Micro vs Macro

Discuss....

A brilliant article:

http://www.utne.com/mind-body/solitude-leadership-william-deresiewicz-speech.aspx

Eugenics

Eugenics is a dirty word.  I'm not sure it should be.  I'm always a believer in an individual's right to chose for themselves how to proceed with having a babby....or not.  I guess the question that arises is how much that decision making process is affected by the fiscally aware insurance companies - and in what direction their "policies" push people.

Tucker Carlson (yes, he of the bowtie) makes a completely unconvincing argument in this "classic" article:
http://tinyurl.com/7vcp5ue


Nevertheless, it brings the subject to the fore....and an interesting one it is.

Henry Miller's Rules for writing

1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.
2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to "Black Spring."
3. Don't be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
4. Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!
5. When you can't create you can work.
6. Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.
7. Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.
8. Don't be a draught-horse! Work with pleasure only.
9. Discard the Program when you feel like it -- but go back to it the next day. Concentrate. Narrow down. Exclude.
10. Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.
11. Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterwards.

For my 40th birthday my father sent me 24 bottles of wine and a wine refrigerator.  I didn't recognize any of the names of the wine but my father is a connoisseur (I challenge anybody to spell that word without spell check) so I surrendered to his judgement.

I've always wanted to understand and appreciate wine but the abundance of the product has proved daunting.  For some reason my psyche, keen to plunge into a new field of manageable size (restaurants of Los Angeles, movies of Terrence Malick) finds little interest in engaging with one of unfathomable size (astronomy, movies of Georges Meilies) 

There is a rub to this new foray.  In researching the wine I've been sent most of the professional prognosticators recommend drinking these wines somewhere between 2014 and 2018.  So I'm left wondering what to do about this delayed gratification?  I mean - what am I supposed to do til 2014 - drink Trader Joe's wine?

         At Castle Boterel

As i drive to the junction of lane and highway,
   And the drizzle bedrenches the waggonette,
I look behind at the fading byway,
   And see on its slope, now glistening wet,
          Distinctly yet

Myself and a girlish form benighted
   In dry March weather.  We climb the road
Beside a chaise.  We had just alighted
   To ease the sturdy pony's load
      When he sighed and slowed.

What we did as we climbed, and what we talked of
   Matters not much, nor to what it led,  -
Something that life will not be balked of
   Without rude reason til hope is dea,
       And feeling fled.

It filled but a minute.  But was there ever
  A time of such quality, since or before,
In that hill's story?  To one mind never,
  Though it has been climbed, foot-swift, foot-sore,
      By thousands more.

Primaeval rocks from the road's steep border,
  And much have they faced there, first and last,
Of the transitory in Earth's long order;
   But what they record in colour and cast
        Is-that we two passed

And to me, though Time's unflinching rigour,
   In mindless rote, has ruled from sight
The substance now, one phantom figure
   Remains on the slope, as when that night
      Saw us alight.

I lood and see it there, shrinking, shrinking,
   I look back at it amid the rain
For the very last time; for my sand is sinking,
   And I shall traverse old love's domain
      Never again.

Thomas Hardy
1912-1913

Unforgiven - Hell of a thing, killing a man.

WRITERS ON WRITING; Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle

By ELMORE LEONARD
Published: July 16, 2001

These are rules I've picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I'm writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what's taking place in the story. If you have a facility for language and imagery and the sound of your voice pleases you, invisibility is not what you are after, and you can skip the rules. Still, you might look them over.

1. Never open a book with weather.

If it's only to create atmosphere, and not a character's reaction to the weather, you don't want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.

2. Avoid prologues.

They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in nonfiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want.

There is a prologue in John Steinbeck's ''Sweet Thursday,'' but it's O.K. because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. He says: ''I like a lot of talk in a book and I don't like to have nobody tell me what the guy that's talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks. . . . figure out what the guy's thinking from what he says. I like some description but not too much of that. . . . Sometimes I want a book to break loose with a bunch of hooptedoodle. . . . Spin up some pretty words maybe or sing a little song with language. That's nice. But I wish it was set aside so I don't have to read it. I don't want hooptedoodle to get mixed up with the story.''

3. Never use a verb other than ''said'' to carry dialogue.

The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But said is far less intrusive than grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied. I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with ''she asseverated,'' and had to stop reading to get the dictionary.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb ''said'' . . .

. . . he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances ''full of rape and adverbs.''

5. Keep your exclamation points under control.

You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.

6. Never use the words ''suddenly'' or ''all hell broke loose.''

This rule doesn't require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use ''suddenly'' tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.

Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apostrophes, you won't be able to stop. Notice the way Annie Proulx captures the flavor of Wyoming voices in her book of short stories ''Close Range.''

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.

Which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway's ''Hills Like White Elephants'' what do the ''American and the girl with him'' look like? ''She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.'' That's the only reference to a physical description in the story, and yet we see the couple and know them by their tones of voice, with not one adverb in sight.

9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.

Unless you're Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language or write landscapes in the style of Jim Harrison. But even if you're good at it, you don't want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.

And finally:

10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

A rule that came to mind in 1983. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them. What the writer is doing, he's writing, perpetrating hooptedoodle, perhaps taking another shot at the weather, or has gone into the character's head, and the reader either knows what the guy's thinking or doesn't care. I'll bet you don't skip dialogue.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative. It's my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing. (Joseph Conrad said something about words getting in the way of what you want to say.)

If I write in scenes and always from the point of view of a particular character -- the one whose view best brings the scene to life -- I'm able to concentrate on the voices of the characters telling you who they are and how they feel about what they see and what's going on, and I'm nowhere in sight.

What Steinbeck did in ''Sweet Thursday'' was title his chapters as an indication, though obscure, of what they cover. ''Whom the Gods Love They Drive Nuts'' is one, ''Lousy Wednesday'' another. The third chapter is titled ''Hooptedoodle 1'' and the 38th chapter ''Hooptedoodle 2'' as warnings to the reader, as if Steinbeck is saying: ''Here's where you'll see me taking flights of fancy with my writing, and it won't get in the way of the story. Skip them if you want.''

''Sweet Thursday'' came out in 1954, when I was just beginning to be published, and I've never forgotten that prologue.

Did I read the hooptedoodle chapters? Every word.

The Movies of Sundance (as seen by me)

The Comedy - fiction - Rick Alverson

An aimless guy mucks about life - completely detached from everything. He doesn't seem to have a genuine emotion through the course of the entire film. So lacking in plot and forward movement that boredom set in about halfway through.

Safety Not Guranteed - Fiction - Duplass

Save the Date- Fiction-Michael Mohan (One too many mornings)

A romantic dramedy. Really liked the lead Lizzy Caplan as a woman who everybody seems to want something from. Two guys want to date (possibly posses) her. Sister wants her to participate in the organized structure of life she's set out for her own self and that she deems appropriate. I thought the movie fucked up the end by having her decide to take up with one of the men. Felt the truth of her character was she was too good for both the guys, still somewhat befuddled about her own path in life and the strong choice was to lead her forward on her own.

The House I live in - Doc -Jarecki

A "preaching to the choir" documentary about the woes of the criminal justice system stemming from America's War on Drugs. Felt a bit long and repetitive - however the movie left little room for doubt that America has essentially declared war on the underclass by making drug use (and minor selling) penalties outrageously punitive.

L - Fiction -Greek

A strange, mostly plotless attempt at lyrical movie making. Willfully bizarre indeed. Somebody seems to have decided that their dreams merit being made into a movie. I could have done without them...as is true of most everybody's dreams....save my own. Absurdism. Postmodern detachment - yes, yes. In other words no story and no emotion involvement. Additionally, it failed to conjure in my mind a perceptions, questions or ideas which were of any interest to me - save for "when will this movie be over?"

Violeta Went to Heaven - Fiction - Award winner for Foreign Drama

The fictionalized story of Chilean singer Violeta Parra. A folk singer reflecting her country's essential character...at odds with the plutocrats of government. Jumps between linear and non-linear storytelling in a very palatable way. The movie felt long at 110 mins. Parra is obviously somewhat crazy and unstable - but her own character is so entwined with the songs she sings and her connection to the land and people of Chile that I wouldn't help but be engaged by her.

Red Hook Sumer - Fiction - Spike Lee's Movie

Not sure what to say other than it was too long and self indulgent. Clarke Peters of Detective Freeman fame is pretty fantastic. But his fiery sermons, as fun as they are to watch, don't really move the movie forward.

Compliance - Fiction

I hated this movie. A fast food restaurant. A dude who calls up pretending to be the police and ends up talking the manager into strip searching one of her employees. I walked out after 50 minutes or so. There was no story, no character development and a completely unbelievable situation unless the characters were absolutely stupid and without a ounce of decent common sense. This maybe be based on a true story - but I don't like a movie that portrays everybody as complete idiots. I feel like the only people who can believe in and like this movie are themselves idiots.

Mosquita y Mari - Aurora Gurrero

Movie about two young girls growing up in Highland Park Los Angeles. The movie caught me by surprise and i really enjoyed it. Slight of plot the emotions weren't plastered on and the movie moved subtly thorough a solid coming of age framework.

My Best Day

A super low budget movie that i fell asleep in for at least 20 minutes. It was, however, light and fun. Not taking itself too seriously, I can't complain about it. And the parts I was awake for her entertaining enough.

Pursuit of Lonlieness -

Sleepwalk with Me

The quirky white guy movie of the festival.

Twenty Eight Hotel Rooms

Two people have an affair with each other over the course of many years, meeting in various hotel rooms.

Black Rock - Fiction - Katie Aselton

An unoriginal hunk of thriller-less mush. Three women on an island in a kill or be killed situation. Low budget without a single interesting beat, emotion or twist in the entire film.