Thoughts

  1. Introduction to Narrative vs Poetic Form

    Originally I was going to make this a post on the Story Structure thread (which is what made me think about it) but it’s become pretty extensive for a thread post—think I better make a blog. Here are a few excerpts from that thread by way of introduction to the subject matter: "I think fiction can be divided into 2 different kinds; Narrative and Poetic. Narrative is the kind that has clear story structure and uses all the rules/guidelines etc. I'd say genre fiction mostly leans heavily...
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  2. An Investigation into Poetic Film - The World of Objects/Nature/Animals

    I doubt many people bothered to look up my Darkmatters blog, so I'll start this by pasting in my first 2 posts on the subject of Poetic Form. I've corrected a few things, including the name of a movie I got completely wrong originally (it's Secret World, I had mistakenly written Secret Garden). After these two I'll start making original entries here at Writing Forum. So here's the first one: It's time for another dose of Cinemastudies! To set the stage for this post - bear in mind my sig at...
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  3. A study of Fires on the Plain (1959) — Director Kon Ichikawa

    I consider Fires on the Plain (1959) a brilliant example of poetic narrative. Here are 2 scenes: Long stretches of the movie contain no dialogue, only the sounds of nature and some music. The in-between stretches are dreamlike and indeed somewhat remind me of Chaplin at times, though not comedic. In fact the main character moves and walks in subtly Chaplin-esque fashion, but this is sort of ghost-Chaplin or zombie-Chaplin. It begins with a hard slap in the face. Tamura, the main character,...
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  4. The Chaos Brain?

    Conscious mind //// Unconscious mind I really like this idea, that the right brain is for dealing with chaos, trying out novel hypotheses and approaches to attempt to find patterns in it and shake it into some form of pseudo-order. Then the left brain can take over which deals with the known, with order. But below is the most spiritual explanation I've ever seen of what the right brain does without being new-agey or ridiculous. It's from the personal experience of a neuroscientist when she...
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  5. Looking into Film Noir, found some good articles

    I seem to be swinging into a Film Noir phase now. It started a month or so ago when I got Body Heat, the William Hurt movie from the 80's. I just remembered it being really stylish and visually arresting as well as suspenseful. And of course Kathleen Turner was gorgeous and smoldering hot. I liked it better than I remember liking it when I first saw it, in the 80's, and it fascinated me to the extent that I watched all the special features and discovered it's of a category called Neo-Noir,...
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  6. Investigating Differences between Chapter and Scene

    In which I begin to determine what's changed between those heady days of literary writing and today's much more scene-oriented approach
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  7. River Rocks

    I have a secret addiction. I cannot pass by a jumble of river rocks -- those small stones gathered together and sold for landscaping purposes -- without glancing down at them and, at the risk of seeming odd to any passerby, picking up one or two that momentarily pique my interest. And I've found some intriguing ones: a small agate (not of commercial value), some fossiliferous limestone (seashells and the like that have accumulated and become incorporated into stone), a piece of...
  8. Draft One Completed

    I have now written to completion draft one of my first ever book. At sixty four thousand words (around 106 A4 pages) it sits ready for extensive edits, which is the next part of the process. It has taken me more than ten years to refine the world and around three years of writing the current draft. Though the end result lacks my contentment, I am confident that I will improve the work to the best of my ability. The story is about a grey skinned human who grows up in the slums of a city...
  9. Man is like the grass that flourishes and is gone.

    I'm not much of a Biblical person, not because of animosity toward the Bible or the faith, but because of unfamiliarity. As a kid I only rarely attended Sunday school, and when I did I invariably got lost in any reference to a particular book of the Bible. Later I learned to understand and appreciate Christianity, but never really the Bible per se, especially the Old Testament. Anyway, the above words popped into my mind the other day, as I was rooting through long-sealed cardboard boxes...
  10. Liker of Language

    A good many avid readers and writers proudly, and often, identify themselves as “lovers of language.” Lovers of the written word. Of prose. It’s an understandable sentiment, though I am not in that camp. I am, if you will, a “liker of language.” I appreciate it. I value it. But it’s not where my heart is. It’s not my first priority as a writer or reader. I’m a lover of narrative. Of stories. Of characters, conflict, themes, and perfectly delivered resolutions. That’s ultimately...
  11. Vernacular Manslaughter

    I was listening to the Joe Rogan Experience the other day. Yes, I’m that mainstream. For those uninitiated, you have to scroll down through this long list of comedians you don’t care about, past hunters you don't care about, past motivational people selling something, and—oh, there’s Gad Saad. This will be good. I was listening, washing dishes, having a great time… until he just had to go and say something that ruined the whole show for me. Context: his book was quite successful. He also...
  12. 101 alternative uses for a lightsaber - #3

    Heating water, perhaps for a cup of tea or a bath. .
  13. Weathering it All

    Last Sunday the temp in Omaha Nebraska reached 101 degrees Fahrenheit. And the weather nannies were telling people to stay indoors and all that. So why was I, at age 72, outside, in or near my tent much of the day? Even though I had pitched it in the shade of a large maple, the humidity and air temperature combined encouraged a lot of sweating. I was there because I had scheduled the trip a couple weeks earlier. My mother at 97 is still lucid and on stubbornly on her own, but barely...
  14. Everyday War

    Every day or so I have to fight against my own hatred. I was attacked and beaten at night in a park years ago, really, years, and years ago. I should be over it. Yet my hatred still remains. And I have violent thoughts of vengeance. I never reported the attack to the police, which was a major mistake. Not just for my own sake, but for the sake of others. So now here I am, deep in my own dark thoughts, where I do everything imaginable to the perpetrators. Such is vengeance. It is not...
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