200 Word Fiction Project

I fancy myself an amateur writer (amateur because no one has ever felt compelled to pay me for anything I've written). One of my biggest obstacles to ever getting anywhere with my writing is that I find trouble finishing things. I've got more unfinished ideas lying around than I know what to do with. I've decided to take one of these ideas and use it to set a challenge for myself (and help provide content for my blog). Starting tomorrow, and every Friday after that, I'm going to put up a 200 word chunk of a short story (why 200 words? I only wanted to put up small, bite-sized chunks to make it easier to keep up with consistently, 200 is just the arbitrary number I chose). I don't know how well I'll keep up with it (my record with the haiku of the day doesn't inspire a lot of confidence), but I'll at least try.

Random Video featuring "W."

As great as "Platoon" and "Wall Street" are, and as much as I enjoyed "JFK", I can't really call myself an Oliver Stone fan. I think it was "Nixon" where I learned to be a bit wary of him. I'll admit to some curiosity about this film, but I'm afraid it'll just be a hatchet job, and how interesting is that? To be honest, I tend to think that some time needs to pass before there's enough historical perspective to make a truly interesting film about the President.

"You Think Batman's Who?"

So, this is a few days old, but I can't let it pass without comment.

Batman in "The Dark Knight" is like George W. Bush. Uh-huh. Did Klavan and I watch the same movie? Was there something in the IMAX version that wasn't in the regular version? The onetime use of an intrusive survailence system doesn't seem to be quite enough to make the parallel.

For one thing, in all his incarnations (with the possible exception of the '60's TV show), Batman has always been depicted as being supremely competent. Now, I don't subscribe to the W=stupid school of thought, but his administration has made enough blunders that I think I can safely say the Bush is no Batman.

More to the point of Klavan's opinion piece, in talking of what heroes have to do to confront evil, he says:

And when our artistic community is ready to show that sometimes men must kill in order to preserve life; that sometimes they must violate their values in order to maintain those values; and that while movie stars may strut in the bright light of our adulation for pretending to be heroes, true heroes often must slink in the shadows, slump-shouldered and despised -- then and only then will we be able to pay President Bush his due and make good and true films about the war on terror.

He completely misses the point. Batman, ultimately, is heroic because he won't compromise the values he champions. He could kill the Joker at the end, but he does not. Batman could ensure that the Joker never takes another life, but to do that he'd have to cross the line that he has sworn never to cross. How is this comparable to a President who has shown a willingness to compromise on many of the values central to this country?

I suppose there are one or two items in the piece that I'd agree with, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Overall I'd say Klavan provides a fairly shallow reading of the moral tone of "The Dark Knight."

Proust Questionnaire

I'm away from home and my usual collection of distractions and find myself between social obligations and a bit bored. To aleviate that boredom a take a page from the most fun group of people I can think of, the wealthy English of the nineteenth century. It was a fad at the time to answer lists of questions to reveal something about the person's personality. This set of questions was popularized by Marcel Proust because he was apparently exceptionally clever in his answers. I make no claim to cleverness, I'll be pleased enough to discover that I do, in fact, have a personality.

The principal aspect of my personality
Crippling insecurity.

The quality that I desire in a man.
Whoa, buddy, what are you trying to say? I don't swing that way, 'kay. More to the point, I'm not nearly secure enough in my masculinity (see the first question) to want to answer this. That said, I suppose loyalty and good humor are good qualities in anyone.

The quality that I desire in a woman.
A willingness to put up with me.

What I appreciate most about my friends.
The ways in which they are different from me.

My main fault
I can only pick one? Indecisiveness, definitely. Or maybe laziness, that's a good one, too.

My favorite occupation.
Assuming we're using occupation to mean "thing with which to occupy myself", I'll say reading. If we're talking jobs, then what's that one where you get paid to sit around and do nothing? That one, I like that one.

My dream of happiness.

Inspiration, flowing freely and continuously without interruption.

What would be my greatest misfortune?

To lose my family and friends.

What I should like to be.

To be funny. Everything else will take care of itself as long as I can laugh.

The country where I should like to live.

I've got a pretty strong affinity to my country of origin. For all it's faults and all the times it fails to live up to its ideals, there's something special about a country built around an idea rather than ethnic identity or geographical necessity.

My favourite colour.

Blue. Not sure why, though I think I remember reading somewhere that it's the color picked most often as favorite. Not sure what that means. And I only think I remember reading it, so maybe I'm just making it up.

The flower that I like.

Hm. Flowers are nice, I suppose. Can't say I'm enough of a coinissuer to have a favorite.

My favorite prose authors.

Hey, "authors" plural, that's nice of them to not make me choose one. Douglas Adams, Mark Twain, Neil Gaiman, Terry Prachett, Raymond Chandler, and probably one or two others I'm forgetting.

My favorite poets.

Sad to say, I'm not really enough of a poetry buff to pick a favorite.

My heroes in fiction.
Arthur Dent, Hal Jordan (Green Lantern, and yes, I'm picking a comic book superhero, if you have a problem with it you can bite me), Indiana Jones, Atticus Finch, the Doctor. Oh, and of course, Jack Knight (Starman, yes another superhero...again, bite me).

My favorite heroines in fiction.

Hmm. Strong female characters. Is it wrong that I'm having a hard time coming up with one. Oh, wait, there's Buffy, of course. Oh, and Francine Peters and Katchoo from Strangers In Paradise. Who else. Okay, in my defense, the whole of fiction (movies, television, books, comics, etc.) is pretty big and I can't be expected to remember it all, so I'm sure I'm missing some obvious choices. I still feel like I should at least be able to get someone from a novel, though.

My favorite composers.

I suppose I could pretend I was knowledgeable enough about composers to answer this and then just crib someone else's answers, but I won't. Instead, I'm changing it to favorite musicians. That would be U2, Elvis Costello, the Pixies, and Men At Work.

My favorite painters.

Da Vinci, though that's largely on the basis of him just being a really facsinating person more than his work. Again, not a huge art expert, but I'm kind of fond of Monet.

My heroes in real life.
Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Douglas Adams

My heroines in history.
Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Queen Elizabeth I

My favorite names
I've always liked Gwendolyn for some reason, though I've never met anyone with that name.

What I hate most of all.
Wilfull stupidity.

Historical figures that I despise the most.
I could think of any number of awful acts people have commited that I hate, but I tend to think hating individual people is a waste of time and energy.

The military event that I admire most.
The Normandy invasion (D-Day).

The reform which I admire the most.
Universal sufferage

The gift of nature that I would like to have.
I wish I were musical. Deep down inside I have the frustrated soul of a rock star.

How I want to die.
Peacefully, in my sleep, at a startlingly old age. Unless living forever is an option, I might have to consider that one. Well, maybe not forever; it'd be awfully lonely, not to mention boring if I outlived the universe.

My present state of mind.
Reflective with a touch of sillyness thrown in.

Faults for which I have the most indulgence.
I'll echo Proust's answer on this one, "Those that I understand."

My motto.
Never really thought of a motto before. Not sure I can sum myself up in a single memorable phrase. Not sure I'm clever enough to come up with a good one anyway. How about we just say "Watch This Space" and leave it at that.

But How Does He Feel About Skrull Marriage?

So, a bit of controversy has arisen surrounding this year's Comic Con. Apparently the owner of the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego gave a large donation in support of an anti-gay marriage initiative, and now there are calls to boycott the hotel (or at least the hotel bar) in response. I'm not sure a boycott is a great strategy here; it's got a pretty good chance of backfiring if the effect is minimal (that would suggest that those in opposition to the owners position are in the minority), and I don't particularly like the idea of trying to punish someone simply because he holds a different political position (even if his position is stupid). Augie De Blieck had an amusing take on boycotting in his CBR column this week.

That's the real thing, I've never understood the argument of those opposed to gay marriage. What possible effect could it have on them if two men or two women want to get married. Do the opponents love their spouses a tiny bit less every time a same-sex couple marries? Are they afraid that gay marriage will make homosexuality look like so much fun that everyone will decide to be gay, ending human reproduction and dooming the species? Why do they care? You have a religious objection to it, fine, your church doesn't have to perform or recognize gay marriages, but why should that have any bearing on government policy?

It's a bit of a puzzler.

Kirkman!

So, I was reading this article in the New York Times about Robert Kirkman becoming a partner at Image. It's certainly well earned with the success of Invincible and The Walking Dead, both consistently great reads. The thing that really struck me from the article was the fact that Kirkman's 29. That's two years younger than me! I don't know why I had assumed he was older from his writing, but I had. Now I just feel a bit old and jealous that he's so good at such a young age.

This Just In . . .

From a story on news.com.au:

Octopus sex man avoids jail

A TASMANIAN man caught downloading images of sexual acts with an octopus has avoided a jail term.

An octopus?

How can . . .?

What do . . .?

Where does the . . .?

You know what, never mind, I really don't want to know.