With a nod to Samuel Delany. Here’s a feed straight from the NYT, The Animated Life that is beautiful. And inspiring. Kind of like Warp Speed all warped….What does it remind you of?
Enjoy
Author: jstueart
Rocket Fuel is Relaunching
The City of Whitehorse is launching a new time and space for Rocket Fuel, the science fiction and fantasy writing group for teens, this year. Watch for times and place here, and in the leisure guide. We’re hoping to have it after school at a Whitehorse school, once a week. We’ll be exploring more ways to write science fiction and fantasy and doing exercises that build writing skills. I think there’s gonna be food too! So, food, science fiction, and other people who like science fiction–all right after school. How can this be a bad thing? No more will you have to give up Saturdays or evenings! I’ll add the blurb from the Leisure Guide when we have all the places and times set!
Tell your friends–we’d love to have 10-16 people, or more. So, if you know anyone who wants to write their own science fiction and fantasy stories and read and comment on other people’s work— invite them. We’d love to have enthusiastic learners and writers!
Novel Writing for Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers
In fact, we’ll be picking up some tips from some of the oldest fantasy epics: Gilgamesh, the Odyssey, Journey to the West, the Ramayana, Beowulf, 1001 Nights, the Bible….
There’s a companion lecture series on what people might enjoy about those epics today, offered to the general public, called We All Began With Fantasy that will begin in September. It’ll be broader than just fantasy writing in the lectures, but I’m hoping to make a case for the relevancy of fantasy today–since it plays a prominent role in most world cultures.
The course will be 12 weeks long and start in late September. We need 8 people to have it make and can hold up to 16. If you are interested give the City of Whitehorse some contact through their Leisure Guide in the Fall or contact Mia Lee at mia.lee@whitehorse.ca and ask for times and ways to sign up. Come write that novel this Fall.
Wall-E makes the New York Times Opinions Page
I love it when Science Fiction is taken seriously. I just saw Wall-E, the Pixar film, and it is truly wonderful. Frank Rich wrote a great column about how much more this film is saying than either candidate running for President. Check out his column–and check out the film.
Wall-E, like most Pixar films, is written well–playing on two tracks simultaneously: one for kids, one for adults. Wall-E and Eve could be a silent film–but it’s also the same comedy that fuels other Pixar short films, where there is usually no dialogue, and also has E.T. and the droids of Star Wars to thank for their non-verbal comedy.
The film does have great characters–again, I am shocked by how well minor characters are portrayed. Full arcs for the Captain of this floating Cruise Ship; for the two cruise passengers; for the cleaning robot; for AutoPilot. The heroes are well drawn too–ultimately sacrificing what they wanted for each other. When I got to that moment–call me a writing geek–but I smiled because it was just thing to complete these main character arcs–that sacrifice, especially in a love story. It had an O. Henry moment for a minute.
But in this age where all we can do is stare down a variety of Tunnels to Apocalypse, science fiction is telling the tales we are listening to. We’re either looking at a life changed by climate change, mass consumerism, lack of exercise…etc. Wall-E serves as a cautionary tale slipped in through the side door of a romantic comedy. When you get to the line “We have to get off our butts and do something” you know that the film has nudged you just a little. But it’s okay because the story is so compelling. It’s not a story written to tell a message; it’s a story that happens to have a message.
That’s a profound difference.
New Course at Yukon College in Novel Writing
Check out the new course I’m teaching at Yukon College for the Fall and Spring. If you’ve wanted to write a novel but haven’t put a first draft together then come in the Fall to write with us–we’ll be hooking up with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which collects thousands of people online who are all writing a novel’s first draft. If nothing else, this course will kickstart your novel writing!
If you’ve already got a first draft, join us in the Winter of 2009 for the Workshop part of the course, where we’ll be revising, editing and showing each other our chapters, writing synopses, chapter outlines, and such, all to work on the novel we’ve now got in our hands.
Just click on the Introduction to Novel Writing link above to go to the page and learn more.
Join us in September or January! We’ll be a Novel-Writing Battalion meets Support Group. Monday nights, starting in September.
When Writers Come Together
Perhaps it was my nostalgia for Clarion, or maybe it was the weekend I had in Calgary that all the science fiction writers had their weekend of writing. All I know is that for two and a half hours, our group wrote. We set up in the library and worked on our laptops and I was happy.
It’s funny, the communal aspects of writing. Why was I so excited to do this? Why was it so much fun to be in a room writing with others? Why is it so hard sometimes doing this alone?
Because I’m a social creature perhaps. Being by myself is very very difficult—professions that make me have to be away from people are hard on me socially. But I loved having them in the room, so I could do both at once. I’m suggesting we do these on a regular basis–so once a month right now, but maybe more later….
Anyway, it was good to do. I worked on a short story, though it took a turn I’ve decided to abandon–too dark for me. I got the willies just writing about it and it overpowered my story….
Still, the exercise is good–and I plan on doing this when I offer my novel writing course in the fall.
Nostalgia, thy name is Clarion
It was this time last year when I had the greatest experience of my science fiction writing life. I’m talking Clarion’s Science Fiction and Fantasy Workshop, held in San Diego (really La Jolla) at UCSD (2007).
I was in the middle of a move out of the country—a summer I had little money to spare–but I threw a quarter of what I had into this workshop, in hopes of learning new technique, honing my writing skills and re-invigorating my desire to write science fiction and fantasy. I had no idea what I was in for…
It was 6 weeks of writing–completely devoted to writing and learning from 18 other writers like myself, who had come to pick up skills too, and from 6 writing teachers, all published writers in their fields: Greg Frost, Jeff and Ann Vandermeer (the editor of Weird Tales), Karen Joy Fowler, Cory Doctorow, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman. We were visited by Stan Robinson, Vernor Vinge, and got to go to the ComiCon held in San Diego.
The core part of it –despite all the superheroes of writing around us–was the group of us, living and writing together in the dorms at UCSD. It was six weeks of hard work, but I look back and I think it was the best work I have ever had—creating. It was electric. Everyone was creating fantastic stories. I’m serious. People were on a level I have never been around–and they were pumping out stories, and what was great about it and allowed me to keep my head up above water, is that everyone else had rough stories too—we were at the same level, AND we were interested in each others ideas (not at all the competitive nature of grad school–colleagues actually cared about your success–I saw no jealousy.). And we learned from each other.
We also bonded as a family. We drank blueberry beer, and badly colored Vitamin water, we visited a haunted tree at night, we walked to the beach, we had squirt gun wars, drew mystic chalk circles on the sidewalk, we lived and breathed science fiction and fantasy writing, we lived a dream for six weeks, really….
I don’t know if I will ever have an experience like that in my life again. But it was beautiful, and taught me a great deal. Some of it I’m still sifting through. Some of it I absorbed and don’t know I gained it when I did…other stuff I can quote to you.
If you ever have a chance to go to Clarion (and I favor San Diego, though Clarion West is probably good, and other workshops have good things too, I’m sure) then scrimp, save, get your significant other’s permission to be encamped along these hills of light, where the joy of writing science fiction and fantasy is shared by 18 other people, and your teachers, where you are encouraged to write. Where others will look at your stuff with honesty and say, “This part here is miracle. This part here is crapola.” You will not regret it–though you have sold all you have, buy Clarion….
I can tell you truthfully, that I still talk to Clarion folks (not as much as I want) and still visit when I can, though once you get to the outer boonies of the Yukon it is hard. And call. And everyone is still writing and publishing.
Often I go back to that time and think now, i wish i had six weeks and 18 people breathing down my neck! Try it out for yourself.
Being Chosen: a motif that resonates deep
Just thinking about Kung Fu Panda again. I remember as I was watching and we were coming to the part of the story where Ooglay, the Turtle, must choose the Dragon Warrior, that I smiled.
Something about that motif always pleases me. It’s a universal desire: being chosen. And not just being chosen, say, in Kickball. I’m talking about a Wise Person, someone well respected, choosing you and telling you that you have abilities far beyond what you thought you did.
Rare these days to find a well-respected Wise Person anymore–wisdom is suspect. Authority is suspect. Certainly supernatural hunches and Predestination is suspect. But we all want it, secretly. For someone to assure us that we will matter. That what we can do is far beyond what we thought we could do. And we really want someone to tell us we have that potential.
I’ve seen the motif in other films, and from really old fairy tales. But it works: Willie Wonka knows that Charlie has the potential to be great; some coach believes in some losing player; the wizard chooses the peasant boy or girl.
I don’t know why I want to talk about it. It just made me happy to see that motif in this film. It plucked that string again in me and resonated deep–that someone might see through my bullshit, through my mistakes, through my attempts, and know what I could do, know what I will do, and bet on me.
Kiss the frog, be kind to the bear, love the beast–it’s all the same. When stories use that motif it resonates with most readers–as long as we can see that the bumbling pre-hero is good and honest and trying, even if he makes a lot of mistakes along the way.
How Kung Fu Panda Gets Fantasy Writing Right
Brilliantly concevied and executed, Kung Fu Panda soars as a Fantasy compared to The Forbidden Kingdom. And essentially, they have the same plot.
Take a fan of martial arts and make him the only one who can stop the big villain in a martial arts film.
The post-modernism of films is actually a delight to see–how “fans” are being incorporated into the films they love as plot and character. I’m sure it’s done well other places (most notably Galaxy Quest which takes actors from a show and puts them in reality, but also has a place for fans of the show as heroes too) but KFP does it with style, owing, I think, in no small part to the casting of Jack Black who has played a fan before: School of Rock and Tenacious D come to mind as well as Be Kind Rewind. So naturally, he’s cast as an adoring fan of Kung Fu–and of the Five heroes that protect the city. When he’s picked as the next Dragon Warrior, he has to learn how to become a warrior. Here’s how I think they did it, the writers, and Black, to make it more believable, more fun, and a better overall handling of the same plot from The Forbidden Kingdom.
1. Po’s training is designed for Po. First this is a comedy, so the training is a parody of Martial Arts films, and a parody of the newbie getting quick-trained by the Master. But Jason’s training in TFK is just standard training with looks of disapproval and lots of complaining and then an unbelievable transformation… Po has to be trained (SPOILER!!) using food–his desire. His training reflects his personality–so in a way, we learn more about Po through his training. For Jason in TFK, his training has no reflection of either his masters or him, and it is merely a trudge to get him to the plot. For KFP, Po’s training furthers the plot and the Po we see after training is still Po–vulnerable, quirky, just better with movees that have little style but are fun to watch…
2. Both have to believe in themselves, but Po offers the more believable moments of doubt and overcoming that doubt.
3. Jackie Chan is in both of these movies playing a Monkey like person–strange. But KFP knows that they keep the dialogue to a minimum on Jackie. And Dustin Hoffman as Shifu is a much more layered character than Jackie Chan’s mentor in TFK. There is a troubled past, some disappointment, a reason he’s gruff, and the promise that he has a character arc too….
4. Other characters have arcs as well–Tigress, Oogway the Turtle, Tai Lung the villain–they all have their pasts, and how they are connected, and how they affect each other. Yes, the crane, viper and monkey and mantis have little to no growth, but by far KFP handles more rounded characters than TFK even tried to.
5. Though we are told that Po will save the day, we don’t know how–and we really never do until he does it. We can’t see that Tai Lung can be stopped, until we watch how it happens. This is brilliant as there is only a little foreshadowing, and most of the time we are discovering Po’s potential as he does.
6. Jason in TFK is a big fan of Martial Arts Films, and Po is the fan of the Five. In KFP, they play up the fandom aspect, making it a part of Po’s character, and why he has an inferiority complex to go with his Hero Worship. Jason rarely exhibits his fanboyness–he’s too busy being a stock character, and never realizing what makes him unique–cause no writer has written it for him. he has two or three jokes in the middle of his training related to his knowledge of a certain move. But the film could have capitalized on Jason’s worship and film knowledge, but after the opening sequence, Jason could have been any kid. With Po, we know his worship is what drives the film…he believes in these heroes, wants to be one of them, is devastated when they don’t like him, and runs when he is burdened with doing what his heroes could not do.
7. Po is likeable. Unlike Jason in TFK, there are no insurmountable character flaws in Po–he just has self-doubt, a low self-image, a bit overweight. But he wants to be better. He tries, he never gives up, and he is thwarted more than once from getting what he wants. He has a dad that loves him, but a future in fast food that many of us would identify with. Jason has that awful moment when he takes the thugs directly to the old man and lets them beat him up…. viewers never recover from that. At least, I didn’t. It was unnecessary.
So, further comparisons might be done on the two movies, but I was thrilled with Panda. And yeah, it was cartoon—but cartoons should never be able to do more with plot or character than live action. In fact, if they do, it really shows the shallowness and deficit of the live action. Cartoons can do more with style and camera shots–and making animals out of everyone–but plot and character aren’t necessarily strengthened with cartoon. So, KFP didn’t win over TFK because of animation—but because the writing was SO much better.
Leaving America: the Radio Series
Hey, looks like it’s a go! CBC Yukon is airing my radio series starting Monday, June 2, between 7:15 and 7:30am. The episodes are about 6 min apiece and there’s seven of them. Five from Mon-Fri and then two left over on Mon, the 9th and Tues, the 10th.
The seven episodes cover my road trip from Midway TX to Whitehorse, YT–4000 miles of stopovers, national parks and interesting things that I did and thought about and interesting people I met along the way–not all of them, of course. I only had a total of 49 minutes, tops!
Mostly it’s about Immigration and what you think about when you change your national identity. But there’s a lot of science fiction in there too because they are so intertwined. (see earlier post on Immigration and Aliens).
Hope you enjoy it. I had a lot of fun doing the audio edits and choosing music and sound effects. I’ve hidden a lot of science fiction music cues in the piece–and hearing what I did with Klingon battle music is worth getting up that early! LOL.
Bear Witness 