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Thankscation
Well, I’m on PTO until Cyber Monday but will that stop me from working on the stuff I’m behind on at work? Probably not, but it’s nice to know I don’t technically have to.
Rime in Thyme
Frost is the greatest artist in our clime – he paints in nature and describes in rime. ~Thomas Hood
Note that I said “stuff I’m behind on at work“. I’ll get to that stuff when and if I get to it.
On the other hand, the stuff I’m behind on not at work is what’s bugging me right now. There’s no way I’m getting my whole Holiday Season Serial Romance story done by Thanksgiving, but I might be about halfway done if I can really put the pedal to the metal.
The nice thing about being on PTO is that I can give my project the focus it requires and deserves while enjoying the leisure of spending holiday family time with the wife and kiddos.
Super Shenanigans
SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME – Official Trailer (HD)
We’ve had a summer of enjoyable MCU releases, but Spidey is always someone worth waiting for.
This is all the more true when he’s going to be battling a lot of his classic villains.
There’s an amazing episode of the 60s animated series where a bunch of Spidey’s most iconic villains gang up to really ruin his day. A majority of those guys are going to be in this movie with roles reprised by the actors who played in earlier movies featuring Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.
I don’t know if they’ll save the real Easter Egg for the movie’s release and include Nicholas Hammond from the 70s live action series. I doubt that they will, but it would be awesome if they did.
Phase 4 of the MCU seems to be centering around the multiverse and the possibilities opened up by rupturing the bounds of any given universe or time stream. This makes it easier for them to hand wave the addition of any or all of the zillions of characters that the comic book label has created in the last six decades (or eight, if you count Timely Comics as their actual origin).
SPIDERMAN NO WAY HOME TRAILER BREAKDOWN! Easter Eggs & Details You Missed!
Kaleidoscope
Good art is art that allows you to enter it from a variety of angles and to emerge with a variety of views. ~Mary Schmich
A well-told story should make you think. A lot of times, the author has a clear idea of what (s)he wants you to think. Sometimes, a story is told for its own sake and the reader can think what they will.
I tend to fall into the second camp.
I’m not a big fan of trying to include clever symbolism or driving themes. I don’t think that fiction should be propaganda.
The whole point of fiction is to escape reality, so dragging it along as a conceptual undercurrent takes away from the enjoyment of it.
I wonder how much of the clever storytelling that has been attributed to authors by fans and literary analysts was actually intentional.
I think that a part of the creative urge includes a subconscious urge to express one’s point of view on any given issue. The fact that you’ve chosen one What If question over another suggests that you’ve got a certain thematic bee buzzing in your bonnet.
From what I’ve read, going the extra yard to try to cram as much of your point of view into the story tends to get annoying.
I remember reading a certain book for a class in college. I sure wish I didn’t. I’m still scarred by the absolutely shoddy 💩 of it. I felt as if it were a pop-up book. Every few pages, the author would pop out of the book like the clown in a jack in the box swinging a huge mallet and yelling “🔨 LOOK, IT’S A FUCKING SYMBOL! 🤡 I’M SO FUCKING CLEVER! 🔨“. 🤢 Some of the characters’ names were overtly symbolic. 🤮 I couldn’t wait to be done reading that book.
Some people like that kind of story.
🛑✋🏻 I’m not one of them. ✋🏻🛑
It will be interesting to see if people fine-tooth comb my stories like the guy from the Easter Egg video above. It will be even more interesting to see whether or not I did the stuff they’re obsessing over on purpose or not.
That’s it for today. I have a LOT of writing to do.