime – and focuses on a strikingly colourful bunch of outlaw antiheroes with an audacious agenda – prodigious Detroit bank robber Bricke (Édgar Ramiréz) is enlisted by Kevin Cash (Funny Games and Hannibal’s Michael Carmen Pitt), a wayward scion of local crime family the Dumois, and his hacker fiancée Shelby Dupree (Material Girl’s Anna Brewster) to pull off what’s destined to be the last great crime in American history, a daring raid on the first night of the signal to steal over a billion dollars from the Motor City’s “money factory” and then escape across the border into Canada. From this deceptively simple premise a sprawling action epic was born, carried along by a razor sharp, twisty script and Megaton’s typically hyperbolic, showy auteur directing style and significant skill at crafting thrillingly explosive set-pieces, while the cast consistently deliver quality performances. Ever since Domino, Ramiréz has long been one of those actors I really love to watch, a gruff, quietly intense alpha male whose subtle understatement hides deep reserves of emotional intensity, while Dupree takes a character who could have been a thinly-drawn femme fetale and invests her with strong personal drive and steely resolve, and there’s strong support from Neil Blomkampf regulars Sharlto Copley and Brandon Auret as, respectively, emasculated beat cop Sawyer and brutal Mob enforcer Lonnie French, as well as a nearly unrecognisable Patrick Bergin as local kingpin (and Kevin’s father) Rossi Dumois; the film is roundly stolen, however, by Pitt, a phenomenal actor I’ve always thought we just don’t see enough of, here portraying a spectacularly sleazy, unpredictable force of nature who clearly has his own dark agenda, but whom we ultimately can’t help rooting for even as he stabs us in the back. This is a cracking film, a dark and dangerous thriller of rare style and compulsive verve that I happily consider to be Megaton’s best film to date BY FAR – needless to say it was a major hit for Netflix when it dropped, clearly resonating with its audience given what’s STILL going on in the real world, and while it may have been roundly panned in reviews I think, like some of the platform’s other glossier Original hits (Bright springs to mind), it’s destined for a major critical reappraisal and inevitable cult status before too long …

25. BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC – one of the year’s biggest surprise hits for me was also one I was really nervous about – the original Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and its just-as-good sequel Bogus Journey have been personal favourites for years, pretty much part of my geeky developmental DNA during my youth, two gleefully dorky indulgences that have, against the odds, aged like fine wine for me over the years. I love Bill and Ted SO MUCH, so like many of the fans I’ve always wanted a third film, but I knew full well how easy it would have been for it to turn out to be a turd (second sequels can be tricky things, and we’ve seen SO MANY fail over the years). God bless Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves for never giving up on the possibilities, then, and for the original screenwriters, Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, for writing something that does true justice and pays proper respect to what came before while fully realising how much times have changed in the TWENTY-NINE YEARS that have passed since Wyld Stallyns last graced our screens. Certainly times have moved on for our irrepressible pair – in spite of their convictions, driven by news from the distant future that their music would unite the world and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity, Bill and Ted have spectacularly failed to achieve what was expected of them, and they’ve grown despondent even though they’re still happily married to the Princesses and now the fathers of two wonderful girls, Billie and Thea (Atypical’s Brigette Lundy-Paine and Ready Or Not’s Samara weaving). Then an emissary from the future arrives to inform them that if they don’t write the song that unites the world TODAY, the whole of reality will cease to exist. No pressure, then … it may have been almost three decades, but our boys are BACK in a riotous comedy adventure that delivers on all the promises the franchise ever made before. Winter and particularly Reeves may have both gone onto other things since, but they step back into their roles with such ease it’s like Bill and Ted have never been away, perfectly realising not only their characters today but also various future incarnations as they resolve to go forward in time to take the song from themselves AFTER they’ve already written it (a most triumphant and fool-proof plan, surely); Lundy-Paine and Weaving, meanwhile, are both absolutely FANTASTIC throughout, creating a pair of wonderfully oddball, eccentric and thoroughly adorable characters who would be PERFECT to carry the franchise forward in the future, while it’s an absolute joy to see William Sadler return as Bogus Journey’s fantastically neurotic incarnation of Death himself, and there are quality supporting turns from Flight of the Conchords’ Kristen Schaal, Anthony Carrigan, Holland Taylor and of course Hal Landon Jr., once again returning as Ted’s grouchy cop father Captain Logan. The plot is thoroughly bonkers and of course makes no logical sense, but then they’re never meant to in these movies – the whole point is just to have fun and GO WITH IT, and it’s unbelievably easy when the comedy hit rate is THIS HIGH – turns out third time really is the charm for Matheson and Solomon, who genuinely managed a hat trick with the whole trilogy, while there was no better choice of director to usher this into existence than Dean Parisot, the man who brought us Galaxy Quest. This is the perfect climax to a trilogy we’ve been waiting YEARS to see finally completed, but it’s also shown a perfect way to forge ahead in new and interesting ways with the next generation – altogether, then, this is another most excellent adventure …

24. TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG – Justin Kurzel has been on my directors-to-watch list for a while now, each of his offerings impressing me more than the last (his home-grown Aussie debut, Snowtown, was a low key wallow in Outback nastiness, while his follow up, Macbeth, quickly became one of my favourite Shakespeare flicks, and I seem to be one of the frustrated few who actually genuinely loved his adaptation of Assassin’s Creed, considering it to be one the very best video game movies out there), and his latest is no exception – returning to his native Australia, he’s brought his trademark punky grit and fever-dream edginess to bear in his quest to bring his country’s most famous outlaw to the big screen in a biopic truly worthy of his name. Two actors bring infamous 19th Century bushranger Ned Kelly to life here, and they’re both exceptional – the first half of the film sees newcomer Orlando Schwerdt explode onto the screen as the child Ned, all righteous indignation and fiery stubbornness as he rails against the positions his family’s poverty continually put him in, then George MacKay (Sunshine On Leith, Captain Fantastic) delivers the best performance of his career in the second half, a barely restrained beast as Ned grown, his mercurial turn bringing the man’s inherent unpredictability to the fore. The Babadook’s Essie Davis, meanwhile, frequently steals the film from both of them as Ellen, the fearsome matriarch of the Kelly clan, and Nicholas Hoult is similarly impressive as Constable Fitzpatrick, Ned’s slimily duplicitous friend/nemesis, while there are quality supporting turns from Charlie Hunnam and Russell Crowe as two of the most important men of Ned’s formative years. In Kurzel’s hands, this account of Australia’s greatest true-life crime saga becomes one of the ultimate marmite movies – its glacial pace, grubby intensity and frequent brutality will turn some viewers off, but fans of more “alternative” cinema will find much to enjoy here. There’s a blasted beauty to its imagery (this is BY FAR the bleakest the Outback’s ever looked on film), while the screenplay from relative unknown Shaun Grant (adapting Peter Carey’s bestselling novel) is STRONG, delivering rich character development and sublime dialogue, and Kurzel delivers some brilliantly offbeat and inventive action beats in the latter half that are well worth the wait. Evocative, intense and undeniable, this has just the kind of irreverent punk aesthetic that I’m sure the real life Ned Kelly would have approved of …

23. MUST MERCY – more true-life cinema, this time presenting an altogether classier account of two idealists’ struggle to overturn horrific racial injustices in Alabama. Writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12, The Glass Castle) brings heart, passion and honest nobility to the story of fresh-faced young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) and his personal crusade to free Walter “Johnny D” McMillan (Jamie Foxx), an African-American man wrongfully sentenced to death for the murder of a white woman. His only ally is altruistic young paralegal Eva Ansley (Cretton’s regular screen muse Brie Larson), while the opposition arrayed against them is MAMMOTH – not only do they face the cruelly racist might of the Alabama legal system circa 1989, but a corrupt local police force determined to circumvent his efforts at every turn and a thoroughly disinterested prosecutor, Tommy Chapman (Rafe Spall), who’s far too concerned with his own personal political ambitions to be any help. The cast are uniformly excellent, Jordan and Foxx particularly impressing with career best performances that sear themselves deep into the memory, while there’s a truly harrowing supporting turn from Rob Morgan as Johnny D’s fellow Death Row inmate Herbert, whose own execution date is fast approaching. This is courtroom drama at its most gripping, Cretton keeping the inherent tension cranked up tight while tugging hard on our heartstrings for maximum effect, and the result is a timely, racially-charged throat-lumper of considerable power and emotional heft that guarantees there won’t be a single dry eye in the house by the time the credits roll. Further proof, then, that Destin Daniel Cretton is one of those rare talents of his generation – next up is his tour of duty in the MCU with Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings, and while this seems like a strange leftfield turn given his previous track record, I nevertheless have the utmost confidence in him after seeing this …

22. UNDERWATER – at first glance, this probably seems like a strange choice for the year’s Top 30 – a much-maligned, commercially underperforming glorified B-movie creature-feature headlined by the former star of the Twilight franchise, there’s no way that could POSSIBLY be any good, surely? Well hold your horses, folks, because not only is this very much worth your time and a comprehensive suspension of your low expectations, but I can’t even consider this a guilty pleasure – as far as I’m concerned this is a GENUINELY GREAT FILM, without reservation. The man behind the camera is William Eubank, a director whose career I’ve been following with great interest since his feature debut Love (a decidedly odd but strangely beautiful little space movie) and its more high profile but still unapologetically INDIE follow-up The Signal, and this is the one where he finally delivers wholeheartedly on all that wonderful sci-fi potential. The plot is deceptively simple – an industrial conglomerate has established an instillation drilling right down to the very bottom of the Marianas Trench, the deepest point in our Earth’s oceans, only for an unknown disaster to leave six survivors from the operation’s permanent crew stranded miles below the surface with very few escape options left – but Eubank and writers Brian Duffield (Spontaneous, Love & Monsters, Jane Got a Gun, Insurgent) and Adam Cozad (The Legend of Tarzan) wring all the possible suspense and fraught, claustrophobic terror out of the premise to deliver a piano wire-tense horror thriller that grips from its sudden start to a wonderfully cathartic climax. The small but potent cast are all on top form, Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick (Netflix’ Iron Fist) and John Gallagher Jr. (Hush, 10 Cloverfield Lane) particularly impressing, and even the decidedly hit-and-miss T.J. Miller delivers a surprisingly likeable turn here, but it’s that Twilight alumnus who REALLY sticks in your memory here – Kristen Stewart’s been doing a pretty good job lately distancing herself from the role that, unfortunately, both made her name and turned her into an object of (very unfair) derision for many years, but in my opinion THIS is the performance that REALLY separates her from Bella effing-Swan. Mechanical engineer Norah Price is tough, ingenious and fiercely determined, but with the right amount of vulnerability that we really root for her, and Stewart acts her little heart out in a turn sure to win over her strongest detractors. The creature effects are impressive too, the ultimate threat proving some of the nastiest, most repulsively icky creations I’ve seen committed to film, and the inspired design work and strong visual effects easily belie the film’s B-movie leanings. Those made uneasy by deep, dark open water or tight, enclosed spaces should take heed that this can be a tough watch, but anyone who likes being scared should find plenty to enjoy here. Altogether a MUCH better film than its mediocre Rotten Tomatoes rating makes it out to be …

21. PENINSULA – back in 2016, Korean director Yeon Sang-ho and writer Park Joo-suk took the tired old zombie outbreak trope and created something surprisingly fresh with their darkly satirical action horror Train to Busan. The film was, deservedly, a massive international smash hit and a major shot in the arm for the sub-genre on the big screen, so a sequel was inevitable, but when the time came for them to follow it up they did the smart thing and went in a very different direction. Jettisoning much of the humour to create something much darker and more intense, they also ramped the action quotient right up to eleven, creating a nightmarish post-apocalyptic version of Korea which has been quarantined from the rest of the world for the last four years, where the few uninfected survivors eke out a dangerous day-to-day existence amidst the burgeoning undead hordes, and the value of human life has plummeted dramatically. Into this hell-on-earth must venture a small band of Korean refugees, sent by a Hong Kong crime boss to retrieve a multi-million dollar payday in stolen loot that got left behind in the evacuation, led by former ROK Marine Corps Captain Jung-seok (Secret Reunion’s Gang Don-won), a man with a tragic past he has to make up for. Needless to say, nothing goes according to plan … Train to Busan was an unexpected masterpiece of the genre, but I was even more bowled over by this, particularly since I got to see this on the big screen on Halloween night itself, just before the UK cinemas closed down again for the Second Lockdown. This certainly is a film that NEEDS to be seen first on the big screen – the fully-realised hellscape of undead-overrun Seoul is spectacularly immersive, the perfect cinematic playground for the film’s most impressive set-pieces, two astounding, protracted high-speed chases with searchlight-and-flair-lit all-terrain vehicles racing through the dark streets pursued by tidal waves of feral zombies. Sure, the plot is predictable and the tone gets a little overblown and maudlin at times, while some of the characters are drawn in decidedly broad strokes, but the breathless pace rarely lets up throughout, and there are moments of genuine fiendish genius on offer here, particularly in a truly disturbing centrepiece sequence in which desperate human captives are set against slavering undead in a makeshift amphitheatre for sport, as well as a particularly ingenious use for radio-controlled cars. And the cast are brilliant, with Don-won providing a suitably robust but also pleasingly fallible, wounded hero, while Hope’s Lee Re and newcomer Lee Ye-won are irrepressibly feisty and thoroughly adorable as the young girls who rescue him from certain death among the ruins. Altogether, this is horror cinema writ large, played more for thrills than scares but knuckle-whitening and brutally effective nonetheless, and in a year where outbreak horror became all too real for us anyway it was nice to be able to enjoy something a little more escapist anyway – given the strength of its competition in 2020, this top-notch sequel to a true genre gem did very well indeed to place this high. I’ll admit, I wouldn’t say no to thirds …

#body cam #body cam movie #blood quantum #the midnight sky #Palm Springs #palm springs movie #the last days of american crime #bill and ted face the music #true history of the kelly gang #just mercy #underwater #underwater movie #underwater 2020 #peninsula #train to busan presents: peninsula #2020 in movies

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aion-rsa · 3 years ago

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25 Best Sports TV Shows

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Sports stories have traditionally belonged to the movies. Something about the rhythms of competition, in which an athlete or team trains, plays, and then either wins or loses, is a natural fit for the film world’s three act structure.

Television, with its multiple episodes and seasons, is often more discursive and therefore less viable for truly great sports stories. Thankfully, that all seems poised to change. While some sports TV shows have found success in the past, now the medium has really kicked things up a notch. Sports stories like Brockmire, Ted Lasso, Cobra Kai, and more are not only welcome on television, but an essential part of the cable and streaming landscape.

The United States of TV High Schools

By Alec Bojalad

Movies

The Best Sports Documentaries To Stream

By Scott Fontana and 2 others

With that in mind, it’s high time we pay homage to TV’s great sports programs. What follows is a list of 25 of the best sports TV shows of all time, hand selected by Den of Geek (i.e. me: the arms-crossed weirdo in the picture at the bottom of this article).

It’s important to keep in mind that these are the best scripted sports TV shows. Television is, of course, no stranger to live sports and the various programs that surround them. Consider these unscripted American sports shows as honorable mentions: Hard Knocks, Last Chance U, Ken Burns’ Baseball, The Last Dance (and most other 30-for-30s), Cheer, Inside the NBA.

Enough of the undercard, now onto the main event.

25. Red Oaks

Amazon Prime’s Red Oaks examines the bougie tennis lifestyle of the 1980s. It all comes through the lens of David Myers (Craig Roberts), a college student looking to pick up some cash by taking a summer job at an upscale Jewish country club in New Jersey. Sports stories and coming-of-age stories fit particularly well because the end goal of each one is usually growth. It’s hard to say whether David grows during his time at Red Oaks, but he certainly changes over the series’ three seasons.

24. The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers

A TV show based on Disney sports movie behemoth franchise The Mighty Ducks was all but an inevitability, particularly when the major conglomerate secured its own streamer in Disney+. We’re all lucky then that The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers turned out to be quite good rather than completely perfunctory. The show is bold enough to recast its Ducks’ franchise as the villains and to rally around the radical idea that youth sports should be fun.

23. One Tree Hill

At first glance, One Tree Hill doesn’t seem too different from the other teen shows of its era on The CW (though The CW was still “The WB” for One Tree Hill’s first two seasons). It’s about high schoolers in a small town, doing high school things. Where One Tree Hill excels (at least in its early, still high school seasons) is the introduction of basketball as a storytelling crutch. Half brothers Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) and Nathan Scott (James Lafferty) have a turbulent enough relationship to begin with. What better way to contextualize that relationship than through the high stakes lens of high school basketball?

22. Lights Out

Not to be confused with the 2016 horror film of the same name, Lights Out is a boxing series from FX that ran for one excellent season in 2011. Holt McCallany (best known now as Agent Bill Tench on Mindhunter) stars as retired heavyweight champion Patrick “Lights” Leary. Despite displaying signs of neurological trauma from his career, Lights can’t help but want to return to the ring for one more shot of glory (and to pay off his family’s many debts). Lights Out is a sad, elegiac little story about how one man who sees a sport that broke his brain as the only realistic option for success.

21. Big Shot

Big Shot premiered shortly after its bigger-named Disney+ cousin The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. And while Game Changers made a slightly bigger splash, Big Shot might be the better sports show. The story follows Marvyn Korn (John Stamos), a tempermental basketball coach who ends up at an elite all-girls prep school to shepherd its basketball program. Big Shot runs through all the tried and true tropes and beats of sports stories and does so with aplomb. Consider it Hardball meets Hoosiers with plenty of Stamos charm.

20. Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper

Sports are somewhat incidental to Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper’s mission. Sure, lead character Mr. Cooper (Mark Curry) is a former Golden State Warriors basketball player turned PE teacher. But like its TGIF programming block peers, this show is a charming hangout comedy with few lasting conflicts to speak of. Still, you don’t spend that much time in a gym without some three-pointers and lay-ups.

19. Coach

Before Craig T. Nelson was Mr. Incredible (or made this truly amazing televised statement), he was best known for portraying the title role in ‘90s ABC sitcom Coach. In fact, many of our archetypical perceptions of what makes a football coach likely come from Nelson’s portrayal of Coach Hayden Fox (who first coached for a fictional NCAA football team and later an NFL one). This is a man whose skill at molding young athletes belies his lack of skill at…well, everything else. Ultimately, Coach is a worthwhile multiseason experience in which a grown man grows up.

18. Kingdom

Kingdom is probably the best sports TV show that you’ve never heard of. Don’t worry, it’s not your fault. That’s just the kind of thing that happens when a show is damned to languish on AT&T’s ludicrous “Audience Network”. Kingdom is set in an MMA gym and captures all the drama provided in the heightened world of mixed martial arts combat. The show is blessed with some great characters and an even better cast. Frank Grillo (Captain America’s most annoying foe, Brock Rumlow), Kiele Sanchez (Lost), Matt Lauria (Friday Night Lights), Jonathan Tucker, (Justified) and Nick Jonas (yes, that Nick Jonas) all make their mark on the series.

17. The White Shadow

Premiering in 1978, CBS’s The White Shadow was uncommonly progressive for its time. The series follows Ken Reeves (Ken Howard), a white NBA player who retires after a knee injury and elects to take up coaching at Carver High School in South Central Los Angeles. Coach Reeves’s team is made up primarily of Black and Hispanic players and the show deals with the social ills of life in the inner city. It’s also quite funny and charming and features a commitment to realistic basketball scenes.

16. The League

FX comedy The League works as a sports show (and as a TV show in general) because it has a deep understanding of sports from a fan’s perspective. Sure, fans watch collegiate and professional sports to marvel at the athleticism, training, and skill on display. But more importantly, they watch sports to have something to talk about with their friends. Though the participants in the titular fantasy football league at the center of The League grew up as friends, who’s to say they would have stayed friends so long without this league keeping them together? Ruxin (Nick Kroll) is an asshole. Andre (Paul Scheer) is annoying. And Taco (Jon Lajoie) is, well…Taco.

15. Rocket Power

If the ‘90s taught us anything it’s that extreme sports are sports too, man! Rocket Power is a lovely little slice of life Nick Toon that follows four kids in a fictional California surfing community. Otto Rocket, Reggie Rocket, Maurice “Twister” Rodriguez, and Sam “Squid” Dullard spend their days skateboarding, surfing, playing street hockey, and occasionally snowboarding. It’s a wonderful ode to childhood and all the athletic activities that make the day (and years) go by far too quickly.

14. Luck

If things shook out differently, perhaps Luck could have been considered one of the five or so best sports shows of all time. All of the pieces were in place. This 2012 HBO series had the right creative team (created and run by Deadwood’s David Milch and starring Dustin Hoffman with a pilot directed by Michael Mann) to go along with an intriguing premise (complicated characters’ lives intersecting at a horse track). But alas…the dead horses. Oh so many dead horses. Despite stringent safety measures put in place, Luck lost three hoof bois during filming of its first season and was canceled shortly thereafter. May they all rest in peace.

13. All American

High school is a turbulent time in all our lives. And when the high stakes world of competitive football is added in, things can only get more intense. The CW’s All American opts to take the world of high school football and opts to add in a welcome dose of sociopolitical commentary. This series is loosely based on the life of former New York Giants linebacker Spencer Paysinger and follows his character “Spencer James” as he is recruited from South L.A. to play for the affluent Beverly Hills High. The show wisely understands that sports (particularly when they involve Black teenagers) are a marvelous portal to explore American society.

12. Pitch

Cruelly cut short after just one season of 10 episodes, Pitch is the kind of sports show that will inspire sports stories for years to come. This baseball series for Fox comes from Dan Fogelman (This Is Us) and Rick Singer. It follows the saga of Ginny Baker (Kylie Bunbury), who becomes the first woman to play in Major League Baseball when she’s called up to pitch by the San Diego Padres. Pitch was blessed with an excellent cast including Bunbury and Mark-Paul Gosselaar as a veteran catcher nearing the end of his Hall of Fame career. More interestingly, it was blessed with an actual MLB licensing deal. There are no silly fictional teams in this show like the Tuscaloosa Barn-Burners or the Helena Hellcats. It’s all real MLB team names and logos, adding to the realism of a cool premise.

11. Ballers

Of course, Elizabeth Warren’s favorite show has to be on this list. Ballers has a bit of an unearned reputation for being cringe thanks to its ridiculous name and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s delightful cornball energy. In reality, this is an exceedingly watchable TV show and one that examines the corporate side of professional sports quite well. It’s also noticeable for being most viewers’ introduction to eventual Tenet star John David Washington.

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10. GLOW

Is professional wrestling a sport? Vince McMahon would argue that it’s “sports entertainment.” I would argue that that’s more than good enough to get the excellent GLOW on this list. GLOW tragically fell victim to Netflix’s whimsical cancellation procedures. Why the almighty algorithm decided a show needed to be canceled after it was already renewed is beyond me. But don’t let that sour three seasons of superb sportsy storytelling. GLOW follows the fictionalized rise of the very real “Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling” and it centers it on the conflict between two former best friends, Ruther Wilder (Alison Brie) and Debbie Eagen (Betty Gilpin). GLOW differs a bit from the usual sports fare in that the “sport” at its center wasn’t necessarily plan A for the athletes. But the experience of watching the ladies train, grow, and succeed is pure and sublime sports story stuff.

9. Cobra Kai

Cobra Kai absolutely could have been phoned in. The streaming world runs on nostalgia and there’s nothing more sweetly nostalgic than The Karate Kid franchise. Instead, this Netflix series changes the original franchise’s perspective by focusing on the “villainous” Cobra Kai dojo and re-examines things from Johnny’s point of view. Ralph Macchio and William Zabka deserve credit for embodying realistically adult, yet flawed versions of their original characters. Equally deserving of credit though is a whole host of young actors bringing the martial arts to a whole new generation.

8. Blue Mountain State

A lot of the shows on this list are, let’s say, reverential to the sports, teams, and athletes they cover. Spike comedy Blue Mountain State is decidedly…not. This series, following the Mountain Goats football team for the fictional college Blue Mountain State, understands that not all depictions of athletes have to be saints. Sometimes college football player can just be the big dumb animals you want them to be. Through three seasons, this show developed a cult following that would follow it over for a lifetime of reruns on Netflix. Blue Mountain State is crass, dangerous, and entertaining, not entirely unlike football.

7. Sports Night

Speaking of being reverential to sports…like all Aaron Sorkin-created TV series, Sports Night can be a bit full of itself sometimes. That only works when the topic at hand, like the federal branch of the U.S. government, is consequential. Thankfully, sports can be pretty important sometimes too! This late ‘90s show follows the goings-on at a Sportscenter-esque news program hosted by Dan Rydell (Josh Charles) and Casey McCall (Peter Krause). It has all the witty dialogue you’d come to expect from a Sorkin venture. And if you can make your way through the inexplicable laugh track of the early episodes, you will find a mature, entertaining show that properly understands and contextualizes professional sports’ role in American society.

6. Survivor’s Remorse

Survivor’s Remorse came into the world with two strikes against it. One is a bizarrely overwrought name, and the other is that its home network, Starz, isn’t a given on many cable packages. Still, this LeBron James-produced comedy is shockingly one of the best sports TV shows ever (and perhaps still the best creative venture James has been involved in yet). This story follows NBA athlete Cam Calloway (Jessie T. Usher) as he tries to balance the business and basketball aspects of his life. At first the show focuses on Cam’s guilt for having got out of his impoverished neighborhood when so many couldn’t (hence, the show’s title), but ultimately it evolves into a family comedy drama featuring some truly remarkable characters and performances like Cam’s cousin and manager Reggie Vaughn (RonReaco Lee) and his baller half-sister “M-Chuck” (Erica Ash). Even Monica Rambeau herself, Teyonah Parris, is a part of the proceedings.

5. Playmakers

Sometimes I can’t even believe that Playmakers is real. Surely, this ESPN series about a fictional football team in a fictional league that is clearly the NFL was just a post-9/11 fever dream we all endured together. Alas, Playmakers was real and it was awesome. This series follows the players on the Cougars as they navigate a football landscape filled with ripped-from-the-headlines strife including Performance enhancing drugs, good old-fashioned drugs, domestic abuse, concussions, and more. The series even introduces the outing of a gay player more than a decade before Michael Sam and Carl Nassib revealed their sexual orientations. Naturally, Playmakers was canceled when the NFL intimated to its broadcast partner ESPN that it wasn’t too pleased with the content of its show. And enraging the National Football League alone is enough to make this an all-time classic.

4. Eastbound & Down

Eastbound & Down creator and star Danny McBride isn’t necessarily a huge fan of baseball. But he is, thankfully, a huge fan of weirdos and creeps. When McBride discovered just how bizarre and poorly behaved certain flamethrowing relief pitchers could be, Kenny Powers and the show around him was born. The baseball “action” in Eastbound isn’t much to write home about. The show isn’t too concerned with the results of any given baseball game and McBride always looks like he’s throwing a javelin and not a baseball. It’s still a phenomenal saga about athletes that dives into Paul Bunyan-esque tales of legendary misbehavior that fame encourages. It’s no coincidence that in the follow ups to Kenny Powers, McBride has delved into megalomaniacal vice principals and bejeweled, sweaty televangelists – all different aspects of the white American male id.

3. Ted Lasso

Of all the sports shows in the TV canon, none feels more like a traditional sports movie than Ted Lasso. This Apple TV+ series plucks an American football coach-fish and gently places him out of water in the English Premier League. The affable Lasso (Sudeikis) is charged with reversing the fortunes of EPL side AFC Richmond. Little does he know, however, that spiteful owner Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddington) is counting on him to fail, Major League style. Ted Lasso isn’t interested in reinventing the wheel. Instead it perfects it. This is a tale of relentless optimism and unconditional positive regard. Ted breaks the mold for what we expect from coaches, which is probably why so many actual coaches are fond of the show. Simply put: sports stories can’t be done much better than this one.

2. Brockmire

Sometimes commentators like to bemoan the modern state of baseball. What was once American’s pastime has now supposedly fallen behind things like football and videogames in the pop cultural pecking order. Then along comes something like Brockmire to teach us that baseball as a continuous, seemingly eternal American presence is just as vital as ever. In a career-defining role, Hank Azaria plays disgraced baseball broadcaster Jim Brockmire. Once at the top of his game, an on-air drunken meltdown loses him his job and his sanity. In season 1 of this superb IFC show, Brockmire returns to the booth, this time for an independent league team in Morristown, Pennsylvania. The four seasons that follow are one big love letter to not only baseball, but the messy human experience itself. It’s rare that you get something this funny and this affecting. The fact that it’s wrapped in a stylish diamond-shaped bow is just icing on the cake.

1. Friday Night Lights

Not only is Friday Night Lights the best sports TV show of all time, it’s hard to imagine it ever being supplanted from its throne. Simply put, Friday Night Lights is a sports television masterpiece. Each of Friday Night Lights’ five seasons (save for the writer’s strike-shortened second) fully capture the ecstasy and agony of high school football in a small Texas town where high school football is the only thing that matters. Friday Night Lights doesn’t shy away from the unsavory institution that is big time high school athletics.

The series opens with a life-changing injury before following it up with tales of corrupt boosters and garden variety West Texas racism. And yet, the show never looks down on its characters. If winning state is important to Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler), Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford), Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch), Smash Williams (Gaius Charles), and Vince Howard (Michael B. Jordan), then it’s important to us too. In fact, when Friday Night Lights is really rolling and the W.G. Snuffy Walden’s Explosions in the Sky-style soundtrack is swirling, you might not recall anything ever mattering to you as much as the Dillon Panthers or the East Dillon Lions winning a football game. Clear eyes, full hearts, absolutely cannot lose.

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hollenka99 · 4 years ago

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The Mediary

Summary: Jameson suddenly arrives in the next century and is caught between a feud.

Jameson kisses Madeline goodbye as she wishes him good luck with his audition. On the calendar, showing November somewhat prematurely, a wedding date is marked. He heads out the door, oblivious to the fact he'll never walk though it again. At the audition, he is tasked with demonstrating how to carve a pumpkin. Nothing intricate, just a test to see how he'd go about instructing others. Jameson feels it goes well until he accidentally nicks his finger with the knife provided. Those observing offer him a tissue to help staunch the bleeding. He gladly accepts. However, he feels himself spacing out for a few moments. Odd. He was never affected by the sight of blood before. For god's sake, he'd been a soldier long enough to reach the rank of captain. So why had he experienced such a reaction to a small cut? Never mind that, he had an audition to finish. He mentally brushes himself off and carries on as if there was no accidental injury. He tried his best. However, he doubted he'd hear from these people again. Oh well, there was always another role he could try for. There is no reason for him to be suspicious when he steps out of the exit. He is expecting to be greeted by cuboidal automobiles. The street outside the studio had been rather teeming with pedestrians when he'd entered too. His main concern had been avoiding accidentally getting in someone's way as he left. The gentleman doesn't quite understand how he found himself at an unfamiliar doorstep instead. He should not be here. Best to leave before the occupants noticed his trespassing. He is spotted before he get the chance to make his conspicuous escape. "Hey, are you new?" A man who shares a remarkable similarity to him approaches. 'I may be.' A screen appears, startling the both of them. 'What-?' "Don't worry, you're fine. Just talk normally." He speaks again but the screen intrudes the space between them once more. What on earth had happened to his voice? It was simply... gone. This made no sense. He had only been speaking aloud minutes before. Now suddenly the ability had vanished as soon as he'd left the studio. He begins signing but the stranger returns a slightly confused look. Alright, he supposes that was fair. He only knew the language himself because of Eddie. Jameson opens his palm and acts out the motion of writing on his hand. The man understands he's asking for a pen and paper yet apologises for not having any at his disposal. Damn it all. Fine. As much as he hates it, he resorts to allowing the floating screens to transfer his speech. The sooner he could find himself in a position where he could communicate via British sign language or writing, the better. 'I'm sorry for intruding. I don't know how I got here.' "No, you're cool. I don't live here. But I'm here to collect you. I'm Jack, do you have a name yet?" '...Jameson.' It's intended to be spoken warily but the most his message does to convey this is place an ellipsis directly in front of his name. "Well, great to meet you, Jameson. My house is that way if you'd like to talk more without us freezing our asses off out here." Jack points behind him with a thumb lifted over his shoulder. Jack tells him to make himself feel at home once they arrive. He introduces his Danish girlfriend, Signe. Jameson gets the sense she does not exactly want him in her home. Perhaps she is being polite and hospitable for the sake of humouring her partner. Jack provides a notebook for Jameson to write in. He asks his guest about his life and seems fascinated by the little Jameson discloses. As he and Jack chat, his host explains how there were characters known as the egos. They all shared the same face, albeit how they expressed their appearance varied. The problem was that the majority of the egos harboured great animosity towards Jack. He'd made some mistakes he'd rather not delve into which caused them to feel that way. Unfortunately, these misdemeanours had cost him everything. This was why he had created Jameson, who himself was another ego. Jack had decided to challenge himself by attempting to create someone who was even more fleshed out than the others. So, that was all he was, a work of fiction? All his memories were falsely implanted and never truly happened? No, Jack assures him with vigour in his eyes, he was as real as anyone else. In fact, he was further ahead in that regard than any other of the egos. The following day, there is a forceful knocking as Jack shows him where to find potential sandwich fillings for lunch. Jack seems to have an inkling as to who the visitor may be. With a frustrated sigh, grumbling about requiring more time, he heads to the front door. The visitor sounds unhappy from the fragments of speech Jameson overhears. Despite this, Jack lets the stranger in and directs him to the kitchen for introductions. "Chase, this is Jameson. Jameson, Chase." "Great. Progressed to kidnapping the newbies now? Just when I thought you couldn't screw us over any more." The moment Chase lays eyes on him, bitterness begins to infect Jameson's new life. He berates Jack, calling him Sean, for intercepting Jameson before he could enter the egos' house. Ah, so that's who lived in the building he had appeared in front of. After a brief argument, broken up with Signe's intervention, Chase is granted permission to take Jameson where the aggravated stranger believed he belongs. It is not surprising when Jameson is returned to the house. "Asshole said he was Jack and took him home." Chase announces as they pass through the door. "He what?!" A man with shoulder length hair dumps the cat he was cradling back on the sofa at Chase's return. Chase rants to the other ego about Sean. The tour of the building he gives is rushed, as if Jameson wasn't worth the time it took to provide a decent one. There was the living room, kitchen and the bedrooms which were scattered around the building. Jameson stops him to furiously scribble on the notepad. 'Why do you despise Jack so much? He was more than happy to accommodate me.' "Accommodate, my ass. You wanna know why we all think he's a prick? I'll show you." Chase grabs his arm roughly. Through hallways, they travel to a section of the building he can tell is some sort of infirmary. Laid on a bed is another ego. Around his mouth is a mask which presumably aided with breathing. The only part of him that moved was his chest, steadily inflating and falling along with his lungs, which was only just visible under the bedsheets. "This is Jack. He's a prime example of what happens when you keep trusting Sean and believing he actually cares. We're not shitting on Sean for the hell of it. We do it because he's a dick and we'd rather not force anyone else to lose their friend." Jameson has been here before, caught in the midst of Us versus Them. The gentry against the rest of the population, a son who behaved desirably and his less favourable brother, the British against the Arabs. He has been told which side to be loyal to for the entirety of his life and he is tired of it. He will stay in the middle if that's where he wants to be. And as such, there was someone whom required a visit. Sean sounds defeated when he lets him in. "Let me guess, they told you all about how I'm a terrible guy, worse than Satan or whatever." 'They certainly didn't paint you in a good light.' "I bet they didn't." Sean grumbles. 'There is one thing I cannot understand. Why deceive me regarding your identity? It would not matter whether you were Jack or Seán, I would not know the difference. Or, in fact, that there was a distinction to be made in the first place.' "Yeah, I know." He sighs. "I guess I got so used to them acting as if Jack came from above, I assumed the very mention of his name made you lot trust him immediately. To her credit, Signe did tell me it was a stupid idea." 'It certainly was.' "The only thing I lied about was my name. I can promise you that. And I only did it because the rest of them act like they're hardwired to instantly listen to him. Besides, I was known as Jack long before he ever came to exist. I gave Jack my nickname and he made it his own." 'A manipulation tactic then?' "I... I wouldn't go so far as to call it manipulation." There is a pause where he returns eye contact to Jameson. "Listen, once again, I messed up in a big way. It keeps happening to me but I am doing my best to do right by the egos, which includes you now. It was wrong of me to try force you to side with me without hearing from the other half of the argument. For that, I am sorry." 'As I understand it, you feel you are frequently at a disadvantage when it comes to them?' "Constantly, yeah." Jameson considers his next comment thoroughly. 'As it turns out, your welcome was much warmer than your reputation would have me believe. So, for now, I am willing to accept your apology and move on from this bad start.' And with that, Jameson lets bygones be bygones. He did not have it in him to expend such nonsensical energy on that cause. He has a room in the egos' house and therefore makes himself comfortable. There was a window to allow a good amount of natural light in. A model of radio he was familiar with was provided, as was the clock hanging on the wall. He could certainly admire the craftmanship of the wooden pieces of furniture. This was his last remaining slice of the era he once knew. An Irish painter of dolls who went by the name of Shawn Flynn naturally gravitated to him as they both came from the 1930s. As with all of them, there is a language barrier between the two men. However, with enough ink on paper and newly learned yet limited British sign language, they are able to sufficiently communicate. Shawn even had a television like used to make them in his room. In addition to this, a projector and camera to show Bendy cartoons. They spend an afternoon going through the catalogue Shawn has. Sean recruits a reluctant Chase to his side in November. The two of them co-operate on the channel's videos. Apparently, second in command had once been Jack's role. This also allows for Chase to soften slightly towards Jameson as he gets into the swing of his new schedule. It's a good thing too, given that Chase's friendships were negatively affected by his new affiliations. It hadn't taken long to discover any positive affiliation to Sean caused a demotion in the house's social hierarchy. At the top were those like Marvin, Chase and Jackie whom had a specific introductory video, not to mention were popular with Sean's fans. Then came those who mostly owed their existence to the audience and remained in the good graces of the others. And at the bottom were those like himself who didn't care for this feud with their creator. Perhaps their should be a Tier Zero which solely housed Marvin, apparent ringleader of the anti-Sean cause. It's during the middle of Adventide that Jameson has his first indirect introduction to Anti. It is astounding to see the difference fear could cause in everybody. Jackie, who frequently had a hint of venom about him, was trembling in a manner akin to that of a shell shock sufferer at the sound of Silent Night. Marvin follows Chase's lead as his protective instincts express themselves through comfort rather than defence. This was madness. As far as Jameson could see, it was simply a case of malfunctioning pictures and the carol playing faintly in the background. Chase takes a moment to check Jameson and anyone else unfamiliar with Anti were okay. He was largely unaffected personally by tonight so yes, he was fine. Except... there was a common enemy that seemed to surpass Sean on their antagonist scale. And somehow, deep within himself, Jameson knew that unnerved him more than anything else that happened that night. Christmas is a calmer affair than the charity stream of a fortnight prior. Marvin and Chase had discussed Jackie's wellbeing between themselves. Following explaining their intentions to the rest of the household, they surprise the youngest ego with the generous suggestion. A service dog could be beneficial to the young man. However, there would be a lot of preparation and organisation before this idea could come to fruition. It is wonderful to see everyone do their best to maintain high spirits after what sounded like a dreadful year. When Dr Jacksepticeye finds himself becoming corporeal, Jameson and Shawn are the only ones who welcomes him warmly. It is a bitter household to be brought into. Any alliance this doctor could form would serve him well. The others made it clear they would accept only one doctor as their kin. It went without saying that this doctor was the one Jameson had never met. The outcasts had to stick together. God forbid those against Sean spared any kindness to those who held anything less than hatred towards him in their hearts. The doctor quickly sets off on his duties as the new resident medical professional. He is soon referred to as Jase in casual situations, derived from the JSE abbreviation. This naturally transforms into Jason. Chase wins a personal victory in March when it is agreed that he would see his children during the weekend. Given that this aspect of his life had caused him much strife, there is all the more reason celebrate the good fortune. He volunteers to prepare pineapple upside down cake for the party, to which none of them seemingly object. Chase is completely flattered by his friends' gesture. With the table filled with a variety of good food, they all enjoy the afternoon together. The father deserves it. In early May, Shawn opens the door to a dishevelled man in blue scrubs and a white coat. Jameson witnesses their exchange as he happened to be stood in the hallway. It was him, the missing doctor. The painter of toys offers to lead Henrik upstairs to where his friends were. Jameson, meanwhile tasks himself with procuring water for the new arrival. At the appropriate moment, he delivers the drink to the doctor. As the days pass, Jameson gets the opportunity to acquaint himself with Henrik. There is an obvious language barrier but it is easily resolved with Shawn's presence or, failing that, writing his responses by hand. He comes across as a decent man. Even better, he does not seem so hostile against those whom didn't share his views. Given the evil he'd survived for the past 9 months, potentially instigated by a significant lack of judgement on Sean's part, Jameson appreciated that openness. To the surprise of most, Henrik harbours no animosity towards Jason either. In fact, he is relieved there had been someone even remotely qualified to care for Jack during his absence. The tension the others had felt towards the second doctor gradually reduces after this point. It is little over a week later that the renewed happiness amongst his housemates is shattered. Chase leaves to return his daughter's toy to her then Jackie is discovered to have secretly slipped out. Only one comes home that night. Marvin is too beside himself to properly chastise Jackie for worrying them. Jameson heads over to Sean's home to check in on him. He and Chase had been more than professional collaborators, after all. Unsurprisingly, he discovers the egos' creator is beside himself with stress. As much as Jameson tries, he cannot console his friend. Anti had broken into the home of Chase's children and kidnapped the father. That was plain to see from the video evidence. Sean looks Jameson in the eyes and admits he has no control over the demon. Likely never did. He needed to work out how to rescue Anti's third victim and fast. Jameson had faith that the creator could figure something out. However, he did secretly agree that this whole bleak affair seemed hopeless. Marvin is rarely seen outside of his room. Henrik, who also shared a close friendship with Chase, struggles noticeably with these turn of events as well. The 17 year old superhero acts like a delinquent which certainly doesn't help matters. Jameson knows his parents would have never tolerated such unacceptable behaviour from him when he was that age. Still, everyone reacts to tragedy differently. Marvin, Henrik and Jackie may have been the worst affected by Chase's disappearance but they weren't the only ones missing him. An odd newcomer arrives in June. Sean had been playing a game set 30 years into the future in Detroit. Due to this, an automaton enters their lives. It takes a lot of getting used to on Jameson's part. First he had to accustom himself to the 2010s. Now a piece of the 2040s was showing up too. He's fascinated nonetheless. Chase is a shell of himself when they see him again in July. Whatever had happened to him during those three months, it had caused him to retreat within himself. Worse than Jackie ever did, Marvin claims. Chase's only motivator for leaving his bed is to restock his supply of alcohol. The state he is in can only be described using words such as abysmal and disgraceful. While the rest are mourning on the anniversary of losing Jack, Sean doesn't help his cause by playing a guessing game. He starts off with fictional characters from video games. However, the video's last round centres around Jameson himself. When Sean answers yes to questions such as 'Is your character real?', he is able to brush it off. After all, he is fictional in Sean's world. And if Sean believed he'd enjoy the game, he would have to introduce Jameson to Minecraft. That said, the way Sean obfuscates while answering two certain questions is a major cause for concern. Now, Jameson could understand Sean wanting to respect what his friend did while serving was private and protect that privacy on the internet. However, Sean could have easily picked no and moved on. Furthermore, he was not a puppet. His days of serving a purpose for others were long over. Oh, but it's all for show, isn't it? That is what their lives are, entertainment for the masses. He was different from the others though. While all the rest had fragments of an identity pre-creation, he had 28 years worth of memories. It was what set him apart from the others, regardless of personal ties. As terrible as it sounded, he had hoped his status as Sean's most detailed creation would provide better protection from threats such as Anti. He considers speaking to Sean about it. The part that doesn't want to know if his concerns were valid wins. A German Shepherd joins the household in late August. As far as Jameson understands, she had spent her formative years being trained to help those in need of it. Those like Jackie, to put it plainly. It takes time to adjust to the dog being around. However, she dutifully stays by Jackie's side. In the coming weeks, she gets used to her ward's individual habits and needs. Despite remaining distant from most of his neighbours, Jameson is happy to see potential improvement on the horizon for Jackie's wellbeing. Months of Jackie and Henrik debating the matter between themselves comes to a conclusion. Jackie was to lose his legs. Whatever was below his knees, at least. Jameson joined the rest of the egos in wishing their youngest member good luck with his surgery. The hours drag as they await news of success. It does eventually come. Jackie recovers well from the procedure. However, this was apparently far from the end of it. There were still the matters of physical therapy, prothesis and the teenager adapting to his new life as an amputee. The rest of them vow to support him every step of the way. As Halloween, and for that matter his birthday, approached, the atmosphere in the house grows increasingly wary. Sean promises there will be no pumpkin carving video that year. In fact, he'd really gone off of the concept since the past two attempts had only resulted in disaster. Jameson doesn't see what all the fuss is about. They couldn't permanently die. There was no risk in celebrating the holiday. Should any harm come to one of them, the effects would only be short term. Besides, surely the others could focus on other things that day if they so wished. He hated bringing unnecessary attention to himself but well, his birthday was a source of positivity, wasn't it? "Okay, if we're going to let shit slide on any day, your birthday seems like a good one. We wanna hear about your past life." Jackie unexpectedly announces at the dining table on the last day of October. Well, he'd be happy to oblige. Why not? He could certainly tell them about his family. There were his parents, the British military man and his resentful Irish wife. He had a brother and sister too. Eddie had been 4 years older while Jameson recalled being 7 when Rose was born. For a short while, he deviates on tales of Eton before brushing over his path to becoming a captain. He'd love to talk about Madeline but they didn't need to know every detail. The long and short of it was, he'd been of higher birth, obeyed the path his father had encouraged then planned to be a civilian peacefully following his discharge. His arrival in the present had severely affected those plans of a quiet domestic life. With the arrival of November comes the 100th anniversary of armistice. If the majority of the others had limited respect for him due to his friendship with Sean, then so be it. However, he was not prepared to stand by and allow them to disrespect the significance of this occasion to him. He wants a quiet day of reflection alone. He may not have been old enough to serve during the Great War like his brother, nor did he live through its sequel. However, he still had been in the military and had personally known others who'd chosen that path too. Jackie interrupts his time alone but for good reason. He leaves him speechless once more, pulling up a Wikipedia page about a woman named Madeline Grant. "This is her, isn't it?" And oh, it is. The photograph attached to her profile is from 1954 so she's older than he once knew her but there is no doubt about it. That is his Madeline. He dedicates a portion of his afternoon to reading the article in its entirety. She'd managed to be a successful journalist, written a handful of novels and travelled to far off lands. She'd also found someone else to marry. Most importantly, it sounded like she had been happy. And that was all Jameson could have asked for. He attempts to thank Jackie for his thoughtfulness. The most he gets out of the young man is a non-committal shrug and mumbling. The day after, he tells Sean about Jackie's gesture. Sean's certainly had an eventful 2018, allowing him very little time to allocate to learning BSL. It's not much of a bother to Jameson. So long as Sean is willing to learn, he's happy. As he talks about how he wouldn't mind trying to locate some of Madeline's books, it is clear Sean is a little uneasy. "You... do understand she doesn't exist here, right? On this side of the doorway, nobody you knew personally was ever born. You weren't either. I'm sorry for sounding so blunt. I just thought you already knew that." 'I do! I simply must have gotten carried away.' "No, you're good. Maybe you could do some searching over on your side." Sean's mood perks up suddenly. "Hey, you know what? I don't think I have much else to do or prepare for today. I wouldn't mind learning more about her if you're cool with that." On the morning of Sean and Jack's birthday, the egos collectively agree to confront Sean. When the five of them arrive at his doorstep, they are invited to share cake. The discussion results in their creator agreeing to wake Jack up for their joint birthday. The other egos are not subtle with how much they cannot wait to see their friend conscious once more. It is wonderful to see their joy. Angus, as fatigued as he often was, had run when Chase informed him of what was occurring. Jameson spends the whole day astounded. It's almost like he's surrounded by people slightly different to those he usually knew before this. Jack shows signs of becoming overwhelmed numerous times over the course of the day. It is, however, subtly hidden for the sake of the others. Rounds of both cake and pizza slices later, the sky has long grown dark. Jameson signs throughout the entire evening, talking to Jack while Chase acted as translator. The original ego is fascinated by his memories of a life prior to official creation. Jack offered insightful contributions to the conversation. It is incredibly refreshing to be listened to, free from the other party's grudges. He wonders whether Jack would judge him for his connection to Sean. Then again, it would appear the temporarily conscious man was unaware Sean was the one to orchestrate his coma. A few members of the group have retired to bed by the time Jack begins feeling peculiar. Henrik takes charge of the situation immediately. He is soon escorting his patient back to the medial bay. It is a shame for the night to end with such a low point. At least they can be confident that he is in good hands. The mood the following day is understandably low. A number of the egos had kept him at arm's length since his arrival over a year prior. Then there'd been this enigma, the one everyone talked about and was on their minds frequently. He had accepted Jameson without any hesitation. For the limited hours he'd been granted, it had been a pleasure to get to know the original ego. This home had finally known tranquillity for the first time in too long. If only it could last in Jack's absence.

#jacksepticeye #jacksepticeye egos #jameson jackson #creator au #my writing #writersofjack

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wordsnstuff · 6 years ago

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Guide To Writing Will-They-Won’t-They

This is also available on wordsnstuffblog.com!

– This subject has been highly requested and I get a lot of questions around it. Most romance writers have experience toying with this dynamic in character relationships, so I figured I’d create a guide for those who love the delicious tension of a will-they-won’t-they relationship, because they’re difficult to do correctly, and when they’re not done right, it can throw a whole story down the drain.

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When They Do End Up Together

Make sure it’s not too... convenient. It’s bad technique to build and build onto tension just to provide an easy, clean-wrapped resolution that makes the conflict seem insignificant. If people are hesitant to get together or stay together, there is a good reason, and that shouldn’t be glossed over by the ending.

When They Don’t End Up Together

Make your reader see that this isn’t a tragedy. If two people don’t end up together, there’s a reason, and it’s a valid one, and just because two couples really like each other or even love each other, doesn’t mean they’re right for each other, and at some point both of them will know that and let that stand. The message shouldn’t be “salvage every potential relationship because if you don’t your life is over”, it should be “some relationships just aren’t right, and love is a choice, not a feeling”.

When The Issue Is Constant Conflict

Constant conflict is a bad sign. Occasional disagreements and arguments are okay, and healthy in most cases, but they should always be resolved peacefully. If a couple can never seem to do that, and that’s the purpose for repetitive breaking up/getting back together, then they probably aren’t right for each other. Please don’t send a message to your readers that couples that constantly fight to the point of deciding they would rather be with someone else than work through it ever ends in a healthy and satisfying way for either party.

When The Issue Is Lack of Communication

Lack of communication is applicable to most will-they-won’t-they relationships, and most relationship tension in general, but I want to specifically mention this because it’s not only lack of communication about initial feelings, but the lack of communication about how the relationship is going, what each partner wants out of the relationship, and what each partner does and does not enjoy in a relationship. These can all cause repetitive breakups because they seem more ambiguous a problem in the moment, and usually cause the “I just don’t think this relationship feels right”, which a character can forget easily once the relationship is over, making them return to their old partner immediately.

When The Issue Is An Existing Dynamic

(The specific request I’m addressing mentioned friends-with-benefits, but this is an SFW blog so I’ll be answering this generally; but yes that is what this section is.) If two characters have an unusual relationship, such as being best friends, which prevents them from trying to level up the relationship out of fear, this provides so many opportunities to build tension from the very beginning. Use this to your advantage, but be original with it. This is an extremely popular trope, and can put off an audience immediately if it shows signs of being completely cliche.

Pacing The Tension To Be Endearing Rather Than Stupid

The tension needs to be built up steadily, but it needs to be reasonable and each instance where the tension is demonstrated needs to be reasonable and fit into the context of each scene. If you avoid thinking about how your tension will come across, more likely than not, it will feel dumb and unnecessary rather than endearing.

Common Struggles

~ effectively writing moments of interrupted tension... Do it at the near-boiling point. This should be the climax of the tension, where they’re right near getting to the point of understanding each other, and they’re finally about to get together and someone or something, even themselves, gets in the way and brings them back to square one.

~ Balancing tension between characters... Moments of tension should be balanced with moments of genuine enjoyment of each other’s company. A lot of tension will be somewhat uncomfortable for the characters, and therefore uncomfortable for the reader, and you need to break that up with fluffy, romantic moments or it will be.. awkward.

~ At what point does tension become irritating rather than entertaining?... When the reasons for the tension become illogical or repetitive. If you’v written the same “we’re two loners at a party” scene three times with no variance in events, that’s irritating to the reader. New and unusual sources of tension through exciting instances of action and reaction between the characters that builds to a near boiling point where the reader and the characters share a longing for some resolution (due to genuine investment in the relationship growing) is entertaining.

~ Avoiding predictability while keeping the trajectory... You can keep your story exciting and on the same track by using subplots to introduce conflicts that draw the reader’s attention away from the way the relationship is growing before delivering a major twist that affects, but doesn’t halt or change the way in which the relationship is growing.

~ Not making the characters’ reluctance unreasonable... Each character should have personal and logical reasons for avoiding addressing their feelings that the reader can empathize with and understand. It’s as simple as that.

~ Will-they-won’t they that spans large periods of time... If the will-they-won’t-they surrounds a relationship that spans huge amounts of time (such as one that is spanned over 50+ years) can be depicted very well as long as you choose the moments and events that you include in the actual storytelling very wisely, and sparingly. There should be a balance of events told from the present moment where the tension is at a near boiling point, and events that establish how the relationship has grown and continues to, and why it took so long to do so.

Resources

Resources For Describing Emotions

Resources For Plot Development

Resources For Romance Writers

Kiss Scenes 101: How to Write The Perfect Kiss

Novel Planning 101

How To Write A Good Plot Twist

How To Foreshadow

Commentary On Social Issues In Writing

How To Make A Scene More Heartfelt

20 Mistakes To Avoid When Writing Young Adult Fiction/Romance

Tips On Writing Skinny Love

How To Perfect The Tone In A Piece Of Writing

A Guide To Tension & Suspense In Your Writing

Writing Arguments Between Characters

Planning A Scene In A Story

Tips On Writing Intense Scenes

DISCLAIMER

I know that the primary audience of these articles write stories for young adults or a little bit older, and I don’t want to be preachy and tell you what you should and should not convey in your story. However, I want to remind all writers that no matter who your audience is, the manner in which you convey things does impact each individual readers’ mindset and views in some way.

Please be aware of the way your story frames things like potential abuse, unhealthy behavior, and toxic relationships, because it’s not the presence of these things that is harmful; it’s the way you frame them, glorify them, or romanticize them.

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awfulcomingdown · 5 years ago

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The Touryst Review

The Touryst is a game about a compact, blocky dude in a hawaiian shirt. This dude is, or at least he is told that he is, on the search to discover some secrets, secrets that pertain to the islands he explores.

The game begins with a small, two-man motor boat pulling up to and docking in a place called Touryst Island. Then you, being one of the two men on board, are free to get out and begin exploring the island.

A handful of things quickly become obvious.

First of all, it is immediately beautiful. The entire game has a bizarre, blocky style. The bizarre thing is the way in which this blocky, childish style contrasts with the beauty of the world. The lighting is beautiful, and shines through the trees and into your eyes, so as to make your vision less clear. The background, which is to say everything that is not immediately in front of you, is blurred slightly, as if you’re looking through a camera lens and your character is the focus.

Second of all, it is clear that this game is not going to be about following instructions. You wander around this island with little instruction, and the instructions you do receive feel more like personal requests of characters than they do the game needing to tell you what to do.

At one point, standing atop the first monument—which are the self-contained, puzzle-filled dungeons—you may notice that the answer to the puzzle is far off in the distance, down on a part of the island that you’ve most likely already visited. That is to say, it feels as though the game is giving you the opportunity to have a reminder of how to solve it’s first explicit puzzle by looking around the environment.

In that first monument, you’ll solve some puzzles, and then you’ll talk to an older man, and he’ll tell you that there are four monument cores you need to collect, which are located on various other islands. He gives you the travel guide to your next destination, which you’ll need to show to the captain of the ship you arrived on in order to leave for the next island.

On the next island, you’ll begin to realize that going back and forth between islands is going to be a necessary part of this game. Elderly couples will ask you if you have any recommendations for islands they could visit, and you’ll have to say sorry, no, you don’t yet know of anywhere that would suit their desires. A note pops into your head—and another onto your menu—”Come back to these people when you’ve gone to an island that seems appropriate for an elderly couple to hang around and enjoy themselves,” you tell yourself.

Other things will bring you back and forth between these islands as well. Items you need to buy, pictures you’ve taken that you need to return for cash at the first island’s item shop, a young man on the second island who needs you to “Prove you know about soccer.” These things sit in the back of your mind and the middle of your start screen, waiting to be addressed.

There are, however, larger, vaster, more mysterious things to figure out. These are the secrets.

Immediately upon arriving on the island, people begin to speak to you of secrets. Not only do they explicitly tell you that the island you’re on is full of secrets, but they directly state that you, they know, love secrets. And so you do. You do because you are told you do and, maybe, because you really do.

This repeated, specific mentioning of the word “secrets” begins to itself take up space in the back of your mind, along with the other, named, secrets. Things are building to something.

Or so you might think.

The majority of The Touryst never lives up to the hopes it creates in you in the opening minutes.

There are plenty of interesting things to do, but often these interesting things are not mandatory.

For example, there is an arcade on Leysure Island, outside of which a man named Bob will challenge you to defeat his high scores on the three arcade cabinets therein.

So, you might think that this is something you need to do, and you might spend 25 frustrated minutes attempting to beat his high score in “FAST,” a fictional arcade game that is an homage to Shin’en’s Switch launch title Fast RMX. The game is fun and charming, as are the other two modest arcade games, but this is indicative of a larger problem with The Touryst.

That problem is this: nearly all of the most interesting and fun things to do in this game are slightly frustrating and entirely optional. The two of these, together, manage to slowly erode any desire you might have to commit yourself to overcoming these challenges.

If they were slightly less frustrating, or were necessary for you to do in order to progress the game, then they would feel as though they were worth your time. But they are neither, so they do not.

Another example: located on Soggy Island, a place in which it is always raining, there is a mine shaft. Once you have cleared this mine shaft of its rat infestation—which is, in and of itself, a fun and charming challenge—you are able to go diving in the mines in order to hunt for crystals.

Now, you may remember that there is a diamond shop on Leysure Island, in which a pawn-shop-owner-resembling man named Larry will tell you to come back once you’ve found at least ten diamonds.

So, you figure, Okay, I can sell these diamonds I’m going to be collecting. But this seems more important than that. Maybe there other uses for the diamonds as well.

So you begin spelunking, and it is, without a doubt, the most clearly entertaining and interesting thing you’ve done all game. It is 3D platforming in which you are always going directly down. You have a rope that you are sometimes forced to use but, for the most part, this is about making jumps into a dark cavern and attempting to land on small platforms. It’s great.

And then it slowly begins to frustrate you. As you get deeper and deeper into the shafts—which are divided as levels, at the end of which you can return to the surface if you so choose—you start to wonder, Wait, are these diamonds actually just for selling to that dude in that pawn shop? Do I not need to be doing this? Am I wasting my time?

It turns out, yes.

They are only to be sold at the pawn shop. You do not need to be doing this. You are wasting your time.

And so it is with most of the optional activities in the game. None of them grant you anything more than money, something which you always have in excess.

It’s a bizarre feeling. Should I just be grateful that these somewhat interesting side activities are available to me? No, I don’t think so. Without participating in these side activities, this would be an extremely short, straightforward game. So why not integrate them into the story? Why is the most exciting part of this game a purposeless quest for capital?

Of course, this wouldn’t be such a big problem if the main objectives and story of The Touryst were good and interesting. But they aren’t.

The story of this game never goes any further than the original premise of “There are secrets, and you want to find them.” The secrets themselves involve answers about how the monuments were built and why there are blocky robot monsters in them. These answers are never interesting enough to remember.

The most interesting of the secrets is, again, an entirely optional one.

Upon wandering around the first island, you might notice a bottle floating just off shore. Collect that bottle, and you will be told that it is a fragment of a Touryst Guide, and that there are four of them in total. Collect the other three, and you will have yourself a guide to a new place called Tyny Island.

Once there, you’ll find a crashed airplane, inside of which you’ll find a safe, inside of which you’ll find a parcel. All you’re told about the parcel is that it’s addressed to “M…...m,” and that it’s up to you to figure out who to deliver it to.

I discovered this all after having already completed the rest of the game, and I couldn’t help but think, “Why is this significantly more interesting than the entirety of the main story?”

Sadly, even this mystery is slightly undercut by it’s ending. It turns out that the “M…...m” you were searching for was not a person at all, but instead was the “Monuseum,” a museum of monuments on the island of Fijy. That the person you were looking for was actually a museum is great. That, upon discovering this, the museum curator essentially says “Thanks” and tells you its an ancient artifact of some sort, makes you feel as though maybe this was all just another way for the game to take up five minutes of your time.

In the end, the story does very little explaining. You collect the four monument cores, and then you collect one last piece of technology, still unsure of why you’re doing all of this. And then something happens, and then the credits roll. In a post-credits scene, a sequel is directly implied in an inelegant bit of self-reflexivity.

And then the game’s over. And you’re sitting there wondering what it was that you just experienced. And you call your friend, because you feel the need to yell at someone about what the fuck just happened.

I told my friend that the game had been fine, but that no part of it had ever made me feel as though any of it was worth my time. I told her that I was unsure whether or not I should criticize something like this; something that is well made, and cared for, and in no way bad or upsetting, but just mostly pedestrian.

I said that I was pretty sure that I should. She countered by saying that some people just want something pretty to look at and something to do, that she herself used to love playing video games just because they give you something pleasant to do.

This was what made me sure that I am right to criticize this game.

Video games are more than just something to do with your hands. If video games are art, and they are art, then they should be treated as such. It is very easy to defend video games as an artform, it is much difficult to practice what your preach.

I would never recommend this game to someone in order to show them that video games can be great and interesting. This game is rarely an echo of either of those things.

Some video games are art. The Touryst is an alright way to spend five hours.

#the touryst #nintendo switch

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imperium-romanum · 5 years ago

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Imperium Romanum Returns!

Today’s the day! I’m coming off hiatus and posting on Imperium Romanum is resuming! I’ve got a lot to catch up on – news, events, and shenanigans – and I’m looking forward to it all.

This month will see not only the return of regular content, such as On This Day and the latest Classics related news, but also the start of regular vlogs! Equipment is in the mail now and I plan to produce my very first video next week. If you have any topics you would like me to cover, whether you have a question about the ancient world, a question about my experiences as a student and PhD Candidate, or about any other topics, feel free to pop a message in my ask box or in the submissions.

To finish up, this seems a fitting time to post an update on the New Year’s goals that I set at the start of 2019. I set three goals for myself, and am so far pleased with my progress!

1. Read more fiction

Original Goal: “I love reading, yet, over the last few years, I’ve noticed that I do very little reading simply for the pleasure of it. Because the last six years of my life have been so academically focused – having gone straight from a Bachelor to Honours to a PhD – I’ve spent so much time reading for university subjects and research that the thought of doing more reading, even fiction, is exhausting. I could probably count the number of new books I’ve read (that haven’t been set for a class) on my fingers. I’ve set myself the goal of reading two to three new fiction books every month – if I can read more, great!”

Progress: So far, everything is going well! Although not all of the books I have read have been new, I’ve managed to finish at least one book every month. On top of reading, I’ve taken up listening to audiobooks – this has made it possible to keep up with my goal as I can pop on an audiobook while I’m doing housework or while I’m driving. So far, I’ve read ten books and listened to a further ten.

I’m currently reading Devil’s Breath by Jon P Wells and I’m currently listening to Mythos by Stephen Fry.

This week, I also joined Goodreads so I can put together a library of books I’ve read, books I want to read, and also get some new recommendations. Any and all of my followers are welcome to add me as a friend! You can find my Goodreads profile here.

2. Do more activities

Original Goal: “Last year, I went on a fantastic one-day road trip with two friends to Freycinet National Park on Tasmania’s east coast. Then, through December, I enjoyed many more small adventures with my fiancé. Even though I’ve never been particularly fit, I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors. Now that I’m equipped with some top-quality hiking boots, I want to get out more – do more bushwalking, walk more rugged and rocky coastlines, and explore more of Tasmania’s wilderness. I also want to spend less time playing computer games (much as I enjoy them), and more time making things. I’m no artist, but I still love to create things. I’m going to start off by making a pom pom rug in my Harry Potter house colours – Ravenclaw – to go under my desk. I won’t be posting my creations of Imperium Romanum, but I will be posting about them on Instagram and Twitter for those who are interested.”

Progress: I enjoyed fantastic outdoor adventures while I was visiting Armidale at the start of February. Between presentations and events at ASCS40, I ventured to Wollomombi Falls (although the waterfall was more a trickle due to the intense New South Wales summer) and to Gara Gorge to enjoy the scenery and a nice bushwalk. I’ve also gone for many enjoyable walks around my neighbourhood in Tasmania and as the weather warms up again, I look forward to doing even more walking.

I have also been quite crafty – not only did I finish my pom pom rug earlier in the year, but I’ve also taken up cross-stitching. It’s been a slow process, but I’m really starting to get the hang of it now and have finished a few designs which I gave as gifts. I’m working on a couple of pieces at the moment. One is a simple Pusheen design, and the other is a more complex 33,000 stitch design which, for now, will remain secret… 🤫

I didn’t quite manage to keep away from my consoles as much as I intended, but I can at least say I was playing relevant games. I’ve finished the main storylines for both Assassin’s Creed: Origins and Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and thoroughly enjoy both. I’ve been taking a bit of a break from them to play a few other things, including My Time at Portia, but I look forward to playing the rest of the DLC content for both games in the future.

3. Participate in a ‘100 Days of Productivity’ challenge

Original Goal: “While I have a reputation for being a productive student with good grades, the truth is that I am a chronic procrastinator who happens to be very good at whipping up strong assignments last minute. Even outside of the academic sphere, I’m somewhat of a procrastinator, thanks in part to anxiety. So, while I will continue to bring you the latest Classics news, there will be some changes coming to Imperium Romanum as I turn more attention to the everyday realities of studying Classics and my experiences as a student. Life can often be overwhelming, and acknowledging this and finding a better way to tackle the day-to-day burdens before the month-to-month or the year-to-year is going to be a major focus for me. I think that a productivity challenge is an excellent way to do this. Starting January 3, I’ll be documenting my productive efforts via Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr. While I expect most of my days will be related to research, I have no doubt that the challenge will have a positive impact on my life outside of university.”

Progress: Before June, my last productivity post was for days 67 and 68. I stopped posting following the death of my father in law and am currently on a leave of absence while we continue to come to terms with the burdens which come with a sudden loss.

As I return to regular blogging this month, I will also return to regular productivity posts. These posts will likely reflect more on my productivity at home and regarding hobbies rather than on my academic productivity while I take a much needed break from my studies and research, but I hope they’ll still be interesting.

And with that, I wish you all a very wonderful rest of your day, and I look forward to jumping back in with the classics and history community!

~ Admin @sassy-cicero-says

#classics #tagamemnon #tagitus #announcement #sassy says #sassy posts #return #off hiatus #update #2019 #goals #new years goals #progress #productivity

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recentanimenews · 5 years ago

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Naruto Turns 20: How Its Worldbuilding Remains Unmatched

There's something effortless about Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto's worldbuilding. In fiction, you usually spend a bit of time in the beginning waiting for the pieces to come together, waiting for the hook, waiting for the "Oh, THAT'S what this thing is gonna be." And that's not some cutting critique, it's just how most narrative art works in general. But Naruto makes this process invisibly, almost deceitfully smooth. Twenty years after its debut in Weekly Shonen Jump, I'm still amazed by just how easy it is to get into Naruto.

Naruto was first published on September 21, 1999. Its author and artist, Kishimoto, had been trying to get several different stories started throughout the late 90s, but hadn't had much luck. This instilled within him a "fierce desire," an attribute that he'd openly lend to the character of Naruto himself. It would also be the attribute that would set Naruto apart from his action manga peers. Goku wants to be the strongest, but he's always been a kind of prodigal child. Luffy wants to be King of the Pirates, but he balances his insane amount of grit with a sense of aloof naivete. Naruto, though? Naruto reaaaaallly wants to be accepted and he reaaaalllllly wants to be Hokage.

There's something immediately identifiable about that, and it actually aids in the aforementioned worldbuilding. Because if you see yourself in the lead character, you don't have to make a major leap to accept the story that revolves around them. It becomes your journey, too. When the anime first premiered in America in 2005, I was in high school. And my classmates and friends that got into it were able to intensely relate to Naruto, as it was the perfect time for them to. In middle and high school, all you want is to have a place and "have it together" and be acknowledged for the strengths that you know you have. Strengths that many can't seem to see.

Kishimoto lets this tie into Naruto's backstory to create a main character that is both sympathetic and aspirational. With his parents long gone, Naruto is sort of forced to develop his personality from scratch. It's why he's so rough around the edges in the beginning, and probably plays into why he's had trouble adjusting to the duel role of father and Hokage in Boruto. Poor, orphaned Naruto has had to develop his own lessons to follow. Thus, the very general "I'm gonna be Hokage!" becomes a personal mission statement. It's purely him.

It doesn't hurt that the universe that Kishimoto built for Naruto seems so gently constructed, the Leaf Village coming off like a place that you were always destined to find. It's like The Shire in Middle Earth, as there's something uniquely comfortable about it when you first dive into the story. It's obviously a fantastical place full of fantastical people, but it's still familiar. You can see yourself walking its streets and hanging out with its residents and eating its delicious ramen. Obviously, the myths and themes and adventures of Naruto would only open up as the series progressed, but to a fan, reading Naruto can feel somewhat like coming home.

Kishimoto's strengths don't just lie in the locations and the lead character, though. The rest of his main cast, from Sasuke to Sakura to Rock Lee to Kakashi to Gaara to Hinata to even Orochimaru, rarely feel obtuse, as they all play off of eachother so well. They feel defined from the beginning, even if they haven't revealed their full hands when it comes to their personality traits and histories. And this is especially helpful when you see them in action.

Kishimoto obviously puts a lot of thought into "match ups," with the clashes and trials usually being based around what would be most interesting to see at what time. It's why the Chunin Exams are often placed alongside such classic tournaments like the Dark Tournament from Yu Yu Hakusho when ranking the best anime tournaments. It would be super easy to just say "Naruto fights Sasuke at the end of the tournament because they're both the lead characters and it's hype or whatever." But instead, as we see, Kishimoto lets battles like Hinata vs Neji and Rock Lee vs Gaara get the spotlight. When creating a rad anime battle, it's just as important to consider its timing in a character's arc as it is to consider which characters are actually dueling.

And finally, what is Naruto's place in 2019, aside from being a great show to rewatch? Well, you can see shades of the lead character in the current batch of young anime protagonists, ranging from Deku in My Hero Academia to Asta in Black Clover. And you can see how the "rivalry" between Kishimoto and One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda still influences the latter series to this day. But in the end, Naruto remains infinitely readable and watchable after twenty years because Kishimoto crafted a world that you want to experience, with a lead character that often reflects you. And it's hard to find better praise to give a story than that.

When did you first start reading/watching Naruto? What is your favorite character or story arc? Let us know in the comments!

-----------------------------

Daniel Dockery is a writer and editor for Crunchyroll. You should follow him on Twitter!

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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thenamelessscribe42-blog · 6 years ago

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5 Beautiful Details About Academic Listening Skills

Reading is fundamental to college success, despite your significant or field of study. According to the University of Michigan-Flint, the average college student registered in basic courses should study in between four and six hours per day. Reading understanding and retention of facts and information are two abilities you require to master in order to get the most out of your college experience. Here we'll check out numerous methods for reading: what to do and what not to do as you attempt to maximize your reading understanding. We also think about a sample essay about radiation chemistry (courtesy of WyzAnt) to show the techniques we check out. How to Improve Your Academic Reading The following techniques will assist you get the most knowledge from each reading resource you seek advice from. Read with purpose Before you begin reading, try to determine the purpose of the reading as it connects to the remainder of the course curriculum. You should initially pinpoint the type of information that can be obtained from the text: does the resource consist of data and figures you need to memorize, or does it explain abstract concepts you need to be knowledgeable about in order to progress in the course? Master the art of 'skimming'. Instead of poring over an assigned text in its entirety, skimming the pages for essential material conserves you a great deal of time and reading energy. As kept in mind by an academic reading guide from Swarthmore College:" [Skimming] is not simply reading in a hurry, or reading sloppily, or reading the last line and the very first line. It's actually a disciplined activity in its own right. An excellent skimmer has a systematic method for finding the most details in the least quantity of time.". You ought to pay attention to the text to separate key passages from tangents, extraneous remarks, and other information that is somewhat unimportant to the assignment. Keep an eye out for "signposts," or terms/phrases that represent sidebar conversations. "I would argue" and "As a side note" are 2 examples. Typically speaking, you can avoid reading these paragraphs in detail. While skimming suggests selective reading, it's also important to review the whole text to guarantee there aren't any essential truths or information concealed in apparently unimportant paragraphs. There are, obviously, specific tasks you ought to not skim: works of fiction for a literature class or long readings meant to be essay triggers, for instance. When it concerns books and other basic academic readings, skimming can be quite efficient. Examine the credibility and importance of the text. In addition to course tasks, a significant amount of academic reading is required in order to write premium research papers. For these compositions, students are frequently asked to curate reference products and resources on their own. First, as kept in mind by the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, you ought to make sure all resources for your research paper are scholarly, or "composed by experts in a specific field and serve to keep others thinking about that field as much as date on the most recent research study, findings, and news." While not all of these resources are always pertinent to any given term paper, academic publications are regarded as more reliable and reliable than non-scholarly works. A lot of university libraries permit students to perform customized searches in order to identify books and other publications with particular details. Once you outline your research paper, carry out an extensive search of your school's library system to locate the resources you need. This illustrated example from the University at Buffalo's library system explains how to look for different works by keyword, topic, author, and title. Keep in mind to scan the shelves around books you locate, considering that reference materials are generally categorized by subject.

As soon as you obtain a few possible term paper sources, spend some time to skim the content and flag particularly useful areas or quotes. If you are required to return the books in reasonably little time or are not able to check them out, make photocopies and arrange the files to match the basic outline of your paper. Method posts and books in a different way. The bulk of your TOEFL practice reading takes one of two types: published books or journal articles. Although these two sources feature a different design and structure design, they generally cover the exact same topics, and you can utilize the very same method to examine books and journals prior to an extensive reading.

What is academic reading?

Reading in an academic context is different from everyday reading. Academic reading needs a more active, penetrating and recursive method than does leisure reading. It is an essential ability for completing a composed assignment. ... Academic reading involves layers of: asking concerns. If you are assigned a book reading, it might be handy to begin with initial passages before diving into the core text. According to the University of Southern Queensland, trainees ought to "never ever start reading at page 1 of the text." Instead, you need to first speak with the intro, tabulation, index, author's notes, even the conclusion. These resources assist you establish the primary focus of the reading, which, in turn, permits you to read with function and skim the text more effectively. Furthermore, taking a glance at book reviews on sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble is a helpful method to catch the theme of a publication before you begin reading. Just as most scholarly books have an introduction or brief passage of some kind, the majority of journal short articles include a quick abstract, or summary, of the whole piece. Many abstracts are 2 to 3 paragraphs in length. Although lots of academic journals are only available for purchase, the majority of matching abstracts are readily available free-of-charge. Focus on and arrange your reading tasks. If you have a large amount of reading to do, it's much easier to remain on task if you. pick out the most important tasks and group readings by subject in advance. Think about putting the books and printouts into stacks by subject or style, with the most crucial readings on top. Then, work through your assignments systematically. Chunks of reading can make an enormous pile of reading seem workable, and it'll be simpler to recognize and track overarching styles and connections in between tasks. Establish efficient ways to keep in mind essential material. As you take part in academic reading, it is important to retain all of the essential realities and information present in the text; for most people, this means multiple read-throughs. The University of Southern Queensland keeps in mind that a person's ability to retain information from a book or journal short article is connected to their reading experience. "The quality of memory is associated with the quality of your interaction with what you are attempting to keep in mind. Obviously, if you have organised, dissected, questioned, examined and assessed the product you read, it will sit more securely in your memory, and be more available." For this reason, a lot of trainees have a simpler time keeping in mind posts about leisure topics than academic texts; personal stake or interest in a topic generates higher levels of retention.

You can increase "memorability" of a specific reading by making use of visualization, oral recitation, and other cognitive methods that enable you to absolutely understand the text. Some students create mnemonic devices to assist keep in mind ordered lists, formulas, and other in-depth details sets. One example is the phrase "Dear King Phillip Came Over For Good Spaghetti," which is a mnemonic gadget for remembering the 8 basic rankings of biological category (Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Household, Genus, Species). In the next area, we discuss some note-taking methods that even more increase your retention of academic readings. Enforce time frame Regardless of the typical practice of all-night cram sessions, most academic professionals agree that trainees need to set time limits for their academic readings-- and adhere to them. A thoroughly allocated reading schedule allocates sufficient time to complete the work, re-read the product one or two times to increase memorability, and compose some beneficial notes about the text.

According to a report from Utah State University entitled, "The number of Hours Do I Required To Study?", the relative problem of all your courses throughout an offered semester/quarter should determine just how much time you spend studying weekly. "High trouble" courses need 3 hours of study, "Medium difficulty" courses need two hours, and "Low difficulty" courses require one hour. Once you determine the levels of problem, increase the hours of each course by the number of hours you attend the class each week. This yields the number of hours you ought to dedicate to each course on a weekly basis. For example, a high difficulty course you attend three hours per week typically needs 9 hours of weekly study. The USU report advises no more than 20-25 research study hours weekly. Students need to enroll in a mix of high, medium, and low difficulty courses each term to guarantee they are not overwhelmed with the weekly requirements. Taking Notes as You Read Every trainee has his or her own favored strategy of academic note-taking. Whichever approach you select, the exact same guideline uses: clear, helpful notes are fundamental to effective memorization. According to a tutorial from California Polytechnic Institute (Cal Poly), there are five unique schools of thought when it pertains to academic note-taking; these systems can be used to bear in mind throughout a live lecture or when you are participated in IELTS practice test reading. The Cornell MethodLecture/reading notes are transcribed (using shorthand language) on a sheet of paper with clear margins. As soon as the lecture/reading is completed, write one- or two-word cues in the margins next to each essential information point. To review the material, cover the main body of your notes and leave the hints exposed; with appropriate studying, you should become able to recite all of the information by just seeing the cue. The Outlining MethodMost trainees learn this technique during their primary/secondary school education. General concepts are written on the far left-hand side of the page and, as the material becomes more particular, the notes are caved in even more to the right. The Mapping MethodRather than merely writing the notes, mapping generally requires a visual element: numbers, marks, color coding, or some other sort of illustration of the academic text. The Charting MethodLike the mapping approach, charting consists of an aspect of graphic representation to supplement the composed notes. In this case, it usually takes the type of a graph or information table. The Sentence MethodThis system involves developing a various sentence for each distinct idea, reality, or information point, and then numbering them on the page in an order that corresponds to the lecture/reading. You can build on sentence-based notes by including page numbers or other markers for your own reference.

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In addition to various note-taking approaches, here are a couple of extra suggestions to help you create much better notes for your academic readings: Make flashcardsThese can be specifically beneficial for remembering vocabulary terms, key concepts, and essential dates. Produce a set of flashcards for each unique area of the course; this enables you to discover each section individually, and after that integrate all of the flashcards to thoroughly study for midterms and last exams. Rewrite til it hurtsFor solutions, chronological timelines, and other subjects that need understanding of a specific order, it can be valuable to just transcribe the notes by hand up until you've remembered the appropriate series. Mark quotesIf you are writing an academic term paper, prices estimate from authoritative sources are an important commodity. Usage color-coded Post-It notes to mark beneficial passages in your book sources, and develop a digital document with copy-pasted blurbs from online journals and publications. Do not forget to note the page number along with the individual who has actually coined the quote, and his/her main title if it isn't the author of the work. Refer to more than one source for tricky topicsHaving difficulty comprehending the principles of a specific concept or concept? Find a source that covers the same ground and compare/contrast the various meanings. Often it is much easier to comprehend info with more than one context. Produce a list of remaining questionsSometimes, an academic source does not cover all of the details you require. As soon as you end up reading and assembling notes from a given work, take the time to think about and write out other topics you still need to research study in order to completely comprehend the material. Test Essay To demonstrate what a thorough job of reading looks like, we have actually examined an excerpt from an undergraduate chemistry class. In the margins of the essay, we explain the mentality and strategies a mindful trainee must utilize when reading the sample. This guidance can be applied to any assigned reading given to you throughout your undergraduate research studies. Completing reading assignments is one of the most significant challenges in academia. Nevertheless, are you handling your reading effectively? Consider this cooking analogy, keeping in mind the distinctions in process: Shannon has to make supper. He goes to the shop and walks through every aisle. He decides to make spaghetti, so he revisits aisles and reads lots of plans completely before deciding which groceries to buy. As soon as he arrives home, he discovers a recipe for spaghetti, but requires to return to the store for components he forgot.

Why is academic reading essential?

The objective of the research study is to examine students method to reading by assessing the quality of their knowing outcomes. ... These include-- reading, writing, critical thinking, oral presentation, and media literacy. Regardless of the significance of these abilities for academic success, teachers seldom teach them Taylor also has to make supper. He wants great deals of carbs due to the fact that he's running a marathon soon so he decides to make spaghetti. After checking some recipes, he makes a list of active ingredients. At the supermarket, he skims aisles to discover his components and selects items that meet his diet plan.

Taylor's procedure was more efficient due to the fact that his function was clear. Establishing why you read something will assist you choose how to read it, which conserves time and enhances comprehension. This guide lists some functions for reading in addition to various methods to attempt at different stages of the reading procedure. Functions for reading Individuals read various sort of text (e.g., scholarly posts, books, evaluations) for various reasons. Some functions for reading might be to scan for particular info to skim to get an overview of the text to relate brand-new content to existing knowledge to write something (often depends on a prompt). to review an argument. to find out something. for basic understanding. Methods. Methods differ from reader to reader. The exact same reader may utilize different strategies for various contexts because their purpose for academic reading modifications. Ask yourself "why am I reading?" and "what am I reading?" when choosing which methods to attempt. Prior to reading.

Establish your function for reading. Hypothesize about the author's function for writing. Review what you already understand and wish to find out about the subject (see the guides listed below). Preview the text to get an introduction of its structure, taking a look at headings, figures, tables, glossary, and so on . Anticipate the contents of the text and present questions about it. If the authors have actually offered discussion questions, read them and write them on a note-taking sheet. Keep in mind any conversation concerns that have actually been offered (in some cases at the end of the text). Test pre-reading guides-- K-W-L guide. Important reading questionnaire. During reading. Annotate and mark (moderately) sections of the text to easily recall essential or intriguing concepts. Inspect your predictions and discover answers to presented questions. Usage headings and transition words to identify relationships in the text. Create a vocabulary list of other unknown words to specify later on. Try to infer unfamiliar words' meanings by recognizing their relationship to the main point. Connect the text to what you currently learn about the topic. Take breaks (split the text into sections if needed). Test annotated texts-- Journal short article · Book chapter excerpt. After reading. Summarize the text in your own words (note what you learned, impressions, and responses) in an outline, idea map, or matrix (for numerous texts). Talk to somebody about the author's concepts to inspect your understanding. Recognize and go over difficult parts of the text. Specify words on your vocabulary list (try a learner's dictionary) and practice using them. Sample graphic organizers-- Principle map · Literature evaluation matrix.

What is academic listening?

Search results page Included snippet from the web Academic Listening. Academic Listening involves the reception and understanding of spoken product with an educational purpose. This location has lots of types, consisting of academic lectures, debates and workshop conversations, and routinely makes use of a high level of language structure and vocabulary. When you get to university, you'll discover you require to make it through a great deal of readings either from your reading list, or for wider reading in preparation for a project. These might be journal short articles, chapters in edited books or chapters in books. Much of these academic texts will appear quite challenging, specifically to begin with. Do not despair! You might not need to read every short article on your reading list. If you learn how to sneak peek your readings first, you can select those readings or areas of a reading that are most relevant to your requirements. There are a range of methods that you can use to make the job less frustrating. Your Unit Handbook or Research study Guide will have a reading list. This list will normally be divided into needed readings and advised readings. Always begin with the required readings. Preferably, these will be general texts that can provide you an overview of the subject. When you have a general idea of the course content, more particular or comprehensive texts will be much easier to understand. To take advantage of your reading, you require to be able to determine your purpose. In a lot of cases, this purpose will be determined in questions included in the Unit Handbook or Study Guide. These questions will make it easier to understand what you are reading. If there are no questions, you need to recognize more specific purposes for reading since why you read will identify how you read. The method you read an unique, a paper, a telephone book and an academic article will be various since your function for reading will be various each time. There are three primary kinds of reading that individuals do:. Reading for quick reference-- when you require to find specific info. Reading for enjoyment-- to relax, for fun, since you like the writer's design. Critical reading-- to understand/analyse concepts or concepts.

#academic #learn #learns #learning #academics #read #reads #reading #write #writing #teaching #teach #teaches #toefl #ielts

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sluttyshakespeare · 6 years ago

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3 Beautiful Facts About Academic Listening

Reading is fundamental to college success, no matter your significant or discipline. According to the University of Michigan-Flint, the average university student registered in standard courses need to study between 4 and 6 hours daily. Reading comprehension and retention of realities and data are 2 abilities you need to master in order to get the most out of your college experience. Here we'll check out various strategies for IELTS practice test reading: what to do and what not to do as you try to maximize your reading comprehension. We likewise consider a sample essay about radiation chemistry (thanks to WyzAnt) to show the strategies we check out. How to Improve Your Academic Reading The following strategies will help you get one of the most understanding from each reading resource you speak with. Read with function Before you begin reading, try to identify the purpose of the reading as it associates with the rest of the course curriculum. You should initially identify the type of information that can be obtained from the text: does the resource include data and figures you require to remember, or does it explain abstract ideas you need to be familiar with in order to progress in the course? Master the art of 'skimming'. Rather than reading a designated text in its totality, skimming the pages for essential material conserves you a lot of time and reading energy. As noted by an academic reading guide from Swarthmore College:" [Skimming] is not simply reading in a hurry, or reading sloppily, or reading the last line and the very first line. It's actually a disciplined activity in its own right. A good skimmer has a methodical technique for discovering the most info in the least amount of time.". You ought to pay attention to the text to differentiate crucial passages from tangents, extraneous remarks, and other info that is somewhat unimportant to the task. Keep an eye out for "signposts," or terms/phrases that denote sidebar conversations. "I would argue" and "As a side note" are 2 examples. Usually speaking, you can avoid reading these paragraphs in detail. While skimming implies selective reading, it's likewise crucial to examine the entire text to make sure there aren't any crucial facts or data concealed in seemingly unimportant paragraphs. There are, obviously, specific assignments you should not skim: works of fiction for a literature class or long readings meant to be essay triggers, for example. When it pertains to books and other standard academic readings, skimming can be quite reliable. Evaluate the credibility and significance of the text. In addition to course tasks, a considerable quantity of academic reading is required in order to write premium research papers. For these structures, trainees are typically asked to curate reference materials and resources on their own. Initially, as noted by the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, you need to make sure all resources for your research paper are scholarly, or "written by specialists in a specific field and serve to keep others interested in that field as much as date on the most current research, findings, and news." While not all of these resources are always pertinent to any given term paper, scholarly publications are regarded as more reputable and authoritative than non-scholarly works. Many university libraries enable trainees to carry out tailored searches in order to identify books and other publications with particular information. As soon as you outline your research paper, perform a comprehensive search of your school's library system to find the resources you need. This detailed example from the University at Buffalo's library system discusses how to look for various works by keyword, subject, author, and title. Keep in mind to scan the racks around books you find, considering that recommendation products are normally classified by topic.

When you get a few potential research paper sources, take a while to skim the material and flag particularly helpful areas or quotes. If you are needed to return the books in relatively little time or are unable to check them out, make copies and arrange the documents to match the basic summary of your paper. Technique posts and books differently. The bulk of your IELTS practice test reading takes one of two kinds: published books or journal short articles. Although these two sources include a different layout and composition style, they normally cover the very same subjects, and you can use the very same method to examine books and journals prior to a comprehensive reading.

What is academic reading?

Reading in an academic context is different from everyday reading. Academic reading requires a more active, penetrating and recursive method than does leisure reading. It is an important ability for finishing a written assignment. ... Academic reading includes layers of: asking questions. If you are appointed a book reading, it might be handy to begin with initial passages prior to delving into the core text. According to the University of Southern Queensland, trainees need to "never start reading at page 1 of the text." Rather, you must initially seek advice from the intro, tabulation, index, author's notes, even the conclusion. These resources help you establish the main focus of the reading, which, in turn, enables you to read with function and skim the text better. Additionally, taking a glance at book reviews on websites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble is a helpful way to record the theme of a publication before you start reading. Just as many scholarly books have an intro or brief passage of some kind, the majority of journal short articles feature a quick abstract, or summary, of the whole piece. The majority of abstracts are two to three paragraphs in length. Although many academic journals are only offered for purchase, a lot of corresponding abstracts are readily available free-of-charge. Prioritize and arrange your reading tasks. If you have a large amount of reading to do, it's easier to remain on task if you. choose the most important assignments and group readings by subject in advance. Consider putting the books and hard copies into stacks by subject or theme, with the most important readings on top. Then, work through your assignments methodically. Chunks of reading can make a massive stack of reading appear workable, and it'll be simpler to determine and track overarching themes and connections between tasks. Develop effective methods to keep in mind essential content. As you participate in academic reading, it is important to maintain all of the essential truths and information present in the text; for many people, this means multiple read-throughs. The University of Southern Queensland notes that a person's capability to keep info from a book or journal post is linked to their reading experience. "The quality of memory is associated with the quality of your interaction with what you are trying to remember. Clearly, if you have actually arranged, dissected, questioned, evaluated and assessed the material you read, it will sit more firmly in your memory, and be more accessible." For this reason, many students have a much easier time remembering short articles about leisure subjects than academic texts; individual stake or interest in a subject creates greater levels of retention.

You can increase "memorability" of a specific reading by utilizing visualization, oral recitation, and other cognitive techniques that enable you to totally comprehend the text. Some trainees develop mnemonic gadgets to help remember bought lists, solutions, and other comprehensive information sets. One example is the phrase "Dear King Phillip Came By For Good Spaghetti," which is a mnemonic gadget for keeping in mind the 8 basic rankings of biological category (Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Household, Genus, Species). In the next section, we go over some note-taking methods that even more increase your retention of academic readings. Impose time limits Despite the common practice of all-night cram sessions, most academic experts agree that trainees should set time limits for their academic readings-- and adhere to them. A thoroughly allocated reading schedule allots ample time to complete the work, re-read the material one or two times to increase memorability, and make up some helpful notes about the text.

According to a report from Utah State University titled, "The number of Hours Do I Need To Study?", the relative trouble of all your courses during a given semester/quarter should dictate just how much time you invest studying each week. "High trouble" courses need three hours of research study, "Medium trouble" courses require two hours, and "Low trouble" courses require one hour. Once you figure out the levels of difficulty, increase the hours of each course by the number of hours you go to the class each week. This yields the number of hours you must devote to each course on a weekly basis. For example, a high problem course you go to three hours per week typically needs 9 hours of weekly study. The USU report suggests no more than 20-25 research study hours weekly. Trainees should register in a mix of high, medium, and low problem courses each term to guarantee they are not overwhelmed with the weekly requirements. Bearing in mind as You Read Every trainee has his or her own preferred method of academic note-taking. Whichever approach you choose, the exact same rule uses: clear, informative notes are fundamental to successful memorization. According to a tutorial from California Polytechnic Institute (Cal Poly), there are 5 unique schools of thought when it comes to academic note-taking; these systems can be used to remember during a live lecture or when you are engaged in academic reading. The Cornell MethodLecture/reading notes are transcribed (utilizing shorthand language) on a sheet of paper with clear margins. As soon as the lecture/reading is ended up, write one- or two-word cues in the margins next to each essential information point. To review the product, cover the main body of your notes and leave the hints exposed; with appropriate studying, you need to eventually be able to recite all of the info by simply seeing the cue. The Outlining MethodMost trainees discover this approach during their primary/secondary school education. General ideas are written on the far left-hand side of the page and, as the material becomes more specific, the notes are caved in even more to the right. The Mapping MethodRather than merely writing the notes, mapping typically entails a visual part: numbers, marks, color coding, or some other sort of illustration of the academic text. The Charting MethodLike the mapping approach, charting includes a component of graphic representation to supplement the composed notes. In this case, it normally takes the type of a graph or data table. The Sentence MethodThis system involves developing a different sentence for each unique idea, reality, or data point, and after that numbering them on the page in an order that corresponds to the lecture/reading. You can build on sentence-based notes by including page numbers or other markers for your own referral.

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In addition to different note-taking techniques, here are a couple of extra ideas to assist you produce much better notes for your academic readings: Make flashcardsThese can be especially helpful for memorizing vocabulary terms, essential concepts, and crucial dates. Develop a set of flashcards for each unique section of the course; this permits you to find out each area individually, and after that integrate all of the flashcards to adequately study for midterms and last examinations. Rewrite til it hurtsFor formulas, sequential timelines, and other topics that need understanding of a specific order, it can be handy to just transcribe the notes by hand till you have actually memorized the proper series. Mark quotesIf you are writing an academic term paper, quotes from authoritative sources are a valuable commodity. Usage color-coded Post-It notes to mark useful passages in your book sources, and produce a digital document with copy-pasted blurbs from online journals and publications. Do not forget to keep in mind the page number in addition to the individual who has coined the quote, and his/her official title if it isn't the author of the work. Refer to more than one source for difficult topicsHaving difficulty comprehending the basics of a particular idea or concept? Locate a source that covers the exact same ground and compare/contrast the various definitions. Sometimes it is easier to grasp details with more than one context. Create a list of staying questionsSometimes, an academic source does not cover all of the info you need. When you end up reading and assembling notes from a given work, put in the time to consider and write out other subjects you still need to research in order to completely comprehend the product. Sample Essay To demonstrate what an extensive task of academic reading looks like, we have actually examined an excerpt from an undergraduate chemistry class. In the margins of the essay, we describe the mentality and techniques an attentive student ought to employ when reading the sample. This recommendations can be applied to any assigned reading given to you throughout your undergraduate studies. Finishing reading projects is one of the biggest obstacles in academic community. Nevertheless, are you handling your reading effectively? Consider this cooking analogy, keeping in mind the distinctions in process: Shannon has to make supper. He goes to the shop and walks through every aisle. He chooses to make spaghetti, so he reviews aisles and reads lots of plans completely before deciding which groceries to buy. Once he arrives home, he discovers a dish for spaghetti, but needs to go back to the store for ingredients he forgot.

Why is academic reading crucial?

The goal of the research study is to examine trainees approach to reading by examining the quality of their learning results. ... These include-- reading, writing, vital thinking, oral presentation, and media literacy. Despite the value of these abilities for academic success, teachers hardly ever teach them Taylor likewise has to make dinner. He desires great deals of carbs since he's running a marathon soon so he decides to make spaghetti. After inspecting some dishes, he makes a list of ingredients. At the grocery store, he skims aisles to discover his components and picks items that fulfill his diet.

Taylor's process was more efficient due to the fact that his purpose was clear. Establishing why you are reading something will assist you choose how to read it, which conserves time and improves understanding. This guide notes some purposes for reading along with different strategies to try at different stages of the reading process. Purposes for reading People read different sort of text (e.g., academic articles, textbooks, reviews) for different reasons. Some purposes for reading might be to scan for specific details to skim to get an overview of the text to relate new material to existing knowledge to write something (often depends on a timely). to critique an argument. to discover something. for general comprehension. Techniques. Strategies vary from reader to reader. The same reader might utilize different techniques for different contexts due to the fact that their purpose for IELTS practice test reading modifications. Ask yourself "why am I reading?" and "what am I reading?" when choosing which techniques to try. Prior to reading.

Establish your function for reading. Speculate about the author's function for writing. Review what you currently understand and wish to learn about the topic (see the guides listed below). Preview the text to get a summary of its structure, looking at headings, figures, tables, glossary, etc . Anticipate the contents of the text and pose concerns about it. If the authors have actually provided discussion concerns, read them and write them on a note-taking sheet. Keep in mind any conversation questions that have actually been offered (in some cases at the end of the text). Test pre-reading guides-- K-W-L guide. Crucial reading questionnaire. Throughout reading. Annotate and mark (moderately) areas of the text to quickly remember crucial or interesting ideas. Inspect your predictions and find answers to posed concerns. Usage headings and transition words to determine relationships in the text. Develop a vocabulary list of other unknown words to specify later on. Try to presume unfamiliar words' significances by determining their relationship to the main point. Connect the text to what you already learn about the topic. Take breaks (split the text into sectors if essential). Test annotated texts-- Journal short article · Book chapter excerpt. After reading. Summarize the text in your own words (note what you discovered, impressions, and responses) in an outline, principle map, or matrix (for numerous texts). Talk to somebody about the author's concepts to examine your understanding. Recognize and reread difficult parts of the text. Define words on your vocabulary list (attempt a learner's dictionary) and practice utilizing them. Test graphic organizers-- Concept map · Literature evaluation matrix.

What is academic listening?

Search results page Featured bit from the web Academic Listening. Academic Listening involves the reception and understanding of spoken product with an educational function. This location has many kinds, consisting of academic lectures, debates and seminar discussions, and frequently uses a high level of language structure and vocabulary. When you get to university, you'll find you require to get through a lot of readings either from your reading list, or for larger reading in preparation for a project. These might be journal short articles, chapters in edited books or chapters in books. A number of these academic texts will appear rather difficult, particularly to begin with. Don't anguish! You might not need to read every post on your reading list. If you learn how to preview your readings initially, you can pick those readings or areas of a reading that are most relevant to your requirements. There are a variety of strategies that you can use to make the job less overwhelming. Your System Handbook or Research study Guide will have a academic reading list. This list will normally be divided into required readings and advised readings. Constantly start with the required readings. Ideally, these will be basic texts that can offer you an overview of the topic. When you have a basic idea of the course content, more specific or detailed texts will be much easier to comprehend. To maximize your reading, you require to be able to determine your purpose. In most cases, this function will be determined in questions consisted of in the System Handbook or Research Study Guide. These questions will make it much easier to understand what you read. If there are no questions, you require to recognize more particular functions for reading since why you are reading will determine how you read. The method you read an unique, a paper, a telephone directory and an academic short article will be various since your function for reading will be different each time. There are three main kinds of reading that individuals do:. Reading for fast reference-- when you need to find specific info. Reading for enjoyment-- to unwind, for enjoyable, since you like the writer's style. Vital reading-- to understand/analyse concepts or concepts.

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creativitytoexplore · 4 years ago

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Divergent Memories by Tim Frank https://ift.tt/3h5c2nN Tim Frank tells a chilling science fiction tale of the Church's capacity to foster self-denial in service of its own ends.

The congregation, consisting mainly of young couples, some accompanied by their children, the rest single men, knelt in prayer as the priest's voice boomed from the altar to the nave. "Now," he said, placing his hand on the bible that was open at the Book of Proverbs, "I want you to access your memory chips and go to a place you dread the most - the hidden, the traumatic. Remember, we have analysed your chips meticulously and we can assure you there is nothing too disturbing recorded in them. And yet these memories must be confronted, held up to the light, because if we blot out the past we cannot truly live in the present. Well now, let us proceed, shall we?" Malcolm grabbed hold of his wife's hand and squeezed tight. She responded with a reassuring smile and briefly rested her head on his shoulder. They both closed their eyes and began to sift through memories on their memory chips. The chips were lodged in their skulls just behind their left ears. Now that he had been prompted, Malcolm knew exactly which memories to focus on. After all, these particular recollections had been haunting him since their inception. His mind was transported back in time until he arrived at a flashback where he was standing in a deserted toilet. The lavatory had five cubicles, three sinks and a large mirror, reflecting the light from the windows, creating a phosphorescent cube. Staring back at him in the mirror was a youthful Malcolm, maybe aged fifteen years old, wearing a school uniform - his tie twisted out of shape and one side of his shirt untucked. He could smell a cigarette burning from the far cubicle and plumes of smoke played against the ceiling before they were sucked into the air vent. As the smoke spread throughout the room, Malcolm's lungs became constricted and he began to wheeze. He approached the cubicle from where the smoke was emanating and found the door was ajar. He pushed it open gently with his foot. He revealed a young man, roughly Malcolm's age, holding a cigarette with a limp wrist, wearing thickly applied eyeliner and lip gloss. "Can you put the cigarette out? It's bad for my asthma." The kid stood and blew smoke in Malcolm's face who then fell into a coughing fit. The kid flushed his cigarette down the loo and then inspected himself in the mirror. He dabbed the edges of his mouth with a tissue. He glowed like a TV screen. "I'm Fred," he said, and turned to Malcolm resting his hand on Malcolm's shoulder. "I've seen you about," said Fred. "If you don't struggle, we can have some fun." Suddenly Fred grabbed him by the mouth and squeezed hard, forcing Malcolm's lips wide open. Fred forced himself on Malcolm, sticking his tongue down his throat and then grabbing his crotch. Fred began to unbuckle Malcolm's belt and then unzip his flies. "Stop!" said Malcolm, his voice reverberating around the church. He coughed and spluttered. He reached for his inhaler and drew on it a couple of times and his breathing eased somewhat. The rest of the people in the church, including his wife, continued to focus on their memories. The priest ushered Malcolm aside and said, "What is the problem, my child, can I help in any way?" "Father, you said these memories would be bearable and we must face them no matter what, but they are worse than I had imagined. Thinking back, I never realised just how taxing they were. May I could be excused from this process?" "I'm afraid not, my child, there are no shortcuts. Let me compromise with you, however. Meditate on the unfinished memories for now. But I want you to complete them at home and report back to me next Sunday." "OK, Father, that sounds fair. I'll try my best. Thank you for your understanding." Malcolm re-joined his wife just as she was surfacing from her dream-like state. Her eyes fluttered open and she took several soothing breaths. She turned to Malcolm and asked, "How was it for you?" "Honestly, I don't know where to begin," he replied. Malcolm looked around at the other people in the church. The gathering as a whole were clearly shaken by the afternoon's events - many were in tears, shuddering in grief. "Looks like I'm not the only one who has a lot to think about," Malcolm said. "Please can we go home now; I need a drink." As they were leaving, Malcolm spotted a man at the back of the church, roughly his own age, with an unkempt beard and a hoodie drawn over his head so only a portion of his face could be seen. Malcolm felt he knew the man from somewhere. As the congregation had poured out of the church and milled about on the front steps the man leant against a lamppost across the road analysing his untied shoelaces - waiting. "Will you stay here for a minute, darling?" Malcolm said to his wife, "I've just seen an old friend. I won't be long." "Sure, but why don't you bring him over and introduce us?" "Um, no, he's not that kind of friend." Malcolm crossed the street and he reached the streetlight just as it began to flicker into life. The stranger's eyes were shielded by shadows and without ceremony he placed a piece of paper in Malcolm's palm and said, "Come when you're ready but don't take too long - you only have so much time." "Who are you?" asked Malcolm. "And what's with all the mystery?" The man didn't answer he just walked away into the early autumn evening, his laces swinging loose, dragging across the pavement. Back by his wife's side, she said, "Everything OK?" "False alarm. Mistaken identity." But Elaine wasn't convinced. She stared over Malcolm's shoulder towards where the man had stood. "I hope you're not keeping secrets from me, Malcolm?" she said. Malcolm clenched the note the stranger had given him in his hand. He still hadn't read the contents. "I came here, Elaine; because you asked me. I'm trying." That night Malcolm was in the living room, seated cross-legged in his dressing gown on a leather upholstered armchair, swirling a finger of whisky around in a tumbler. Elaine came to the door and held on to the frame. "Are you ready to tell me what you saw today? Or are going to keep me in the dark as usual," she said. "Elaine, I don't even know myself. The truth is I couldn't finish the memory. It was too disturbing." "Well you must be able to tell me something. For example, that man with the beard. There was something not quite right with him." "I told you - I thought I knew him but I was wrong." "Fine, have it your way, get drunk, blast it all away but it's our marriage on the line." "Look, I'll tell you what I know, OK? The whole thing was just so surreal, as if it was otherworldly. So, there was this boy from school, this disgusting camp thing, a gay boy who came on to me in the school toilet. He did things to me, or he was just about to before I stopped the memory. I couldn't face what was about to happen. Clearly this is an event in my life the church feels I have to face. Now I'm going to finish my drink. I'll be up to bed soon." "I'm sorry, Malcolm, I don't know what to say. I guess..." "What?" "I guess it does explain a few things, about your recent actions." "Why you took me - forced me - to go to the church in the first place?" "I didn't force you. Malcolm, but it was necessary. You are the one who cheated on me, remember? I know you want this marriage to work and I know you love me. I really feel this is the best way. I want you to watch the rest of the memories for me, when you're ready, then we'll have an in-depth discussion about it with the priest. This is progress, trust me." As she went up to bed, Malcolm slumped down inside his chair, lolled his head back and let out a sigh. He placed his reading glasses on his nose and pulled out the piece of paper the man had given him earlier outside the church. It said, 'Don't trust anyone. Watch your memories and meet me at Queens Passage underground station when you can next week. I'll find you.' Malcolm struck a match, set the note on fire and let it burn out in a waste paper basket. Over the next few days, Malcolm toyed with the idea of watching the traumatic memories in full, but he decided he couldn't face the prospect. Finally, though, he decided what he had to do: face his past and meet the man who had given him the note. He knew this person had played a major role in his life - he felt it in his bones. It was a long journey to Queens Passage from Malcolm's House - full of rugged countryside flashing by and as the train thrust through dark tunnels, Malcolm fingered his memory card behind his ear. He looked up and down the train carriage, empty but for one man wearing a peaked cap, balancing a cane on his lap. Further along, in other carriages were a smattering of people he couldn't quite make out. The train was entering more built-up areas - council estates, high rise buildings, factories - but the stops were few and far between. "Come on," Malcolm said to himself, "you can't hide from this forever. Harden up and watch these memories. Then you can finish with them for good." He slid the chip into his skull, fished about for the correct memory then closed his eyes, ready to be transported. His body stiffened. The train came to a halt but Malcolm was so spellbound he didn't notice. A mother and her child of about three years old entered and sat opposite Malcolm, paying him no mind. The kid wore dungarees, had long hair, with his fringe dangling over his eyes. Malcolm began to swing his head from side to side in distress. The toddler turned his attention to Malcolm - peering up at his face, then he clambered down from his seat and grabbed hold of the hand rail beside Malcolm. "Cody!" barked his mum over the tumult of the train, as it entered another tunnel. "Leave that man alone and come sit beside me." Cody ignored her, drew a sleeve across his runny nose and tugged on Malcolm's trouser leg. By this point, Malcolm was banging his head against the window behind him in distress, sweat forming around his brow. Cody grabbed Malcolm's arm and pushed several times at it but Malcolm remained in his trance. Then, seeing the continuing anguish in Malcolm's face and hearing his strained breathing, he took hold of Malcolm's hand and bit down on it hard. Malcolm winced and his eyes sprung open. He looked around, trying to find his bearings and, with relief, he realised he had woken from his nightmare. Cody looked up at Malcolm with a curious half-smile. Malcolm inspected his hand. There were fresh bite marks lining the flesh above his thumb. "Sorry, mister," said Cody's mum, "Cody's so naughty, no boundaries." Malcolm lifted the boy onto his knee. "It's OK," he said rubbing his temples, "she was doing me a favour." "She? Oh no mister, Cody's a boy. We get that a lot. It's the hair, I guess, and his pretty eyes. The name doesn't help either," the mother chuckled. And as if swatting a deadly spider, Malcolm flung Cody aside, sending the boy sliding across the aisle. The boy howled in shock and horror as his mum raced over to tend to him. "What the hell is wrong with you mister?" said Cody's mum. She carried the boy on her hip and stepped off the train - the boy bawling his eyes out. Now, as if he was an apparition from an alternate time, sitting in the mother's place was a lean young man in a black tracksuit, clean shaven, hair buzzed close, staring at Malcolm intently. Malcolm knew him, he was sure of that, but he couldn't figure out how. "Come on now," said the man, wearing a grin. "Tell me you've connected the dots by now. You have watched the memories, haven't you? Otherwise we're all wasting our time." "It's you, Fred," Malcolm said, "It's you... from my memory. You're to blame. I'll - I'll tear you apart." "I understand your distress," said Fred. "But I'm here to show you you've been lied to. Your life is a sham and your rage is misplaced. I have my own memory chip that will relay the facts - no games, no schemes." "How did you find me?" "I've been following you for a while. I know all about you." "You're insane." "Maybe, but I know there's something you're searching for. Maybe I can provide the answer. Regardless, all I'm asking of you is to watch a few memories I've marked on my chip. It's that simple. What have you got to lose?" Fred held out a chip in the palm of his hand. Malcolm stared at it almost in disgust, as if it was a cockroach, then finally, in resignation, he took the chip and slipped it into the port behind his ear. It didn't take him long to slide into a hypnotic trance. He saw numerous doors lining either side of a cobble stone pathway. Malcolm saw a burgundy coloured door more finely in focus than the others. He manoeuvred his mind so it faced the door and then he stepped through the entrance. Before him was the toilet with him and Fred inside - it was the disturbing memory he had forced himself to watch just minutes ago. Malcolm wanted to turn and flee out of the door, lift his consciousness from the horrific thoughts, yet he stayed. He had come this far, suffered so much that he knew he had to see this burden through. Malcolm now experienced the scene through Fred's eyes and yet Malcolm could still vaguely recollect his own perception of the events that had transpired in the toilet. The light was different. Instead of there being an almost fake hyperreal luminosity filling the room, now it was drab and grey. It felt palpably authentic. As Fred was smoking, he eyed Malcolm up and down. Fred himself was different. No longer was he exhibiting the camp characteristics that Malcolm found so alienating. Instead Fred was slouched on the toilet, legs spread wide, taking long drags on his cigarette and squinting like Clint Eastwood as smoke stung his eyes. Fred got to his feet and stood face to face with Malcolm. Malcolm swooped in and landed a forceful kiss upon Fred's mouth, leaving his lips red raw. Malcolm slid off his tie, shrugged off his school jacket and began to unbutton his shirt collar. Fred stood and watched for a second or two. Suddenly, he hitched his shirt over his head in one clean movement and stood before Malcolm half naked. He waited for Malcolm to reveal his body. Finally, the two boys collapsed into another clinch. Malcolm stopped the memory card and he tuned into the present day. At first reality seemed blurred like looking through a kaleidoscope, but then life came into focus - the train, the cityscape blazing by outside in greens and greys. Before him was Fred, lost in his own world, staring just above Malcolm's head. "Where did you get this memory?" Malcolm said, jolting Fred out of his daze. "Those are my memories, that I recorded." "They're clearly forgeries, none of this happened." "No, Malcolm, what you've just seen is the truth. They're entirely real. The memories you think are genuine are manipulations created by your church." "What do you know about the church and what do you know about me?" "I know the most important secrets about you." "Well, I know who you are," said Malcolm, "and what you want. You raped me in the school toilets and now out of guilt you've doctored these memories to make it look like I wanted you." "I knew that was what the church would do. Listen to me Malcolm, and listen to me well - the church wants to make out you were raped, so you turn against yourself and suppress your desire for men. You're gay, married to a woman, and you're a member of a church that can't accept that. There has been a slew of whistle-blowers trying to bring light to this very dark situation, but your church is powerful and many victims have suffered. You're one of them." "Why on earth should I trust you?" "Malcolm, I did not rape you. I care about you and I'm here to help." "What do you want from all this? Do you want me to say I harbour feelings for you or something crazy like that?" "I guess what happened between us left a lasting impression and it's been with me, festering, all this time. I know you feel the same way." "What do you expect me to do with all of this? I'm married, I believe in God. I have a life." "Leave your wife and come with me. Let's get to know each other. No more lies, no more hiding." Malcolm's chest began to heave up and down and he became flush. He grabbed hold of the arm rests and blood seemed to drain from his hands as they whitened under the pressure. "This is too much," he said, looking around the carriage - anything to avoid Fred's searching glare. Malcolm rushed out of the train at the next stop, the sound of his footsteps throbbed through the tubular station that he shared with commuters and the rats scuttling along tracks. Malcolm had journeyed far and it was a long way home. But when he did reach home he burst through the front door, desperately searching for his wife, only to locate her perched on their bed, bare feet huddled beneath her, drinking a cup of green tea. "What is it, Malcolm?" she said, turning to him as she fumbled with her drink, spilling some over the rim. "Say something, you're worrying me." Malcolm was speechless. He had no memory chip inserted and his mind was left in its natural state - fragile and constantly fluctuating. However, amorphous strands of the two conflicting flashbacks set in the school toilets had left him in a state of utter confusion. "Elaine," he began, placing one palm on the duvet as if to steady himself. "There are many things racing through my mind and I really have no idea where to start." "Just speak." "OK. Is it possible that our church changed my memories when I gave them my chip to examine?" "What? No. No, and why on earth would you ask that? "Exactly, there's no reason other than..." "Other than what, Malcolm? Look, if you've found a memory that's disturbing, the church and I will help you through it." "I understand that, I do," Malcolm said, standing and then beginning to pace back and forth, picking up and inspecting the odd framed picture as he went. "But I have this one memory, a very disturbing one that just doesn't feel real." "Maybe it's something you want to believe isn't real because it's very traumatising. Why don't you tell me what it is and we can progress from there?" "There's no point. You'd have to see the alternative memory to judge which is the real one." "What other memory? Malcolm, what's going on?" "I met a man today, the man who confronted me at the church, remember? He gave me a chip that had a different version of events than were on my memory chip." "That makes no sense at all. Tell me honestly now, what were the differences in memories?" "I - I don't want to say it out loud," Malcolm said, reaching for his inhaler as his chest tightened. "You have to," said Elaine, sitting up and placing her drink to one side. "If we keep secrets and lose our faith in each other, in God for that matter, everything we have will be destroyed." "OK, OK, I'll tell you. I watched my memories this morning on the train. It portrayed me getting raped by another boy at school. It was the most awful, heinous thing. Then the man I met outside the church the other day, linked up with me on the underground. He said that I was given fake memories, implanted to cover up I'm gay." Elaine contemplated what Malcolm had said, and took a long pause before she replied. "Are you gay, Malcolm?" "Of course not, in no way," Malcolm said. "But if what he says is true and the memories he gave me are genuine then it implies something I've never contemplated." "Come on now, Malcolm, you can do better than that." "What's that supposed to mean?" "We said total honesty, didn't we?" "I don't think I can be any plainer with you." "Malcolm, I want a family and a god-fearing life in the suburbs. I could have had other men, but I chose you. Maybe because we met young and I didn't want to rock the boat, maybe because I believed you could look after me in a way no one else could. Anyway, it doesn't matter now, my decision has been made. But, I warn you, you can pretend you don't have another side to your nature, but I'm no idiot." "What does this all mean, Elaine? So, you're saying the church did plant memories and I'm homosexual? Because that's out of the question." "How can you be so deluded? Do you even know your own mind?" "I know who I am. Things are just confusing at the moment. I'm feeling lightheaded. I need water, please." "Ok, fine. That's enough for tonight. We can discuss this more with the priest at church tomorrow. I'm not giving up on us now. Take a throw, you're sleeping on the couch." The next day Malcolm left his memory chip on the living room table. Elaine wanted him to be a new man and this was the only way he could see himself doing it - separating himself from the chilling memory of being raped, whether it was real or not. When they reached the church, the priest invited each of the congregation to approach the front and reveal what they'd learnt during the past week while searching their memory chips. When it was Malcolm's turn to speak, he could feel the intense pressure to conform and confess his guilt. Without his memory chip, searching his mind felt like delving into a murky ocean. "You all seem to know what to say and truthfully, I don't. But I'll try. I love my wife beyond words but I have doubts and over the last few days these doubts have grown stronger because I don't know who I am anymore." Malcolm began to breath hard and he reached for his inhaler but it wasn't in his usual side pocket. Memories sifted to the surface of his mind. He saw images of wet flesh, blood and pubic hair. "I'm a good man," he stuttered, "but I can't remember who I used to be. How - how can I know who I am, if - if I can't remember anything?" He saw Fred by the exit and then Malcolm passed out. As his eyes opened tentatively, he realised he was prostrate on the ground surrounded by strange faces, whispering. His breathing had settled down into an even rhythm. He searched the circle of people for Fred, but he was gone. All he could see was a mass of bodies arched over him like hunters analysing their prey. Elaine said, "It's OK you've just had an asthma attack. You did great. I think you've really made a break through. We all do." "He was here," said Malcolm, breathlessly. "Fred, was here. I didn't invite him. I don't want him here, I promise." Elaine shushed Malcolm, "It's OK." The priest approached, handed Elaine a bottle of water to give to Malcolm. Then he laid a comforting hand upon Malcolm's shoulder after he was refreshed. "Are you OK now, Malcolm? Do you think he's ready for the news, Elaine?" "Yes, this is as good as time as any," said Elaine. "What news?" Malcolm said. Elaine's lips began to tremble as a tear fell from her eye and she said, "You're going to be a father." "What?" Malcolm said. "I'm pregnant, I'm going to have your baby." "I - I don't understand. I'm going to be a dad? But are you sure? How long have you known?" "A while." "Why didn't you tell me before?" "You weren't ready. I hope you are now. I hope you will continue with me to make a better marriage, and forget about the past." His mind was suddenly clear, as if his past was a figment of his imagination, as if it had never existed. He felt he could become whoever he wanted to be - a new man. He would conform, knuckle down and start with a clean slate. And wasn't being a family man what he really wanted anyway? And wasn't it what was most natural? It would certainly be easier. No longer would he be split, bisected by two memories. He would beat a new path.

#FICTION on the WEB short stories

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podcake · 7 years ago

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Podcast Teatime: Boston Tea Party

Hello again, readers! To cap off this fine interview month, I scored big with pulling aside the creators of Greater Boston Alexander Danner and Jeff Van Dreason for some talk and tea.

(The following is a direct copy-and-paste from the email)

Question One: I’ve always liked the semi-documentary style of your show. The way it often starts off with an interview that somewhat reflects the central topic of the episode is a nifty framing device. Is there any reason why you chose to do this? JVD: For one thing, our show is set in a real place, albeit a skewed, alt universe real place. Since we mention factual events and history, there’s already some bleeding between fact and fiction, past and present. Further, the show is about a community - a geographical area larger than a city. We have a large cast, but our thought process was the more individual voices that we hear from in the show, the larger our community feels, the more similar to a city and its surrounding areas it sounds.

The answers we select from our interviews match the tone of what we’re going for, both for the show as a whole and the individual episodes. Some of them are funny, strange, sad, or a mixture of all of the above. It’s a nice, refreshing way to start, I think - hearing something real and authentic straight from someone’s mouth. It’s not written, it’s not rehearsed, it just is. Finally, it was a good way to make the show more diverse, which was a huge concern for us giving that most of our cast members in Season 1 were white.

It’s a city. Cities are diverse, so it should have a diverse feeling.

Question Two: What is it about Boston that drives you write an audio drama based around it? Are you from that city or do you just personally find it interesting enough to write about?

AD: We’ve both lived in Boston for a long time, but neither of us is originally from here. We’re actually both from different parts of New York. For me, Boston very quickly felt like “home.” I love living in a city that you can reasonably cross from end to end on foot, and pass through such very different places. Boston’s one of the oldest cities in the US, so for good and bad, there’s a lot of history here, and Boston loves wearing its history openly. So it’s easy to find inspiration, both for quirky moments and dramatic.

JVD: Boston is such a weird city! So much of it makes very little sense. There’s this huge sense of working class ethos mixed with higher ed academia, it’s seriously progressive while also being incredibly old fashioned. There’s so much history and it surrounds us everywhere, but then there’s also a ton of development, so you have these old buildings next a bank-sponsored skyrise, the old Trinity Church is dwarfed by the John Hancock tower, but it’s also reflected in its windows.

That’s Boston in a nutshell; this tiny, old little church directly next to and reflected in an imposing glass tower, Boston’s tallest skyscraper. In the Greater Boston universe, much of what’s happened in the past remains in the present somehow; the sticky streets from the molasses flood in the North End, the fact that Wonderland is still an amusement park, the trash fire on Spectacle Island – and those are conscious decisions rooted in the fact that our history still surrounds us everywhere we look, whether we’re aware of it or not.

There’s even some antiquated laws that are technically still on the books in Boston. I remember hearing you can challenge someone to a legal duel on the Boston Common because that law has yet to have been thrown out or redacted. And part of that weirdness to me is urban alienation. Every time I take the Red Line, I think of how weird it is that all these strangers are crammed together in this underground moving box, and everyone acts like they’re completely alone, ignoring the humanity, the community all around them.

And that’s really a city in a nutshell. We’re all literally in the same situation, we have so much in common, but people sit seats apart from each other. They’re afraid of even their clothing getting too close to another human being. And I get it, because people are afraid of standing out and looking weird, or encouraging weird behavior from strangers. But I feel like the harder we try not to connect with other people? The weirder we all look!

Question Three: Greater Boston is often described to be a sort of slice of life meets magic realism show…with a subway. Was this the genre you were aiming for or do you deem Greater Boston to be something else entirely?

AD: I think that description captures us pretty well. I worry more about the humor/drama balance than about nailing down a specific genre descriptions. That said, magic realism has certainly been a major influence on my my writing for many years, as have contemporary slipstream authors like Kelly Link. JVD: I appreciate the fact that our genre and tone are difficult to pin down. We wanted to create something complex, something that felt more like a novel in audio form, something that defied classification. It can be a tricky thing to balance, honestly, and we’re both very conscious about making sure some episodes are funny, some are more serious, while all of them sound a little…off, weird, strange, different. That’s the Greater Boston blend we’ve always been going for.

Question Four: Your cast of characters are colorful, to say the least. Is there anyone in particular that’s the most fun to write for?

AD: Well, they’re all fun to write for in different ways, especially because we’ve really tried hard to give them all unique voices. But I don’t think anyone will be surprised to hear that there’s a particular pleasure in writing Mallory. She was only ever meant to appear once, giving her recounting of Leon’s death, back in episode four, but she was just too much fun to write not to revisit her. And now she’s an important part of the full ensemble.

JVD: Mallory is a blast, but she’s also very difficult to write because you constantly have to come up with new and creative ways to swear! I’m not sure I can pick a favorite, honestly, but I love writing scenes with Gemma and Charlotte. They just have such an interesting and complex relationship. I really like Nica too and I use her to express a lot of my personal frustrations and demons. And Leon. Leon’s character is so finite that it’s easy to slip right into that voice.

Question Five: You’ve gotten to collaborate with quite a few people including those behind Ars Paradoxica as well as cameos by Lauren Shippen, Rick Coste, and Ryan Estrada. What was it like getting to work with them and what do you think it’s done for the show?

AD: Oh, it’s so much fun! We’re very lucky to have so many wonderful people who’ve been kind to our show. Getting Beth Eyre in for a recurring part through Season 2 was especially exciting, and she was wonderful! But one of my favorite aspects of this community is how gamely people step into help out on each other’s shows. So many of us have appeared on each other’s shows at this point! (I’m especially proud of my turn on The Infinite Now, in the episode “The Martian Thirst Trap.”)

Of course, that we were allowed to actually *write* a piece of arsParadoxica was a particular honor. They allowed us to write something thoroughly ridiculous for their characters, which was generous and a delight to be a part of. And “Curses” won’t be the last bit we guest write for other shows–but I think we’ll have some announcements to make about that closer to 2018.

Question Six: One of my personal favorite things about Greater Boston has always been the music selection. How exactly did you manage to get a soundtrack that screamed, “This an alternative version of Boston!”

AD: The music began with Dirk and Emily, who are old friends of mine. I actually know Dirk from my days in making comics, and we long talked about collaborating on a project. We *meant* a comic, but Greater Boston became the first project we actually worked on together. He and Emily happened to be talented musicians, playing primarily Irish folk and maritime traditionals, which is perfect for representing Boston.

They then brought in Adrienne, who introduced the hurdy gurdy to our sound, which was a brilliant addition. Jim, who brings in the drums, is someone we both know through our teaching jobs. We kind of pull talent from all over our lives. Dave Lewis, whose original piano music appeared in season 2, is someone I hadn’t spoken to since middle school, but the show brought us back in touch!

BONUS: I’m sure many people want to know what pushes you to keep writing and creating your work. In something as rickety as the podcast scene, you never know what audience you’ll attract and what success may come your way, so what is it that keeps you determined in such a broad and still growing art field? JVD: A lot of what initially pushed us into the genre of audio drama was our frustration with trying to publish our fiction and produce theatrical work. It’s really difficult to do either of those things and what I love about podcasting is that you can just do something independently.

It takes time, it takes work, it takes hours scheduling and recording and producing, but you’re able to make something complex and beautiful on your own and with the help of your friends. It’s more collaborative and hands-on than writing a story, and there’s more evolution in story than a produced play. And in either case, you have time to build an audience.

Neither of us had dreams of producing the next podcast smash when we made Season 1. We just wanted to get our writing and stories into as many heads as possible. We’re actually blown away with how much Greater Boston has taken off. That’s not to say we’re some kind of runaway podcast smash, but it thrills us so much to know we have an audience. A small audience, but a dedicated one. That’s so huge to us. It’s a tremendous responsibility, in some ways. We don’t want to disappoint people.

We don’t want to let anyone down. But it’s also thrilling and pushes us into wanting to make our show even better, with each new episode and season we write and produce. We also have to credit how nurturing and supportive the entire audio drama community is. It’s one of the best artistic communities I’ve ever encountered and it feels incredibly exciting to be a part of it, right now especially. I think in many ways, we feel really lucky that the show came out when it did, because we were among a lot of other fantastic audio dramas being released shortly before or after we kicked off. I think we’ve both longed to be in a community like this, where we can pop into each others shows or help record something for each other or even write something for another show.

There’s something so rewarding about that to me. It’s the type of creative situation I’ve looked for my whole life.

AD: And the fact that audio drama is still a growing, developing field only makes being a part of it more exciting. Right now, it’s possible to jump in, and right away have your voice heard, and even feel like you’re influencing the direction the form is heading. The whole experience has been creatively invigorating.

It’s always these creative duos that give me some of the best answers. Hopefully you feel as warm and fuzzy as I do after that interview and are eager to check out Greater Boston for yourself. Thank you all for joining me for tea…now get the fuck off my Red Line.

#greater boston #alexander danner #jeff van dreason #the greatest boston there is #q&a #podcast teatime #the infinite now #ars paradoxica

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